LaOn Dining is from the same people behind the very popular Park’s BBQ. A nice departure from the usual Korean BBQ that’s all over Koreatown, LaOn does gourmet creative Korean small plates. The interior is slick and designy. There’re many big long tables with room dividers that is ideal for big groups (perfect for us since we had a group of ten).
We ordered almost everything on the menu:
Steak Tartar – raw beef wrapped in radish topped with egg.
Braised short rib (Galbi Jjim)– it was our favorite of the night. The short rib is so tender and flavorful. We ended up order another one of this later in the night!
Forgot what the stuffed Squid dish was. On the right is Seared Washugyu .This is my first time trying Washugyu beef . It’s quality meat, very tender. It’s interesting to eat it thinly sliced on top of rice like a sushi.
Hot stone pot rice fish roe and uni – It’s basically like a Bibimbap with fish roe and uni, which I can’t resist. Love it!
So they do have charcoal BBQ grill on every table if you MUST have Korean BBQ. We got sausages and bacon wrap mochi on a stick along with beef for the grill.
Spicy Octopus: stir-fried octopus and assorted vegetables in red chili paste sauce.
I forgot what the dish on the right was.
The dish on the left was a freebie from the chef. It had almost the same ingredients as the dish on the right: Seven wrap: cucumber, carrot, beef, shiitake mushroom, egg with radish wrap.
Rice cake noodles with veggies – this came rather late when we were getting full, tasty.
Forgot what the left dish is and Panchan which were refilled often.
Assorted desserts. I love the donut thing (the brown ball with sugar on top pix) and the pineapple ice was refreshing.
Overall the food tasted refine and the service was attentive. The price is very reasonable and some of these “small plates” turned out to be more generous in portion than I expected. It’s definitely a great addition for Korea town and it was nice to be able to taste good refine Korean cooking beyond the usual BBQ or noodles!
LaOn
1145 S. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006
tel: 323-373-0700
Tags: Korean, small plate
