Old Country is a small Taiwanese snack joint that offers typical Taiwanese snacks (pig intestines, sausages, oyster pancakes) and shaved ice. Sausage Rice
The eatery area are counter seats where everyone’s watching TV playing Taiwanese news. The room next door is a manga reading room.
I passed by this Korean Pub often, it’s hard to miss because of the Kim Jong Il mural painting above the sign. For a long time I didn’t know what this place was called except calling it the “Kim Jong Il pub”. One night I finally ventured inside with 2 friends to grab some late night Korean pub food.
While smelling and looking like a dive bar inside (drench with cigarette smoke), the walls are decorated with vintage Korean pop/rock records and posters. They were playing some cool 60s Korean surf rock and retro pops. I love the vibe already. The menu are carved on a stone tablet in Korean. One of my friends had been here before so he knew what to order. The light is dimmed so please pardon my blurry pictures.
We got these Dumbells that’s basically a fishball with glass noddle fillings wrapped by seaweed. And you can’t go wrong with the Fried Chicken Wings.
A huge plate of Spicy Glass noodle with Sticky rice cake that taste shockingly sweet. We also got a skewer of Ginkgo with Chicken, we asked for chicken gizzard but the waiter mixed up. But the service is very friendly, even though he forgot our soju as well. ^^;; We also had a soup that’s not in the picture.
It’s one of the coolest bar in K-town in my opinion, love the lively, friendly and retro vibe. Wish I know the names of their food.
It’s a pity my camera failed to capture the interior of the Polish restaurant Warszawa. I love the space! It’s converted from an old house and decorated with old fashion cozy European furnitures. There’re cool 50s-60s posters hanging on the wall. The old fashion euro charm made me felt like I’m not in LA anymore.
I got the Steamed cabbage leaves filled with beef, jasmine rice and sauteed onion baked in tomato and parika broth. This is simply amazing! Really delicious. I’ve been craving for stuffed roll cabbage ever since I had it at a Hungarian restaurant in Tokyo (^^;; Seat remember the place you took me to years ago?) The beef and rice stuffings are juicy and moist. The tomato paprika sauce is so flavorful yet feel light at the same time. And the “dumpling” side is addictive.
Jon got the Scallops of beef roasted with a filling of braised mushroom, onions, celery and served with dumplings. The meat are soft and tender. Love the paprika sauce too.
We just sort of end up there unplanned and I wasn’t in the mood for a proper big meal nor had my budget ready, so we didn’t have wine, dessert and appetizers and all that stuffs. But the dishes were so good and satisfying nonetheless. Can’t wait to go back and try their other stuffs on the menu!
Ever since Charcoal opened near my work place, the comments I’ve heard from coworkers were: bland, so-so, average, alright, pretty good, took too long, overpriced…etc. Doesn’t sound so appealing so I don’t have much desire to give it a try until a colleague invited me to go. I got the Grill salmon salad (can’t go too wrong right?), my colleagues got the Crab Burger and steak (not in picture). Perhaps due to really low expectation, the food is better than I thought but still they don’t leave much impressions. I had my salmon grilled rare and it came out rare so that’s good. For the steak, my colleague said it’s pretty much same as Gaucho grill‘s (same owner of Charcoal) which I’ve never been to. I thought it was a bit dry and hard, overprice for the quality. The crab burger was so-so. So yeah I guess overall the food pretty much match what my coworkers been saying. Besides, aren’t there enough these type of “American bistro” that serve “gourmet Burgers/sandwich/salad/mac n cheese” in the area? There’re Magnolia, Bowery and The Hungry Cat just down the block. The interior space is pretty nice though, I like the wood walls and table but boy was the music loud! Loud 80s music in fact, perhaps they tried to give the space a cool young Hollywood vibe or something.
I often drive by this small sandwich and coffee shop on Melrose and mistaken it for “Wild Oats Market”, the grocery store (i.e. the confused me: a grocery store in that tiny space? just a take out counter? huh?). So I quickly learned that they’re two different places when my co-workers took me here for a quick healthy bite. The menu is filled with healthy sounding wraps and sandwiches. I got the Grilled Eggplant & Hummus with cucumber, roasted red pepper wrap. Good! It’s fresh and healthy tasting. It also came with a side: chips or fruits.
We're twin sisters who've been blogging about eating out in Los Angeles (and beyond) since 2004!
Find us at:
