G. Snyder

"Kimmmbap, ba-duba-dop kimbap"

Forget Lunchables -- the real cool kids in grade school were the ones had kimbap in their brown bags. Those loosely wrapped rice and seaweed rolls stuffed with this and that, a close cousin of Japanese futomaki, are one of the favorite mobile lunches in Korea. You can find packages of kimbap in the deli section of pretty much every Koreatown supermarket, as well as a surprisingly tasty triangular version in the cafeteria of L.A. City College.

For restaurant kimbap there was School Food, a hip K-pop café on the top floor of the ultra-modern GCV Cinema complex. Their neat little rolls, shaped and stacked like miniature film canisters, were pretty good, though it always felt like the equivalent of traveling to Mendocino Farms for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Imagine our elation, then, when we found out about Caju Naneng Myon, a bustling bunshik shop just a few steps down from the Wiltern. Bunshik refers to a casual kind of snack shop in Korea where you can drop in for a quick plate of ddukboki , those oblong rice cakes that vaguely resemble Korean gnocchi, or a personal-sized bowl of hot stone bibimbap.

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C. Soudry

shrimp bibimbap

Expanding its "healthy Korean barbecue" empire, Bibigo, with seven locations in Korea and now two in the U.S. is opening Monday, April 2, on South Beverly Drive, replacing Mako. A more upscale version of its Westwood location, Bibigo Beverly Hills is welcoming friends, family and the media to sample its expanded menu offerings.

The main draw of this order at the counter-style eatery will still be its hot-stone bibimbap, with fixings such as shrimp, chicken, beef, spicy pork, black pearl rice, an assortment of sauces, tofu, gobo and kimchi. Additional items include dessert (tofu pudding and hodduck with vanilla ice cream) as well as an extended alcoholic-beverage menu. "Prices are a bit higher at this location," says project manager Matthew Kim. Bibigo's next location will be in the Century City food court in July, he adds, giving the chain three types of venues -- upscale, casual and "quick service/fast casual."

Turn the page for more photos from Bibigo's soft opening:

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Anne Fishbein

grilled pork belly at Palsaik Samgyeopsal

Los Angeles' Koreatown probably doesn't need another BBQ place -- well, at least not another Korean one. There seems to be a restaurant with tabletop grills in every plaza, strip mall and food court, cannibalizing another one's business two doors down or across the street. Let's be blunt: Entrepreneurial first-generation Koreans are noted more for their work ethic and competitive streak than for their originality. Still, we love Korean BBQ and can't complain about having so many specialty restaurants to choose from. Turn the page for our picks for the 10 best Korean BBQ places in town.

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arnold | inuyaki/Flickr

Kyochon's fried chicken

In our last handy food flowchart, we tried to point you in the right direction for those times when you just need a bowl of phở to comfort your soul. Today, our flowchart helps you navigate the city when you're in search of another type of comforting soul food: fried chicken. And because sometimes you want that chicken with a side of kimchi pancakes or Japanese pub grub, we threw in a few suggestions that will satisfy your craving by way of Koreatown or the local izakaya.

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Anne Fishbein

Seven wrap at LaOn

LaOn Dining is a tapas restaurant located right next door to Don Dae Gam, the immensely popular, pork-intensive Korean BBQ restaurant. If you walk into one because you thought it was the other -- depending on where you were trying to get to, the presence or absence of the tabletop grills should tip you off -- you could just go through the swinging door that connects the two restaurants, and you'll get to the right place. The shared quarters are due to the fact that the two restaurants are helmed by chef Jenee Kim, who also captains the beef-focused Park's BBQ a few blocks away on Vermont. All three restaurants offer Korean BBQ, but where Don Dae Gam and Park's essentially are the same plot with a different cast, LaOn's menu reads like a new story altogether.

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D. Solomon

bulgogi and margherita pizzas

In Korea, Mr. Pizza Factory is as ubiquitous as Pizza Hut in our country, with more than 350 locations. But here in the U.S.? Last week, we had just one, tucked into an old office building in Koreatown. Now, notch it up to two: A location in downtown's Little Tokyo just opened.

Despite the American-sounding, unassuming name, Mr. Pizza is not your average pie parlor. Sure, you can get plain cheese. But Mr. Pizza is known for its variety of ingredients and unusual combinations in what it calls "Premium" pizzas.

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T. Nguyen

BCD Tofu House on Western Avenue

There is a segment of the population whose late-night cravings consist not of bacon and eggs or burgers and fries, but of sizzling grilled short ribs and flaming hot soups and comforting porridge. That segment of the population is the one you'll find after last call in Koreatown.

There are so many people out past the midnight hour, in fact, that the neighborhood seems to be just as alive at 2 in the morning as it is at 2 in the afternoon. Here are five of our favorite late-night spots in Koreatown, where you can wind down after a night out or nosh on a fourth meal after burning the midnight oil.

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Anne Fishbein

See Also: A Google map for all 60 of the Korean dishes Jonathan Gold says every Angeleno should know, read "5 Koreatown Restaurants Open 24 Hours: Hangover Soup," learn about "5 Koreatown Beer Joints: Hite Requirement," or just look at more of Anne Fishbein's beautiful Koreatown food photography.

I had been writing about the restaurants for ages, but when I assembled the Weekly's first Koreatown guide in 2004, the sheer size and vitality of the scene were even then astonishing. The area already seemed to have more late-night restaurants than the rest of the city put together, a network of nightclubs that rivaled Hollywood's, and a hard-drinking restaurant culture whose most enthusiastic participants visited not just one eating place per evening but often three or four: an anju bar for a soju and a snack; a restaurant for dinner; a norebang (karaoke bar) or billiards hall or dance club where there is also a snack or two; and then perhaps one of the 24-hour places for a pot of soup or a greasy seafood pancake to take some of the edge off the alcohol.

To know Koreatown meant exploring not just one of these kinds of places, but all of them; not just curiosity but endurance.

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T. Nguyen

Inside Mok Maru Jong

If you had to choose a part of the city to do a beer crawl, Koreatown would have to be a top pick: There seems to be at least one beer joint at nearly every corner of every block in the neighborhood. Inside, you'll find long lists of flavored soju, soju cocktails, beer and sometimes spirits, usually served alongside a full menu of thirst-quenching Korean bar bites like fresh fruit plates and kimchi pancakes.

OB Bear and DGM are the usual Koreatown tavern destinations, but there is much more to the beer scene here than just those two hangouts.

Here are five of our other favorite beer joints in Koreatown, all of which are worthy of a stop on your first, second or third round of drinking, before or after a round of karaoke. And one last piece of advice: don't be scared off from trying these places if you don't speak Korean. The language of beer, after all, is universal.

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View Jonathan Gold's 60 Korean Dishes Every Angeleno Should Know in a larger map.

Read all of "Jonathan Gold's 60 Korean Dishes Every Angeleno Should Know" or just use the map above to check out which of his dishes are close to you.

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