Koreatown: Korean-Style Japanese Seafood at A-Won

 

I had eaten a chirashi bowl for lunch but I’m always down for impromptu dinners even if it was an offer of more raw fish. So I found my way to A-Won, a Korean Japanese style restaurant in Koreatown. I knew they were were known for hwe dup bap which unfortunately we didn’t get because I’m a doofus and ordered the chirashi. For reference, the hwe dup bap is raw fish and veggies on rice while chirashi is just raw fish on rice. The word vegetables is key.

We did however get the al bap which is the fish roe bowl. This was our favorite of the night.

 

We had a small but lovely selection of banchan including kimchi and pickled radish. I wasn’t sure what the tubular pieces were but I liked the crunch. I almost thought of it as gobo. We debated sake but ended up with soju.

 

I found the chirash a bit bizzare with the oddly cut fish (much thinner than what I had during lunch at Sakana in Downtown Los Angeles. However, the fish was fairly fresh and eaten in conjunction of the al bap, it was great.

One cannot just eat raw fish alone. At least not me so we also got the short ribs plate. I loved that this also had a mini al bap bowl of rice. The beef was quite flavorful and tasty. I skipped the gloppy potato salad but did enjoy the tempura (both not shown).

There were many specials in Korean around the dining room. This might be a good time to pick up a few phrases and in particular, “what’s that special?”

A-Won

913 S Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90006  —  (213) 389-6764

 

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