Where To Eat In Los Angeles

3/21/2017

This was my first time in Los Angeles, California and I spent my entire week here. As you all know, I love discovering new restaurants and check out these 10 restaurants I went for lunch and dinner. For breakfast, I ate at home with the family most of the time. Sorry I don't have many photos, I was too busy eating!

1. Oo Kook Korean BBQ
All-you-can-eat BBQ place in Korea town! Literally you can keep ordering until you are full. Their building is pretty huge with two stories. Parking in the front. The best part is their thin rice cake where you wrap it around the meat, which is so delicious! Their side dishes are good too. You should definitely should try it if you are around Korea town in LA. The place is clean with friendly staff. My favorites were marinated thin slice beef, pork belly, shrimps, and baby octopus!

2. Mandarin Garden
OMG. This place was a life savior. We were craving for some black bean noodles around 10pm. However many of the places around us were closed! This was the only one that was opened. Honestly from the name itself, I did not think they would have good Korean food; but the rating was high with 4.5! We decided to have a take-out order. When the food came, we were all super excited. The taste was bomb. It literally tasted like the black bean noodles in Korea. Super tasty, not too oily, the packaging was perfect since nothing was leaking, and all right order! The sweet & sour pork was delicious as well. Totally loved the black bean noodles & the spicy noodles we ordered. I wish I had photos, but I was too hungry, I just uploaded on Snapchat and ate it right away....

3. Yupdduk
Can't forget this one! Yupdduk is a spicy rice cake chain originated from Korea. It's currently located only LA and NY in the states. I've been craving for good rice cakes for months & I was happy to finally eat them! Houston has spicy rice cakes but honestly none of them are good good. We got the original flavor - the taste wasn't as spicy compared to the one in Korea. The place is small and I saw most people just to-going the food rather than actually sitting in the restaurant to eat. The menu (sets A, B, C) is slightly different, but almost the same. This store in Korea town also have free-wifi and free miso soup! Below is the set C, it comes with seaweed rice balls & tempura!

4. Chocolate Chair
This place is inside the FaceShop, and also famous for the Dragon's Breath. Dragon's Breath is a candy dessert made from nitrogen. (It was all over Instagram & Facebook. Click here to see). Oh btw, this dessert place blasts some good music so that was a plus. The restroom is decent. Honestly, I was curious about Dragon Breath dessert; but... I didn't get it. LOL. I didn't get it because it didn't look delicious. The hype is all about the nitrogen coming out from your mouth every time you eat the candy, not how tasty it is. Since the cashier told us that there's barely no taste on it, we just decided to get the shaved ice. We got the "chocolate mocha oreo shaved ice" which was so freaking good!!! I wish they added some more oreo crackers in there, but still good and they give you a lot. They also have other flavors like strawberry, blueberry, and much more to choose from!

5. IN-N-OUT
I wanted to try this one since I saw people eating In-N-Out's burger every time on Instagram. There were a LOT of people in the store and it was busy. We waited around 30min to get our food. Although it was a long wait, the service was great and friendly! The burger was okay. Nothing special, really. I think all the hype is about how delicious it looks? Honestly, I don't think the photo even looks really delicious. It's just the combination of two main colors, red and yellow. The color red is most used by restaurants because it increases your appetite. Anyways, below photo is just a regular In-N-Out burger with fries. If you want to make it look good for Instagram, just put all of them in one bin. I can't forget to mention the fries! Hmm, I think it depends on how you like it fried; In-N-Out burger fries doesn't really have much potato inside. Instead, it feels like eating a fries shaped potato chip. I think it's good for an alternative of a snack after the burger, but don't expect chewy fries, because it's more crispy!

6. Jon & Vinny's
A chill Italian restaurant! We tried here because the yelp rating was high, and was craving for some pasta. The plate I ordered was definitely delicious, although I thought the price was a bit high compared to the portion. The restaurant service is great, with upbeat music and good vibes! The photo doesn't look as appetizing, but it actually tasted good :P

7. Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill
Sushi place in 3rd Street Promenade! OMG, aside to the restaurant, 3rd Street Promenade is a shopping and food outlet where it consists more than 40+ stores and restaurants!!! This place is so pretty at night & the shopping stores has more awesome items compared to just normal malls. I will be writing another post just concentrating on the LA shopping places so stay tuned!

So this sushi bar & grill place. The place seemed upscale, restroom was clean, & the food was great! I got the spicy lobster roll. However, the portion was small. When I ordered the spicy lobster roll, I thought a lot of ingredients will come inside. However, it was just simple six tiny pieces of rolls. It did made me full but if you are looking for a place to eat a lot, I don't think this is the place unless you don't mind spending $100 on food. Oh also, their miso soup is $6. The soup is great, and they separate the miso paste from the soup so you can add how much you want. But the soup, idk, wasn't worth $6, prob like $3.

8. Wetzel's Pretzels
It seems like this Wetzel's Pretzels are everywhere in LA! It's like Auntie Anne's in Houston. We tried the pretzels in Beverly Center and it was okay! I prefer Auntie Anne's pretzels if I had to choose one since the pretzels are chewy and tasty, but Wetzel's Pretzels were just basic.

9. Cousins Maine Lobster
A food truck that was in front of The Broad! Btw, The Broad is a museum right next to Walt Disney Concert Hall & they hold a lot of great art pieces. Definitely a must place to check out if you are visiting LA! The lobster taco I got was actually good. I normally prefer going to fine dining restaurants compared to food trucks. I don't really like dining outside unless the weather is perfectly great. There were several food trucks in front of The Broad, and since we were starving, we decided to get some. The price was decent, considering the prices in LA compared to Houston. The taco was delicious, especially the lobsters. It wasn't the best lobster, but it was decent! They also have tater tots that is a combo with this lobster taco, which is $18. If you only get the lobster like me, it is $14. The staffs are friendly, and they call you by your first name. For example, "Thank you Claire". I think asking & saying customer's name is a good service. I think by hearing your name from a person you are talking to, whomever it is, you feel personalized & cared! (I also read about names chapter in this book -> "How to win friends and influence people") Great book I recommend!

10. Three Broomsticks
Last but definitely not the least, Three Broomsticks! This one is located in the Universal Studio inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! The restaurant is based on Hogwarts dining hall which is so cool. Not to mention, I almost cried when I went to Harry Potter World because every detailed feature was amazing! From the restrooms to stores and other, Universal Studios definitely depicted the individual scenes very well. I highly recommend for those who are into Harry Potter like me, to visit this place!! Below left is the Shepherd's Pie. I was always curious what shepherd's pie tasted like, and I finally got to try it! It's like potato salad taste but pretty good, has meat inside along with cheese. The right is steak with potatoes? I don't remember the name but it was $21. We also tried the butter beer! It tasted like butter scotch but I really liked it. If you read the book (I didn't), you will probably know that the restaurant "Three Broomsticks" was actually from the book.