Monday, June 23, 2008

So Kong Dong

716 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 380-3737

So Kong Dong

Category: Korean

4 star rating
01/24/2008
Delicious! Cheap! Good Service! To be honest, I've not eaten much Soon dubu before but I've eaten at Beverly Soon Tofu across the street as well. I had a group of LA Sushi & Asian Foodies in tow and about a dozen of us braved the rain and cold night to enjoy a hot, spicy bowl of Soon dubu. It was the perfect weather and night.

Spicyness: I ordered in as hot as they make it and I thought it was about right for me. Spicy yet not flesh searing heat (besides the temp heat) and I could taste and enjoy the soon dubu. One diner, a Korean said the medium was too spicy for her, the wimpy little girl! If you love hot/spicy food, I say go for the hottest, it's not that hot. It's mild compared to the hot dishes of places like Orachon or Jitlada.

Service: None of the staff spoke much English and I had a tough time when I called the place to let them know we have about 16 Foodies coming over. They did set up the tables for us when I arrived and were very efficient and polite. We were lucky to have several Korean speaking ladies in our group so we could get our needs attended to without a problem, but I can see that the English only diners could have a problem. They replaced our empty pan chan dishes without asking and they were all very tasty. Not as big a selection as the more expensive KBBQ places but we're only spending $9 and not $20-40 per person so the raw crab pan chan is actually pretty expensive free pan chan so that's a big plus.

Parking is free and there was space available. There's about 40-50 seats at the restaurant and it was fine for our group of 12. It was suppoed to be 16, but I guess the rain/'traffic scared off several of our group. This was a Wednesday night and we met at 7pm, but by 8-9 it was almost full, so Koreans eat a bit later than the Chinese.

Really this place ROCKS! If it had booze or let us bring in booze, I'd definitely rate it 5 stars.

I'm going to have to return and try the kimchi bowl and next time toss in some of the raw crab into my soup... didn't think of it until just now.

Highly recommended, especially during these cold winter nights in LA.

I ordered the Mushroom Soon dubu with beef and all our casseroles arrived absolutely furiously bubbling hot and we all immediately cracked a raw egg into the soup to cook the egg. After a minute or so, you should stir it around to break up the egg and then dig in.

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