It's a typical Korean sushi joint... I've only tried a few things from here but I usually come here for their hwae dup bap. It comes in a GIANT bowl with diced pieces of sashimi that consists of yellowtail, salmon, tuna with chopped lettuce. They also give you a bowl of rice and gochujang (red pepper paste) to mix altogether and some miso soup like most sushi places... I might be weird but I try to stay away from the rice. SO... I usually eat it like a salad. And instead of using the red pepper paste, I dip it into soy sauce with wasabi... :) On their menu they also have other soups, rice dishes, rolls, sashimi platters and boxes. read more

Overall - this place has been around a long time serving Korean style Japanese food specifically sushi. The most popular being the "Hwe de bap" think Korean style Poke, though this dish as been around forever. Add a bit of Korean spicy gochujang and this sashimi on rice is just perfect to address that sushi craving you have had for weeks. Food- the lunch specials are great with a myriad of Bento boxes with sushi or cooked fish dishes with hwe de bap all around the $11-14 mark. Ambiance- standard Korean restaurant. Nothing special Parking - sucks to have valet during the day when there's plenty of parking. read more

Came here solely for the Al Bap. Which is a variety of fish eggs over rice. The presentation was beautiful with all the bright colors beckoning you to take a taste. Fish eggs are known to be salty, but once mixed in with the rice it wasn't salty at all. In fact, I was thinking it tasted a little bland and wanted to put a little soy sauce and wasabi in there... My only complaint would be, give us more uni!! (There's only one small piece in there)... But then, it would raise the price of the dish so I guess I can live with that. Best part of the meal? They give you yogurt at the end!!! The drinkable epoca one. ^___^ I guess my sister and I are still kids at heart because this is what won us over hahaha. read more

Awon - Al bap - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

The BEST "Hae-Dup-Bab" place in K-town! Translation: "Hwe" - Raw Fish (Sashimi) "Dup" - Mixed / Cover / On Top "Bab" - Rice This is the most accurate translation I can come up with. No other place has this fresh and mouth-watering Hwe-Dup-Bab. Only order one bowl if you are one of those heavy tasters but small eaters. 1 serving is like 2 servings. Please take my word for this. Don't think of Yoshinoya's beef bowl size but it's more like (in korean: SaeSooDaeHa) washing basin in your bathroom. When you're sick and tired of same old office lunch. Try A-Won's Hwe-Dup-Bab! Also, try spicy and hot fish egg soup and it goes so well together with Hwe-Dup-Bab. read more

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I had my first Korean sushi experience ever here and it was overwhelming. We went with the omakase and it was wayyyyy too much food. We all felt nauseous by the end of the meal. Quantity doesn't mean quality. Nothing was that good for me to remember. Maybe the porridge and the side dishes. I remember some of the stuff being questionable or fishy. Don't get the omakase unless you're super duper in love with everything seafood. My first and last Korean sushi experience. read more

Love this place. Especially their lunch special is great. I had mackerel grill combo with Sashimi. It came with vegetable denpura. Their service is great, very clean, cozy. It's really good for lunch with cozy atmosphere. read more

One of few Korean sushi places I like in Korea Town. Didn't know they were closed for about a week for remodeling the interior(didn't quite notice the big difference). As far as the food, it was very fresh and their quality of fish were very satisfying. I was here for my company get together, and between approximately 20ppl we had six total of Large Sashimi combo and other cooked dishes for those who weren't fan of raw fish. Service was great as well read more

Awon - Beautiful sashimi platter. Fresh and high quality - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

The sashimi salad over rice is the must-have! Probably cannot tell from the picture, but this bowl is like a bathroom sink size. It's enormous! The fish and vegetable were very fresh. Add rice and mix with Korean hot sauce, and you got this mixture of deliciousness. We also ordered LA Short Ribs Combo. It came with salad, potato salad, tempura, BBQ short ribs, rice and a bowl of miso soup. Love the kalbi! Price could be cheaper. Service could be better. But the food is delicious. So I'll just deal with the slightly-high price and not-so-friendly service. read more

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The restaurant is a Korean sushi restaurant. The food is simply delicious. I have been coming to this sushi restaurant for years, and my only complain is that I noticed that their portion sizes are getting a bit smaller as time passes by. We always order the medium sashimi combo, and we ordered it again recently. However, this time it was a bit smaller than it used to be. read more

Awon - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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A-WONderful meal indeed. When you're looking for something fresh, you go here and get their hwe dup bap and al bap. The hwe dup bap has tons of lettuce, vegetables and fish that comes in a huuuuuuuge bowl. You pour your gochujang sauce to taste and you can definitely share this with a friend. Get the al bap too, which is rice mixed with all types of fish eggs. I love how the roe pops in your mouth and flavors the rest of the rice. It's valet parking for $2. Gluck trying to find street parking because I don't think I've ever been able to. You'll probably spend $2 on gas driving around for a spot. read more

Not much to say really other than the food was really quite good. It was served promptly and tasted very fresh. No 5 star cause i cant honestly say its as good as it gets, but yes i am definitly a fan and will be coming back for sure. Got a couple rolls and a couple pieces of freshwater eel sushi and my buddy got a few rolls as well. We were served Edamame beans for appetizer and we both split a large serving of hot Saki. Miso Soup was very good too. Only downfall was that our waitress knew almost no English at all so we had a hard time ordering and apparently only one person is supposed to order all the food since after my buddy ordered, i then ordered and she only brought out my order in the end. my buddy had to end up re ordering, but not a big deal. the food was well worth it! read more

Awon - Spicy Tuna Roll - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

The BEST sushi place in LA. No, in the world! So I have to come clean. This is my parents' restaurant... ;P But that doesn't make me too biased, does it? Tehehe. Ok, maybe it does but even Jonathan Gold says this is one of the top 99 restaurants in LA. :) (99 Essential Restaurants: The Metropolitan Palate, June 20, 2007) http://www.laweekly.com/eat+drink/dining/99-essential-restaurants-the-metropolitan-palate/16634/?page=2 A-Won has been my steady supplier of sushi/sashimi-related food for the past eight or so years. Needless to say, I've tried EVERYTHING on the menu. They're best known for the Hwe-Dup-Bap (sashimi salad with rice) and Al-Bap (fish eggs with rice) but the sushi & sashimi are also very very fresh. This is the standard that I compare all my other sushi experiences to and trust me, I hardly find places that will surpass the freshness of the fish here. I also love the Korean food here like the Meh-Oon-Tang (spicy fish soup) and the Eun-Dae-Gu-Jorim (spicy cod casserole) and the many ban-chan (side dishes!)!!! Mmmmm mmmm mmmm! And as is typical of Korean places, the ban-chan, rice, and miso soup are all refillable at no extra cost. Unlike Japanese-style sushi joints where they charge you for EVERY little thing. This place has completely spoiled me. I now live in Seattle and I have not been able to find a Korean/sushi place of this caliber or anywhere close to it! I miss my mommy and daddy!!! read more

A- Won Japanese Restaurant proudly proclaims itself as "the best sushi restaurant in K-town" really? I don't think so.... This Korean - Japanese restaurant is well known for it's signature dish - Hwei Dup Bap which is sashimi donburi. For those who doesn't know what it is it is basically cubed raw fish with fresh vegetables ( spring mix) that you mix with rice and spicy sauce ( cho go chu jang). I mean this dish is just simple to make and tastes great which ever restaurant you go to. (You can easily make it at home too!) But what is different about A- won? It gives you huge portion. The bowl is HUGE!! You can share it with 2 other people and feel full at the end of the meal. But that is about it..... Nothing special... I also ordered tempura, unagi bowl, Al bap, chirashi other times I went... and it is not bad. Just average. SERVICE - service is not that great... but what do you really expect from a Korean restaurant that has servers who are in their 40's? Overall experience I all giving 3 stars because they can surely improve on service and food. (TEMPURA - batter is just too thick! once I had to ask them to remake it because the batter wasn't cooked all through) read more

Awon - hwei dup bap - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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I have been here several times with different group of people for different type of occasions- hence, tried from the more affordable hwae dupbap and albap (a), assorted sashimi plate (b) to super pricy premium sashimi set with alcohol to please guests (c). (a) and (b): fish is better than most affordable sushi places. I dont taste froze-thawed-ness from the fish. So i recommend for u to try in casual occasions. I personally liked (a) far better than (b) because the level of freshness doesnt really meet the standard of a nice sashimi-only entree. For (c), they bring out fish they put aside separately, so the freshness is a premium quality. You are paying for what you get. I liked it. Its a korean style sashimi (fresh) not japanese style (fermented). Service is good. Plenty of parking. Never had a day i was offered valet so not sure if they have valet service. read more

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Pluses: decent sized parking lot and huge portions. The hwe dub bap could probably feed two people, maybe with a small appetizer. It seemed a little pricey at first but since its such a large portion its not bad. I like the way they slice the fish small so that you get some in every bite. It feels like a healthy meal. The sides are pretty meh. The drawback is that I didnt think the fish was that fresh. Since it was cut up into tiny pieces its hard to say, but one of the types of fish didn't taste quite right. I still ate the whole thing though. read more

o1.19.13 A friend brought me here for dinner on a Saturday night. Since it's located at a place surrounded by KBBQ, we didn't had to wait to get seated. We ordered the medium sashimi combo, there are so many other side and small dishes along with it. There was even a choice of spicy soup or rice for you to choose. I dunno about you, but we weren't able to finish everything. The sashimi plate looked absolutely beautiful and tasty except for the white fish, maybe it's halibut or something, I wasn't sure. Other than that, all other fishes were really fresh, including the uni and abalone. Overall, it was a very satisfying meal. :) read more

Saw the Yelp review and had to try the salad. It was good. Service for lunch on a tuesday was horrible. Wasn't too crowded, but I guess they have a preference for Korean ppl and ignore others. Took 45min to get a raw salad! read more

a Japanese sushi place in Koreatown? Uhm, OK! I ordered my food To-Go, and when the waitress gave me the menu, there were no items on the menu for sushi except large family sized deals, which were $130+. Everything else was fish ball soup or something else with fish in it. The place even smelled like a fish market (not the fresh fish kind). I stuck with two of the items without fish in it, which was BBQ ribs and chicken, and I did not care for it much. I mean, besides the fact that it came out to $33, I wasn't impressed, but full. This place is okay. read more

Awon - To-Go Beef ribs, miso soup (very salty), and veggie and shrimp tempra - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

Love their al-bap!!! If you like fish roe, this is the place to go! I love how packed your bowl of rice is with all sorts of colorful fish roes and to top it off, they even add a nice uni! Yummm~~~Just thinking about it makes me happy! They also have ginormous size of chirashi bowls which will definitely fill you up and make you happy. I did think their sushi special could be better and more fresh but their rice dishes you can have for lunch definitely stand out and are top notch! read more

Awon - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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To be fair, I've only had their Hwedupbap so this will mostly be a review of that one dish. I've been coming here for a while now and I've had their hwedupbap to-go as well as on-site. They give large portions (a little too much, actually!) of sashimi as well as the lettuce. You really have to split it with a friend or else it'll just be a waste. They don't give a variety of side dishes but their miso soup is pretty good. At $15 (that's including tax), it's not too pricey but it's not exactly cheap. If I have to be picky at all, there are some parts that don't seem as fresh but I've only felt that way once. That's why I'm giving them 4 stars and not 5 stars; they need to up their freshness level. I know it can't be all THAT fresh since it's hidden under all that lettuce and sauce. Parking is usually ample and their service is fast. If you're hankering for some hwedupbap, try this place out. It's really not that bad! I'd go back to try their sashimi, but I doubt it'll be good enough considering I've been spoiled by Sushi Gen! read more

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3.5 Stars. Their service is really good. A-Won provides Korean style sushi with soju or sakes. Eating a combo will run you up a decent bill so be prepared. I like the private booths that give you a little bit of privacy as you converse with the date in front of you. If you dont quite have the funds to impress her entirely, opt for the Hwe Dup Bap. (Its a sashimi mixed salad on rice with a spicy chili sauce for you that didn't grow up Korean) The grandeur of its size will impress. And you know size does matter. It will also not dent your wallet too much. They also offer a few other options for you non fish eaters. Such as udon or donkatsu. They have a private parking lot right in front of the restaurant. The good thing is that you aren't down the normal 2 bucks for valet because they dont usually have valet. Park it yourself and save the 2 bucks for something else you may need to buy at the end of the night. read more

Hwe Dub Bab. That's all I gotta say. A-Won has theeee bestest and biggest hwedubab in the world.. no jokeeeeeee. Not only is it big enough for 2 people to share.. but it has the perfect amount of sashimi cut up and tossed with various greens. It is sooo yummy. I usually don't eat a lot of sashimi but here, I'll eat all the sashimi in the world! But this place is good for lunchtime only! For dinner.. it's a bit pricey like maybe $15 min for any plate of sushi, udon, grilled fish, etc. But for LUNCH... that huge hwedubab is only $13 (dinner is $16)!! that thang can fill you up the whole day.. so if you hungry and you love hwe.... you gotta check this place out! They also have great bento boxes for lunch for only $12.95 and it comes wit a lot of stuff! This place gives you very generous portions! read more

This isn't in the trendy spots of ktown but it is a restaurant that is popular among the older generation of workers in koreatown. They have good lunch deals. I always get their sashimi rice bowls. Comes with miso soup. The portion is a lot and lots of sashimi too. Parking is valet: $1 or 2? read more

Awon - Sashimi rice bowl - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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I really love the Korean fish salad Hwe Dup Bap. I saw this restaurant serves it, and the pictures on Yelp looked good, so went to give it a try. The good: - Salad was quite large and arrived quickly. - Miso soup and three kimchis were included. The bad: - The salad was not actually bad, it was just not good at all. It had basically no flavor. I even requested and added more dressing, but that didn't really do anything. The word that most accurately describes it is "disappointing". - Service was pretty poor. One server was smiling and pleasant; the others were borderline surly. We also had to press the call button three times, waiting a decent amount of time in between, to get their attention, although there was only one other couple in the restaurant. - Not the restaurant's fault per se, but the parking lot out front charges $2 to park there. I would eat here again, but only if it was free. And I'd try another dish. If you're specifically looking for Hwe Dup Bap, I recommend try and find another place, which is what I will do next time. read more

The best Heo Deop Bap (raw fish over the rice and vegetable with sweet and spicy sauce) in Ktown to me. With tax, about 20 dollars. It is good for 2. If you make your own, I am sure it will cost more than 20 dollars. Taste good and hoe(raw fish) is very fresh. read more

Always great Korean/Sushi spot in LA. A local fav. Just pick the course you want per the amount of people that is at the table.

I called and got a sashimi large combo togo and they assured me that everything in the combo would be packed. I have been coming here for years and this used to be my favorite place to go for sashimi. This time I was very disappointed. They used to include eel, California rolls, veggie and shrimp tempura, etc with their combos as that's what it says on their menu, but they left all this out. For a large sashimi combo serving 3-4 portions, it was only a few sides like fried fish, Mae Un Tang, salad, albap. I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect the same amount of quality or all the extras that they gave if we were dining in, however, this has gone way too far. For the amount I am spending, I expect them to make an effort to serve almost everything listed in their combos. You shouldn't lie to your customers and not give them the full combo menu if you can't serve it. Talk about supporting local businesses. You still have to serve your customers honestly if you want that support. read more

You know when you try some place new and you're like "Oh man...THIS is the SHIET!!" and that's the only place you go for this particular specialty of theirs? And you bring someone to the establishment after not going for oh...4-5 years, and tell them, this and this is the BAYYST!!! And you order it and it looks good and you can't wait to have it again and you take that first supposed to be amazing bite but then you're like WTF IS THIS SHIET...? yea....well....that's what happened to A-won. WTF. Seriously. I got their spicy fish soup and their hwebupbap (assorted sashimi and veggies over rice) and was super disappointed. Granted, you can't really screw up the hewdupbap...but their spicy fish soup was not the spicy fish soup of yesteryear. It had no flavor...it tasted like they boiled water, threw in some fish, some veggies and a little bit of chili powder. Where the flavor at doe?? After stirring it and having several more bites I stopped eating it. Service was ok...but it's like they don't care anymore. It's sad really. This place is a Koreatown staple...or was, anyway........ The valet guys were pretty nice though...*sighs*...probably won't be coming back any time soon. read more

Great hwedopbap and al-bap~ I have heard other dishes are good as well. Just remember that this place can be quite crowded. Also, parking can be an issue... read more

Use to eat here regularly prior to the pandemic. But since, the quality has dropped significantly. Tried the Wilshire location a few times and each time it was disappointing. The fish used in the Hae Dup Bap was not fresh and, worse, they've reduced the amount and type of fish used. They no longer use salmon instead using the cheap quality fish and apparently the leftover scrapes from the sashimi. And, the vegetables were not fresh. Too bad. This place use to be good. read more

My reviews strictly on their hae dup bap! It's a bit pricey but defintely worth the portion that comes with it. The fish is fresh and the food comes out relatively quick. The service is spot on as Korean restaurants are usually very tentative. Always a favorite to dine for lunch when I'm around Korea town. read more

Awon - Huge portion. - Japanese Near Me - Los Angeles, California

We, party of 6, had a dinner here last night. It was the sashimi and sushi dinner course. Their most expensive menu. We ALL got sick at around 11pm. Symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach aches. This is a typical food poisoning. Maybe dirty kitchen ware or not so fresh ingredients. All of us are soooo freakin mad as hell. I've already reported this to the health department of los angeles county. Now it's 6pm and i am still sick. I couldn't even go to the doctors office today because of severe diarrhea. But i will go tomorrow. This restaurant used to be good. But NOT ANYMORE. read more

Unfortunately A-Won, you can't silence a proud Yelper. Especially the snobby 5th year elite. Third time is a charm. First time, we assumed that we were getting terrible service because we ordered the cheapest item on the menu but also their signature dish Hwe Dup Bab. Second time, we thought maybe because we were bunch of young non-Koreans sitting at the table... Third time, which was tonight, we thought either we were young or non-korean. We ordered some expensive stuff on the menu, but we still got bad service compared to the older ajjuma and ajjushi group sitting right next to us. Sadly, again, some lame excuse of "miscommunication" between the waitresses & we ended up getting our food super late. Quality of the food? not worth the wait. Not worth the bad service or the price. We still tipped them over 20% since they followed up after threatening with yelp reviews, but in the end, it is what it is... They should provide better service whether we are reviewers or not. read more

I didn't feel quite al-bapped enough after my trip to Chunju Han-Il Kwan, so I chose the second-most-al-bappy place according to Yelp to continue my search for the holy al-bap. That word is starting not to make any sense. I was sat at the sushi bar since I was a single diner. Just like in the last place, all the other patrons stared at me. Even my sushi chef stared at me for awhile. I have trouble fitting in in Koreatown. Anyway, my al bap came out pretty quickly, just a few minutes after the three side dishes of bright pink pickled cabbage, yellow radish, and kimchi (plus miso soup). It was a beautiful rainbow of fish eggs, fully four colors of masago in addition to the fat orangey ikura. There were red pickled turnips, two kinds of seaweed (hijiki and wakame) and a nice slab of bright yellow uni in the middle. There was also surimi, usually a trigger for blind ranting rage on my part. Here, I have to say - and may God strike me with lightning for this blasphemy - that the fake crab... kinda...a little bit... worked in this dish. ::cringes:: Here's the thing: the bowl looks a little better than it tastes. I mean, the four colors of roe taste roughly identical, and that was the majority of the topping. I found that mainly my experience consisted of wakame, sesame oil, and a pleasant salty fish egg taste. Except when I got a swirl of uni in there, or a particularly poppy bead of ikura. The fact that the rice clumped together in little fish-egg-repelling rocks didn't help. I don't mean to say it wasn't delicious. It was. But it was quite mild, and for my $14.99 (THAT was a surprise after the last one, which was $9.99) I think I'm probably going to go with a chirashi bowl somewhere if I've got the choice and the vague hankering for some oceany stuff over rice. read more

A-Won is a weird place. It's a Korean sushi restaurant that caters to Koreans, a different concept from the many sushi roll spots around town that are discreetly (if also kind of obviously) Korean-owned. The name and staff and menus and clientele are overwhelmingly Korean. I went for lunch with my mom and there wasn't a non-Korean in the house. The place was unhip and nondescript, clean but very strip mall in atmosphere. Service was shitty in a dismissive, borderline rude, Korean ajumma way. We were there to eat uni. I'd been working on a round-up of unique uni dishes for the L.A. Times, and my sweet mother called every Korean-Japanese restaurant in L.A. asking whether they included sea urchin in their dishes. Somewhat surprisingly, A-Won was the only one that seemed to fit the bill. The restaurant wasn't busy when we went, and we sat quickly and got some miso soup and simple banchan more or less right away. The soup was fine and the spread was light and standard--some kimchi, pickles, broccoli with imitation crab. We ignored the big sushi and sashimi platters--what I tend to think of as the bread and butter of these Korean-Japanese spots--and shared a few smaller dishes instead, two of them for the uni. A-Won is known for its al-bap, a bibimbap of sorts with a huge array of fish eggs, along with some chopped omelet, seaweed, pickled radish, imitation crab, and a dollop of uni on top. It's a beautiful dish, with roe in every color, mostly fine and crunchy, but finished with a nice portion of bursting ikura. The uni, unfortunately, gets lost. It's really just enough for one bite, if a very lovely bite. And as long as we're mixing uni and ikura with imitation crab, I feel like we might as well add some gochujang to this party? The flavors are pleasant, but they could use a little oomph. The textures, though, are great. The main uni event, it turned out, was a special, posted on an 8 1/2 x 11 print-out taped to the door. It was called, simply, "saeng sunggae," or "live uni," and our waitress was not too forthcoming about what was in it. We ordered it anyway, and it was a gorgeous, delicious appetizer of live uni, served in its shell with rice, a tiny bibimbap in a spiny vessel. It came with pickled radish, seaweed, and sesame seeds, and we mixed it all up, separating the uni from the walls of the shell as we went. It was fantastic, the uni cool and creamy, perfect to mix with rice. It's worth visiting A-Won just to try this dish. The last thing we shared was eel over rice, what I thought would be a standard unadon. It was weak. Three small slivers of eel with too much rice, flavored with sweet eel sauce, sesame seeds, and bonito. There was so much rice I couldn't even stretch the sauce to eat with it. This is not the thing to get here. I don't know how often I'll go back to A-Won. Like I said, it's an odd place, not too friendly and dead on atmosphere. But the live uni is a real gem, and I'd certainly like to eat it again. read more

Whenever I'm premenstrual, I find myself craving things directly from the ocean: sushi, caviar, seaweed. During particularly hormonal moments, I've found myself sitting on the couch, wearing just my underpants, eating tobiko straight out of a plastic tub with a plastic spoon. A friend observed just how meta it was: "You're about to release eggs, so you eat eggs. That's pretty gross, if you think about it." I knew I was PMSing when I suggested to my darling murderer that we head over to A-Won on a recent Saturday after a trip to the gym. "I need salt," I wailed, willing the traffic to move faster. "Get out of my goddamn way, people!" Eventually (albeit not soon enough), we found ourselves tucked into a cozy booth in a hybrid Korean-Japanese eatery in K-town, sipping tea and watching a Clippers game on the large flat screen television. I won't waste your time recounting all the dishes we ordered because none of them mattered as much as the al-bap, a huge stone bowl filled with rice and festooned with seaweed and kani, and delicately laid on top was a kaleidoscope of fish eggs: red, orange, green, yellow, black. Crowning the whole glorious affair was a dollop of sea urchin. I moaned at the majesty of it all. How you eat this beautiful behemoth: mix the mass up into a mess and spoon directly into your mouth. Share it if you must, as the generous serving is enough for two. Sigh contentedly as each morsel nurtures your soul. It crunches and crackles beneath your molars, each burst saline sweet and satisfying. I went home, sated, grinning like a madwoman, and prepared to release my own egg to honor perfection, never happier to bleed. read more

+ Hwedobap (Raw fish, rice, salad mix) - Maeuntang (Spicy fish stew) Hwedobap is the best thing here and deserves 5 stars on its own. Fish is very soft and the greens are fresh and crisp. The maeuntang is always a miss hiwever. The last time it was lacking and this time it was too salty. I would skip this stew and stick with the raw fish dishes. It seems the parking lot there always has valet regardless of lunch or dinner so be prepared to pony up $2.00. read more

hwe-dup-bap!...translation being sashimi-over-rice...a bottle of bright red sweet 'n' spicy hot paste to add to your desire...mounds of leafy lettuce, julienned korean radish, chunks of raw salmon and sliced white fillet, and rice...$sixteen large wooden bowl with a high elevated bottom to give an illusion of the meal being bigger than it really is...still a large filling portion for one person regardless...a mighty good bowl of hwe-dup-bap and only item ordered...a saturday dinner in koreatown... read more

In a review for another K-town restaurant, one Yelper mentioned that the best people to ask about outstanding restaurants are men, preferably businessmen, because they eat out all the time. Judging from the crush of businessmen sitting at the sushi bar at A-Won, I realized I'd been introduced to a Korean-style Japanese restaurant of the highest order, that is high-quality sushi or sashimi specials at $10 and under. Matsuhisa it isn't, but I could happily eat at A-Won every week and not go broke. The specialty is the rice with vegetables topped with sashimi (hwedupbab) and mixed with sesame oil and vinegar hot pepper paste. It's one of my favorite dishes anywhere, but here it's served in a huge footed red lacquer bowl with generous portions of sashimi. Elsewhere, you're lucky if you get enough sashimi for 4-5 bites; here, you' can't help but get a mouthful of fish down to the last bite -- but more than likely you won't be able to finish at all. It's served with miso soup (refilled upon request) and simple side dishes like edamame beans (pleasantly sweet), pickled radish, lightly sauteed zucchini and a mild kimchi. A friend got the salmon bento box, and again we marveled at the generous portions: two good-sized pieces of grilled salmon plus salad, California rolls, tempura. I had a front-row view of the sushi bar and enjoyed watching the chefs assemble 10 bowls of hwedupbap at a time, two by two by two by two. In another chef's hands, a fish carcass was quickly reduced to abstract bone and sliced into artful piles. The servers worked as a team refilling the miso soup or water for any table they passed by. They also speak English fluently, another plus. A-Won's not a romantic place, and some people might not care for the high-walled booths, but I know I'll go there often for the food and the entertainment value. read more

What to order you say? Well if you got 4 people, I would go family style. More things for you to taste! You have to get the Hwe-Dup-Bap. It's serious business. You've can usually mix about 3 bowls of rice in one. Then get the "ketchup" bottle ( their yummy A-won gochuchang mix) and put as much as you want. If you like a spicy meatball... or just want more spice, squeeze more. The sauce is pretty incredible compared to other Hwe-Dup-Bap places. They add lemon and ginger! Next, you must get the Eun-Dae-Gu-Jorim (spicy cod and daikon radish casserole). It's a small soup bowl but the fish inside is sooo buttery. Dammit! I done drooled all over the keyboard again. To top it all off, a little grilled mackerel (Gu-i) would be a solid choice. Squeeze that lime on the top and bottom. And, watch out for the bones! Use that tongue.... yeaaaaah. I have yet to try their sashimi but that's my next visit! I'm sure it will be just as fresh as the others here say. Till then! read more