Mmmm! Delicious and no other place like it! The price is decent and the chicken is good! The only thing is the parking. It kind of gets crowded and the parking lot is really small. Also get the cheese. It's good. read more

Mapo Chicken - Yum!!!! - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

Nothing can equal the experience of having Chuncheon Dakgalbi outside of Chuncheon-si. The real experience is having this on a small street of nothing but dakgalbi restaurants which are served by Chinese college students or ajummas. Having said that, this is Los Angeles, and I am grateful for the few restaurants that actually serve it. While many Korean restaurants are around I am baffled that only two restaurants (that I know of) exist that serve this beautiful dish. Pros: It brings me back to my life of living in the medium-sized city of Chuncheon. One thing I like better here compared to Chuncheon is that they don't leave the fat on the chicken while cooking it. Cons: You can never beat the experience of having it in the city. In addition, while they serve sesame leaves, it's cooked inside the meal. I'm used to eating it raw folded around the cooked meat folded like a taco. I'm going to be more insistent about this next time. It's hard to get people to come, and its a little pricey. But I wouldn't mind coming again. You should give this a try. Valet parking is 2 bucks. Not bad for this area. read more

Mapo Chicken - Me and my buddies enjoying some awesome Dakgalbi! - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

It's kind of pricey and a tiny place with not enough staff, but it's impossible to deny that their Dak Galbi is delicious and authentic in flavor. The people complaining about service here are just reviewers looking to use Yelp as a way of complaining publicly. The servers work fast and diligently, though it would benefit them to hire one more person to help cook. For those that haven't had Dak Galbi, it's a chicken, veggie, and rice cake dish drenched in sauce that creates a savory and sweet combination that just works. This isn't mega spicy by any means, but will get your nose running. One of the best parts of Dak Galbi is you get to have it cooked right in front of you. This, however, makes service a little slower for things like water and side dishes. There's two main women servers scrambling around making sure dishes don't burn while one man focuses on seating and helping out as well as the check. This is something you sure surely expect when coming here. This is a hole in the wall, no question. After it's finished cooking, you scoop the food out of the pan onto your own plate and enjoy the piping hot and delicious mixture of food. After nearly finishing, they take the sauce and add kimchi, thinly sliced seaweed, and a few other ingredients to make Kimchi Fried Rice with the remaining sauce. This is also delicious and helps finish the meal and really also fills you up at the end. We ordered 3 (17.99 per) portions for 5 people with cheese and noodles as extras (3 each). Cheese is a must! It ended up being around 15 dollars a person which is reasonable, but if you come by yourself, the fact that the minimum order is 2 portions makes this prohibitively expensive and too much food. With one other person, it's kind of pricey and most people would probably have some leftovers. But this is definitely meant to be eaten in groups. This is being added to my list of places that reminds me of Korean food in Korea along with Sul and Beans and Han Bat Sul Lung Tang. read more

Service was great despite language barrier. I loved the rice cakes. I wish the sweet potatoes weren't cut so thin so you could taste it better but I suppose it's necessary to have everything be done cooking simultaneously. The sauce was a little sweet. Chicken was so tender. Fried rice at the end was as good as everyone said it would be. read more

Realy good place to eat! we followed them from old place to this new location! Hope they can open another location closer to our house though... hahahahaha read more

Mapo Chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

YESS. This place is so good!!! We definitely got the dak galbi with cheese and enjoyed it thoroughly that night as well as the rice leftovers we took home for the next day. It's a pot and they throw a bunch of chicken, sweet potato, rice cake, and veggies and cook it all together with a spicy red sauce. No, it's not complicated, but the flavors together make it delicious, and their ban chan add an extra level of goodness. I went with 3 other people, we got three orders, which we decided was too much, but we had a good amount to take home. No one was complaining. read more

Dak Galbi (Chicken Rib) is a dish that is hard to come across in the States. Mapo Dak Galbi does a pretty good job - how can you go wrong with dduk (rice cakes), sweet potato and spicy sauce? Yum. I'm not a huge fan of chicken, however, so I give it 3 stars - that, and the fact that this place is a ghetto hole-in-the-wall. But the dish is huge and the pan-fried rice at the end is good, too. Worth $18? Worth it if you are craving it. Don't get the bulgogi (sliced marinated beef dish), though. Oh, nota bene: 2 person minimum order on the dak galbi! Easy parking - $2 valet lot next to the restaurant and/or street parking. read more

DAK GALBI GALORE~ (spicy chicken) This place is a hole in the wall joint. And i love hole in the wall places! :D I usually get 2 orders for 2-4 ppl and and get it medium spicy. I also ask for extra veggies! I ask for an apron so that it doesnt get all over my shirt and start eating! YUM! At the end, they fry rice with whatever was left over! FKN AWESOME! read more

I reeeally like this place. If you blink you'll miss it... The sign is in Korean, so you'll need to google map it if you can't read Korean. We always order the duk galbi which runs you 16ish bucks per person but you get tons of food for the price. Also, they have a 2 order minimum. I have yet to run into a English speaking employee and the menu is also in Korean which can be a bit off putting and intimidating for non Korean speakers. Don't worry, just point to what you want (even if you are pointing at another tables food). Hand gestures will get you through it and you'll be on your way to a happy tummy!! read more

Mapo Chicken - A picture really is worth a thousand words. - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

The first time I went here, I was sufficiently turnt, so combine copious amounts of soju and makoli with this heavy meal of chicken and rice cakes, and I felt like barfing afterward. BUT that doesn't mean it isn't good. It is. RULLLL GOOD. So the first time I came here, it was really spicy (this also could have influenced the need to hurl after, I'm not sure). They cook the chicken, rice cakes, and veggies in this huge pan in front of you, and douse the whole thing with these two red sauces. One is really spicy and the other sweet. For some reason, my friend told the lady to go light on the sweet sauce so it turned out to be really spicy. I remember my mouth to be on fire during this meal. However, the second time I went here, we had the normal ratio of sweet and spice and it was a much more pleasant experience. The rice cakes are chewy and a nice balance to all of the savory sauce. The chicken, onion, and lettuce are sautéed perfectly. Pair that with the banchan (my faves are the seaweed, fishcakes, and cucumbers) and it's a solid meal. After the dak galbi is served, they make kimchi fried rice in the pan, with the choice of adding cheese. ALWAYS ADD THE CHEESE. I don't know what it is with putting mozzarella cheese on top of fried rice, but whatevz, accept it, it's freakin' delicious. It melts and becomes this gooey mixture of fried rice, kimchee, seaweed, and cheese. If you have leftovers of the chicken and veggies, it's great to eat along with it. I will warn you though, this is a heavy meal. The portion for two is enough to feed three or maybe even four people. So come with a big group and you'll get your value's worth. read more

Mapo Chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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David Chang has to be one of my favorite chefs out there and he says this place is delicious. In fact it's one of his favorite places to eat in the world.. Or at least that's what my husband told me. So while visiting LA, we decided we had to stop by and see what he meant. We came by around 8pm on a Monday night. It was a full restaurant but some patrons were finishing up. It took about 15mins to get our table set up. We were quickly served water and a huge cast iron pan was put on the table. We ordered 2 orders of chicken galbi because that's what they're famous for. Then we enjoyed an ice cold glass of beer. The sweet ladies working up front brought out the chicken and stared cooking it table side for us. They then added rice cakes, and other veggies and red sauce. She let us know that the food was ready to eat and we dug in! Seriously it was so good!! I loved the amount of veggies they throw in there. Its not spicy like you'd expect. It was just really good! As we were filing up, they added rice to the pot, fried it up and that was even better. Now, I think this place is fantastic but this is the first time I've ever tried this dish. Will be back next time we're in town read more

Mapo Chicken - Rice with chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

This is my favorite place to go for spicy chicken with some vegetables. Ive been going to this place over 7years and its so yummy in my tummy !!!! I highly recommend this place to everyone^^ read more

Been craving dakgalbi for awhile so decided to check this place out tonight. It's kinda hard to find, especially if you don't read Korean. It looked kinda run down from the outside but was worse on the inside. The interior was pretty cramped and plain. The decor was from the 70's. It was also pretty stuffy inside, even though it was only half full. Not a good first impression. We had 2 orders which could've possibly fed a third person. We had our dakgalbi medium spicy but it was pretty hot! The chicken was moist and tender and was cooked with cabbage, onions, rice cake. We got fried rice mixed in at the end of the meal. The ajuma servers were very attentive and gave great service. If the interior decor was nicer, I know that I would've had a much more pleasant meal. I didn't get that "WOW" feeling that I did at Chuncheon restaurant. 2 stars for the lack of interior decor, 4 stars for the food and service = 3 stars. read more

This place has been around since the late 90's and it is still here! I just remember that it was juicy, red, hot, and plenty of chicken and veges to fill you up. I would say it gives me this small fast food but good local eatery feeling when i'm there, very laid back Someplace to share with some close friends for casual huge meal. if you are an average girl and you go with another girl it might be too much to handle. Good for groups of 4 for 2 people serving. ** Sweet potato and ricecakes make it yummy read more

Mapo Chicken - How they deliver - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

I loved this place! My friend and I ordered 2 portions and it was way more than enough. They start with cooking the chicken and rice cakes with the sauce that they have, and later add in different veggies. They add more or less sauce depending on how spicy you want it. After we stuffed ourselves with enough chicken, they mixed in rice with extra fried kimchi, seaweed, and sesame oil into what was remaining - SO GOOD. I would definitely come back here, but it does get pretty packed around prime dinner time, with people even waiting outside to get seated. We were luckily seated right away when we arrived around 7pm. read more

If you havent tried dak galbi, you must try it! If you like food, like to try something new, and like some spiciness then dak galbi is for you. Not that many places in ktown have that dish. By going to this restaurant you can tell they are serious about this dish. Its basically a stir fry of chicken thigh, rice cake, sweet potato and you must get the extras which is an assortment of veggies and the rice cake. The veggies includes sesame leaf, onion, some mushrooms. It all gets cooked together with some hot sauce and this dish comes out very good. The icing is that near the end they mix rice with the leftover sauce and stuff. Very good dish. Too bad i got to try it a little late in my ktown adventures. Its a small restaurant. No valet parking. Need to find ur own parking. Its about $16 per serving + $2 for each of the extras. For four ppl 2-3 servings are enough. Like someone said, just do people - 1 for the servings. read more

Mapo Chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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So from I hear there are only couple of places in Ktown that specializes in daak galbi (chicken rib meat), and Mapo Galbi is obviously one of them. I became a fan of daak galbi a few weeks back when I had it in Busan Korea. In Korea they add a little fusion twist by adding mozzarella cheese on top, and now Mapo Galbi has that option. The best way to describe this dish? It's dduk bokki (hot rice cake) meets chicken. There's dduk (rice cake), there's chicken, and there's a whole lotta gochoojang (Korean red paste) going on. There are some greens and veggies and of course - rice as the base. The best part of the dish is that all that hotness (spiciness & temperature) is complimented perfectly by the slices of tangy "moo" that you use as "ssam", or wrap. It really goes well together. So with all that said, what's my verditct? Well, overall it was just OK for me, so I give it 3 stars. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't mind-blowing either. Basically it tastes like what I make at home, which is nothing spectacular haha. read more

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First time and I'm excited! Heard so many good things about this place. I will be coming again. Servers are nice and I'm here with 2 other royal customers. Will be leaving a post meal post as well. First things to notice. 1. Friendly environments 2. Diverse banchans 3. Sns deal to make it sweeter read more

Mapo Chicken - Pregame! - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

I dream of this chicken. I'm so happy to see they're still around after the pandemic shut down. Their space isn't huge so be prepared to wait. The food is delicious. There's not much ambiance here but that's not what you come for. Dak galbi + soju can't go wrong here. read more

I freaking love deal galbi (spicy stir fried chicken). It's always on my list of things I have to eat when I go back to Korea. It is shocking that such a novelty exists in the US. During my time in NY or SF I didn't see one restaurant that specializes in this (please let me know if you know otherwise). The restaurant is a no-frills Korean restaurant. No distracting decorations to take the spotlight away from the big black pan that sits on the middle of your table. The portions here are large and pretty inexpensive. We ordered 3 persons worth for 4 grown Korean boys and I was definitely full by the end. And obviously a Korean meal can't be done without some soju and Korean beer that tastes more bud light than bud light. The server will slap on the chicken, vegetables (cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes), rice cakes all marinated in a spicy red gochujang based sauce. It is mouthwatering to watch your meal sizzle on this massive pan. And if the servers are busy, it's really not hard to stir it yourself while they tend to others. Once it's cooked and the server gives you the ok, you can devour your meal. But you have to remember to stop yourself once you have about 15% left because there will be a part two where they'll put in rice, dried seaweed flakes and sesame oil in the pan with whatever is left over and make you an amazing fried rice. Let that sit for a little and get it crispy before you dig in as well. Overall, this is a fantastic meal and I'd recommend it to anyone. One thing that prevented me from giving 5 stars was that the sauce (which is a big part of the dish) was a little too monotone and tasted mostly like gochujang. read more

Took my non-Korean co workers after reading about the place on eaterla. Dakgalbi is usually very spicy and that's what my coworkers were looking for. Unfortunately, it was not. I'm pretty weak sauce when it comes to spiciness and I could handle it even after I asked them to make it spicier. The dish itself was decent, but nothing to cry home about. Place is small and pretty full/busy on a weeknight. Staff was nice enough, but sadly will not come back for this dish. read more

The service was relatively fast when we got here. We came on a Thursday evening around 6pm. Got seated immediately. The parking space is limited. You may have to find street parking if it gets busy. The exterior of the restaurant may be a bit janky and rundown, but the dakgalbi is key to this restaurant's dining experience. It's around $20 per person. I love how the waitress takes you through the whole process of marinating and cooking the dakgalbi right in front of you. You'll get cabbage, rice cakes, veggies along with the spicy dakgalbi, but you can add more ingredients if you want (cheese, udon noodles, etc) for an extra charge. Seeing the food evolve step-by-step definitely made the first bite that much more satisfying. Nonetheless, the dakgalbi wasn't too spicy. It was tender and flavorful. And, the bokkeumbab at the end was phenomenal. You're missing out if you don't try the dakgalbi here :)! Taste: 5/5 Aesthetics: 5/5 Whole dining experience: 5/5 read more

Mapo Chicken - Dakgalbi - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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So much food!!!!!!! I got dak gal bi with cheese and udon. Cheese and udon makes less spicy loved the texture of the udon with spicy sauce. And theres more!! You can add the rice at the end and the server mix little bit of chicken, kimchi and seaweed with rice. So stuffed and happy :) read more

Mapo Chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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first time back in 3 years...somewhat a hole in the wall place but has really good food - get the chicken and add the cheese and noodles. 4 stars because they literally only have like 4 things on the entire menu, but if you come here specifically for this item then you're good to go. read more

I had Mapo when it was in its og location. Hadn't had it in more than 5 years. Came here with my sis and her friend. We got two portions with cheese. The amount was perfect for three hungry girls. Oh boy this place was just as delicious as I remembered it being! It's chicken with cabbage, perilla leaves, rice cakes, onions cooked with red spicy sauce... then topped with cheese and cooked until ooey gooey deliciousness.... wrapped in the sweet pickled radish to offset the heat... yum... Then with the few remaining chicken and veggie stragglers, you make fried rice... topped with nutty sesame oil and dried seaweed.... just writing this review makes me hungry and I just had lunch! I parked on the street on a Monday night and had no problem finding a spot. Don't know about weekends though. Will definitely be hitting this spot up again! read more

A good alternative to the typical Korean BBQ, which is the ideal "Korean food" to non-Koreans. The ladies that work here don't speak too much English, so it's a lot of pointing and hand gestures. This place, you literally sit around a large 18" stone pan, which you use to cook the meats (or plain veggies) that you order. Their most famous one is the dak gal bi, which is chicken, but they have other options like pork, pork ribs, or beef. From what I understand from the ladies, you can only order 1 type of meat, since you're literally stir frying the food in this large pan. We got 3 orders of the chicken ($17.99 each order), with side orders of the rice cake dukbokki ($2.99) and "pizza cheese" (mozzarella) ($2.99). First, the ladies fill our pan with chicken + rice cake + taro/potato. Cook cook cook, then they come to douse our stuff with gochujang, toss toss toss, add the cabbage & onions, stir stir stir, then they threw in the perilla leaves. I personally loved the perilla, but it's not for everyone. As we ate about 25% of our stone pan, the ladies came back to make a fiery ring that they sprinkle with the pizza cheese. Ohhhh here come the stringy cheese shots for boomerang! Lastly, as you're finishing up your stone pan, the ladies come by to use the remainder of the sauce in the pan to cook up kimchi fried rice--they add minced up kimchi, folded in the rice & sauce, and topped with shredded nori. Nomnomnom The three orders of chicken was the perfect amount for a party of 5, and came out to roughly $14 per person. Don't forget to ask for the banchan (side dishes)! read more

Chicken is never a disappointment. The portions are huge so come hungry and expect to take home leftovers. The owners are sweet and friendly. Parking is limited to a few spaces but you can always park on the side streets. read more

Good for and really spicy chicken. You customize your level of hot. The cold soup will definitely help take the burn off. read more

Mapo Chicken - Spicy awesome food, this is the end result of delicious spicy chicken special. - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California

4 stars just for the fact that I found a dak galbi place stateside! (I'd probably give it 3 stars for taste, but I'm just grateful to have found it!) Didn't see any menus or prices listed on the wall, but a 2 person order (chicken + bokkum bap aka fried rice) will set you back around $40. It'd probably be around $15 in Seoul, but the portions are HUGE here, and you can take the leftovers to go. Service is... eh... what should I say? They didn't give us any banchan or water 'til we asked in Korean... and once they found out my half-Korean-but-doesn't-look-Korean chingoo could also speak in mother tongue, well, we all became best friends and danced in a circle hand in hand... I'd definitely come back, but there's just one thing missing... cheese! read more

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Don't be fooled by the generic name--Mapo Galbi is not just another Korean barbecue restaurant. Galbi refers not to marinated beef short rib, but to dak galbi, a regional dish of spicy pan-fried chicken that I'd only eaten in Korea before coming here. I ate at Mapo with four of my best friends for a pre-Christmas Secret Santa dinner. The place was pretty calm at 7:30 on a Wednesday, though certainly not empty. We got a corner table that was kind of cramped what with all the gifts and food, but it was cozy and we were able to relax and take our time. The restaurant's vibe was pretty no-nonsense Korean, with decor so nondescript it was borderline harsh. Service was hands-on and efficient, but probably not the friendliest, either. It consisted of one ajumma going around cooking everyone's food in unsmiling silence--she fed us well, so fine by me. At one point, a white couple sat down and got up after five or so minutes of looking very (probably excessively) uncomfortable. We had a much better time. The menu was short and focused, with meals centering around a giant communal pan of dak galbi. We were a party of five, and four orders was the right amount of food, supplemented with nothing but the banchan and some Hite. The banchan spread was fine, if not particularly tempting. I liked the spicy fish cake and dongchimi broth. There were also plates of marinated zucchini, pickled radish, seaweed, and salad in creamy dressing. The dak galbi was the main event. All four orders got piled into one massive pan, placed over a central grill that cooked it all up at the table. There were tender morsels of chicken, along with rice cakes and a mess of herbs and vegetables, cooked in a red sauce that soaked everything in its flavorful spice. The chicken and rice cakes were delicious, and I even enjoyed the vegetables when they softened in the pan. Our meal ended with fried rice, prepared at our table in the same pan, alongside the remnants of our dak galbi. It was excellent, speckled with kimchi and seaweed, and I enjoyed eating it with the last pieces of spicy chicken. I loved dak galbi the couple times I've had it in Korea, and am very glad to have a go-to spot much closer to my house. If you're at all curious about this dish, you have to visit Mapo Galbi. White people of Los Angeles, be brave. read more

Alice J.'s 1 star review is the effing worst. You come in as they're closing and you expect great service? Come at a decent damn hour and you'll be treated as well as can be expected in Ktown. The food is not the worst. It's actually the best. Do you know who loves this place? J. Gold. And who are you? Not J. freaking Gold. If you can make such great quality food for yourself, stay the hell at home instead of being such a baby. Their service is indeed not the best, but hey, you're in godamn Koreatown. Korean ladies are going to be Korean ladies, so yea, it was probably in bad form to ask for tip. But then again, suck it up. ** So much amazing food for 4 people, why the effing eff would anyone ever complain about too much food? Fried rice at the end! What's the problem?! ** No kidding, don't go in before they close. Who does that? ** Give them tips because you're not an asshole. read more

Experience. The more you gain of it, the better knowledge you have. It's quite elementary, right? Since joining Yelp, I finally have experienced many a Korean joints. Especially with Korean cuisine. I love the culture, the traditions, and of course, the food!! Any native K-town adventurer would tell you, customer service at a Korean restaurant? It's non-existent. Good food however, is plentiful. After a night of drinking and partying with fellow Yelpers, we decide to try this place out for lunch the following day. My 'lil sis told me how great the food was and this was one of the few Korean dishes that I had yet to try, so, why not? Well, to be honest, the dish itself (chicken like stew with veggies and that lava red sauce), was good, but something out of this world? No. It was basically chicken pieces (breast?) with stuff thrown in. It was somewhat of a disappointment to me. As basically every Korean dish I've tried, I've almost instantly fell in love with. Now, it gets worse. When we ordered our chicken dish, we were told a 2 order minimum because of the size of our group. Huh? We were about 6 people deep in our group. It's not like there were 12 of us. OK, so we order two. We ordered bulgogi, same thing, since the size of our group, two order minimum. OK? So the waitress first brings out our dak galbi and she's prepping it, and as time goes on, it's ready to eat and we're eating away. When the dish was basically gone, dongseng reminded her about our bulgogi. That's when she told us, they were out. Huh? Why didn't you tell us half an hour ago when we ordered? So, we end up ordering kalbi. To which the lady says that the person in charge of slicing/cutting it, just left. Um, OK. Once again, thanks for the heads up. By this time, we had our fill of the dak galbi, which wasn't all that and some of my dining companions who didn't really eat the dak, were kind of peeved. All in all, food was OK, but nothing great. Customer service was basically extinct. Will I be back? Not even if they paid me. read more

Hidden Korean gem. Don't tell your white friends about this place, or you'll ruin it for all of us.

Mapo Galbi. You are such a disappointment! I came on a Sunday with some friends to try out Mapo Galbi. Dak Galbi (chicken) is their specialty with spices, rice cake, veggies, and stuff. It's actually really good. I can see why this had become their specialty. So why the two stars? Service was so bad. If my mom was with us, she would have cussed out the lady and walked out. It was ridiculous. A couple of people wanted something else besides chicken. I asked her for a menu and ordered galbi and then pork, and she was questioning me. Questioning the customer about what they feel like eating? Are you kidding me? She kept saying how the Dak Galbi was really good and how they were really good at making it. It just didn't matter. They wanted other stuff so give me the other stuff woman! What the hell. I couldn't believe her. Anyways, so I order the galbi. She says they're now out of it. Ummmmm okay. The dak galbi comes out and it's being cooked. I then order some pork. She says that we'll have to wait until the chicken is done so that she can take it off the BBQ and put the pork on. WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST MOVE US TO A TABLE WITH TWO GRILLS THEN? Ugh. So annoying. Ok fine. After the chicken is cooked I had asked her to bring out the pork and put the chicken in a bowl or something. She says we should eat more of the chicken because it doesn't taste as good when it's not hot and freshly made. Ummm ok. Fine. So we eat a little more, I'm getting really annoyed at this point, and I tell her again to bring out the pork. What the hell happens now? They person that slices the pork properly isn't there and so they don't have any pork to serve now. Didn't I just tell you like 5 times within the last half hour bitch? Needless to say, we finished the chicken and got the eff out of there. Don't get me wrong. The chicken was really good, but the entire experience left a really bad taste in my mouth. read more

Dak Galbi (spicy chicken galbi) is one of famous local specialty cuisines from Chunchon (a city) in Gangwon Province. After having the real original dak galbi from chunchon last summer, i just can't give this place 5 stars. Chunchon is also famous for their mak guk su (buckwheat noodle with special soy sauce..looks more like naing myun). one without the other just doesn't complete the whole chunchon dak galbi experience. the name of this place is almost a disgrace to korean local cuisines. Lakers are LA Lakers not SF Lakers. USC are Trojans, not USC Bruins. It should be chunchon dak galbi, not mapo (also a name of a city in korea) dakgalbi. enough of this korean cuisine overview and back to my review of the place.. beside its name, i can't complain about its authenticity. they have other things on their menu but why bother. you wouldn't go to cole's, a famous french dip joint, and order a grilled cheese, would you? you can have it mild, medium, or spicy. i would suggest medium for its spiciness. i love how large chicken pieces are cooked with the side ingredients--sweet potato, cabbage, sesame leaves (ggaen nip), rice cakes--in a large flat wok front of me. don't try to add the ingredients by yourself. the wait staff will do all the work for you. when you are nearly done, they add some rice, chopped kimchi, seasoned laver, and sesame oil and stir fry them to make yummy fried rice. this is place is kind of small, old, and crammed and the service is hit and miss but if you want dak galbi, you don't have a choice. this is the one and only place in all the ktowns that i've been to in the USA. that serves and specializes in dak galbi. read more

pretty straight forward menu, and on the expensive side, though you do get a lot of food for what you pay for. about $20 / per person based on what entree you get. the lady comes by and grills everything for you, veggies, meat, rice cakes, etc. and at the end of it all- if you have leftovers (trust me you will) she adds rice to turn it into fried rice. would come again in a group setting. read more

When it comes to food prepared tableside, it's just one of my favorite ways to have a meal. There's just something fun about seeing your dinner prepared and cooked in front of you before being able to enjoy it. What I find interesting is that quite a lot of this tableside food preparation seems to show up at Korean restaurants with the meal usually ending with fried rice. By the way, I'm not putting Korean BBQ in this mix, simply because the patrons usually do all their cooking themselves. Another interesting thing to note is that so far, my experiences have all been seafood-based. Not that I minded, but I did wonder if there was something I was missing. It turns out I was and I found that out while reading a blog post by Josh Lurie of Food GPS about a restaurant called Ma Po Dak Gal Bi that serves tableside prepared spicy chicken. After reading through what Josh had to say, I knew I had to check this place out for myself. Upon arriving, it was safe to say that Ma Po Dak Gal Bi was a true hole in the wall. Nothing fancy about the decor, as you can see for yourself in an earlier photo; however, I've always been more about the food than the ambiance. Unfortunately, the starter salad and the panchan wasn't too exciting and this was the first time I've also been to a Korean restaurant where kimchi didn't hit our table. Thankfully, what followed brought smiles to all our faces because that's when the cooking started. Oil was added to a pan at our tableside grill and once heated, rice cake cylinders, sweet potatoes and marinated dark chicken meat was added and sauteed by our capable server. Soon after, cabbage and chili sauce was added to the mix and all the ingredients were allowed to cook down a little bit before the addition of perilla leaves. More sauteeing and cooking and eventually, our meal was ready for us to dig in to. I have to say that this spicy chicken dish was pretty good. Texturally, I enjoyed the slight chew of the rice cake cylinders and flavor-wise, the spicy notes of the perilla leaves balanced well with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes. Of course, the chili packed a nice little punch, although I ended up adding just a tad more since I wanted just a little more heat. After we had our fill, what was left became the components of a fried rice dish. Our server came back to do some more cooking. She added a little more oil to the pan then rice, dried sea weed strips, onions and chopped kimchi vegetables and course, those ingredients took in the flavors from the previous dish. We were all a little full already, but who can resist fried rice? My group certainly couldn't, so while a lot of it came home with us, we were still able to enjoy some of it still at the restaurant. Overall, this was a nice meal. I wouldn't say that the spicy chicken at Ma Po Dak Gal Bi is mind-blowing, but it's filling, tasty and I enjoyed every bite. It's also certainly a bonus to get fried rice out of this as well. So the next time, you're looking for some eats in Koreatown and need a break from the pork and beef madness that comes from Korean BBQ, then give a chicken a try. I'm sure Mr. Pig and Mr. Cow would love the break. read more

Been going here for years. It never disappoints. Staff is friendly and the food is great. There might a be a wait here or there but write your name down and just get hungrier because you will wanna eat the hell out of the dak galbi here. read more

Mapo Galbi is definitely a place you want to try at least once, for the experience that is. A place that specializes in ddak kalbi is pretty neat, and they throw in all kinds of goodies like sweet potato and rice cakes in your stone pot. The minimum order of 2 is just under $40 and will feed 3 girls, and errr...2 hungry guys? Watching your server orchestrate the timing of when the ingredients and spices are added, to ending your meal in the kimchi fried rice is entertainment enough, and even better if you have out-of-town guests with you. I wouldn't come back necessarily for the food itself, but like I said the service and experience make it worthwhile. read more

i used to frequent their old location their new location is just on the outskirts (near chosun galbee) of ktown in a tiny hole-in-the-wall spot the dak galbi was just as good as i remember esp the fried rice at the end but in all fairness i think the sauce could use more heat & sweetness it takes awhile for the sauce to soak into the chicken and veggies so for the first 1/2 of your meal, it's quite bland the day after though... ugh (in a good way!) read more

Mapo Chicken - Korean Near Me - Los Angeles, California