The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

"Tucked into a busy strip mall at the corner of 6th and Normandie, Mapo Kkak Doo Gee is one of Koreatown’s oldest and homiest restaurants. The tiny dining room seats just under 30 diners and is simply furnished with wooden tables and chairs. Regulars come back time and again for the restaurant’s chill atmosphere, warm service, and familiar yet expertly executed food. The banchan selection changes daily and can include several varieties of kimchi, macaroni salad, boiled cabbage with gochujang, pickled seaweed, and little acorn jellies topped with soy sauce and scallions. The picture menu, which is plastered on the wall for easy viewing, is chock-full of homestyle Korean standards like braised codfish and grilled mackerel; both are served with purple rice. Also notable is the sujebi, a soul-satisfying “dough flake soup” that warms and comforts during Los Angeles’s chilliest months. — Cathy Chaplin, senior editor" - Eater Staff