The Best Korean Restaurants In The San Gabriel Valley

"Though KJ is more on the side of gentrified, circa-1990s Korean food, that’s precisely what makes it great. I can take all my relatives here, including the ones who won’t touch soondae (blood sausage) or gopchang (grilled intestines). If I put a plate of bulgogi or spicy fried pork in front of my cousin, and a donkatsu (fried pork cutlet) or bulgogi kids meal in front of his kid, they’re happy to finish it all. Whenever I bring people here who typically don’t like Korean food, they’re all singing a new tune of how much they love big hearty bowls of galbitang (beef short rib soup) and samgyetang (chicken ginseng soup) before I know it. And the banchan is well-done, which is always a marker of how much to love a Korean spot - from crunchy coins of cucumber kimchi to soft-to-the-bite gamja jorim (braised potatoes)." - dakota kim