Chun Cheon Chicken Kalbi Korean BBQ

Was hunting around for a lunch spot in Koreatown and came here. When I arrived, the restaurant was a bit dark and empty, from the décor it looks to be more of an evening kind of place.
I ordered their specialty, the chicken kalbi rice bowl and it was really good and uniquely different from the BBQ style chicken I’m used to eating. The chicken was extremely moist and tender, and the flavor was nice and sweet with a spicy kick, very tasty overall. It’s cool that they serve Banchan with the lunch rice bowls.
They have free parking which is definitely a plus being close to downtown LA.

Let me walk you through this experience. You order for X number of people (order down, the portions are HUGE) and you are presented with a huge platter of raw chicken, veggies, and vermicelli noodles. While you wait for everything to cook in front of you, you munch on all the yummy banchan (side dishes). After consumption of deliciously hot, spicy, and juicy chicken and just when you think you can’t possibly eat another bite of food, the waiter/​waitress brings in rice and fixings to make kimchi fried rice with the leftovers.
Service is a little lacking. Not too crowded and fun place to come with your friends. Bring an appetite!

The cardinal rule of eating at an unfamiliar restaurant is to order that restaurant’s specialty, which is usually in 30 pica font size in the menu or, in this case, the namesake of the restaurant. Chun Cheon is famous for its chicken galbi, a communal dish of chicken and vegetables simmered in a sweet spicy sauce in a large shallow pan. There’s no doubt that 90% of the patrons here order that dish… but not we.
Somehow we never managed to order the dak galbi for all of the times we were here. My family always goes for the beef galbi. For a combo of about $ 80, we get to choose four items from a list of BBQ options — galbi, bulgolgi, pork belly, pork ribs, etc. It is a great deal considering our usual fare consists of three orders of galbi and one order of pork ribs (there’s a surcharge for each order of galbi). One galbi order comes with two long slabs of marbled meat still attached to a cut section of the rib, one of the most tender galbi I’ve ever had (
). The rib bones has to be finished in the kitchen for the tough sinew to be cooked entirely. The pork ribs order is also a hit (
). It’s no Ham Ji Park but still one of the best in this part of town. In addition, we get to have some beverages (beer included), steamed eggs, and soups… all included.
For such a great deal, Chun Cheon has become our go-​to KBBQ joint in the South Bay for its quality meat. While we should try the chicken galbi one of these days, it’s not happening soon since we cannot help but go back to our usual solid combo.

One of my co-​workers stopped into Chun Cheon one day on a whim. Since then, it’s become something of a favorite around the office. I’ve gone a couple times, and though I prefer the Japanese food in the area, it’s a pretty decent spot with good service and cheap tasty Korean food.
The space is big, casual, and pretty empty at lunch. A couple of TVs are always on, as is a constant soundtrack of Korean pop. If you like some Big Bang with your Korean barbecue, you can get it here. The service system is also very Korean, using the usual call button. Food does not come out quickly, but service is very attentive and reasonably friendly.
The food is solid, with each meal starting with a nice array of banchan. The Korean miso soup is quite good, and I like the potatoes and bean sprouts and fishcake. The regular kimchi is okay, but the cucumber is better. My second time here there was also a little side dish of mackerel and braised radish. The mackerel was probably canned, but that’s okay — I eat canned mackerel at home and it can be great.
My co-​workers all seem to get galbi here, either on the bone or off. The galbi is not bad, good for the price with a tasty sweet marinade and fair quality meat. The house specialty, though, evident from the restaurant’s name, is dak galbi, or chicken galbi. This is a dish I’ve had in Korea and tried to replicate at home with some success. It’s not that easy to find in the states. I imagine that at dinner, dak galbi is done at Chun Cheon as in Korea — a communal meal cooked at the table with a mountain of vegetables and chicken, with fried rice at the end, enough food to feed a family. At lunch, you can get the buldak («fire chicken») galbi for $ 7.99, which is more of a single portion affair. This presentation has its own merits. The dak galbi comes in a giant sizzling stone bowl with rice, chicken, aromatic vegetables, and ggochujang. It’s like a dolsot bibimbap with chicken and shredded herb-​like greens. It comes unmixed and as you mix it, some of the rice gets slightly burnt in that satisfying toasty crunchy way. The resulting dish is nice and spicy and the vegetables add an important coolness. The rice is bland at parts, and I do wish the chicken had a little more flavor than straight up spice, but overall a good lunch. I would also recommend the mak gooksu, a spicy cold noodle dish with chewy thin noodles mixed with chopped kimchi and a spicy sauce. The kimchi is sharp and refreshing and the sauce has great heat and a big dose of sesame oil. It makes my nose run.
I’ve had better dak galbi, and I don’t feel the need to come here often when I live near Koreatown. That said, Chun Cheon is a solid lunch spot, and I’m happy to tag along whenever my co-​workers get the craving.

It’s the brother store of the one down town LA. Dak Galbi is amazing. $ 15.99 is a good deal. They have different types of combos and sets. Service was great and friendly.
Loved the chicken and veggies then rice mixed at the end. Will eat there again :]

First off I LOVE Chicken Galbi, I can’t find anywhere in the staes that serves a decent Chicken Galbi.
This place continues the legacy of disappointment :(
I so wanted to love this place, but I guess I have a very well defined idea of what Chicken Galbi is and this isn’t it.
To me Real Chicken Galbi is cooked on a mound shaped cooking pan where you have a generous pile of sliced chicken with an even more generous pile of vegetables thrown on top (consisting mostly of cabbage.) This is left to cook unfettered so that the liquid from the vegetables blends with the chicken
they reduce. After some time your server should come out with a rather large and somewhat intimidating bowl of what look like a fiery chili sauce.
You think to yourself, ‘Oh that looks spicy they’ll probably put a spoon full in and mix it with the vegetables and the chicken for flavor. But then the server in a sadistic fashion smiles politely at you and dumps the entire contents of the bowl onto your gently simmering cornucopia of meat and vegetables. This makes the dish ALMOST to spicy to eat but it also makes it really delicious and really memorable at the same time.
What I got at Chun Cheon did not inspire those memories.

Came here twice — once for spicy BBQ chicken hot pot and second time for the regular BBQ combo. I was not impressed both times. The amount of food they give you is very disappointing. The BBQ chicken is spicy, but has no real favor. The price is alright at $ 15.99 per person, which comes with mixed rice at the end, but the main ingredient lacks. During this visit, the waiter mentioned that the real draw is still the BBQ meat combo.
So, on our second visit, recalling what the waiter told us last time, we decided to try the regular BBQ meat combo. Remembering how the chicken had no favor, we decided to order double chaldo. When the meat came out, I had to ask the waitress if that was the first batch of meat. She laughed and said the small plate WAS the two orders. My daughter could not believe the amount of food, or lack thereof. We calculated that the price of the combo ($ 45.99) per piece of meat (seriously around 30 pieces) at around $ 1.50 for each thin slice of chaldo. Not cool! For the first time at a BBQ restaurant, I had to fill myself up with bang chang (side dishes). The meat had fat, which is the characteristic of chaldo, but the meat was a bit chewy.
For BBQ, there are better places at better prices and larger portions. Maybe the chicken will get better over time as this place converted to a BBQ chicken joint only a few months ago. I’ll take a pass until they do.

15.99 for pretty decent amount of chicken? Yeee I’m in!
After that they do stir fried rice with da sauceee!!! And it’s bomb!!!

A friend and I visited this place about 2 weeks ago after an article by Merrill Schindler in the Daily Breeze. It was a Fri. night about 6, only 1 other couple was eating. (I got a bit concerned!!) The place is very comfortable and the servers (mostly young Koreans) were very welcoming and helpfull. We were disappointed when the item that was recommended by Schindler wasn’t available. The server mentioned that the same thing was available only with a spicy sauce. I thought that was strange because the item we wanted had a soy sauce base. Well they brought out the platter and cook it in front of you, the tables have a burner in the middle of the table and a large metal bowl, filled with veggies and meat are placed over the heat and cooked. The server did all the cooking. Various condiments are brought out and then start eating. The dish is enough for 2 people (more than enough), At the end, they bring rice and make a dish called something like Bim Bim Bop (?). Anyhow, they made more than enough to take home! I can’t remember the name of the dish but it’s something like «paradise fusion» It’s a «cutesy» type name. There’s many other items available, we saw people cooking cuts of meat on the grill as in other Korean BBQ rest. Oh, by the time we left, the place was filled, almost all Asians. We got out fill and the price was reasonable, we didn’t have any alcohol.

Chicken kalbi, special family style spicy chicken dish with all the vegetable fixins. Startings with the mixed vegetables, then some ramen in the middle, and finally some spicy chicken fried rice.
The dish is brought to you raw and you just watch it cook and being prepared. I saw the hot spicy sauce and chili being laid down, I was expecting to be sweating and my mouth to be on fire. It was just the right amount.
Closing out the meal with some mild soup.

It’s hard finding a Korean BBQ place open in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday!
Jason and I actually came upon this place accidentally, and what a pleasant surprise! We’re not experts in Korean food, so our server was very helpful in helping us decide what to order. We ordered from the lunch menu which was perfect because they cooked everything in the back (sometimes, I’m just too lazy to BBQ my own food!).
And of course, I don’t remember the names of what we ordered but we had the pork cutlet lunch and the bulgogi lunch. We actually ordered a second bulgogi lunch because it was so good. The pork came with these interesting balls of rice with bits of seaweed and masago and formed with sesame oil. I thought it was different and really good. The plate also came with shredded cabbage with a pineapple-​tasting dressing (also good!). The beef came with rice and miso soup. Our side dishes were super fresh and very tasty.
A woman stopped by our table to check on us (I think she may have been the owner) and was also very friendly and suggested some other options for our next visit. We asked the server if this was a new restaurant, and he said that the restaurant itself has been around for a while but they’ve recently changed the name and remodeled.
Everyone was so nice, the food was delicious, and we left happy. I’m looking forward to trying more things on their menu!