Ma Dang Gook Soo

Located in the plaza right next to BCD. It’s tucked away in the corner.
I ordered the madang noodles and the spicy rice cakes. Both were delicious and more than enough portion size.
I would give it five stars but the waiting process and general service seemed a little hectic. Disorganized but everyone was nice and friendly.
Btw they only take one credit card per party so it might be annoying if you go with a large group.

Excellent service, excellent food. They have been here like forever. Everytime I visit LA, this is one restaurant I visit. highly recommend.

Alright! I gave this place another chance and it was still A-​OK. This time I got their specialty: Hand made chicken noodle soup. It was fine, but wasn’t the best chicken soup I’ve had. The portions are HUGE and I recommend sharing one with a friend.
My boyfriend enjoyed my leftovers when I brought it home to him. Probably best when your sick and need some chicken broth to bring you back to life.

$ 9 for acorn noodles that’s enough to last 3 meals! The noodles are so flavorful (spicy and kimchee sour). I came on a cold day and they brought me hot rice tea. Only point to watch out for is parking can get crowded.

Here I go dating myself again… Sigh! This Korean hole in the wall eatery has been around for more than two decades and it hasn’t changed a bit… Not even a single strand of noodle. Their signature dish is chicken kalgooksoo and you will know why on your first slurp of noodles. By the time you take your last slurp of noodles, you will understand why this is the heart of Korean food.
The fond memories of families gathering to roll the dough out, cutting the noodles and slurping together with laughter and often arguing over who worked the hardest to make the noodles… A sight we rarely see these days. Perhaps, you won’t appreciate it unless you experienced a bowl of family love.
The service is prompt and efficient… The Ajumma (aka: wait staff) army tries their hardest to help those who aren’t Korean with the menu. They will try to recruit English speaking customers to help them. One of the gravest mistake first time non-​Korean speaking customers make with kalgooksoo is adding soy sauce. Gasp! There is a spicy sauce of red pepper flakes and green onions (see my photo) that you add on the noodles and mix. When the bowl of noodles arrives, it would be missing it. You need to add a gentle spoonful. If it tastes blend, add more.
It is a treat on cold wintery nights, but be prepared to wait. The restaurant is small with limited seating.
Nearest Metro Station: Purple Line at Wilshire/​Western Station

Delicous but dirty.
I saw a fly in the kimchi.
They look super busy to take care of this issue

Now THIS — homemade noodle clam soup — is recovery soup.
I’d want to eat this coming off a fast or the flu or something. It’s mild, or bland, depending on your angle, with a clear broth and piles of nice chewy noodles to settle your stomach.
My dining partner got the spicy cold sesame noodles, and boy, am I glad he did. The zip of the gochujang on that dish, coupled with the aggressive crunch of red cabbage, helped balance the comforting warmth of mine. Also, I’d had this sesame noodle dish before somewhere else and the noodles were so skinny they choked me; I couldn’t chew them because they kept slipping into the tiny gaps in my teeth! Here, the noodles assented to being chewed.

I highkey didn’t want to write a review for this place because this is probably the best hole in the wall restaurant #5ever but for the sake of their business… I will share the good good!!! ^_​_​_​~
I am the ultimate carb master and nothing gets me more excited than a nice big bowl of noodles. Ma Dang Gook Soo (gook soo= noodles in Korean) offers different types of Korean noodles! I would say their most popular dish is their chicken kalgooksoo (knife-​cut noodles) and their janchi gooksoo (anchovy soup base). This place is perfect to share with a friend because the portions are so generous and affordable!!! Every dish is $ 10 or less… Bomb.
My friend and I always share the chicken kalgooksoo and another dish. So far we have tried the acorn spicy noodles, kimbap, and donkatsu which all of them were so good. I would say the donkatsu and kalgooksu made the best combination though! Literally 10.5÷10!!!
Service: 10÷10… There’s this one Korean lady who gives us the best service ever. She always asks us if we want kimchi and water refills!!!
This place does get crowded over the weekends, prime lunch and dinner time, but it goes by pretty fast so, don’t let the crowd scare you away!
Overall, Ma Dang Gook Soo is the best place to go during the cold season… It will warm your heart and your tummy very very very happy! #suck-​a-​noodle!!!

I couldn’t believe the prices. You can easily pay $ 13 – 15 for a bowl of kal gook soo where I live but here, not only do you get extremely generous portions but it’s priced at less than $ 10 with friendly service to boot.
I do wish the flavors were a bit stronger as I found it a smidge on the bland side. I shared the kimchi handmade noodles and it was hardly spicy and the broth needed kick of flavor to it. The noodles however were nice; freshly made, chewy. Recommended place for handmade Korean noodles.

It’s a pretty small restaurant. This is my friend’s favorite place because of their chicken noodle soup. Being a noodle fanatic, I had to come and try it with her.
It was really good! And the portions are huge, I didn’t think I was going to finish it, but I couldn’t stop eating! They have a spicy sauce with green onions that you can add to the soup. Sorry, I don’t know what it’s called because my friend asked for it in Korean.
Their cold noodle dish is also really good, if you’re not in the mood for soup.
If you have trouble finding the restaurant, they’re next door to BCD. I love that there is plenty of parking in the plaza.
I’ll def be back!

More of a 3.5 star rating. It’s a really small place that’s run by Korean ladies who don’t really speak a lick of English. Make sure you come with someone who speaks Korean or you will be kind of lost with the service haha.
When we arrived, we didn’t even get a menu but thanks to Unilocal and the pictures on the wall, I was able to order without a menu. Seemed odd though. The Korean ladies are always running around to other tables since it does get kind of busy, so it was hard to flag them down sometimes. Once we ordered, the food came really quickly.
We got the kimbap, Ma Dang noodles, and the Chicken noodle soup. The Ma Dang noodles tasted a bit like udon broth to me which I really love. The noodles are deliciously chewy and definitely taste handmade. The serving sizes are huuuge! The bowls are gigantic so it’s perfectly fine to share. Their kimchi is probably one of the best I’ve tasted.
Overall, good food but service kind of lacked for me. There’s also a 50 cent fee for togo cups but that’s not bad considering the food is so cheap!

The noodles are home made! So yum. And so are the dumplings.
Had the clam noodle soup. It was okay. I liked the dumplings more! Would try another noodle or dumpling dish next time!

If I were to draw an analogy, Ma Dang Gook Soo may not be the type of girl you bring to the club, but it’s certainly the type you bring home to meet your parents. It’s familiar, homey, comforting Korean food that’s served at reasonable prices.
The ambiance is not much to look at. During summers, you may run into a line as I did last weekend when I tried to snag a four top to nosh on some cold noodles. The line does move fairly quickly — no more than 10 minutes — as people tend to go in, eat, and move out. I always get the same dish — chilled soy bean noodle soup. The soup is legit. It has a delicate, nutty flavor that you can enhance with a dash of sea salt. On a hot day, it’s the best. I’ve seen the kalgooksoo, but have not brought myself to give it a try, but maybe when the weather turns I’ll give it a shot.
Parking is a cinch. There’s a huge lot where you can park.

Ambiance: small but bright restaurant, plenty parking available in the plaza, few flies around while eating, very bothering
Service: very fast and attentive with food and water
Food: in general delicious, HUGE portions
Banchan — ** only two kinds, so so
Handmade Noodles — *** kimchi noodle soup tasted good, though I would like to have chicken one, but they ran out
Seasoned Spicy Rice Cake — **** soft and chewy rice cake and fish cake, recommend
Steamed Dumplings — *** apparently their dumplings were not freshly made, perhaps steamed from frozen ones, the filling is tasted, but the skin is broken a lot
Price: very cheap, less than $ 15 each ppl

If you’re looking for cheap, savory, filling, and comfort, you won’t find it anywhere else but here. Sometimes you just want something that you can enjoy eating casually, without burning your mouth in spiciness or paying a fortune to get both full and satisfied. Or a hangover food, if you will. For a price that is super cheap even for one person, you get a huge sized soup that’s probably enough for two. The soup is filled with lots of chicken strips and vegetables, and the broth itself has a nice good taste that makes you feel content but not overwhelmed. One could drink the whole bowl easily. And the staff are super friendly, offering menus with pictures on the walls that are amenable to pointing and ordering if necessary.

I love you Ma Dang Gook Soo! I was introduced to this place by my Korean friend and now all I do is crave it. It specializes in super homemade tasting thick noodles soups. You can choose different bases, and they come in a humungo size at a great value. Between two people, we usually split the chicken kalgooksoo and the mandu (dumplings) and we are beyond full, for under 10 a person after tip.
I have never been brave enough to come here on my own, however, since I don’t speak Korean. I am pretty sure you could get by with just pointing at the menu items though!

Tiny hole in the wall with CHEAP, delicious Korean comfort food.
We were seated instantly upon walking in and given free barley tea that was oh-​so-​refreshing in this LA heat. The waitress assumed we spoke Korean, which I don’t blame her for because literally all the other patrons in the restaurant were Korean. (Hey, I guess this place is authentic!)
We got the steam dumplings, which were simple but good. The handmade noodle soup comes in a HUGE portion that can easily be shared by two. My favorite dish was the spicy rice cakes. It comes with fish cakes and veggies too. The sauce is so flavorful and delicious – I could swim in it!
I only wish they didn’t have so many flies! We kept swatting them away in fear they would land in our food. I’ll def be coming back to have the spicy rice cakes again and also try a few other things on the menu.

Food is delicious and filling. I came with a group of three around 8pm. We were seated promptly. The portions are quite huge, so I split a bowl amongst one of us.
I got the spicy mixed cold noodles. Ah, great for a hot night. The three of us only ordered two bowls and our bill came out to be less than $ 20. And we were stuffed.
If you’re looking for a something filling, satisfying, and within a good price range, check this place out.

My husband and I were in the mood to eat something warm and soupy for dinner so we checked out this quaint spot. Just like majority of Koreatown spots, they are not really concerned with ambiance FYI (not that I care because I eat out for the food not to sit in a pretty place). We walked in around 6pm on a Sunday evening and got to sit right away, but at a table that was joined with another couple (AWKWARD).
My husband ordered the chicken kalgooksoo (hand torn noodle soup). I ordered the kimchi kalgooksoo. Both were super flavorful and HUGE portions (1 order definitely will feed 2 hungry people). If you are into a variety of banchan (side dishes), this may not be the place for you as they only gave 3 different types of kimchi.
The price is amazing (~$ 8 per dish), BUT I think they use MSG because afterwards, my husband and I were SUPER tired and then got major headaches. Overall, the food was tasty and service was quick and friendly, but I cannot overlook the MSG. :(

I wasn’t too impressed by this place. We came in and it took so long to get our menus. We even asked a couple times but the server was busy having a covers time with the other table. He saw us and totally just ignored us for the longest time.
The number 1 chicken noodle was pretty bland. It looked so simple. I don’t know why people say it is so good. I tried the one with seafood. The soup base for that one was a little better, but it didn’t wow me. Portions were big though. For the price you pay, you do get a lot of noodles.