Wara Wara

Drove by over the weekend to see that they’ve shuttered; the stand alone building that was once Wara Wara has been fenced off and there are no signs of life anywhere on the property.
I came here for the first and last time back in February to watch the Olympics with friends and have a beer. The 10 or so of us ordered around $ 180 worth of alcohol, but for some reason our bill was $ 600. We sorted things out with no problems. Service was decent as they were familiar with some people in our group. Ambiance was lacking and the place felt grimy.
The highlight of the night was when the place was raided by cops. Apparently Wara Wara was a watering hole for underage drinkers as the employees are known to not check for IDs. A party of two non-​Asians came into the restaurant, which surprised me as they looked so out of place, almost like tourists. Moments later, they started showing their badges, more casually dressed police arrived, and they went around the tables checking everyone’s IDs. Out of six large groups in the restaurant, our table was the only one where everyone was over the age of 21, which is probably the reason why they’re closed now…
Oh well.

More like 2.5 stars.
We walked in on a Friday night, and we were the only ones there. I guess we shoulda known when we saw that the parking lot was pretty empty, but we like trying new places, so we said why not?
First of all, it’s kinda eerie when you are the only ones at a restaurant. Even though the service was good, I would’ve enjoyed having some other people eating around us. Also the notion that you are the only ones at a seafood restaurant bothers me, since it makes you wonder how long the food has been sitting around.
The food was ok, but I felt that the seafood combo set wasn’t all that much food. We also didn’t get all the food that was listed in the description (we ended up getting the kimchi jun 20 min after we were done and only after we asked about it). The end of the meal did not come with any soup or noodles, which is traditional with a Korean meal. Not sure if we were supposed to, but by then we were just eager to leave.
Not a bad experience, but not a place we would go back to. I was still hungry when we left… which is rare after eating at a Korean restaurant in Ktown!

Grilled seafood galore that feeds up to 5 people for under $ 80 and happy hour menu that’s only $ 5! You can easily feed a group of 5 people for under $ 130 including couple bottles of beer and soju AND a full platter of assorted seafoods, side dishes, steamed egg, dumpling soup AND all the other extra’s they bring out to your table! Now that’s a bargain!
This place opened last May 2013 owned by husband and wife. When we first arrived, we started with their happy hour menu of fried squid tempura and mussel soup. $ 5 each! Super cheap. They said it’ll take about 20 minutes to set up the seafood platter so we just waited around until our grill and food was ready outside. It was a covered patio and had about 6 tables with charcoal grills. We were the only customers eating the seafood outside. The owner came out and introduced us to everything that was being grilled on our table and made sure that we weren’t overcooking anything. Service was impeccable! Throughout our meal, he made sure that we were well taken care of and that our experience was 5 star worthy.
Other customers that were sitting inside the restaurant were mostly in the early to mid 20’s and came for their happy hour menu. For $ 5, I’d come back here to order a bunch of appetizers, soups and snacks! Great for big group parties and for those on a tight budget. I can see why this place attracts a lot of younger crowds.
Back to the seafood. We ordered option B which was suitable to feed 4 – 5 people. It came with whole crabs, mussels, bunch of clams, sea snails, oysters and spicy octopus. This meal also comes with kimchi pancake, steamed egg in a clay pot, assorted side dishes all made by the wife and this delicious Soojaebee soup (flour based dumpling drop soup) at the end. That soup was the highlight of our dinner. Perfect texture and incredibly delicious soup base.
I highly recommend this place and give them a solid 5 stars for food, service, quality, quantity, price and parking. If you’re sick of Korean bbq, come check out this place! Where else can you get so much yummy seafood for under $ 80? The five of us were stuffed and completely content tonight. Our new favorite in Koreatown!

It is not hard to see why we were the only people here that night. The food was subpar and service was virtually nonexistent. We ordered the prefix seafood meal which included a smörgåsbord of steamed seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, crab) and a pot of soup noodles. Many of the items were undercooked. The meal took them 2 hours to prepare, after which the staff virtually disappeared. I had to knock on the kitchen door to get any service and wait a long time before anyone came to greet us. To be honest, i could have walked out the door without paying and nobody would have noticed. Luckily for them, I am not that kind of guy

Drove by a few times and then I saw the LA times write up and decided to check it out when some friends from Tahoe were in town. Sadly the grills were not working so we couldn’t enjoy the late summer treat of grilled clams and corn. The menu is pretty big, mostly bar foods. We ordered jok bbal (pig feet) and theirs were served in a spicy sweet and sticky sauce, worried about the spice level, we asked for rice and they told us there wasn’t any ready! What?! An Asian restaurant with no rice?
We just drank more soju to wash down the meat! It wasn’t that spicy anyway, more of a sweet spice.
We also ordered the seafood sizzling rice soup, love the nuleungji (crispy burnt rice) in it. We were still a little bit hungry and they ended up bringing us rice ha! So we ordered spicy pork and we were stuffed! Had enough so I took leftovers for lunch the next day.
Overall, a quiet, chill, Korean casual drinking hole for groups.
I’ll check it out again.

I have been to a couple of other seafood B.B.Q places before but this place was the best!!!
! Everything here tastes so great, all kinds of seafood of course, but all small dishes (pickles and kimchi etc) and pancake was soooo crispy, I think that was the best Korean pancake I’ve ever had.
And they have the home made noodles at the end.
There is a lady who cooks those dishes and she knows how to cook really well!
And sweet potato was so sweet and it was great dessert to finish my dinner.
I highly recommend this place: D

Found this place by an accident… sort of…
Supposedly a 24hr restaurant/​bar, but I don’t know for sure.
This place used to be called ‘Danji’ and still uses the same menu. (The owner told us that he made them, which is pretty unique.)
My recommendation is to order main dishes, such as jokbal or squid, not dduk bok ki (spicy rice cake). However, this applies only if you are like me and love spicy food. Dduk bok ki wasn’t spicy enough for me… it was rather on the sweeter side.
I think the owner mentioned that he’ll have a whole new set of a menu, consisted of many ‘happy hour’ style prices.
Not yet a busy place– I’d come by on the weekends with some friends and chill!

First time coming here for a birthday party. it seems like people aren’t familiar with the place. it was quite empty.
However, I thought it was a great space with easy parking, good food, and great service!
Though it might not be directly in the heart of ktown. I hope more people come and support this place~ Since its not as busy yet, it’ll be good for a big or private party.
Will definitely come back again :)