Yang Ji Express

I don’t know it is owned by same owner in Yang-​Ji which is on Vermont.
But I’m sure that original vermont is much better than this place.
But still not bad.

Went to this restaurant in the Koreatown Galleria Shopping Center for lunch with one of my buddies. She has an adventurous palate and I was driving. We missed the entrance, so I didn’t park in the structure. Instead, we opted for street parking on the block North of Olympic. There were a few large parallel spots open… it wasn’t that packed.
The Yang Ji Express is on the top floor. We ordered their «famous» pork and potato soup. There’s actually a sign on the counter with this information, for all y’all non-​Koreans. We also got an order of the bulgogi bibimbap. We got a buzzer and went outside to look for a table. The inside of the food court reeks of pungent Korean spices, but the outside had a few smokers. We opted to sit outside, upwind of the carcinogen club.
10 minutes later, the buzzer went off and we went back inside to retrieve our food. We had two trays filled with large bowls. It was rather heavy, but we managed to get back to our table. The pork & potato stew came in a giant bowl. It is basically pork vertebrae slow cooked with potatoes and mildly spicy soup. The tender meat fell off the bones. Flavor was pretty good, but this is a messy dish to eat. You have to pick out the meat from the giant bones and tendons.
The bulgogi bibimbap is basically a dish with veggies mixed with a little bit of Korean style meat over rice. I wish they put more meat in. They claimed it had 19 types of veggies in there. We weren’t counting. I remember eating something like zucchini and sprouts. The bottom of the rice was seared, crunchy, and quite delicious. I thought this dish was better than the «famous» pork soup, however, I’m not Korean. :) This also came with a tofu soup that tasted like it was made with a fish base. Both dishes came with 4 Korean side dishes: kim chee, radish covered with chili sauce, slightly sweet pickled seaweed, and pickled bean sprouts.
The price wasn’t bad, just under $ 10/​head, and we were quite full. Remember to just leave the dishes on the table. Someone will come by & sort them. Oh, one last note: we do believe they use a considerable amount of MSG. We were dying of thirst after our meal.

For $ 9.95 I got… Bulgogi bibimbap, soup, four little banchan. The soup was totally unnecessary. It was good, but I would have been satisfied without it. I could only eat a bout three spoonfulls cause I was so full from the bibimbap.
What I liked so much about the Bulgogi bibimbap was that it was served in its own bowl separate from the rice and that it tasted very fresh like a salad, which is what it is basically in that form. Yes, they could have given more bulgogi, but for the price I’m not going to complain. I also liked the «hot» sauce they served with it. Not hot at all, just like a red sauce with a little kick.
For a good after meal treat, grab a red bean ice cream pop for a $ 1.50 in the bakery in the market downstairs.

I took a road trip to LA and ended up in Koreatown. Without Unilocal mobile I was unable to search for a restaurant, and after a long day of sightseeing I drove into the first parking lot I found, which turned out to be at the Galleria.
I walked into the Galleria and found the food court upstairs. There were a variety of restaurants. I saw one restaurant located right near the restrooms and decided against it. I went to the opposite side, and in the corner saw Yang Ji Express. The bulgogi bibimbab sounded tasty and healthy, so I went ahead and ordered it.
The cool thing about this store is they have the buzzers that are used in sit-​down restaurants where there is a line to get in. The buzzer was blue-​colored with bright LEDs, and when it went off soon after I ordered I was ready to eat.
The bulgogi bibimbab was a decent deal for the under $ 10 price, though it may be cheaper at other locations. It is a dish of 20 varieties of vegetables, cooked beef, and an egg served in a large metal bowl with a side bowl of rice and a small cup of spicy sauce to mix in. In addition to that, it is served with six side dishes and a small bowl of soup.
This unique amalgamation of of flavor and texture was delicious, and I ended up finishing the whole thing. The only thing I found a bit strange was the texture of the soft chickpeas that were in the mixture. However there were few enough of these that they did not make an appreciable difference to me. I hope I get the chance to visit again to try some other dishes!

May be it was the company, or the novelty of coming to a Korean food court first the first time in LA (yet I’ve been to Seoul twice…)
Anyway, I love the pork and potato stew that came in a spicy soupy sauce. Loved it! For $ 10 I can’t imagine a better meal… it’s almost the last meal I’d have on earth, except may be for my Mum’s beef brisket stew with turnips!
The usual pickles and kimchi came with the dish. By the end (and by end I mean I had a box to go) there were so many pork bones on my tray it looked like a dinosaur excavation?!