Feng Mao BBQ Lamb Kebab Olympic — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I came to this restaurant a few weeks ago for a friend's birthday dinner. I'm not a fan of lamb in general, but I found the concept of a DIY kebab restaurant pretty neat. This restaurant not only specializes in kebabs, but they have a few popular Korean dishes that other patrons were ordering.

Ambiance: For me, I thought the layout of the restaurant was a bit strange. It's in a horseshoe formation, with the kitchen on the far left and a room to the left, and 2 rows of booths that primarily occupy the space with a wooden banister in the middle of the two sections (if my description makes sense). The tables on one side aren't really divided and because the atmosphere is quite loud and boisterous, you can really hear the people talking to your left and right. We actually occupied three tables, so I'm sure the other customers could hear us. :X There are vents on top of the cooking stations; the lighting isn't too bad. More suited for big parties, I would say.

Food: It was okay. You pretty much order by the skewer, although there are sets that are supposed to be cheaper. We ended up ordering way too much food for three people, and over-ordered on the lamb and the gizzards. Although they specialize in lamb, since I'm not a fan of it at all, I didn't care for those kebabs. I liked the chicken wings and the beef a lot more. They were properly seasoned and tasty. Unfortunately, I wasn't too skilled in cooking the kebabs and despite the waitress trying to help me, I ended up burning a lot of the kebabs.

Overall, I would say that it's an interesting concept if you like eating kebabs. For me, I thought it was too expensive but that could be because we ordered the wrong kebabs. We ended up paying over $20 per person. The waitresses and waiters are really nice, but I don't think this is the...

I hadn’t been to Feng Mao in over 10 years, so it felt nostalgic to come back. Back then, there was always a long line, and from what I could see, that hasn’t changed much.

This time, a friend picked the restaurant. While they don’t have their own parking lot, you can park across the street at Hanmi Bank on 5th, so parking wasn’t an issue for me.

We ordered a variety of skewers — lamb (their specialty), beef, and octopus. The first thing that caught my eye was the auto-turning skewer rack. Such a cool upgrade! It rotates the skewers for you, so the grilling is even and effortless. I don’t remember them having that back in the day. The skewers all came out perfectly cooked if you pull them off at the right time, and the flavor was solid.

We also tried the marinated cucumbers, grilled chives, and sweet and sour pork. The cucumbers were light and refreshing. The chives, grilled with sauce, had great flavor, though a bit on the salty side (easy fix: just dip less into the sauce). The sweet and sour pork was different from the typical Chinese style — heavier on the batter and with a lighter sauce that leaned sweet without much sour. The pork itself was crunchy, so it was still enjoyable, just a different take on the dish.

Overall, the meal was satisfying. The service was fine — not overly attentive, but things ran smoothly, especially if you can speak Korean or Chinese.

I’d recommend Feng Mao if you enjoy skewers, especially lamb. Just keep in mind that dinner time, especially on weekends, can come...

Cleanliness: 2/5 Food: 5 Service: 2/5 Order: 1/5 Total time spent: 1.5 hours Food took over thirty minutes to arrive after we ordered

The good: I love lamb skewers, they are amazing and delicious and feng mao really nailed the flavor! Reminded me of China and Korea, just authentic and good.

The not so good: Waited twenty minutes to sit down, when I saw multiple dirty but open tables. The bathroom is right next to their plating area. The kitchen has a door that they closed off but it’s so close to the women’s bathroom. I almost got hit in the face when I left the bathroom and a server didn’t even look and swung open the kitchen door. The service was interesting. People don’t talk to you and it seems like you just have to know what you’re doing. They’re so busy that they don’t have time to guide you. Also, If you’re in a big group, they will pay more attention to you. We sat down first but the bigger group got their food first. We ordered multiple things but didn’t get all of it. They had to check in with us and we cancelled half our order because we didn’t want to wait another hour to get our food. They ran out of rice (???) they also tried to give us food we didn’t order and when we tried to explain we didn’t order it, we got strange looks. If it was service, they should have said so. Would I come back? Maybe in a large group. If you don’t have time to watch other people get their food first,...