Gebang Sikdang — Restaurant in Los Angeles

New Michelin Guide restaurant alert: the same folks behind Hibi shut it down and pivoted to something completely different. The space has been completely transformed. They partnered with a group that has restaurants in South Korea (Gebang Sikdang) and are now doing raw crabs (Gejang) just like in Korea. The crabs are flash frozen at -50 and flown in daily so the quality is top of the line. Up until now, Soban has been the leader in LA for this dish. We were actually there a few weeks ago and found it wasn’t nearly as good as it used to be, so this place comes just in time. The soy crab is the way to order it. I made a mistake and got it spicy style, which hid the flavors and the abundance of eggs (Gejang is always made with female crabs) ( I tasted hubby’s soy crab, and the sweetness of the row was amazing. The idea is to mix a little bit of your rice into the carapace while enjoying the leg and body meat in the sauce. There’s also some very nice high-end banchan, including warm seafood pancakes and umami driven tofu.  They’ve only been open for a week so there’s a little bit of soft opening jitters, but mostly they nail it; for the most part, it’s really good. What I do care for and the reason for 4 and not 5 stars is the traditional South Korean upscale casual ambience with a communal table with little moveable dividers and bar seating up against the wall. The lighting is very bright and it doesn’t have the warmth and relaxing setting of a place that you’d want to sit and hang out for a while. The food is certainly worth what it costs, but for what I am spending I want more ambiance. Works out great if you are a solo diner or not really looking for a long evening. What it is, is truly delicious and high quality, and you want to go for that reason. Corkage is $25 and we brought our own stems....

My first time trying raw crab and raw shrimp and it exceeded my expectations! So many good things to say about this meal and experience.

The crabs themselves are shipped directly from Korea and tasted so fresh. We got one soy crab and one spicy crab marinated set each and both were incredible. With the soy crab you were really able to taste the flavors of the crab itself, but the spicy one had the most delicious flavors. I don’t know if I could pick a favorite! We also loved all of the accompanied dishes you got with the crab. Pro tip (which we learned from our server!): stuff some of your rice into the crab shell and mix it around to get lots of that yummy flavor!

Our server was very attentive and made recommendations based on us being first timers - as well as tips on how to eat the crab itself. We used to live on the east coast so we were thinking we would need crackers to get the meat out. The crab shell itself is super soft and you can even squeeze the meat out like toothpaste. They also have gloves and bibs in case you didn’t want to get your hands dirty (there is chopsticks too!).

The restaurant is small so make sure you get a reservation but I love the hole in the wall vibes.

Such yummy and fresh food, and I’m so glad we tried it. We will...

I took my wife here for her birthday after hearing about Gebang Sikdang opening a location here in LA. It was a great experience, the food was delicious, the atmosphere was enjoyable and relaxed, and the staff were attentive and nice.

Space is limited so I highly suggest making a reservation well ahead of time if you go. Even though the space is small, it has a nice clean vibe to it and the staff were all very welcoming.

My wife is very big on raw marinated crab and it was definitely the star of our dinner. We loved that they ship the crab straight from Seoul and really enjoyed the unique flavor and freshness.

We also tried the soy marinated salmon & soy marinated abalone bibimbap sets, both were also extremely fresh and delicious. We were glad we took our waiter’s advice and didn’t order more because that was enough to fill us between the dishes and great selection of banchan that was included with the meal.

If you’re a beer drinker they have Suntory on draft which was a nice surprise and delicious.

I highly recommend and look forward to come...