Mapo Kkak Doo Gee — Restaurant in Los Angeles

No-frills conventional Korean restaurant that serves 2 dozen comfort dishes that might be lesser known among Americans but more for Koreans. The stews and spicy broth filled hot stew/soup seem to be the popular dishes here among older generation diners.

All of the ladies who work there seemed to know local diners stopping by to dine alone or with a friend.

We wanted typical dishes like Bulgogi and Stone bowl Bibimbop without going to a big production Korean BBQ place that could be overwhelming and costs $50 or more per a person. Mapo was a perfect small restaurant for a family who wanted to have simple meals in a quiet setting. After our meals, I realized that their popular dishes are spicy beef & leek soup, spicy soft tofu seafood pot or kimchi stews, etc.

There was 3-4 soft chewy fingerling rice cakes were accompanying the Bulgogi my son ordered. I would have loved to have bulgogi tteokbokki as a meal. Perhaps if you like bulgogi with tteokbokki, you could ask the ladies at Mapo could make a dish for you. If they are not very busy, I'm sure the ladies will accommodate a bulgogi tteokbokki for the folks who don't like spicy dish.

The price here are very reasonable. The total for 3 grilled meat dishes and a dolsot bibimbop was $72. I was told the restaurant was extremely busy earlier that day around 5 pm (we dined at 7:30 pm). It might be worth calling the restaurant before you head over if you don't want to...

This place serves delicious and very authentic Korean food… and this is coming from a Korean-born American. Brought my mom here and she said the bulgogi seasoning is correct (actual word she used). We also ordered the galchi-jorim and the seafood soontofu too. I eat seafood soontofu every chance I get and can be quite judge-y about the quality and flavor, and this was as good, if not better than the original BCD on Wilshire & Kingsley or Beverly Soontofu. We chose this place out of all the other options nearby cuz of the reviews about the banchan - not only was there a ton of options, most was seasoned and fermented perfectly (except the kimchi, it was ok, not ripe enough). All in all, highly recommend for anyone looking for true Korean flavors, not fusion. Want to come back to try their Doenjang-jjigae and kimchi-jjigae to authenticate further. Vibe/decor is standard mom and pop, no fuss korean restaurant.. exactly how I want my Korean restaurants to be. Not a fan of elevated/fancy...

Really good Korean food, but basic décor and difficult non-korean speaking service.

First note is that there is so much banchan, and it's all really good. I think we got 10 different little plates, with refills given without fuss for our favorites. That's a really good meal in itself.

The meals we had were also really good. The stand out was #28 - a seafood stew with dough morsels. The dough was so chewy and tasty, and really took on the delicate stew flavors well. The #21 - spicy beef and leek stew - was good as well.

The space was very hole in the wall - basic and not that clean, but not too dirty or nasty either. Service was a bit tricky as we didn't speak Korean, but we managed in the end. Value was really good as well with plates coming to $10 each. I'd have paid that for the banchan alone.

Overall really good food and exceptional banchan....