Genwa Korean BBQ - Los Angeles, CA (Mid Wilshire)

While driving down Wilshire Blvd. near La Brea Ave., I noticed a new Korean BBQ restaurant in the Avalon apartment complex. I usually get suspicious of Korean BBQ restaurants that aren't in Koreatown because I just assume they are catering to a non-Korean crowd, otherwise they would be in Koreatown. But when I was reading yelp, I saw that they got really good reviews. So when Renee was in town, I took her here for lunch. We wanted to eat something light since we were going to have a huge dinner, but foresight is something I lack when it comes to food.

It was very modern and clean and I was shocked to find that most of the patrons were indeed Korean. My mistake. I guess Koreans now venture out to Mid Wilshire to eat Korean food. We sat at a booth and on the side were stacks of Korean books. It reminded us of our parent's bookshelves. Very cute touch.

Now, the impressive thing about this place is their banchan. I think there were like 18 different kinds. I didn't get to try all of them, but I like the fact that they give you so much variety. I usually end up asking for more banchan at other places, but here we barely made a dent between the two of us.
They also brought out a salad.
We both got a lunch combo. I got the nangmyun and kalbi combo and Renee got the sambap combo. I forgot to take a picture of the meats but they were really good. The kalbi was really tender and had good marbling. The nangmyun was pretty good too and came in a huge bowl.
Service here was really good. I don't think I asked for a refill of water once. That is a good sign of good service for a camel like myself. They also gave you a small glass of shikhae (rice punch) and brought out two small tablets that I thought was candy at the end. The waitress, out of nowhere, splashed some water on it, at which point I was about to shriek at her sudden act of violence against my candy, but the tablet expanded into a wet towel. So weird.

I will definitely have to try this place again and try some of their other dishes as well. If you are in the mood for lots of banchan and tasty BBQ, check this place out.

Genwa Korean BBQ

5115 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036