California’s top Korean restaurant is in L.A., according to Yelpers

The top Korean eatery in California is in downtown Los Angeles, according to Yelp.

BROKEN MOUTH | Lee’s Homestyle, located at 718 S Los Angeles St., was ranked by the popular review site as having the best Korean food in the Golden State.

The restaurant identifies itself as Hawaii and Korean comfort food, with a menu that features everything from avocado toast, to a Hawaiian style plate lunch, to spam musubi, and a spicy chicken sandwich with mochiko-style fried chicken. Pair those with cucumber kimchi, braised potato or potato-mac salad. And if that’s not enough, the brioche bread pudding is a must!

“We are truly humbled and grateful to be honored with this title. Much mahalo and aloha!” Chef Tim Lee told KTLA. “We are bringing much needed Korean Hawaiian style food to L.A.” 

Lee is “Korean by blood, Hawaiian at heart,” the restaurant’s website says, adding that he believes “food is a universal language, breaking boundaries across all cultures.”

The name of the business comes from “Broke Da Mout” — a phrase used in Hawaii to describe food so good, one hardly has time to chew.

“We bring a little Los Angeles swagger to the charming local vibes represented at BROKEN MOUTH while staying true in paying homage to the roots of Hawai’i,” the site reads.

The United States has a population of over 1.8 million people of Korean descent, according to the 2010 census, with 326,000 living in the Los Angeles metro area, the Pew Research Center found.

Yelp, which provides crowdsourced reviews about businesses, identified restaurants across the U.S. and Canada marked in the Korean category and then ranked the eateries using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews.

The list has traditional flavors, modern interpretations, street foods, fusion cuisine and a whole lot of mouthwatering eats, Yelp said, adding, “No matter which way you have it, it’ll leave you saying ‘Mashisoyo!’” (Delicious in Korean).