LA Hwaluh

Their sushi here is very fresh! The free side dishes they give you are very delicious and of high quality!!! It’s a tiny place, but enjoyed dining here!
Note: if you wanna drink, they allow BYOB here! We didn’t know, so we went to the liquor store in the same plaza and bought some drinks and had them at the restaurant.

small spot
BYOB
the food is fair
but not as great as some other spots in ktown
service was also very spotty
many times, the waitress sat down to drink/​eat with regulars
which is cool
but not when we’re sitting there waiting for our food
also ran out of a lot of items

LA Hwaluh is basically the fish/​seafood aisle at an Asian grocery store + tables and chairs. If you’re an ambiance snob, don’t even try to come here.
+ BYOB!!! free! Some people had vodka, others had endless bottles of soju and beer. We had wine… fun! Bring your own booze is always a plus.
Initially we ordered the Sashimi combo A for $ 59 + an uni bowl, but our waiter suggested the LA Combo (Serving size = 2 people) for 3 of us to get more variety for cheaper. I was happy w ith his suggestion because we got to really try all of the menu.
LA Combo comes with:
+ halibut sashimi — Really fresh, thick slices, huge portion. so yummy with wasabi.
+ 2 oysters — There was 3 of us so they thoughtfully gave us 3 so we wouldn’t have to fight over the 2 lol. Fat and fresh. So good.
+ sea squirt — You have to be somewhat adventurous for sea squirt. Very bitter so make sure you squeeze lots of lemon. I thought it was interesting… but good lol.
+ abalone — Texture like cartridge. I liked it a lot. Comes with abalone stomach. Also interesting but very good.
+ uni bowl — Not as much uni as I was hoping for, but still a good amount. Tasted fresh as well. You can never go wrong with uni.
+ side dishes — SO MANY side dishes!!! rice porridge for each person, SNAILS!, quail eggs, veggie pancakes, salmon sashimi salad (which was so fresh and good), fish spicy soondooboo, an entire grilled fish, steamed egg, and cornnnnnn cheeeeeeeeeeese yummy.
We will most definitely be back.

Some couple notes about this place: 1) BYOB — which is amazing. there is a liquor store in the same plaza so stock up and go in! 2) parking is horrendous!!! if you park in the lot, you will get blocked, so find street parking if you can
We ordered the LA Combo #1, mainly for the Uni Bow, and some other side items. I got to say, they do give you a lot of food, but there aren’t enough carbs to make one full. Some of the highlights:
+ UNI BOWL — Beautiful presentation, but the taste was a bit flat. The Uni’s fresh for sure, but overall the bowl isn’t as flavorful as i would’ve liked.
+ SASHIMI — Again, beautiful presentation and very very fresh. get this if you want some clean sashimi.
+ LIVE OCTOPUS — Not on the combo menu, but how many places can you get live, squirming octopus tentacles? Quite an experience… very crunchy
+ SQUIRT FISH — oooh boy… not a fan of this. I can typically do briny, but this was briny and bitter… definitely full on ocean in your mouth. Some of my friends liked it, so it’s all about personal preference
+ ABALONE — Crunch and simple. I enjoyed this with and without sauce.

This place reminds me of the fish market in Korea. The place is as many of the Unilocalers describe as outdated and kind of worn out.
Any ways the food here is good! The fish is very fresh. They have tanks in the restaurant filled with live fish. They give you a lot of things to snack on and enjoy through the course ranging from veggie pancakes, quail eggs, sushi rolls, fried mackerel, and so on. The main dishes in my opinion is the white fish sashimi (forget what kind of fish it is…), the uni bowl, and the spicy cod soup.
Yes BYOB so you can turn a sashimi dinner into as much of a rager as you want. Some Koreans that come here seriously get their drank on and get pretty loud tbh.
The price is very affordable for the amount of food that you’re getting. Sashimi is suuuper expensive. What chu talking about when you say that this place is expensive. It’s $ 74 for fresh sashimi for 2 people. Where else can you get all the food they give at this price anywhere else?! If such a place exists plz let me know so I can try it!
Service is decent. They aren’t as enthusiastic as they used to be about their business, sadly that’s quite noticeable. We aren’t regulars but we have been returning every now and then over the years so I feel like they know us by now.
Hope this place never closes even though just by the looks of it it looks like it might any second now. Will definitely be back.

Great Little hole in the wall. They have a small parking lot with tandem spots, you can also park on the street. Everyone there was very nice. Menu on the wall is all in Korean, But don’t worry the menu they give you has English. Best part was BYOB. So just sit down and order and tell them your gonna go to the liquor store right next door to grab some alcohol and the side dishes will be ready when you get back.
We got the LA Combo. (serving size 2 people) i think it was Just a little too much for 2. if you want to invite a 3^rd wheel to help you out that might be better but it does only come with 2 Uni bowls so might not work out as well unless you guys can learn to share: P If it only 2 people save room for the Uni Bowl which comes at the end.
Photo Credit:

Update: They had UNI for me!!! And it was AMAZINGGGG so I’ve decided, I will only come here for UNI! Had the combo again and I’m whatevers on them. I just want UNI UNI UNI!
— — —
I was just here a few days ago. I believe the Unilocal hours are wrong. The menu says they open from 3:30pm to 11pm but Unilocal says 11am to 11pm. I arrived on a Sunday around 6ish pm. Didn’t understand much of the menu. ended up ordering the combo for 2 and sadly disappointed to find out that they didn’t have any UNI left! I was so incredibly disappointed. I was set on cleaning out their UNI inventory! It’s odd that they ran out so quick if they opened at 3:30pm. How can they run out in just a few hours? Anyhow, the lady said they would substitute it for fresh sweet shrimp so I guess that was okay. You know I’d rather eat an ocean of UNI instead!
Food wasn’t bad for the price. Best combo prices compared to other similar Korean seafood spots around. Combo for 2 included a bunch of side dishes, small plate of Halibut sashimi, sea squirt, abalone, 2 oysters, boiled quail eggs, octopus salad, lettuce and other greens to wrap the sashimi with, 2 sweet shrimps and their heads fried and served later, and 4 pc California roll. Thought the meal was over but the lady came out with another tray of food which I thought was for another party. Turns out it was for us! The finisher was fish stew that had the Halibut fish bones and extra fish meat along with veggies and tofu in it. Stew came with a fried mackerel fish and hot plain rice soup for each of us to slurp on. It was nice to finish with something warm.
I’d say food is quite decent. The restaurant itself was run down but oh well. I don’t judge by the place. It only fits 5 – 6 small tables. Tiny place! There are worse places. If food is good then all else doesn’t matter! I’m coming back tonight for my UNI. They better not be out again!
Will update rating if UNI is AMAZING… dun dun dun

Hole in the wall for sure!
Their sashimi packages are reasonable, especially since a lot of side dishes come with it.
The place is tiny so you better call ahead or be ready to wait. It is BYOB and they have a liquor store next door.
Parking is difficult, people double park but I would not advice it, especially in LA.
The Sushi man is really cool and he hooks you up with some extra food if you have a large party and knows your ordering a good amount.

Don’t get me wrong the price and the portion was AMAZING! But this is the one place I wouldn’t come too often even with their affordable prices.
I saw that they used to have an English menu but that’s gone and the only «menu» they had was on the wall.
My mom an I ordered the «LA hwal uh combo» which translates to LA live fish combo. It was $ 74 it comes with a small plate of halibut, sea squirt, abalone, fresh oysters, California roll, uni rice bowl, and spicy fish stew at the end. Usually these combos at other restaurants are $ 80 or more. The price in my opinion was absolutely amazing! The cuts of the halibut was thick and it was very fresh. Abalone and seasquirt was prepared as soon as we ordered! :D yumm
The uni rice bowl was a bit small.
I did see that the customer base was filled with regulars and they were getting different dishes as us but… that’s just something you can’t really complain about hahha our uni bowls put together was ONE of the uni bowls on the table next to us :(haha
It seemed like the whole family was working that night. The dad on the sashimi, mom with the side dishes and the son with the serving, but I couldn’t help but sense that they weren’t happy with what they were doing. They didn’t smile one bit and none of them cared to ask if their food was any good.
I’m very supportive of small, especially family owned, businesses but… they really made me sad to be eating there.
The place isn’t great to be honest, it’s very run down and … if you don’t walk in to eat there you might actually think they are out of business. BUT they still have A. so it’s okay I’m sure everything’s clean haha!
BYOB! WHAT RESTAURANT HAS BYOB for free no corkage and they are more than willing to bring you shot glasses and beer glasses when you do bring your own alcohol!
Would I come back? not too sure but… it’s definitely worth the money here!

This review is solely for the food. Due to the fact that it was so good, I won’t comment on the décor, atmosphere, restrooms etc.
Came here around 5pm on a Thursday night with my boyfriend. I was up on the game with the BYOB so we stopped by the liquor store on the same plaza to pick up some soju and beer. Only one other table was taken.
Couldn’t convince the BF to split the sashimi combo so we just ordered a la cart.
Oysters came out first and were delicious. They were spicy and had great flavor. Boyfriend who typically is not an oyster fan, gulped them right up. Best $ 10 ½ dozen oysters I ever had.
Spicy tuna was next. It was fresh and tasty. Great value for $ 5.
Live shrimp were amazing, as long as you don’t mind your food moving. Best I ever had. Next time we are definitely getting a pound.
Uni rice bowl was fire! The sesame oil was a nice touch.
Lastly, we were hooked up with the squid side fish, which we both thought was fresh, tasty and not rubbery at all.
I can see myself becoming a regular here. Next time I’m taking someone who’s not afraid to try the rest of the menu.

This is a small hole-​in-​the-​wall Korean seafood place. It’s small and doesn’t really feel clean, but on the other hand serves very fresh seafood for very good prices. They also have tanks with shrimps and other seafood right there!
We were a party of 8 and had some trouble getting seated because it was so small and they finally just had to wait for some tables to clear so they could combine a bunch of the small tables, but even then it was cramped. The waiters were kind of slow with our food too.
What sets this apart is that it’s a Korean BYOB place! I’d never heard of such a thing before. It’s true that there’s a liquor store in the same plaza, but we just brought a box of soju and a lot of beer and had a great time here.
Seafood (uni rice bowl, sannakji, etc.) is fresh and definitely cheaper than other Korean seafood restaurants in the area I’ve been to (e.g., Masan, T Equals Fish), though by the same token I’ve had fresher seafood at those other places, probably.
The big redeeming quality is the BYOB. It’s especially worth checking out if you’re coming in a big group and/​or can drink a lot, so you can make it worth it!

It’s either dead or was dead not long ago. Subtract one star for looking like shiet and name in Korean, but add 6 for having fresh seafood. User i phone for ambiance and ocean breeze makes this 3 Michelin star z rated summer performance

What can I say? You get MORE bang for your buck!
This place is a hole in the wall with the BEST QUALITY seafood. FRESH! FRESH! FRESH! For only $ 8 you can get the most fresh buttery uni in a bowl. Uni bowl has perfect amount of sesame flavored rice with 3 different types of caviars, seaweed and sesame seeds. Don’t forget they offer FREE condiments consisting of quail eggs, kimchi, pickled dikon, egg soup and soybean. It costs me between $ 10 – 12 for live uni (sea urchin) at Redondo Beach but here I’m paying less and it tastes DELISH!
Serves was kind of poor. They didn’t even ask us what we wanted to drink nor offered us water.
Live sea creatures in their tanks:) I must come back to try the live shrimps and oysters.

This is not your typical sashimi restaurant. This is the sashimi restaurant for the people. Yes the interior is simple, and looks a little run down but I think it adds to the charm of this place. Fish is extremely fresh as are the oysters and uni. The restaurant is definitely Korean style so you end up with some side dishes that are unique to these sort of restaurants. Completely different than the vibe you get at a typical sushi restaurant.
No frills, fresh fish, BYOB…

I went there with my friends today for dinner and it was the WORST restaurant we have been to !! I have been using Unilocal almost everyday, and this is the first time that I am giving a 1 star and wanna write a review so people wouldn’t have a horrible dining experience…
First, the decoration of the restaurant was really ghetto. It’s not like I am looking for a fancy restaurant of something, but it was definitely under average, makes you want to leave when u step in.
Second, poor service. I don’t have anything against these kind of family run business, but they didn’t serve water when we sits down and every time when we need something we have pretty much yelled because they wouldn’t come and ask you anything other than bring the foods.
Third, the FOOD. So the only reason that we came to this restaurant was because they have korean style Uni rice. However, it was really disappointing. The uni was really small, and seems like they are reusing the shell (or whatever u called it) as the «bowl» rather than fresh uni. We got the 2 people combo so there was also other seafood. The abalone also sucks but the oyster was really good.
So if u are looking for uni rice bowl, just go somewhere else…

3.5
Ok so this place is pretty worn down. It’s probably the most worn down place that I have eaten a $ 200 meal at. It’s not like «oh, this is so cool that they don’t care about the interior, it’s so charming» type of venue, it’s more like «omg, don’t touch anything except the table, I kind of want to hurry up and eat and leave asap» vibe.
That being said, food is fine. Everything is average except the live shrimp and the uni rice bowl. Those two things are exceptional and make this restaurant worth visiting, but it’s those two things alone. The live shrimp was very large and delicious! The uni bowl was out of this world.
All in all, if I ever come back here I would only order these two things and eat sashimi somewhere else.

it’s a BYOB restaurant, just bring whatever you like to drink, and get ready to eat a lot of fresh and raw seafood with a very reasonable price. The biggest abalone I had among all these Korean style seafood restaurants. The seafood adventure is ON!

i was told they had an awesome uni rice bowl, so i had to try it. who can say no to uni+rice?
what i ate:
— A plate combo so we could get all the random side dishes (there were only 2 of us): came with: porridge, uni+rice bowl, abalone, steamed egg, edamame, quail eggs, fresh oysters, seaweed crackers, fried savory pancake (jun), corn, fresh lettuce/​perilla leaves. ending with awesome fish stew … everything was decent yummy, but i was only wowed by the fish stew. the sashimi is fresh! the uni bowl is good, but sad to say ive had better. but it seems to be a popular dish — the table next to us ordered a few extra
pros:
— if i were an older korean man (ahjusshi) craving some FRESH fish and wanting to share a bottle (or five) of soju with my ahjusshi buddies, this would be my go to spot. i think my dad would love coming here.
— cheap: for the amount of seafood, this is pretty reasonable, cheap even. $ 65 for combo A
— limited menu: the menu is small, and they know what theyre doing. but, it would be a mistake to come here with someone whos allergic to seafood.
— seafood stew/​jigae: being korean and growing up with endless bowls of gook bahp (soup + rice), im pretty picky when it comes to soup, but i was pretty wowed by the stew. very fishy and flavorful, but it had a nice clean aftertaste.
cons:
— no liquor license. BUT WAIT! liquor store in the same plaza, so buy what you need and bring it back. the restaurant will provide you with an ice bucket and glasses
— parking: SMALL lot. plenty of double parking allowed, but just make sure youre sober enough to move it ;)
— small: possibly only about 6 – 8 4top tables.
— hole in the wall ghetto. its not some classy seafood joint.
so, would i come again? … if i woke up and became a soju swilling ahjusshi, id probably be here at least every other week with all my other ahjusshi friends. but, alas, im not. if i were in the mood, id go to my local korean sushi joint for this kind of meal.

I have been back a few times and have been able to order without calling my Korean friend. Win!
They have A, B or C orders of halibut sashimi, for 2, 3 or 4 people, respectively. I believe A starts at $ 55 and goes up. I am told these come with just a few side dishes.
You can also get combos. $ 65 for 2 people, $ 100 for three. You get a lot of side dishes with this — edamame, corn, quail eggs, abalone, oysters, spicy tuna roll topped with halibut, sea squirt, rice porridge, baked eel (sometimes), variety of kimchee type items, UNI BOWL, grilled mackerel and I’m sure I’m still forgetting things. You get the halibut sashimi with the lettuce leaves, sesame leaves (gyen-​nip), miso, garlic and jalapeño. You finish with the spicy seafood soup.
The seafood soup is a winner. It has big, substantial chunks of fish, and usually a sac of fish eggs. Nice flavor. While my friends debate whether they like the halibut better here or Hwal A Kwang Jang, the soup is clearly better here (much more fish and substantial ingredients in general).
The $ 65 combo comes with one uni bowl. They are so good we always order extra so everyone has their own ($ 6 – 7 each, I don’t remember which).
And we always add on a pound of amaebi (sweet shrimp) — $ 35, and ranges from 5 – 8 shrimp, we’ve found. The shrimp is so fresh (fished out of the tanks when you order) and the heads are delicious.
BTW — the liquor store that shares the parking lot does have beer, wine and soju, but no sake. So you’ll have to get that elsewhere if that’s what you want with your sashimi.

a small hole-​in-​the-​wall live sashimi spot.
they have san nakjji which is a small octopus.
they usually serve it super live. meaning, they cut into small pieces and serve immediately, and it is usually lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil.
so you see the pieces moving around. and when you eat it, it sticks to the insides of your mouth. which is as fresh as you can get.
they also have halibut which seems pretty fresh.
the price is good also.