Koreatown in Los Angeles

An April 2008 trip to Los Angeles by E. B.

Quote: There are more Koreans in Los Angeles than in any other city in Korea other Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

Ramada Wilshire Center

Hotel

Quote:

I booked this hotel for my boyfriend who needed a place to stay close to a conference in the Koreatown area. I checked several reviews to see which hotel nearest to the conference would be the best. After seeing some scary reviews, I selected this place because it had the least scary reviews. Some of the reviews talked about how bad the place was.

We stayed on the third floor. The rooms were fine. There were no scary incidents. I did notice a woodsy odor from the cabinets. They appeared to be unfinished cedar to keep the moths away. There is no pool, but there is a restaurant on site, and parking is only $5 for your whole stay. You could do far worse. My only complaint is that we had expected a free continental breakfast from the website, but when we arrived, we were told that there was no breakfast included. It didn't really matter since there was breakfast at the conference, but it would have been nice to make an informed choice at which hotels were best to stay.

Remember that you are in Koreatown. The hotel is near many Korean restaurants. If you like Korean food, there are many choices. If you don't even know what Korean food is, then you might want to consider staying somewhere else, since the restaurants are either Korean, Salvadoran, or Mexican in the area. That's pretty much the resident population. There are some corporate chains around, but why eat there when you can eat at one of the fabulous Korean restaurants here? Koreans from Korea have even remarked that the Korean food here can be better than the food in Korea.

The hotel is extremely close to the Red Line Metro Rail. Since the conference goers needed public transportation, all they needed to do was to walk two blocks to the Western/Wilshire stop and ride the Red Line to where they were going. It was quick and easy. Unfortunately, my boyfriend has a poor sense of direction. He went east instead of west from the Red Line stop. He couldn't find the hotel in the dark, even though the hotel was only two blocks away! If you see that you're walking toward Washington Mutual Bank, you're walking the wrong way. Head in the opposite direction. Good thing he had to struggle on his own for only half a day. Read Less

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on April 19, 2008

Ramada Wilshire Center
3900 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD
Los Angeles, California 90010
213-736-5222

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Yu GA Ne - Authentic Korean Dumplings

Restaurant | "Authentic Korean Dumplings"

Quote:

We drove down 7th Street and saw a little shack with a sign that said "Korean dumplings." My boyfriend LOVES dumplings, so we decided to come back for lunch. He ordered the King dumplings (pronounced "wahng mahn-doo" in Korean), while I ordered the jah-jahg-myun combo with the dumplings (noodles in black bean sauce). The bahn-chahn (side dishes) were kimchee and yellow daikon radish slices. They gave you cold barley tea to drink.The king dumplings were HUGE. I can see why someone can make a meal of six dumplings. I received two dumplings with the noodles for only $6.99. My boyfriend's six dumplings were $4.99. I tried to share my noodles with him, but I was having trouble since the noodles w...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on April 19, 2008

Yu GA Ne - Authentic Korean Dumplings
698 S Irolo St.
Los Angeles 90006
(213) 480-1289