What To Order At Roy Choi's New Koreatown Restaurant, POT | Tasting Table Los Angeles

Peep Roy Choi's new Koreatown restaurant

At POT, Roy Choi's restaurant inside The Line Hotel in Koreatown, young couples huddle around bubbling gojuchang-laced hot pots wearing floral print aprons (provided by the establishment, natch) over their leather jackets.

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Waiters–also dressed in floral prints–pour tumblers of chilled barley tea instead of water and slip you a little partitioned dish of banchan, a trio of marinated bean sprouts, cucumber kimchi and pickled sesame leaf stems. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Boyz II Men bump on the stereo overhead. You can order a glass of Gamay wine or a pint of Negra Modelo to go with the crispy, turntable-sized potato pancake known as pajeon ($10).

This is not Korean fusion: This is funky, uncompromising Korean food with a nose-clearing dose of Kogi attitude mixed in.

BBQ Galbi
You'll probably over-order. Go for the Boot Knocker ($11) a spicy, herb-topped stew stocked with tofu, hot dogs, Spam, and instant ramen noodles. Get the Old School ($17), marinated bulgogi stew with glass noodles and ground sesame, too. Get the grilled squid rings with squishy rice cakes ($12). Get the Slurp Me ($17), Choi's riff on ganjang-gejang–a bowl of bisected raw blue crabs steeped in soy sauce until their innards soften and cure. It's utterly bizarre, strongly assertive and fantastic with spoonfuls of rice.

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There is one way to do POT, it seems, and that is to simply dive in.

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