These days, Korean all-you-can-eat barbecue is often equivalent to a night in Koreatown to wow out-of-towners. However, it wasn't alway the mainstream gustatory experience at the top of every visitor's bucket list. In fact, its history suggests that its L.A. origins may not have even started in Koreatown.
Situated in Melrose Hill, Choeng Wun Buffet is one of the O.G. Korean BBQ restaurants. Humbly tucked away in a corner of the strip mall of the original Dave's Hot Chicken fame, the restaurant is easy to miss until you get out of your car.
But it has a unique place in L.A's Korean culture. Choeng Wun Buffet is not only one of the oldest Korean restaurants in the city (second to the 1982-founded Kang Nam Restaurant), but also the proto-AYCE (all-you-can-eat) Korean
barbecue joint.
As the name suggests, when Choeng Wun Buffet opened in 1985, it was a buffet-style cafeteria. While that would transform later into the AYCE concept, at that point -- it was just a convenient way to eat.
Instead of today's theater of a large plate surrounded by dozens of small dishes of crunchy, savory, and garlicky banchan, there were simply steaming trays of Korean-style vegetables, the same as those served at home, which you piled on your plate as many times as you'd like.
Over the decades, those beginnings had been somewhat forgotten. But now as third and fourth generation Korean Americans look to honor their roots, there's been a resurgence of interest in generational Korean businesses like Choeng Wun Buffet.
It's something owner Kang Chang Hun and his nephew Alex Park are leaning into; they want the restaurant's "day one" beginnings to be remembered as part of L.A. history, and to bring in diners seeking a nostalgic Korean L.A. experience.
Because it's in Melrose Hill, rather Koreatown, it can sometimes be left out of the Koreatown story, like that depicted in Emmanuel Hahn's Koreatown Dreaming,
But Park says it's a myopic disservice to the Korean businesses that surrounded the neighborhood, from the restaurant itself to the stalls that occupied East Hollywood's Union Swapmeet.
"There are plenty of Korean businesses outside of Koreatown that also reflect the diversity of the socio-economic status and geography of the Korean diaspora throughout L.A. County," he said.
For Korean Americans like myself, walking into Choeng Wun Buffet feels like going into a time warp. At the center of the welcoming, homey restaurant stands a retro, green-tiled salad bar a la Sizzler's, with seasoned vegetables and greens such as acorn jelly, chive salad, soybean sprouts, and sweet and sour radish.
Against one wall lies a row of three soup stations, consisting of homemade seaweed soup, pumpkin porridge, and red bean porridge, and two industrial rice cookers that hold white rice and chapsal (sticky brown sweet rice).
Across from this wall is an arrangement of seasoned protein, from chicken and squid to various cuts of beef and pork, ready to serve cafeteria-style. Highlights include pumpkin porridge with pillowy bites of glutinous rice balls, the brightly adorned japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), frosty bowls of naengmyeon (cold noodles in chilled broth), and crispy honey sesame wings.
One might consider the restaurant's giant rice cookers and cafeteria lines antiquated, but it conjures profound memories for Korean families coming out of church services and gathering in communal spaces over bowls of porridge, kimbap, and banchan. It is difficult now to find similar experiences in Korean restaurants, but Kang lets his yearnings for such spaces guide his business decisions.
"I'm 62 years old now, but I started working here at 30 years old," he said. "I really don't have ambitions of turning a big profit. I'm sure having a lot of money is nice, but all I want is to keep this restaurant in its good condition."
Choeng Wun Buffet was ahead of its time. By the 2000's the buffet-style cafeteria had been rebranded as AYCE, and Korean barbecue reached a new level of popularity in California. The hallyu (Korean wave) of South Korean imports -- predominantly music, movies, and beauty products -- also included Korean cuisine, which ushered in a mainstream version of barbecue that focuses on copious amounts of pork and beef cuts marinated in a drippy assortment of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.
With that came a wave of American chains like Gen BBQ, which opened in 2011 and popularized the AYCE denomination even further. Over time, hospitality groups and savvy small businesses alike have squeezed more money out of the extravagant nature of the AYCE experience with dining time limits and incremental charges on extra portions.
Meanwhile, Choeng Wun Buffet skirts the Westernized interpretation of Korean barbecue. When Kang says "all you can eat," he urges diners to grab platefuls of meat as many times as they'd like -- no limits enforced.
Still, the family has to make rent. In 2016, Alex Park jumped on board to help his uncle with the restaurant, which was competing for new diners amidst the bubbling AYCE scene. Through Instagram ads and a new website that memorialized the restaurant's beginnings and value, Kang began noticing new faces from the Melrose Hill neighborhood in addition to college students.
He felt called to play father to some of the younger crowds who came in to experience KBBQ for the first time. He recalls one instance when he sat at the table with them, showing them how to tightly wrap a cut of meat in a giant leaf of red lettuce with a dollop of gochuchang, chive salad, kimchi, and rice, then eating it in one bite.
Choeng Wun Buffet offers the best value for large parties through its tactile punch cards, where the staff punches a hole for every person in your party. A party of 10 gets one free meal. In addition, Kang has carefully thought through pricing tiers, with late night discounts and all-you-can-eat options ranging between $25 and $45, depending on whether bulgogi suffices or if diners want the luxury of unlimited L.A. galbi and shrimp.
Without knowing a single person or having any family member in the United States, Kang followed the love of his life, Yoona, and her family, to Los Angeles when they made the sudden decision to emigrate from Seoul, Korea, in 1986.
As his wife and mother-in-law began to make names for themselves with their volunteer service in the church, they decided to buy Choeng Wun Buffet in 1991. (The original owners were selling it, and while it was outside Koreatown, they decided to go ahead). Aside from a few modifications and homemade kimchi by Kang, the restaurant continues to use the same recipes created by Yoona's family.
"To this day, when I'm here, I can feel my wife everywhere," he said. "I can't leave this restaurant."
Yoona's family also played a central role in the Korean community by establishing eateries like the ever-comforting Mapo Kkak Doo Gee and Kangbyun, the latter of which shuttered after the 1992 riots.
In comparison, Choeng Wun Buffet continued to run as a low-key buffet-style cafeteria, a place for Korean families to head to after church.
After Yoona passed away in 2019, the family organized a large service for their familial glue at Han Kook Mortuary. It became an emotionally stirring yet affirming testament to her quiet yet unwavering presence in shaping Korean culture in Los Angeles.
"People were crowded outside the mortuary thinking it was a famous politician's funeral," Park said. "She just knew a lot of people in the Korean community because our family has been here for a while. We had family, friends, and regular customers show up, and that speaks to the person she was."
To help his uncle with retirement, Park said he would consider taking over Choeng Wun Buffet, especially if it would mean he can collect stories about Korean Angelenos on the periphery of Koreatown.
"I know the family stance is that we would want to keep it in the family for my aunt," Park said. "This is the only thing we have left of her at this point."
Meanwhile, the family has local legends and archivists to lean on to show their appreciation online, as if to say, "If you know, you know."
"I remember this article on LAist about Pijja Palace,and it mentioned there were L.A. staples very unique to their culture, and Choeng Wun was mentioned on the same list," Park said. "So there are [OGs] who recognize that if you want really grounded homemade Korean food, this is the spot."