Soban Los Angeles
In LA, Korean-style raw crab and banchan great enough to set standards for everyone else
If you search enough, it’s entirely possible to find a place in Orange County serving Korean-style raw crab meat marinated in soy sauce – ganjang gyejang – and save yourself a trip to Los Angeles. But if you want the experience of sampling this dish where it’s particularly famous, in the restaurant where the South Korean director and cast of Parasite went to celebrate their historic Oscar for Best Picture, drive a little further north to Soban.
At Soban, the raw crab course is revelatory. Once you’ve experienced normally delicate crab meat as a completely cold, even more delicate feeling dish, alternating between flashes of salty Korean soy and sharp scallion, you’ll never be able to eat cooked crab again without thinking about the alternative. It feels simultaneously more exciting, primitive, and more intensely flavored than simply pulling hot meat out of crab legs – all made better by Soban’s obvious use of clean, high-quality ingredients.
The other benefit of eating at Soban is a massive array of banchan, which are teased in jars across the restaurant’s counters before you receive your little dishes. Unlike Yukdaejang, where we have to convince ourselves that getting three really well-executed banchan is good enough, there are a dozen here, ranging from eggplant to seaweed, japchae to kimchi, nuts, fishcake, and vegetables. No matter which other Korean restaurant you choose, their five, seven, or ten banchan won’t compare with Soban’s 12 great banchan.
Although other items we ordered at Soban weren’t as big of a deal as the crab, they were still delicious, just as expected: Dwaeji bulgogi was plenty spicy and well-portioned for the price, and bibimbap arrived with a double-sized fried egg on top. This is baller-class Korean food – not so much elevated as served at the peak of traditional form – so we’d say it’s worth the extra drive from Orange County (and the hassle of dealing with parking meters in front).
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2010
Addresses
4001 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
323.936.9106
Instagram: @sobanlosangeles