[Los Angeles] [Korean] Healthy Zone Jook Hyang

Healthy Zone Jook Hyang
3177 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 487-5002

Sister, brother and I had to go to Taiwan Embassy for some documentation. Taiwan Embassy is located in Korea Town. I haven't had Korean food for the longest time. It was a perfect chance to have lunch in K Town.



My sister found Jook Hyang on Yelp. It's a Korean restaurant that does not use MSG. Supposedly it's a healthier Korean restaurant. Sounds good to me.




It's a really small restaurant. You can find parking on the street before 3pm. Since we were there at 2:30pm, the lady owner warned us about getting a parking ticket on the street after 3pm. She told me they have a little parking lot on the side street. Somehow I missed it, but still managed to find parking on the side street.



There is English on the menu. But they had some special menu that only has Korean version. We tried to ask the lady owner to explain the combo menu to us. She tried really hard to explain to us, but we still had trouble understanding her since she doesn't really speak English.


Banchan

After ordering the food, she brought us some banchan. Everything was good, especially the stewed potatoes.


Ginseng Chicken Soup ($9.99)

The first thing that came out form the kitchen was Ginseng Chicken Soup. You can add an abalone to the soup for $8 more. We saw a lot of other people ordering the soup with abalone. The soup was thick and rich. Chicken was tender. I liked the soup a lot.


Leek and Onion

The owner lady brought us Leek and Onion, and said "with the soup". We asked "add to the soup?" She said, "No, eat with the soup." The marinated leek and onion accompanied the chicken quite well.


Abalone Porridge ($11.99)

Seemed like the chicken soup and abalone porridge were their specialty. Abalone porridge had tiny pieces of abalone in it. It didn't have much taste, but I think that is how jook (porridge) supposed to be. It was good comfort food. I remember back in the day when I used to go clubbing in K-town, we like to go to this abalone porridge restaurant. The jook always taste so good after a night of drinking. But on that day, I thought the porridge was just alright. Maybe I should consume some alcohol beforehand?


Salad

We also ordered some Korean BBQ meat from their lunch special menu. We ordered a lot of food because we wanted to bring leftover home for parents to try. I think the salad came with lunch special. It was a standard salad with a ginger dressing.


Spicy Chicken (12.99)

Spicy chicken was made with chicken thigh. It was very tender. The spicy marinated chicken made my sister ate way more rice than she wanted to because it was really good.


Bulgogi ($13.99)

Bulgogi had a lot of vegetable with it. Onion, carrot, mushroom and green onion. It tasted great. The dish was without MSG, but tasted exactly the same as other Korean restaurant's MSG version.


Kalbi ($14.99)

Kalbi is my favorite Korean BBQ meat. This was delicious, but there were only 5 pieces of kalbi for $15. It was kinda expensive.


Bamboo Rice

The purple rice with beans was cooked in bamboo. I loved the rice!



The food was good at Jook Hyang, but taste-wise, it didn't really stand out. But it's good to know that there are no MSG in my food. If I'm in the area and want Korean food, I would go back again. But this is not a place I would make a special trip to.