Mirak Korean Restaurant, Los Angeles

From USC, we drove to Korean town and stumbled on this hot pot style Korean restaurant. 

Mirak

1134 S. Western Ave.

Los Angeles, CA

(323)732-7577

As soon as we walked in, we felt compelled to try the Korean style hot pot, for almost every table had ordered it.  The place was so busy when we arrived.  The friendly atmosphere suggested that it was a family-run restaurant.  We waited awhile to be seated and were given a menu.

A waitress finally came and showed us how to order.  Apparently the place is famous for its goat meat stew.  For small hot pot it was $15 per person.  We ordered the bigger hot pot that was good for two people.  It was more than enough for the three of us.  As we conversed with the waitress, she told us that the stew was cooked with goat meat and spices for one whole day, then they deboned it and meat was served with the stew on the table.  It came with fresh green vegetables.  More vegetables were available for an extra charge of $5.

We also received traditional Korean kimchi as well as other salty side dishes.

Boiling spicy goat meat stew

After we finished eating the meat and vegetables, we still had some soup left in the pot.  Our waitress poured most of the soup out onto three bowls for us to drink.  We were so afraid that it would be too spicy to drink it.  She had told us it's good for us.  So we took small sips; it wasn't as spicy hot as we thought.  It was quite salty, but it tasted delicious.

Look at this; it was so red and looked so spicy, but it wasn't that bad!

There was still some soup left in the pot; she added some white rice and started to fry it with  kimchi.  She left the heat on while the fried rice cooked in the pot for awhile.  We were not sure if it was supposed to be left to cook like this or we should serve ourselves while it was still hot.   We waited for awhile, then another waitress came and mixed up the rice and left it like this again. 

At this point we assumed we should wait until they came to serve us.  We had to get one of the waitresses when we saw that it started to burn, and she scooped the fried rice into rice bowls like this.

We were really full because of the stew, but we felt we still had to try the rice.  It was moist and salty.  I assumed it was fried with sticky rice and kimchi.  Our waitress was very friendly and told us there were only two restaurants in the area that served goat meat stew.  It was a fun experience and a very different way to eat hot pot, compared to Chinese-style hot pot.  Overall, if you like spicy food, this is a place to try for fun.