Ondal 2: Spicy Crab Goodness

Babs and I hit Ondal 2 for a spicy crab extravaganza a few weeks ago and left so stuffed we could barely choke down a few margaritas at the Elbow concert afterwards. Ondal 2 is a family-run restaurant on Washington and Crenshaw, in a neighborhood a bit south of the usual K-town haunts. The restaurant is clean and bright, and though the waitstaff for the most part has perfected the art of avoiding eye contact and ignoring tables, we got a fine education on the contents of our crab soup from the friendly chap that served it.

What We Ate

Banchan: a variety of appetizers, including a Korean pancake with leeks and carrots, grilled pike fish, salad with ginger dressing and spicy raw crab.

Spicy crab soup: while we were finishing the appetizers, a server brought out a pot packed with 5 beautiful she-crabs, bean sprouts, mushrooms and greens. After it simmered for a while on our table, he came back and spooned individual servings of spicy broth, crab meat (in shell), rice and bean shoots into small bowls for us.

Spicy noodle soup: Once the bulk of our crab was gone, a server brought "dough paste" to our table and dropped hand-pulled pieces into the still simmering broth along with some additional vegetables. In just a few minutes our spicy crab soup was converted into spicy noodle soup

Fried rice: our remaining spicy broth was used to make tableside crab fried rice. More sauteed than fried, but the (at this point) signficantly reduced broth gave it all the crustacean goodness of the original crab soup.

Last, there was cold slightly sweet rice beverage served as a palate-cleansing dessert called Sikhye. My traditional American palate wanted a sweeter, richer dessert but I was so full at that point that the debate was merely academic.

Our 5-course feast came to about $30/person, including tax and several (okay more like 10) tall boy OB beers. I'm officially obsessed.

Ondal 2

4566 W Washington Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90016

(323) 933-3288