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    LA Hwaluh

    4.1 (51 reviews)
    Closed 4:00 pm - 10:00 PM
    Updated 3 months ago

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    a plate of salmon and vegetables
    Ann M.

    We came on a Wednesday night. First off, for those that seldom frequent ktown for food, the plaza is tiny. The parking is triple parked. When I got there I was so confused but there wasn't any street parking so I stuck my car in a spot. What happens if the two cars parked in front of me needs to leave I wondered. Well the restaurant had scrap paper at the counter for you to write your cell # to place on your windshield. If someone u blocked in wants to leave, they will call u to move your car which totally happened to me mid dinner. So my friend and I went outside to do musical car shuffle. If you aren't used to reversing in tight spots in your car, you may have issues. Now for the food. The menu on the wall is in Korean but they gave us an English menu once they realized we weren't korean. Everything was super fresh. We got the $200 combo that feeds 3-4 and ordered an extra salmon roll. There was so much food we couldn't finish it all. We saw the owner come and net up a big halibut for our sashimi. The meat was so good with the diff dipping sauces. All the raw seafood we had were fantastic. At the end of the meal, we got some very very spicy noodle with fish, kimchi soup and burnt rice porridge. Overall it was a delicious experience.

    Menu 10/3/22
    Fang Of H.

    One of the best places in ktown for korean style fresh sashimi. A very, very much of a hole in the wall place that has been around for 10+ years. Smallest size fresh sashimi (only) is $115 and smallest size sashimi combo (including abalone, other seafood, uni rice, spicy soup etc) is $129. Plenty of food for a male + female, maybe a little bit small portions for two males. A Korean couple running the business. There are about 5 tables even though this place specializes in take outs. Service is not the fastest but it's not slow either. Overall, a pleasant and comfortable dinner experience. General table setup is concise but all dishes are extremely delicious and fresh, everything from appetizers to the main dish (fresh halibut sashimi) and spicy seafood soup to top it all off. **They do NOT sell alcohol but have glasses ready for you if you bring your own. Make sure to buy some from the local Korean markets or the liquor store next door in the same plaza. I honestly really like this as your bill comes out significantly lower if you are a drinker (if you don't drink when eating Korean style sashmi, there would be something wrong with you anyway). Only con is that the menu is only written in Korean, so it would be a naturally difficult experience for non-Koreans.

    J P.

    This is the best/freshest Hwae aka Sashimi you will get in Koreatown! This is a place where it's best for to-go orders. It could be hard to find parking if you are dining in but I always am satisfied with the quality of the fish they use. Everyone complains about the price but you will get the freshest fish for the money you are paying for.

    A combo $99
    Bokyoung Y.

    Sashimi is super fresh! The sashimi price is crazy after pandemic, i was looking for some reasonable price sashimi. The small combo is all over $99 in koreatown including this place, i gave it a try. I never satisfied with the smallest combo in any sashimi place but this place. The side dishes are not many but they serve mauntang(spicy fish soup) in A combo. The fish was so fresh, i love they serve sashimi on top of ice tray for to-go order! The sashimi amount was big enough to feed two people. Next time, i want to try bigger combo with more seafood combinations! I will def go back.

    Uni rice
    Sunny M.

    Had take out: la hwaluh combo 1. Came with so many side dishes. Sashimi was fresh. Abalone and oysters tasted fresh as well. Uni rice was delicious! Didn't get any fried fish but that's okay. Parking. During dinner time it gets pretty hectic in that plaza. Small parking lot. I normally go there to do take out so not an issue. Food is always packaged very well. Will keep going back for more!

    Cali roll part of the combo
    Young Kyung K.

    Don't get me wrong the price and the portion was AMAZING! But this is the one place I wouldn't come too often even with their affordable prices. I saw that they used to have an English menu but that's gone and the only "menu" they had was on the wall. My mom an I ordered the "LA hwal uh combo" which translates to LA live fish combo. It was $74 it comes with a small plate of halibut, sea squirt, abalone, fresh oysters, California roll, uni rice bowl, and spicy fish stew at the end. Usually these combos at other restaurants are $80 or more. The price in my opinion was absolutely amazing! The cuts of the halibut was thick and it was very fresh. Abalone and seasquirt was prepared as soon as we ordered!! :D yumm The uni rice bowl was a bit small.. I did see that the customer base was filled with regulars and they were getting different dishes as us but... that's just something you can't really complain about hahha our uni bowls put together was ONE of the uni bowls on the table next to us :( haha It seemed like the whole family was working that night. The dad on the sashimi, mom with the side dishes and the son with the serving, but I couldn't help but sense that they weren't happy with what they were doing. They didn't smile one bit and none of them cared to ask if their food was any good. I'm very supportive of small, especially family owned, businesses but ...they really made me sad to be eating there. The place isn't great to be honest, it's very run down and ... if you don't walk in to eat there you might actually think they are out of business. BUT they still have A.. so it's okay I'm sure everything's clean haha!! BYOB!! WHAT RESTAURANT HAS BYOB for free no corkage and they are more than willing to bring you shot glasses and beer glasses when you do bring your own alcohol! Would I come back? not too sure but ...it's definitely worth the money here!

    Nicky N.

    What can I say? You get MORE bang for your buck! This place is a hole in the wall with the BEST QUALITY seafood. FRESH! FRESH! FRESH! For only $8 you can get the most fresh buttery uni in a bowl. Uni bowl has perfect amount of sesame flavored rice with 3 different types of caviars, seaweed and sesame seeds. Don't forget they offer FREE condiments consisting of quail eggs, kimchi, pickled dikon, egg soup and soybean. It costs me between $10-12 for live uni (sea urchin) at Redondo Beach but here I'm paying less and it tastes DELISH! Serves was kind of poor. They didn't even ask us what we wanted to drink nor offered us water. Live sea creatures in their tanks:) I must come back to try the live shrimps and oysters.

    Oysters and sea squirt on one plate. Octopus Salad and the Abalone with side dishes shown
    Susan N.

    Update: They had UNI for me!!! And it was AMAZINGGGG so I've decided, I will only come here for UNI! Had the combo again and I'm whatevers on them. I just want UNI UNI UNI! --------- I was just here a few days ago. I believe the yelp hours are wrong. The menu says they open from 3:30pm to 11pm but yelp says 11am to 11pm. I arrived on a Sunday around 6ish pm. Didn't understand much of the menu..ended up ordering the combo for 2 and sadly disappointed to find out that they didn't have any UNI left! I was so incredibly disappointed. I was set on cleaning out their UNI inventory! It's odd that they ran out so quick if they opened at 3:30pm. How can they run out in just a few hours? Anyhow, the lady said they would substitute it for fresh sweet shrimp so I guess that was okay. You know I'd rather eat an ocean of UNI instead! Food wasn't bad for the price. Best combo prices compared to other similar Korean seafood spots around. Combo for 2 included a bunch of side dishes, small plate of Halibut sashimi, sea squirt, abalone, 2 oysters, boiled quail eggs, octopus salad, lettuce and other greens to wrap the sashimi with, 2 sweet shrimps and their heads fried and served later, and 4 pc California roll. Thought the meal was over but the lady came out with another tray of food which I thought was for another party. Turns out it was for us! The finisher was fish stew that had the Halibut fish bones and extra fish meat along with veggies and tofu in it. Stew came with a fried mackerel fish and hot plain rice soup for each of us to slurp on. It was nice to finish with something warm. I'd say food is quite decent. The restaurant itself was run down but oh well. I don't judge by the place. It only fits 5-6 small tables. Tiny place!. There are worse places. If food is good then all else doesn't matter! I'm coming back tonight for my UNI. They better not be out again! Will update rating if UNI is AMAZING....dun dun dun

    Connie T.

    I have been back a few times and have been able to order without calling my Korean friend. Win! They have A, B or C orders of halibut sashimi, for 2, 3 or 4 people, respectively. I believe A starts at $55 and goes up. I am told these come with just a few side dishes. You can also get combos. $65 for 2 people, $100 for three. You get a lot of side dishes with this - edamame, corn, quail eggs, abalone, oysters, spicy tuna roll topped with halibut, sea squirt, rice porridge, baked eel (sometimes), variety of kimchee type items, UNI BOWL, grilled mackerel and I'm sure I'm still forgetting things. You get the halibut sashimi with the lettuce leaves, sesame leaves (gyen-nip), miso, garlic and jalapeno. You finish with the spicy seafood soup. The seafood soup is a winner. It has big, substantial chunks of fish, and usually a sac of fish eggs. Nice flavor. While my friends debate whether they like the halibut better here or Hwal A Kwang Jang, the soup is clearly better here (much more fish and substantial ingredients in general). The $65 combo comes with one uni bowl. They are so good we always order extra so everyone has their own ($6-7 each, I don't remember which). And we always add on a pound of amaebi (sweet shrimp) - $35, and ranges from 5-8 shrimp, we've found. The shrimp is so fresh (fished out of the tanks when you order) and the heads are delicious. BTW - the liquor store that shares the parking lot does have beer, wine and soju, but no sake. So you'll have to get that elsewhere if that's what you want with your sashimi.

    Clara L.

    small spot BYOB the food is fair but not as great as some other spots in ktown service was also very spotty many times, the waitress sat down to drink/eat with regulars which is cool but not when we're sitting there waiting for our food also ran out of a lot of items

    To-Go Halibut Sashimi (Hwaluh)
    Nicole P.

    This is truly authentic Korean Hwaluh (much better than sashimi and super fresh) We got to-go for a party of 10. The Owner was so kind and gave us kimchi patties for on the go. Will definitely be back to try the live octopus dish! Great service and great food. The Hwaluh also came with oysters and abalone.

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    10 months ago

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    1 month ago

    I have been here last 5 years. It is fresh always!! And nice service too. If you like live fish, you must visit here

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    2 years ago

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    4 months ago

    Sashimi is fresh but the others was so so.... not worth the drive all the way to los angeles from san jose...

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    3 years ago

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    Cool place. Really enjoyed the food.

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    Sushi Enya - Los Angeles - Sushi Enya Pasadena & Los Angeles Downtown

    Sushi Enya - Los Angeles

    4.3(1.8k reviews)
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    This has been on my bookmarks forever! My wife and I walked in, no reservations and they seated us…read morepretty quickly. Excited as I was, I'm glad we came here, Michelin star says it all. One of the best sushi spots I've had a in a while actually. We didn't really do any appetizers and went straight in for the fish. Started off with a couple of hand rolls, we did the crab hand roll and O toro hand roll. Crab hand roll wasn't as impressive, I've had better to be honest. I didn't let that experience ruin it for me because the toro hand roll was delicious. I think they add a piece of mint and it complimented the hand roll. Very crunchy nori wrapper and good rice to fish ratio. For our sushi we started with chu toro tuna, salmon belly, and halibut. Super fresh melt in your mouth quality. Halibut was interesting with the truffle, first time definitely won't be the last. We ended it with red snapper and black snapper. Absolutely amazing, I think the black snapper or the red snapper was slightly charred. It was so good. To say the least, this restaurant was worth it!

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    Sushi Enya - Los Angeles - Chef Jeff adding the truffle on our special handroll. Stop by Sushi Enya in Los Angeles for the freshest best tasting sushi!!

    Chef Jeff adding the truffle on our special handroll. Stop by Sushi Enya in Los Angeles for the freshest best tasting sushi!!

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    4.6(125 reviews)
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    A modern take on omakase that is Sushi Kaneyoshi's fun nightlife counterpart. Hosted in the same…read morebuilding (the same fishy smell permeates the space) at an intimate counter for about 10 guests, the decor of the space is less sterile and clean and more jazzy Tokyo hipster. While the fish quality here is great, you will get more bites that seem a lot more experimental with flavors and garnishes. I didn't like every single bite but I expected that. A lot more focus on creative cocktails and drink pairings instead of just sake or wine. This is a great place to try Japanese whiskey, they even have little lockers where regular patrons can store their expensive bottles they've bought for when they return, and you are welcome to grab an additional drink and chill in the space afterwards if you'd like. The chefs here were a lot more personable and fun with more of a bar vibe than a traditional omakase. Service was great, dedicated bartender was great, and though it's not the best sushi I've ever tasted, I would still bring someone back here for a unique experience. Brought my friend here for her bday and we left full and happy and a little drunk so I'd say it was a successful night!

    Great food! Great crew!…read more However, they allowed 2 obnoxious couples to just make it for an uncomfortably loud dinner. Thai is not how an omakase experience should unfold. Such a shame because otherwise it would have been a great experience. But I cannot excuse them for allowing these other guys to just behave so rudely, like Neanderthal, and not say a thing.

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    Bar Sawa - The beautifully lit alcohol selection

    The beautifully lit alcohol selection

    Bar Sawa - Blue Crystal Shrimp

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    Hama Sushi

    4.1(1.8k reviews)
    2.6 miLittle Tokyo, Downtown
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    came here on a wednesday night with my bf for a date and... lowkey obsessed…read more first of all -- they don't take reservations. like at all. we got lucky because we went kinda late and there was no wait, but i can 100% see this place getting packed the space is TINY tiny. like true hole-in-the-wall vibes. but in a way that actually feels authentic, not curated. genuinely felt like we were in japan for a second -- nothing flashy, just simple, cozy, and real also pls know before you go -- this is NOT your california roll / teriyaki / noodles type of spot. it's straight sushi. very no-frills, very traditional they literally make each piece right in front of you, one by one, which makes the whole experience feel super intentional and fresh and that's exactly why it hits. the fish quality is so good, everything tasted super clean and fresh without trying too hard. no gimmicks, just really solid sushi it's also super lowkey which i loved for date night. not loud, not chaotic, just chill and intimate def one of those places you almost don't want to post about... go try it!!!

    Spent a lovely, relaxed evening at this sushi spot…read more The ambiance stood out right away--clean, calm, and just the right amount of atmosphere. It's the kind of place where you can slow down, enjoy your meal, and have a good conversation. The food was consistently good. Fresh ingredients, well-balanced flavors, and a few signature rolls that felt thoughtfully done without trying too hard. Service was another highlight--easygoing, attentive in a subtle way, and never intrusive. If I had to point out one thing, it would be that a few dishes didn't quite have that "wow" factor. But sometimes, I appreciate a place that simply gets everything right without overcomplicating it. Definitely somewhere I'd return to--and perhaps bring the right company next time.

    Photos
    Hama Sushi - Interior

    Interior

    Hama Sushi - Combination B

    Combination B

    Hama Sushi - Spicy tuna hand roll

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    Spicy tuna hand roll

    LA Hwaluh - korean - Updated May 2026

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