Restaurant: Manpuku
Location: 2125 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 473-0580
Date: October 14, 2011
Cuisine: Yakinaku
Rating: Tasty BBQ, good value
Manpuku is a Yakinaku (Japanese style Korean BBQ) joint in the heart of the Sawtelle little-Tokyo area (just a few stores down from awesome Kiriko Sushi). It’s been a lunch favorite of mine for years because it offers really good BBQ at value prices. It isn’t the ultimate Yakinaku, a title reserved for the amazing Totoraku, but it is about 10% of the price!
This mini-mall is packed with delicious Asian lunch spots.
Just in case you wondered what you might find inside.
Every table comes equipped with it’s own BBQ. I apologize for the mediocre pictures. My snapshot camera is in the shop and so I had only the iPhone4 (I wasn’t going to lug the big camera). On the plus side, the photos did magically sync to my Mac via photostream, which is pretty sexy. Canon needs to add at least Wifi to their regular cameras. I’m sick of pulling out that card.
The lunch menu.
Kimchee on the left, the delicious sweet sauce (for use on the meat after cooking) on the right.
I ordered the “prime rib lunch set” ($15, and sometimes on sale!) and it comes with all you can eat Japanese salad.
And miso soup.
And rice.
Plus one of these plates of marinated prime short rib and a few vegetables.
The meal is simple. You BBQ to taste (rare in my case), dip in the sweet sauce, let cool on the rice, then eat!
There is nothing to complain about here. The beef is fresh, tender, and tasty. If you enjoy this, and are want to really max out on the variety this cuisine offers (every cut of cow) then check out Totoraku.