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Category: Asian Fusion [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown
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When they say "Small", they really mean it.
The only thing I don't like about Warung is the small plates on their menu. The food they serve is excellent but the amount is really unacceptable. Small plates, according to the menu, are really small, not a joke.
If you are looking for a place to have dinner and some drinks, please avoid Warung, It would really upset you and your starving stomach.
Warung is more a place for a drink and snacks.
2.5 stars for the food, plus .5 star for ambiance.
small plates: seafood asian ceviche, black cod, black pepper garlic chicken wings. drinks: lime soju "mojito", soju 'margarita'
all decently executed, but no wowies here. the thing i did enjoy most was the "mojito".
i liked the decor and vibe, but as far as the food, it didn't quite measure up. it's probably best to come here on their $22 wednesday dinners if you want to give this a try.
I just was not sure about the idea of small plates and Asian fusion. But because of the wonderful reviews by my fellow Yelpers, I decided to take a chance. I am not one to judge any location before I actually try it. Having said that, I met one of my best friends, Lisa and her now ex-boyfriend. Of course, The Italian joined us as well. He particularly dislikes tapas. He's Italian. He likes hearty, filling meals, so this was a decision he was not too excited about. But trusting my decision, everyone gave this place a shot.
The drinks were divine! Yums. They were original, fruity and tasty. I am not a big fruity drink fan, but this was delicious and I don't even know what I had, but it was champagne, with something fruity-licious in it. Great start!
The food, although small, was absolutely delicious. I loved every bite we took from the ribs, to the salmon. I am a huge fan. I just wish it wasn't in this area (although they are trying so hard to improve this part of the city and I see the absolute effort of course. Good luck.). I also wish it was closer! Open another location just for me! Hee-hee! I love you guys. I will be back. Maybe after a nice day of fabric shopping with The Italian's Mammina! I just keep looking for reasons....
Petite Fusion Cafe and Bar
Fusion meals, beers, wine, sojo/sake cocktails - no liquor, st. parking/pay garage parking.
Friends and I went to the opening of Warung Wednesdays (Oct 21-Dec 16 6PM - midnight). Ada and Arlene, the twins from Big Fish, host and celebrate Wednesday nights with complimentary rounds of soju shots ever 22 minutes after the hour all night. $22 dinner special choice of 2 appetizers, one entree, & dessert.
Went here during LA Restaurant Week, so it cost $22 for 2 appetizers, entree and dessert. For appetizers I got the Ahi Tuna Tataki Salad (spot-on) and Miso Mariated Scallop (scallop + green onions, which was decent). I ordered the Grilled Filet Mignon in root wasabi mash, which was an interesting fusion of mashed potatoes with a slight wasabi taste. Too bad the entrees are ridiculously small! For dessert, I chose the green tea ice cream, which was hands down the best part of the meal and also the most generous portion. So good! It would have cost $29.50 without the special, so it was a pretty good deal. Would have probably gone to another restaurant for the same price though, had we known the dishes were sooo small.
Apparently, Wednesdays are their crazy *Warung Wednesday* nights; they have skanky Asian "supermodels" wearing black parade the restaurant. They play loud music where you can barely hear the person sitting across from you and the middle of the restaurant suddenly turns into a dance floor... Okay I know I sound super old and overly conservative so let me clarify. The whole Warung Wednesday concept is actually cool in and of itself...it's just that I really don't need to see certain people grinding in front of me while I'm trying to eat my dinner. No thanks.... don't know why they do it on a Wednesday night though (probably to get business!) But the only good thing about it is that they have FREE Soju shots 22 minutes into hour. Granted, it's super fruity and low in alcohol content but it's free :-) AND they didn't card!! Can't think of anywhere else that does that.
Good to try, but I wouldn't go here with their high prices and ridiculously small portions (seriously, tiny - you probably need a magnifying glass). Sadly, the green ice cream is the only reasonably portioned thing I ate that night.
I went for lunch on Monday. There are flies... everywhere! Often times, I would get a strong whiff of bleached towel/dirty gym sock. The ambience is nice, I'm not going to lie, but there is an eerie feeling that this is just a dirty hole in the wall in fancy-restaurant-sheeps clothing.
The tataki tuna salad was good! Oddly, it made my mouth feel like I just smoke a pack of cigarettes. Do they put tobacco as their seasoning? The peanut noodle was also good, but I got a fistful for $6. Well, more like a 3 year olds fistful.
Overall, if you're looking to curse in search for parking, get a stink in your nose, wave at the flies attacking your food, and drop a pretty penny, sure! Come on in!
Not sure what the gal below is talking all about (Phoebe C) ... but last Wed was a BLAST at Warung. The food is always delicious and well-priced..especially for the quality. The staff are always nice and welcoming. This place is the perfect date place.
Now, back to Warung Wednesdays .... Ada and Arlene are the host (lovely and wonderful ladies with great style and fantastic personality) and they create a great vibe. They made me (a gay guy) feel welcome and introduced me to other nice people. I had a blast .. you will too.
There is ample parking in the parking garage on Main and many other great eateries around the 'hood.
This is a destination that you can keep coming back to..again and again.
See you there.
The food was super yummy and the ambiance was full of energy and friendly. I just moved to Los Angeles from New York. I went to Warung on Wednesday with a few other girlfriends. We didn't know anything about this restaurant and decided to just check it out. We had so much fun!!!
I guess it is a special thing they have for Warung called Warung Wednesday. I highly recommend checking it out on Wednesday.
To top it off, everyone looks like Supermodels in there. Good looking food and good looking people.
The place is located in the restaurant row of the Old Bank District, which is pretty lively at night with private security and purple patrol roaming around the area. As you enter the cozy place, the decor is has a loft feel to it with piping and wires exposed in the ceilings. The place is covered with brick, dark brown paint on the walls, Asian painting and bamboo scattered throughout the place.
Overall the place is great. I would give it a 3 1/2 star.
I ate with a friend for Dine LA so i tried a lot! lol
For the appetizer i tried:
1) Shiite Mushroom Mi-so served with tofu and green onions - Tasted very good, comparable to other Mi-so Soups I had.
2) Crispy Tofu Bites, pan seared tofu served with homemade spicy peanut sauce - It was OK, nothing special
3) Peanut Noodle, cold ramen noodle tossed with homemade peanut sauce and scallions - pretty good, reminded me of a Taiwanese noodle dish
4) Tuna Tartar, chopped tuna and avocado with wasabi cream on top of crispy wonton - its OK, not a big fan
Entree:
5) Sea Bass, 2 oz Chilean sea bass skewers grilled with green apply teriyaki sauce - very good, the fish on the outside was crispy and sweet.
6) Top Sirloin 8 oz. Steak - with garlic mash potatoes, bok choi and a plum wine sauce- Very good steak! bok choi was OK. Funny thing is i normally don't eat mash potatoes but the one they had was very creamy and good!
Dessert:
7) Crispy Banana Spring roll - candied walnuts, Thai vanilla ice cream drizzled with sweet caramel - Very GOOD!
8) Green Tea Ice Cream - Like everywhere else
Drinks:
They have various Sakes, so we tried the Sake Sampler, its really good!
2 1/2 stars!
It was my dads birthday when I decided to take him out with a few family and loves. I don't know why this place won my heart out of all the places I looked at.
My aunt lives like 2 minutes to the Dodger stadium so picking her up then detouring down to downtown was a nightmare. You should have seen the look on her face. She lives in Chinatown, but she never steps a foot out her door anywhere in downtown after 6. Actually, she doesn't stop by downtown at all! There we were, poor little thing with the frightening look in her eyes as a few bums strolled by started to mumble jumble.
The food portions were very small, of course this is tapas style. For the price, I would expect the food to be somewhat good. But eh!
The white fish sashimi - did not taste fresh and the flavor was like a new car smell (I know).
Salmon and tuna rice bites - Really? It's just sushi. Don't you hate it when you buy market sushi and the rice is all sour? Yeah this was how it was.
Fried tofu - This was okay, but I wish the portions were more for this tiny tiny dish.
black pepper chicken wings - agreed that it was the best of the worst. Tasted amazing compared to everything else.
ASian short ribs - What I liked out of everything. It tasted like there was 5 spice in this. The meat was really tender, easy for my dad to gnaw on :)
Scallop marinated in miso - really? This was NOT worth the money at all! This is an insult to tapas! This looked like a baby has been playing with it and plating the food after they were done. The scallop was very soft. Falling apart soft.
The waitress was nice. She was consistent with her water refills. But our bill was already at 75 (we ordered 2 of everything except for the tofu) and we weren't even close to full. So we stopped the damage. I paid the bill and we headed out for pho.. lol
I don't recommend this place, just because the prices are high for food that aren't even up to par. I didn't taste whats so great about this place. Again, money is not the issue, the food is.
Btw no parking lot so... park on streets or pay for marking around the corner!
KK Mitsuwa market sushi!!
WARNING: I've only had the sake. I did not actually put any piece of food into my gullet here.
The bartender was wasted and gave us free sake flights on the house because he thought we were pretty. It was INCREDIBLE. He walked us through each sample and did me a solid on the flavor descriptions. I feel like we repeated the word "bouquet" to each other far too many times. The servers were sweet and sassy and totally down to earth. I like a girl who's not afraid to sass a customer, albeit flirtatiously.
In addition to all of the above awkwardly delightful things, Warung maintains a pretty classy vibe. Completely fun without the pretentious bullshit of a small cafe. Maybe next time I'll put something non-alcoholic in my body here. I'll definitely be back, and hopefully this time the bartender and I will be sober enough to form full sentences that don't include the word "bouquet."
This is a charming place! A small place with small plates!
We had the spicy Indian chicken salad which was a little warm for my taste. A salad should be, well, cold. But the sesame dressing was very good. Maybe there was a little too much of it. It would've been nice on the side. I loved the crispy wonton; otherwise it might have been borderline a soggy salad. There's nothing really Indian about this salad except for the Basmati rice, but it was flavorful and that's all that really mattered to me.
Also had the peanut noodle! Yummy. Think cold ramen noodles with a peanutty dressing. Very nutty and creamy. Loved it. I would order this again but I could just as easily make it at home.
The samosas, nothing special. I've had much better at my favorite Indian restaurants. Stuffed with potato, carrots, peas, spices and the minty sauce. You know the drill...
BEST DISH at this restaurant is the 3 oz. filet mignon with the taro root wasabi mashed potatoes! Someone let me bathe in these mashed potatoes! Gallons and gallons of it! They were so good! Better than mashed potatoes I've had at 5 star restaurants! The texture was like they mashed these potatoes for hours...so creamy. And it comes with a green apple teriyaki sauce. Amazing combo of flavors. Meat was cooked just right - medium rare, and very tender. Also, the cutest piece of meat I've ever seen. I would come here again for this dish!
asian fusion cuisine is really difficult to pull off because anybody who's eaten good authentic asian food (whether chinese, japanese, thai, or any other southeast/south/central asian type of food) would know that asian cuisine has lots of bold flavors.
my dineLA restaurant week lunch at warung cafe didn't really give me any of those bold flavors i was looking for.
the green chicken curry was sweet and kinda lacking that curry flavor. not good at all. the chicken pot stickers were meh. the lamb chops didn't really taste like anything aside from plain ol grilled lamb chops that was under seasoned.
i'm giving the place 2 stars because of the dessert (crispy banana rolls served w ice cream) was very good! it was reminiscent of the turon (banana eggrolls) that i would eat. except that this one had caramel sauce, chopped walnuts, and ice cream to make it extra special. service was good despite the fact that when i called to ask if they have parking on the streets, they said yes without mentioning that there was actually a temporary no-parking zone in front of the restaurant. my coworker and i ate out lunch super fast for fear of getting towed. luckily, we didn't. but i thought they would know those kinds of small details, right? hmm.
so yea. 2 stars.
Seriously this place sucked! I mean The food was only okay and the portions were small for the price. I have to say though the thing that pushed me over the edge was the service... It was horrible! I ordered the two Items I was supposed to order but the second dish took forever to come out... in fact it too so long the party I was with was already done eating. Also I ordered a beer but that took forever to come out also. I would understand more if they were swamped with customers but they weren't there were only three other tables of people there. Anyways I would absolutely never eat here again you couldn't even pay me to come back!
Food serving size is great. More restaurants should adopt it. America is way too hefy.
Food is A
Atmosphere isn't so great. They haven't decided what they want to be and it can be unenjoyable dining there. So my rating is really 3.5
It has to potential to be a strong 4+
Oh yeah...charge way too much for their sake. They are too close to little tokyo for that...Way more than the typical Keystone Markup...that is annoying. How much money do you want to make on your Sake..Geez!
This is a cute, small little place that has great ambiance and excellent service. Nothing about the food really stood out, except for the lamb chops! Ohhh they were good! My friend ordered the first plate of chops, and while I thought they were good, I asked the server if I could have them just seared on the outside, rare in the middle. He was totally happy to comply and bought out the most perfect little plate of lamb chops, cooked exactly as I wished. I also had a little of the Green Curry, which was waaaayy too sweet in my book. My friend who had never tried Green Curry before tasted some and said "WHAT IS THIS?" I'm just going to write it off as a weird batch.
They have a great selection of sake and beer, including Hitachino Nest Beer (the one with the kooky little owl on it) which I love. Great date spot: Intimate, quiet and dark. They are also very accommodating towards groups, even though it is a small space.
No, no, no. The rating says it all.
Stumbled upon this place during the Art Walk. Should've gotten the hint, since it was the only place around downtown that did NOT have a wait.
Sat down where two friends were already sitting. Waiter came to bring water but did not hand us any menus. (Hmm, ok maybe he's busy...)
A couple minutes pass and we just flagged someone over to ask for it. Checked out utensils. My spoon was dirty. (Definitely not acceptable.) Didn't even bother asking for another one because I knew I wouldn't be eating. (Had dinner already.)
Our friends did order and when it arrived, it was smaller than I thought. I knew it was tapas, but it was not worth the price. The tuna tartar was not chopped but mashed, which in my opinion is a strategy used to hide the fish's poor quality. (Blecch!)
Also got my order of thai iced tea which was also very small. (If I had a boba straw, I would've been able to suck it all down in 5 sips.)
I've never really been much of a fan of asian fusion so maybe I'm a bit biased. In my opinion I got exactly what I expected; pretentious asian food at a high price. Normally I wouldn't have been so harsh with the 2 stars, but service wasn't great. Would I try it again? Eh, maybe for happy hour.
This is a great place!
It's small but it has a nice ambiance. All the small plates I had were really good. My favorites are the ahi tuna tataki salad, tuna tartar, seafood Asian ceviche, and the salmon & tuna sashimi rice bites. The takai salad and the tartar are almost the same thing though. All the fish tastes fresh. Overall the offerings aren't very sophisticated but I haven't been disappointed. The Thai iced tea is also very good.
The service is also good there. Very prompt. Never had to wait to be seated either, which is great.
3.5 stars
My boyfriend made reservations for Warung on a Friday night. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, so the idea of asian fusion tapas sounded enticing.
I think Warung is probably awesome and happening for happy hour. I liked the vibe here, it was modern but not stuffy. When we arrived at 8:30 there was the din of a crowded restaurant, but by 9 pm it was completely dead. Perhaps this is endemic to downtown restaurants, but I felt a little overdressed when it became so quiet.
The food was pretty good. Some dishes - like the spicy peanut noodles and roasted mushrooms - were quite delicious. Others, such as the black cod with curry and the baby lamb chops, were just ok. The shrimp toast was just weird. The sparkling sake, which we had never tried, was awesome.
Extra points for exceptionally nice service. They brought out a wrong dish and then our waiter brought us each extra glasses of sparkling sake to apologize. Totally unnecessary but so nice! The manager also stopped by earlier in the evening to make sure we had everything we needed.
Overall, I'm glad I tried it, and would totally go to happy hour, but wouldn't run back just for dinner.
I was looking for a place to host an alumni get together in the downtown area. I'm always a little nervous to book reservations at places I've never been, mainly because I don't know the sound levels. So here it is -
This place was pleasantly quiet. Good for getting together with people and catching up.
The food was okay. Not bad, nothing fantastic. But the prices were great! We all ate plenty and had 2 drinks each, and the total came to $33/person. Very decent. One con was that it's a soju-only place when it comes to alcohol, and I really don't like soju. But to each her own!
The service was excellent. Our waitress gave great suggestions, was very helpful, and pointed us in the right direction when it came to making sure we had enough food, but not too much, for everyone.
So the key is to know what to order, and it does take a bit of time but once you get the hang of it it's all good in da hood! Try the curry, whitefish, potstickers, Black Cod, chicken tandori and sea bass for some seriously good flavor. Also the saki flights are excellent, and a bargain for the quality that you are getting!
Me and my buddy rolled into here looking for a change from the typical 4th street fare. The first… Read more »
great tapas bar! excellent atmosphere!
Small plates were perfect and delicious. For three people, we ordered 6 dishes. Shrimp and Scallop toast was superb. Mojitos also excellent.
Was going to give this place 3 stars. The food was not that great, but the service was decent and the price was pretty cheap. However, found out a few days later that 3 of us in our group all got food poisoning, and Warung was the last common meal we had. So I'm actually giving this place 1.5 stars, but the 2 stars is just rounding up =)
Definitely will not go back there again. We were originally going to Pete's Cafe down the street, but there was a power outage, so the owner recommended Warung, which they also run. Now, I don't know if I want to go try Pete's either =/
I really like this place because I love Asian fusion and tapas-sized portions. This place also offers sake flights (3 shots of different types of sake) at a fantastic price! There were 4 of us that last went here for a birthday dinner and we each ordered a sake flight so 12 shotglasses of sake were served in front of us; we later ordered 2 more bottles of sake; and I can't remember how many dishes we ordered, at least 10, not including their yummy desserts. The food was all tasty and flavorful and the service was great. It only came out to about $200 for the 4 of us and with all that food and all those drinks. The interior is also very tastefully decorated in dark woods with a modern and sexy flair. I would definitely love to come back here on a regular basis.
I think I can honestly say that I've tried the majority of their dishes and desserts and they were all consistently good. I highly recommend this place for happy hour, dinner, late night dinner, group outings, birthday outings.
I came here with a friend for the dineLA menu. For appetizers we ordered the papaya and tofu salad which came with a lime chili vinaigrette. It was a good balance of flavors but it was more on the tangy side. And we ordered the mushroom potstickers which were just okay.
The appetizers weren't impressive but the entrees were! The baby lamb chops were marinated with a mint basil pesto sauce and served with arugula salad and a yogurt cumin sauce. The lamb was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The black cod was served with basmati coconut rice and a curry sauce.
The desserts were also winners! The coconut creme bruless had chucks on coconut infused in the creme brulee! So if you're a fan of coconut, then you would love this. And the crispy banana spring roll came with candied walnuts and vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel. This will definitely satisfy any sweet tooth.
This is a tough table to get on a Downtown LA Art Walk. Then voila! We gots ourselves a mighty good recession going and the last time we were down there we were able to get a table with a very small wait and no reservation. (Editor's note: recessions are terrible occurrences but they sure do thin out the dining crowds)
It was the BF's birthday so we ordered with abandon. Fried tofu in tiny fried cubes, pork short ribs, tuna tartare, potstickers - all manner of lip-smacking asian tapas. Now I don't consider myself a roll-deep, eat everything kind of Yelper, but we really did have to order quite a few items before I began to feel mildly sated. Two glasses of white wine, two sake cocktails, and our bill soared high like the eagle! I'm not too upset about it, and the BF ate everything he could get his hands on. Besides, any dude worth his short and curlies should know by now that 'tapas' is code for 'you're going to need 18 of these tiny plates, mister!'
I adore Warung! their drinks are tops, from the sake sampler to their signature Martinis. The cucmber martini was a hit with friends. My favorites include their salads, and their agedashi tofu! cut into little light, perfectly fried pieces. Lamb is grand and perfectly cooked. Always attentive service.
EJ: "Hey, I'm hungry. Let's go to OB Bear!"
'Tard #1: "K-Town? But we're in downtown. I came all the way down here from K-Town and I could have just met you guys there! [5 mins. of bitching deleted as Yelp has a limit on the reviews.]"
'Tard #2: "Let's go to Casey's Irish Bar & Grill"*
EJ: "An Irish pub? It's not anywhere close to St. Patrick's day. Do they even serve food? And I'm not talking about haggas."
'Tards (in unison): "Yeah, sure they serve food!"
[Walk to Casey's, sit down, expecting fish & chips.]
'Tard #2: "Aww man, the kitchen's closed already."
EJ: "Hey, I'm (still) hungry. Let's go to OB Bear!"
'Tard #3: "Since we have to get in a car, let's go to Warung!"
EJ [mutters beneath breath]: "'Tards."
*'Tard #2 didn't actually call Casey's by its whole name: "Casey's Irish Bar & Grill". I'm just providing more detail for those uninitiated to downtown. You're welcome.
Nice decor, very "Oriental" (i.e., the decor should delight everyone that gravitates towards these hip and trendy restaurants because, just like all the other "Asian Fusion" restaurant, they've decided to take in a variety of Asian architectural style elements and vomit it all up). Guys, this would be a place you should take a date if you want to get laid. Girls, this would be a place you should take a date if you want to get laid. Just don't forget to tie your hair up and use chopsticks to hold it together. [Actually, girls, to clue you in, you could probably take most guys anywhere, wearing sweats and still get laid.]
- Banana spring rolls
- Green curry with tofu
- Crispy chicken potstickers
- Tuna tartar (surprise, surprise)
Now, don't get me wrong, judging by the decor alone, I didn't expect this place to be "authentic"--and I've been to some really authentic places (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). However, I did expect a little more on a lot of fronts. Food was definitely: "Meh, I've experienced better," and prices were pretty ridiculous given the extremely small portions. Yeah, I know I'm Asian and I can subsist on rice and a few slices of sauteed tree bark, but even my tapeworm could eat more than this.
I'd come back, but only to drink. Maybe I'd do the gourmand's equivalent of pre-partying at my place with 5-course meal and then come here to drink. And maybe only during happy hour. And only if I was locked out of every other happy hour--so which is to say, maybe never?
In the end, I left thinking: how could everything have gone so horribly warung? Oh yeah, I listened to the 'Tards instead of stuffing them all in car and going to O B Bear.
Epilogue: In the end, we ended up going to O B Bear, and the 'Tards ate more than I did.
We had a late dinner here last night, after prowling the artwalk.
We had no problem getting a table, and our server, Lilly, I believe, was TOP NOTCH. I have a wheat issue, and she was very helpful with our selections, and offered great reccomendations.
Everything we ordered was amazing, but if you eat nothing else here, you must have the Miso Scallops and the Coconut Creme Brulee...Oh. My. God.
The Warung Cafe is, IMHO, just about the best "first date" option to be had downtown. It serves asian fusion style tapas with no dish costing over $11. Sake, wine and beer. Romantic ambience to burn. The only downside is that parking is an issue. I'm pretty sure they have valet, though.
In particular, I recommend the fried tofu and the ribs. The sauce on the ribs is quite unusual and quite tasty. What sushi selections there were did not impress.
For those of you familiar with the word "warung." don't be expecting any Indonesian fare. There is none to be had.
This place was a fun find. It's got a great interior, very ambient. The bar is great, it's not a busy place, but it's a great place to have drinks with a few people for conversation...
I did Kirin on draft and a few bottles of Sake with some friends there recently... I've never actually mixed those two products, but I officially know that that combination will give me a hangover. Luckily they also have Sapporo on draft and I've never had gotten a hangover from Sapporo and Sake.
I've yet to try the food here so I can't comment on it yet...
but I can say the staff here is awesome, very friendly and fun.
3.75 Stars
We dropped in here after the Art Walk when I was jonezing for sushi and Warung was the closest thing available within walking distance.
Asian-fusion tapas?!?!
Seems like a brilliant idea since sushi is usually served in small portions, naturally complementing the "small plates" tapas format.
Tapas dining allows customers to try different dishes without breaking the bank. None of the dishes here are over $10, and our entire meal totaled $130 for 4 people with drinks ( though one didn't eat much)
The service we encountered that night was excellent: the staff was super accommodating about seating us late and never rushed our order, though we were the last people to leave. They seemed very busy due to the art event and did forget to put an order in for our dessert. But when my troublesome friend made a stink about it they didn't bat an eyelash and gave the dessert to us for free.
The dishes I loved:
- Tuna tartar
- Asian ceviche
- Ahi tuna salad
- Salmon and tuna sashimi on rice bites
The reasons I'm not giving Warung a higher rating:
- The hot Black Cod plate I ordered was very mediocre.
- I wish they had a bigger selection of sides (such as sunomono cucumber salad or shishito peppers).
But overall, I recommend this restaurant if you're in the neighborhood.
Had dinner here during Art Walk and I was pretty impressed. The inside is nice (bamboo and dark woods), the lighting is soft, and the service is friendly and professional. Per the recommendation of the bartender, I got the Green Curry Chicken. The soup was very flavorful; it starts off milky and smooth but finishes spicy. There are several different kinds of vegetables in there, all of which are cooked perfectly. The soup is served with an ice cream scoop of jasmine rice. The soup was served a bit too hot and I burned my tongue. Looking forward to coming back and trying more dishes. Their menu is very creative.
I've been here at least 4 times, mostly because my husband loves this place and I keep thinking I'm missing something. But I'm positive I've exhausted everything on the menu. First of all it is way overpriced even with their $4 menu, it's highway robbery! Only a couple of items are good, but not worth exploring. Hold out for dim sum at Elite Restaurant if you're looking for "Chinese tapas." The one star is the good service you get because the place is empty on a weeknight.
Quite impressive; Warung is a hidden gem among the shadows of downtown LA. Its quaint location and cozy interior reminds me of a Manhattan cafe. I had the pleasure of dining there with a couple of friends and was fortunate to try practically half of their menu. The small tapas style plates were very inspiring. I would recommend all of the dishes I tried which included the following:
Warung Salad
Tuna Tartar
Seafood Asian Ceviche
White Fish sashimi
Shitake Mushroom Miso Soup
Crispy tofu bites
Mongolian Beef
Miso Marinated Scallops
Green Curry with Chicken
Black Cod
Crispy Chicken Pot stickers
Grilled Chicken tandoori
Sea Bass
They also have a variety of signature cocktails made from soju as well as a small yet effective sake and wine list. Try the poochi poochi sparkling sake, I recommend just getting the bottle because after having a glass, you'll definitely want more.
The desserts were nothing special, the coconut creme brulee was a little too stiff. The banana spring roll was ok. If they redesigned their dessert choices or hire on a pastry chef, Warung will without a doubt dominate the downtown eating scene.
Warung's prices are also extremely reasonable. This allows for plenty of communal sharing amongst friends.
Bon appetit...
It's not so much as dim sum (aka Chinese tapas as I like to call it), but more so a mixture of Asian foods.
This cute Asian fusion restaurant is pricey for the amount you get, but the food is tasty. They have a pretty extensive cocktail menu but mostly beer and soju mixes.
I recommend the Warung Tea (with soju) and the vegetarian samosas that comes with a great yogurt dip. The mini tofu bites with the peanut sauce is good, but I fear Warung has felt the need to highly-emphasize mini.
Delicious food, but super tiny plates with big prices.
A gorgeous little restaurant on the oh-so-hipster 4th and Main corridor in Downtown Los Angeles, Warung is a lovely and cozy place for a date or a small gathering of friends to nibble on Asian style tapas.
I was fortunate enough to be with generous friends who decided to order every dish on the menu for our table of six and a few rounds of cocktails as well. It was a fantasy come true for a devoted eater like myself and the restaurant manager was equally thrilled.
As the perfectly arranged morsels of dumplings, noodles, meats and fish began to arrive in a parade of plates landing on our tables, I was a tad disappointed with the stingy sizes of those plates. The food was wonderfully tasty, which ironically, only exacerbated the situation with the tiny portions which seemed to be completely consumed in just a gulp or two. We wanted more, or at least I wanted more. The sesame noodles, dumplings and Mongolian beef were especially delectable, but simply not enough even after we ordered additional helpings. Each dish ranges from $3-$10 and for anyone with a hearty appetite, it would cost a fortune to fill up here.
But, for Downtowners looking for a convenient, low key dining option that won't interfere with their ability to fit into their skinny jeans, Warung is the perfect place..
The food is GREAT and the service is even better!!!!!!!
Call me biased because my roommate is the hostess and I know the whole wait staff, but I really love this place.
Green curry is my FAVORITE, the chicken potstickers are awesome, Mongolian Beef is spicy & tasty, and the drinks are always good (especially the Thai Tea for non-alcohol drinkers). Everyone is super nice, and there's almost never a huge wait, except during Art Walk when you can forget getting a table anywhere on Gallery Row in less than 30 minutes. Definitely worth trying, and if you don't totally love the food, at least the ambience is fun.
Yelpers Special on Fridays
Neighborhood: Downtown
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Neighborhood: Downtown
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Restaurants
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: American (New)
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Vietnamese
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: American (New)
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Brazilian
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