The Spoon

Great ambiance. Great food. Great pastas other than I wanted my pasta al dente. All over experience, wonderful! I am surprised it’s not popular. Clearly under rated.

I love Italian food and I love Korean food — what better place to be than at The Spoon does a really good fusion of the two. My favorite item is the bulgogi pizza and the crab linguine. The food deserves a solid 4 stars but the reason why it’s getting a 3.5 from me is because there are so many other more popular options in that plaza (curry house, school food, sul & beans) that the Spoon didn’t seem to match the caliber of quite yet. Though I will say that it’s a huge plus that this place is offered on the rushorder app (use code HUNGRY3 at checkout for 3 bucks off, score!) so I can get this delivered and not have to worry about that bottleneck of a parking lot every time I want to order from a place in this mall.

Came here during lunch and we were the ONLY customers here, and then a party of 7 came in after us. So what’s the deal with serving them first even though we ordered first? We literally ordered 2 Cobb salads and 2 waters… get it together Spoon. It’s hard to mess up on salad or the order when there are a total of 2 tables in your restaurant! Hangry… after waiting 35 min for a salad!

Gave this place a shot because I was craving some Italian food while in Koreatown. My friend wasn’t all that convinced, but she gave in. The restaurant was almost empty, with only one couple dining inside (Friday evening at 8 pm). The décor is cute, but does not make the place look like a restaurant so it kind of throws you off. Regardless, it’s comfortable, so I guess that’s not all that relevant.
I ordered Fettuccine Alfredo because I felt basic and my friend ordered an appetizer sampler because who knows why. I so badly wanted the food to be good, but sadly, it was all pretty average. With some salt and pepper, my pasta gained some sense of flavor, and I finished it with no complaints. The piece of bread that came with it was delicious.
I do have to say, however, that our server was extremely sweet and very accommodating. I want to give this place more stars because of him, but the food just wasn’t that good. I might give this place another try, though, just to see if other items on the menu taste as good as they look in pictures on here.

What’s the fuss? If you want Italian food, move on and dine at a ‘real’ Italian joint with pictures of Scarface and Bugsy on the walls. Our group did family style and shared the following dishes: seafood pasta, crab linguine, hawaiian style pizza, seafood jambalaya, mushroom ravioli, and calamari appetizer. The common theme across all the tried dishes was oily, with the exception of the pizza and calamari. The seafood pasta and jambalaya had amples amount of seafood (e.g., clam, mussels, and scallops) and pasta was cooked appropriately, but we couldn’t overlook the oiliness. The mushrooms in the ravioli tasted instant and out of a can. The calamari appetizer had a nice crispy batter and the hawaiian pizza was okay.
If you happen to be in the area and crave pasta, then check it out. But then, if you are in the area, why would you want pasta with all delish Korean food around. Also, The Spoon is in the Madang plaza, so the parking can be a mess. It’s not worth trouble.

The food is tasty but the quality is barely above fast food. The bulgogi pizza tastes exactly like you’d expect. It’s not the best combination of flavors but if you like bulgogi go for it.
If you want good Italian food go to Colori Kitchen. If you want good Korean food there are a million options in the area. Our server was very pleasant.

Bleh!!!
So… The décor in this place is so cute. The tufted seats and comfy seating make the place so homey and inviting. However, my praises end there.
We ordered the seafood spaghetti, bulgogi dduk bboki and spoon pizza.
And might I say that, though the food looks tasty, the seafood pasta didn’t really taste like much. The pasta tasted funky.
The bulgogi rice cakes were okay but slightly on the bland side.
The pizza was weird. We couldn’t really decide what the flavor was. At times it tasted like a salad. At other times it tasted like a hamburger. And even at other times it tasted like dessert.
Overall, I wouldn’t say that this is a place to recommend. There are so many more delicious places to eat in Los Angeles.

I went recently with the boyfriend and ordered another Spoon Pizza (couldn’t resist the in-​n-​out burger pizza) and a Chinese Chicken Salad (or Asian Chicken salad… Can’t really remember) and it was the perfect complement! I asked the nice waiter for something that tastes fresh, and that’s what he recommended. It was indeed fresh and really delicious. Next time I definitely have to try the pasta as well! I keep going for the pizza xD

So good! Can’t believe I never been here before! I tried the jambalaya pasta so yummy! Also tried the spoon pizza that was delicious as well it tastes like a burger in pizza form! Definitely a must try! The portions are pretty big, I ordered a few plates and shared with my friends. The service was great waiter came around numerous times to check on us and was very prompt with refilling water hehe. I hope more people start going to spoon I wouldn’t want it to see it close down. :(

Can the Madang mall at 6^th and Western get any better? With the movie theatre, School Food and Curry House, a gym, four coffee places (including Paris Baguette and Tom & Toms, about 50 feet from each other), awesome shaved ice place (Sul & Beans), a Daiso, an always-​empty pricey gym, consignment high-​end bags (Bobos), a great phone case kiosk, the new H-​mart supermarket, and now The Spoon? Geez, it’s everything but the soju. Literally everything but, as the H-​Mart failed to obtain their liquor license and cannot sell alcohol. Lots of ajummas with plentiful samples, though.
Sadly, the one dud at Madang is Madang itself — the plaza’s signature restaurant on the first floor.
The Spoon is a new Italian-​style restaurant attached to kiddie spot Lemon Tree (both spots share an owner and the bathrooms), and it is a hit! You’ll like the bright airy look with chandeliers and big windows, not grandma’s dark Italian joint of yesteryear. Most weekends, you’ll find the entire restaurant booked for a first birthday party or some such thing, but come dinner time it’s wide open. If you’re parked the car already, try The Spoon out for pizza. We tried Bulgogi and pesto styles — both awesome. The large pizza will feed a foursome (or hungrier threesome). We added a salad and a very delicious quesadilla with chicken. Carbo load, indeed. High marks for the lemonade as well. Coke is in a can.
Unilocaler’s tip on the DL: all shops validate for two hours. The movie theatre validates for four hours. Movie theatre staffers are happy to validate your parking ticket, if you get my meaning. Enjoy!

This hidden gem is inside the H Mart shopping market. Parking is in the H Mart mall parking. The Spoon validates for 2hrs.
Brace yourself for one of the best customer service you can find in a restaurant. Even with groupon! :) Didn’t ask the name of the guy, but he was outstanding. He was the only one on a busy Friday night & constantly checked back with all the tables to make sure everyone is happy. He even apologized for being a min late to bring crushed pepper. He was smiling all the time & made us feel welcome. Thanks a lot for making anniversary night so special!
Fried calamari– freshly fried with fresh oil (but not oily). The marinara sauce & the white sauce rocked! But the batter for calamari was more like the batter for fried mozzarella sticks. So it kinda took over the taste of the squid. But it’s definitely a great appetizer
Veggie Pizza– this is the difference between cheap chain pizza & a good restaurant pizza. The mozzarella was really tasty, not salty/​oily. Soft & crispy edge gave the dough a perfect combination. All the ingredients were fresh, but I don’t like lettuce on pizza (my wife liked it)
Crab meat linguine pasta– it was fresh. Not too heavy, yet good enough for dinner. Had a lot of crab meat in the pink sauce. But I couldn’t taste the crab that much. Maybe i was looking for a strong crab taste. But this one was lacking that strong flavor. Regardless, it’s really good
Mushroom ravioli– I’m a big fan of cream sauce. And this one was truly amazing. The cream sauce is kinda heavy, but that’s the beauty of it. Taste was rich & creamy
I’ll definitely be back & I’ll recommend my f&f to this great restaurant.

This place is clean and very pretty. The food is so good and service is really great too! Our server Richard was so friendly and helpful. We ordered seafood spaghetti and margarita pizza. My friend likes the pasta but I liked the pizza (mainly bc I’m a big pizza fan hahaha). Nom Nom
Nom. :D

Decided on this place randomly as I wanted Italian and being in ktown. When I walked in at around 6 the place was empty. …another table got occupied near the end of my meal.
The food was good. Didn’t expect much but ordered the linguini vongole and bulgogi pizza. The bulgogi pizza really tasted like bulgogi… was good… I’ll probably order it again, just needs a little more tomato sauce. The linguini was good… the clams didn’t taste fishy…
The service was good. Friendly and attentive. Would like to have a spoon or something to go with the fork… but not a big deal.
The prices were ok. The linguini was $ 11 and the pizza 10 inch was $ 13.
One thing this place does need is a little more signage… came to the Plaza and had to look around to find it as its nestled in the bottom corner of the building.

Came here as a last-​minute dinner option on a Sunday night. The pasta is very delicious– we had the spaghetti bolognese, the cajun jambalaya, and crabmeat linguini. Was surprised that there were no other customers at the time (8:30pm).
The price is reasonable considering the quality and location ($ 20 per person, when it’s all said and done).
I think the restaurant has to do more aggressive marketing to let people know that (A) they exist and (B) where they are. Their name’s not even listed on the signage next to the elevator (which lists all the restaurants in the plaza). Maybe a large sandwich board outside, or a person handing out coupons/​deals.

I guess people have yet to discover The Spoon. Two months into business, and there are only five reviews (and now six). That’s too bad because it turns out this is a pretty good restaurant.
A bunch of us stopped by for lunch on a Sunday recently, and we had the place to ourselves. The restaurant itself is clean and it has a little stage area (not sure what that’s for). My wife said that it would be a good place to have small events.
The wife and I ordered the Chef’s Special pasta and the BBQ Chicken pizza. The pasta was delicious. The pink sauce was very flavorful and clean-​tasting and not heavy at all. I would order this next time for sure.
The pizza was very cheesy (which I like) and also clean-​tasting. It wasn’t a spectacular pizza, but we didn’t have any complaints about it either.
Service was good (even though there was only one server) and the prices were very reasonable. We don’t come to this plaza often, but when we do, I’d be happy to return to The Spoon.

Let me start off by saying my waitress Jaime was great, friendly and offered great advice. LOVE HER (to know me is to know I’m ALL ABOUT customer service over anything.).
Cajun Jambalaya was flavorful, great meat/​shrimp portion, peppers and was ultimately glad I didn’t order the Cobb salad. Not that it wouldn’t have been good but can a salad ever really stand tall next to great pasta? The sauce was good. Wasn’t just bland tomato paste if watered down red juice.
Cute location! For those riding up and down Western looking for a very good place to eat in unknown territory, this is a viable option.
P. s. Had leftovers and took the Cobb Salad to go

This place looks like it’s struggling a bit with only 3 Unilocal!reviews and being empty on a Thursday night in a busy-​ish plaza (there’s a theater, daiso, market and ~5 coffee shops), but the innovation drew me in.
I was excited to get bulgogi duk (11) which I had imagined to be pieces of bulgogi swimming in bright red sauce with tubular chew rice cakes, but it was the opposite. The duk was pan fried to give it a crispy texture and this placed in light bulgogi oil and meat. It was delicious, but not what I was expecting.
The kimchi pilaf (10) was… just kim chi fried rice. the consistency wasn’t wet enough to be considered pilaf. The egg was nice. Wish it were a little bigger.

Having lived in koreatown for a few years (more like over a decade!) There aren’t too many Italian restaurants that I came across… Being a regular at the lemon tree I was familiar with it the food but I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent customer service!
with that said…
I really enjoyed dining at the spoon :)
The food was rich and flavorful… I especially loved that the pasta had a lot of sauce to spare as bc I like to dip my pizza crust in the sauce ^^
My friend and I had shared a gorgonzola pizza and Bolognese… had left overs and even enjoyed it at home!
I will definitely be stopping by to get my quick pasta fix WITHOUT the kids! Hahahaa!!! My new to-​go place for «soul comforting» Italian food ;)

I was a little skeptical of this place because there was not a single soul in there. The mall was busy yet the restaurant was empty af. But we also wanted to check it out for ourselves because who knows if it might be a hidden gem? So we flipped a coin: heads curry house and tails the spoon. Tail it was.
We ordered fried calamari, bulgogi pizza (we had a hard time choosing between the BBQ chicken pizza and bulgogi. Unfortunately the waiter had never ever had BBQ chicken pizza in his whole entire life, including at the spoon, so we opted for the bulgogi. Twas a fine choice.) and Cajun pasta.
Fried calamari slices were thick but soft. Not. Idk that word in english so yeah. The outside was crunchy and I liked it a lot. Don’t expect the type of fried calamari you get at marmalade.
Bulgogi pizza tasted like good Olé original bulgogi my grandma makes. Dough was thin and bready. Thin like pizza go but better. Wish we didn’t finish all of it at the restaurant so I can have some right now :(
Cajun pasta could’ve been a little spicier. A bit misleading when they had a chili picture next to the description in the menu. But I’ll let the lack of spiciness slide because they were so generous with the amount of shrimp and Italian sausage.
All in all, I’m glad we stopped by here today.
I’m only taking away a star because they didn’t have the TV on. Why have two huge tvs if you’re not going to use them? We watched Netflix on Daniel’s phone ahahahahahahha twas a good night.
Ps they have a cute little stage towards the kitchen. Guess they’re prepared for performances or something. Cute stage.

I chanced upon this Italian fusion restaurant on their soft opening night. Located in the courtyard under CGV on the same level as Daiso, the Spoon is a cute and clean spot that serves pasta, Pizza and risotto.
The kimchi pilaf was a delicious cheesy rice dish with bacon that seemed like a souped up kimchi fried rice. The boyfriends Cajun jambalaya linguine tastes better than my seafood spaghetti. Both were tomato based red sauces although the seafood spaghetti is available with cream sauce as well. The jambalaya was more flavorful and even packed a very slight Cajun heat. I added Tabasco to my spaghetti for some more oomph like a true Korean. Each pasta came with a cute garlic bread shaped like a bowtie that left a little more garlic or butter to be desired.
I’m rounding up from a 3.5 since it was pretty decent for a Korean Italian fusion place, and I would return if I was in the Plaza. Pricing was fair considering the portions, but I do wish it was a bit more creative or innovative. I believe they are a sister restaurant to the kid-​friendly restaurant next door.