Baroo changed L.A. dining for good. Can its 2.0 do the same?
LA TimesIf I had to choose one word to encapsulate the creative surge that propelled L.A.’s food culture forward last decade — a momentum that confirmed the city’s status as a global culinary destination, a spate of nonconformism that continues to influence how we think about restaurants — it would be Baroo. It began: “Where do these meals come from?” Baroo’s open, polished dining space in the Arts District is a far cry from the restaurant’s first iteration. Uh’s pineapple-laced kimchi fried rice and brainstorms like oxtail ragout with gochujang and sauerkraut powder bridged the arc between Roy Choi’s Korean tacos and Ludo Lefebvre’s layered, unbridled tasting-menu courses at Trois Mec. In 2019 Uh and Park had a short-lived stall inside East Hollywood’s Union Swapmeet they called Baroo Canteen, serving pared-down versions of Uh’s grain bowls.
History of this topic
Baroo, innovator of Korean dining, is The Times’ 2024 Restaurant of the Year
LA Times
New York’s fanciest ‘Korean wave’ restaurants go where L.A. doesn’t: caviar and kimchi
LA Times
Experimental Korean restaurant Baroo reopens with ‘life cycle’ tasting menu downtown
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