Eating up and down Western Avenue, LA: BOILER 설렁탕
Inspired by Jonathan Gold’s year of eating down all of Pico Boulevard, LARG will attempt to eat at every restaurant on Western Avenue.
June 15th, 2026
Slightly set back from Western in Koreatown is a 2 floor strip mall housing Boiler, whose tagline is 3 days aged meat. The menu's main items are ribs and seolleongtang. Banchan includes soy marinated peppers and onions, and both radish and Napa cabbage kimchis. I meant to order the seolleongtang, but, overtaken by the Toast ordering tablet options, I got a yukgaejang, with a big rib sticking out. They also have a seolleongtang with a rib sticking out, spicy seolleongtang, one with fish, and a few more including the standard commonly seen one.
Their soup is also, as advertised, simmered for 72 hours. That simmer provides a hearty backbone in the yukgaejang, clearly announcing itself beyond all the spices, mushrooms, and meats floating in the broth. It is lip moisturizing fatty while being immensely clean which I’ve come to associate with seolleongtang.The plainness throws off some newcomers but, either gradually or immediately, becomes the driving force bringing you back in for more. It wasn’t all that spicy, but the bottom of my bowl had a lot of chili seeds floating down there.
The radish kimchi was nice on the ginger and the spicy beef ribs were more sweet than spicy, cooked exactly how you want them.
