Hojokban is a well-known name in Seoul and NYC, and their LA location in the Arts District manages to stand out with Korean food that's creative but not too precious. Dinners start with a complimentary round of banchan and only get more fun from there. Soju cocktails pack a punch, service is smooth, and dishes cleverly mix fancy with folksy, like bacon fried rice spilling out of an upturned ramen cup or truffle jjajangmyeon plated inside a ring of wood ear mushrooms. The dining room, with its dim lighting and long stone bar, feels like a place you'd want to get a little dressed up to eat in, but there are still plenty of friend groups cracking bottles of makgeolli like they’re cutting loose in Ktown on a Friday night. Hojokban has all the ingredients for a big Arts District night out—you can add caviar and uni to anything, for one—but most of the dishes are reasonably priced at under $30. Our favorites tend to be the simpler ones anyway: silky beef tartare in sesame dressing, an octopus stir-fry and tteokbokki hybrid, and a big galbi platter with short rib slices softer than our childhood security blanket. There’s no dessert menu (donut spot Cafe Knotted is open late next door), but when dinner's over, your server will show up with a chilled bucket of complimentary Melona bars to pick from.