It is always a good sign of authentic good food when you see the restaurant is full of people from its ethnic. In this case, it was the Crab House in Korean town – LA, which was full of local Korean. My friend and I were the only two customers who weren’t Korean at the restaurant.

The smell inside was amazing and the enthusiasm of the dinners made us even more excited to try this famous dish for the first time, at this highly recommended restaurant.

We came here mainly to try the famous traditional Korea dish, called Ganjang Gejang (soy sauce marinated raw crab) and Yangnyeom Gejang (spicy marinated raw crab). The restaurant is having a special combo deal with a serving of 3 crabs/ 6 pieces of Ganjang Gejang and sea urchin rice bowl

Ganjang Gejang (soy sauce marinated raw crab). Surprisingly, it wasn’t stinky, fishy or salty as I thought. The raw crabs smell and taste was gone, instead, it was an interesting combination of crab meat flavored with soy sauce and some spices. It was a balance of slightly sweet, salty and savory. The crab meat was succulent, firm but not cooked. It has a color of fresh crab meat darken by soy sauce. And the crab eggs, and “crab butter” were creamy. You suppose to suck the meat out of the shelf and enjoy it with some rice. I found a sip of soju after that was very satisfying. The nickname “rice thief” was absolutely right because it was very good with rice. There was a myth about a Korean Emperor who was sick and lost his appetite, his doctor served him the Ganjang Gejang and it got the Emperor to eat again.

Yangnyeom Gejang (spicy marinated raw crab). Spicier than Ganjang Gejang. It was sweet and flavorful but I couldn’t taste as much crab flavor as Ganjang Gejang.

Salmon head stew as one of the side dish – banchan. It looked scary but it was very tasty.

Sea urchin rice bowl which came with the combo. There weren’t much sea urchin on the bottom but the other fish roes made up for it.

I really like this restaurant with friendly service and family fell. The foods were delicious. But it was hard to have this kind of food anytime I want because it wasn’t fun eating alone. I always have to find couple of people to go with me. And it is hard to find people in the US who willing to try those authentic dishes.