Kogi Taco Truck - 3.5/5 Jarritos

There are only two things I would voluntarily stand in line for over an hour: (1) sex; and (2) Din Tai Fung. Kogi BBQ Taco Truck (“Kogi”) is not on that list and therefore I will not voluntarily wait in line for over an hour to eat their tacos.

That said, if you have the chance to eat Kogi’s tacos without standing in line for more than 10 minutes, DO IT!

I consider myself to be an extremely patient person. I’ve waited over an hour for some of the so-called “best” ramen shops in Tokyo. I stood in line for over an hour to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on opening night at Mann’s Chinese Theater. (Actually, my friend was the trooper since he camped out for 25 hours to buy the tickets, while his twin brother and I drove down from Santa Barbara and only had to wait a couple of hours before they started letting people in. And yes, we saw Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla when they walked away and said they'd be first in line for the next movie.) I stood in line for over two hours in order to eat dim sum at Koi Palace in Daly City, supposedly the “best dim sum” in all of the San Francisco area. The dim sum was maybe above average and nowhere near worth the effort of sitting in a sea of Chinese people who were getting into fistfights with the maitre d’ as they called our name to be seated. (Not joking.)

In all of those cases, the end product was not even close to the amount of time spent waiting. As I stood in a line full of hipsters waiting to try the newest “thing” to hit L.A., Korean-style tacos, I thought to myself “I already know that it will be next-to-impossible for Kogi to create tacos so unbelievable that it’ll make this wait worthwhile.” And yet I stood in line anyway, probably because Frederick Bottoms was accompanying me on this trip and we really had nothing better to do on a Wednesday night.



“Kogi: Korean BBQ-To-Go” is basically a taco truck that serves tacos filled with Korean bbq-flavored meat. It’s as if the owner of a Korean bbq restaurant said “I’m sick and tired of sitting in the same old restaurant, making the same old marinade, serving the same old people – and then decided to rent a taco truck and create an incredibly unique menu combining traditional tacos and other Mexican-inspired foods and filling them with Korean-style ingredients. Although such combination immediately startles one’s imagination, the blend of Korean and Mexican flavors is actually quite successful.


[Side menu not pictured]

The menu consists of tacos and burritos, filled with your choice of meat: short ribs, spicy pork, or chicken. You can also get your tacos filled with tofu if you want, but I’m not about to pay hard-earned money to eat tofu tacos. Additionally, they also have a side menu that changes daily, including such items as a Kogi Korean hot dog, kimchee quesadilla, vegetable torta, Korean bbq sliders, and other interesting items. The first time I ate at Kogi, I shied away from the rotating menu and instead went for the gut – tacos only. The second time, I branched out and ate their kimchee quesadilla and Korean hot dog.



Let’s start with the good. The short rib tacos were fantastic. The short rib meat was by far and away the best of the three types. The Korean hot dog was amazing. It’s as if they put on that ridiculous outfit from Hot Dog On A Stick, dipped the hot dog in a bubbly vat of Korean awesomeness and magically pulled out a marinated hot dog and put it on a bun surrounded with Korean lettuce/cabbage and spices. To put it another way, if I’m coming out of a club wasted beyond belief, I’ll take Kogi’s Korean hot dog ANY DAY over the bacon-wrapped hot dogs from the other street vendors. And I can bet that the Kogi hot dog will feel less painful exiting my body than the bacon-wrapped hot dog. Science needs to prove such a phenomenon.


[Resting those tacos on top of trash cans. Stay Classy, TacosAndRamen.]

Okay, who am I kidding. If I’m wasted, there’s a pretty good chance that the smell of grilled bacon would be overwhelming and cause me to pull out my wallet and immediately start throwing dollar bills at people until I got what I wanted.

Now, let’s move to the mediocre. The spicy pork and chicken tacos were average. Unfortunately, the Korean-flavored “greens” that accompany the tacos have a very intense flavor that simply overwhelms the flavor of these meats. Ever eat a taco that has too much cilantro, onion, and salsa? The same thing goes for the spicy pork and chicken tacos. The meat simply does not carry as much flavor as the short rib tacos and therefore the lettuce/cabbage “greens” overpower the taco. When I bite into a taco, I want the meat to be the dominant part of the experience, with the green stuff (and salsa) complimenting and enhancing the flavor of the taco. Unfortunately, the spicy pork and chicken taste like they were marinated only minutes before being cooked on the grill. They simply do not have enough presence to be the starring role in this taco movie.

Now, for the unimpressed. The kimchi quesadilla was a severe disappointment. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I heard the words “kimchi” and “quesadilla,” but I think I imagined floating on a cloud of pure energy while sprouting angel wings and ridding myself of the troubles of the world such as mortgage payments and billable hours. Instead, it looked like this:



Okay, I know. The picture was taken at night and obviously does not do it justice. At all. But seriously, I thought I’d get more for my five dollars than a crusty tortilla sparsely filled with Cosmos kimchi. Take warning.

Let’s end on something good. The people who work at Kogi are unbelievably nice and friendly human beings. I generally hate all human beings and would be perfectly happy if I could limit my daily interactions to about 2 people per day. Maybe 3 people on weekends. I can also spot the people who pretend to be friendly, especially if they want your business.

Without a doubt, the people who work at Kogi are genuinely friendly and are really striving to put out a great product that people will keep coming back for. There is no doubt in my mind that these people have struck something solid. By constantly moving their location, they’re keeping their product limited and exclusive. They’ve also brought together two completely different types of food and cultures that seemingly could never be combined. They primarily sell their product in Silver Lake and Venice, two neighborhoods comprised of people who thrive on telling their friends about the latest “new thing” in L.A. I believe they’ve also recently set up shop in downtown LA, near the Golden Gopher and also in J-Town, near the Japanese American National Museum.

However, my ladyfriend made a good point. What if this is the taco truck version of Pink Berry? When Pink Berry first came out, they had lines out the door. Everyone was talking about Pink Berry and asking their friends if they tried it yet. But it’s not like they had the recipe for KFC or Coca Cola. Their product wasn’t that difficult to imitate, and sure enough copycats arose and now Yogurtland is quickly making every Pink Berry obsolete. Yogurtland has found a way to take everything great about Pink Berry and make it ten times better.

I fear for the day when Kogi copycats are driving the streets, filling tacos with their own version of short ribs, pork, and chicken. As much as I’d like to say that I enjoy the nostalgia of eating at Pink Berry, I can tell you that I went to Yogurtland two days ago and can’t remember the last time I gave my business to Pink Berry.

But until the day that the copycats come, I’ll be giving my business to Kogi every week or two – assuming the wait isn’t that long.

Much love till my next post.

Kogi Taco Truck
Address: Venice, Silver Lake, Downtown L.A., Westwood (Check website for location)