The Mulberry: Sawtelle’s Best New Korean Bistro Is Worth Every Reservation Attempt

If you’ve been paying attention to Sawtelle Boulevard lately, you’ve probably noticed a line snaking out of a lantern-lit doorway at the corner of La Grange. That’s The Mulberry — the Korean-American bistro that opened earlier this year, landed on the Michelin Guide within months, and quietly became the most talked-about new restaurant in West LA. We finally got in. Here’s everything you need to know about the best new Korean bistro on Sawtelle.

The Space: Somewhere Between Ojai and New York

The Mulberry takes over the old Plan Check space at 1800 Sawtelle, and the transformation is total. What was once a laid-back burger joint is now all dark wood, warm lantern light, exposed brick, and a front patio canopied by actual mulberry branches strung with Edison lights. The name comes from a tree long revered in Korean culture — a symbol of creation, connection, and renewal — and the space earns it. It lands somewhere between an Ojai bungalow and a slick Lower East Side brasserie, which is a sentence we never expected to write about a restaurant on Sawtelle.

Owners David Lee and Jennifer Chon spent 15 years in New York and Asia working at top-tier restaurants before moving to West LA in 2021 and quietly scouting the neighborhood. They clearly saw what the rest of us did: that Sawtelle had incredible bones — a neighborhood built on Japanese-American culinary tradition, a walkable strip, a genuinely local crowd — and deserved something more ambitious than a fourth ramen shop. The Mulberry is their answer.

The Menu: Chef Curtis Park’s California-Korean Kitchen

The kitchen is helmed by Curtis Park, an alumni of Benu, Commis, and Daniel — three restaurants that collectively represent a crash course in modern fine dining. At The Mulberry, he’s cooking Korean dishes he grew up eating, rebuilt from the ground up with California ingredients and serious technique. The result is a menu that feels both deeply familiar and completely new.

Start with the soy-garlic wings: shatteringly crispy, lacquered in a glaze that somehow avoids being too sweet, and served in a pool of bright herb sauce that you will absolutely use to clean the plate. Order the Korean aguachile next — raw fish set in cold kimchi broth, tart and oceanic and unlike anything else on Sawtelle. If the blue prawn over barley rice with roe is on the menu (it rotates), order it immediately. It reads luxurious but tastes like comfort food.

For the mains, the charcoal-grilled short rib ssam is the move: tender beef, warm lettuces, fermented sauces, and enough accompaniments on the table that the meal starts to feel like a Korean feast in the best possible way. The steamed pork and chive dumplings are a quieter pleasure — impossibly thin skins, silky filling, the kind of dumpling that makes you reconsider every dumpling you’ve ever eaten.

“The Mulberry is the restaurant Sawtelle has been building toward for twenty years. It just took a chef from Benu and a couple who spent a decade in New York to finally make it happen.”

The Drinks: A Bar Program That Earns Its Own Visit

Bar director Zak Kellum (formerly of RVR) runs a cocktail program that treats every pour with the same seriousness as the kitchen. The Asian pear Negroni is the obvious entry point — boozy and bitter with a clean fruit finish that makes the classic feel new — but the seasonal cocktail list runs deeper. The sake-based drinks are particularly good; a cold sake with dashi and yuzu hits like a dish, not a drink.

The wine list is short and well-chosen, skewing natural and low-intervention, with a bias toward bottles that actually work with Korean flavors (more Gamay, less Cab). The by-the-glass options are generous, and the staff knows what to pair with what. If you ask, they will tell you.

Save Room: The Hotteok

Dessert here is non-negotiable. The hotteok a la mode — a caramelized cinnamon “crêpe” with a crackling sugar crust, served alongside vanilla bean ice cream — is as good as any dessert currently being made on the Westside. It’s the kind of dish that earns its Michelin attention. Don’t skip it because you’re full. You can always make room for this.

The Mulberry is already one of our picks for the best date-night restaurants in West LA, and for good reason: the vibe is right, the food is impressive without being intimidating, and it stays open until 2am on weekends, which means the night can go wherever it wants to. Reservations open 30 days out on Resy and go fast — set a reminder. Walk-ins at the bar are possible on weeknights, and the bar seats are frankly some of the best in the house.