Da Maat

Good food! My favorite Kalbi, Seafood pancakes, and the yukgaejung! The noodles are so good!

I am in Torrance for business and find myself flying back and forth to SoCal every week. I get out of the office — It’s late, and I’m starving. Da Maat has been my knight in shining armor for the last month — I kid you not, I eat there every day during the week. Sure, I could try and mix things and try other places… but why? The dishes are everything that I want and need and the staff is more than friendly.
A plate of Bulgogi with a hot tea (sides included) runs you about ~20 before tip — Outrageously great value for your money.
Da Maat — I plan on spending many more evenings eating the same thing and I don’t care who’s watching !!!

Place was great, very cool wooden cabin feel with a nice wall full of different bowls. The menu was difficult but I was able to decipher due to the language barrier. I ordered the spicy beef with hand cut noodles and I loved it. It was a large plate that was truly worth the price I paid. I definitely recommend this place to anyone seeking a down home taste in Korean food.

This place is Da Shaat.
They use fresh ingredients, as you can/​will tell from how clean everything tastes here. I’ve had their dolsot bibimbap, dongtae jjigae, naengmyun, and kalbi so far, and they were all delicious. However, this place is a little bit on the pricier side so I guess you’re paying for the quality of the food. Half a star deducted for that so really 4.5 stars.
The ajummas are all really nice and attentive here.
The best all around Korean restaurant in Torrance.

This is my favorite Korean restaurant around! I really love their vegetable dumpling soon tofu & the LA galbi is to die for!
The other thing that’s great is the service– they are always very friendly which I can’t say for a lot of the other Korean establishments around here…
It isn’t cheap, but I think it’s definitely reasonable.
Also, they have high chairs & lots of families eat here so I like that it’s family friendly.

I enjoy Da Maat over the Korean restaurant down the street because of its atmosphere and cool decorations in the store. It’s more homey than the one down the street, though there are no grills built into the tables. The prices are reasonable and the portions are pretty big. I come with my family every so often to share some soondobu, bulgolgi, and dolsat bibimbap and its a pretty good time. The service is generally good and the food is pretty delicious. Also, it is a very convenient location, two doors down from my favorite Korean shave ice shop, Okrumong. The menu here is pretty basic: bibimbap, galbi, bulgolgi, soondobu, handcut noodles, galbitang, etc. It’s a good place for family and friends to eat.

I came here twice and tried different kalgooksu (knife-​cut noodles) dishes. I tried their famous yukgaejang kalgooksu and their seafood kalgooksu and came away a bit disappointed both times.
I have to admit that their knife-​cut noodles were very well made. It had great texture with the right amount of chewiness. But I was disappointed in the soup with both of the kalgooksu dishes. The bowl of yukgaejang that the noodles came in was quite disappointing. It was lacking in flavor and had some odd sour taste. The amount of noodles was very lacking, I felt there should’ve been maybe twice the amount of noodles. Their seafood kalgooksu on the other hand was so salty that I had a really difficult time eating it.
I noticed that most people were having tofu soup or naengmyun (cold noodles) during my visits. Maybe the kalgooksu isn’t their specialty, and I wouldn’t really recommend coming here for it.

Great traditional korean setting with windows coveing pictures to give off a indoor reallike setting. The other side had ample uniquely hand crafted bowls covering the entire wall.
We ordered the with dumplings
Everything was delicious but think they should add to their menu

Da Maat is one of the BEST Korean restaurants in all of South Bay. Also, one of my favorites.
Quality. Nice selection of entrée dishes to choose from and you can taste the effort in their banchan (small side dishes that accompany your meal). The banchan veggies are nicely crunchy and taste fresh. Service is friendly, sometimes brusque — mostly female staff which reflect that they do it all… cook, run the restaurant, be mom (or halmonie), devise delicious Korean dishes. Also, they’re pretty creative with the village cuisine element with their menu. Village art and décor. I really like how the interior also reflects the origins and inspiration for their food with a modern feel. Celadon and bowl art don the walls as a neat looking display.
All your favorite hits in one place…
Bulgogi — Sizzling!
Galbi — Yum!
Kalguksu (Knife cut noodles) — Just as good as LA specialty houses
All kinds of spicy stews… Soondubu (although I might go to a specialty place)
Bibimbap — Healthy, bright, green, crunchy
Pork Ssam — Done in a uniquely village cuisine way (check out some of the pics)
Nengmyun — with black sesame noodles! Arrrgh
Pancake — Mmm, can’t go wrong here
Dumplings — Handmade in-​house
And more…

My Korean friend says Da Maat is mediocre. If this is mediocre, I want to know what good is because Da Maat is great!
The Mul Mandoo are just standard dumplings, but they definitely hit the spot.
The Bulgogi is a classic must-​have with every meal, and the ribeye stays tender as it sizzles on its skillet.
The steamed pork in the Da Maat Bossam is so soft I swear someone massaged it. Wrapping it up in cabbage crunch with a crisp dash of pickled daikon and kimchee cranks it up a notch.
The Haemul Kalguksu was a solid seafood soup with al dente hand cut noodles.
The Chic Mul Naeng Myun is one of my faves — cold noodles! This one doesn’t disappoint.
One man’s mediocre is another woman’s awesome. I haven’t had much Korean home cooking yet, but I can’t wait to see what could possibly be better!

I got off of work early and decided to get something new and spicy so I came to Da Maat for the first time and ordered Spicy Beef Noodle. The restaurant is nice, clean, and spacious with shelves of little bowls on the wall. The ladies serving at Da Maat are very nice and attentive. I love that one of the lady used an empty table to make dumplings. I love seeing people make food and at least I know that it is freshly made.
The sides were average. I find the kimchi to be a bit bland and garlicky. The Braised beef noodle soup come out in a pretty wide bowl and I seriously feel like I got a Korean noodle soup spa treatment as I eat. I love the texture of the noodle but towards the end of my bowl it got softer. Shredded braised beef and tender sliced brisket were very tasty. My other favorite part is that there is egg drop in the soup. I do wish that it is more spicy since I can’t feel the heat too much in this soup. I would probably get extra spicy next time

I haven’t had Korean food in a minute and this place definitely hit the spot. We got the myeolchi kal guksu and bossam. The pork seemed dry, is it possible to over boil pork? I dunno, that’s my only real complaint. I still thoroughly enjoyed my meal, so it’s more of a pseudo complaint.
Parking is super easy, we went on a Saturday evening and got seated pretty quickly, easy peasy.

My Korean friend cheonjae (Genius) told me about a this place that serves a combo soup: Yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) w/​kalguksu (knife cut noodles). I said, I need to hit this place! Da Maat is on Sepulveda, just west of Crenshaw in Torrance, next to King’s Hawaiian. In addition to the signature dish above, they offery bibimbap, yukgaejang mandu (spicy beef noodle soup w/​dumplings), and soondubu.
I ordered the signature dish ($ 12.99) and my co-​worker ordered the bibimbap ($ 9.99 — no pic). His dish came with soup & rice, and both our dishes came with ban chan. First of all, my friend’s said his dish seemed small. He is small in stature, and finished his plate before me (I eat very fast). Nonetheless, he said it tasted good except for the fact the egg was overcooked: 3.5 Stars.
Secondarily, my dish was very good. The serving was large, it had nice heat to it, and the noodles were plentiful & chewy. The only downsides were there wasn’t as much beef as Jang Mo Jip in Garden Grove, and the price was high (Jang Mo Jip charges $ 7.95 for yukgaejang). However, it was better and deeper in color vs previously reviewed Myung In Dumplings also in Torrance: 4 Stars.
Regarding the ambiance, it was your traditional Korean place, albeit fairly modern. The wall we sat next to had numerous small bowls tucked into cubbyholes. In addition, the tables and décor seemed more modern compared to other places in the area: 4 Stars. The service was efficient, but inattentive. The food came out quickly, but we not spoken to other than our order (probably because most of the clientele were Korean): 3 Stars.
I would definitely come back here to try the yukgaejang mandu, or perhaps some of the other dishes. The food is filling (albeit a little bit higher priced), and the place is authentic.

Went here twice over the summer!
The food is pretty good. I have tried the beef kimchi soon tofu. It is made fresh and it is boiling hot when they serve it to you. And the color resembles lava, so it is suitable to how it is like; take your time while you eat it or else you’ll burn your tongue like I did. The softness of the tofu and the chewiness of the beef worked so well together in my mouth, like yin and yang.
A drawback of this place is the service. Both times I felt they were really inattentive. Once you got the food, you do not exist until it is time for the check. Both times I tried my best not to care or let it get to me. I just kept telling myself, they are very busy… And I think my good rating shows that it didn’t get to me.

Da Maat is probably one of the better korean restaurants I have been to with good service. The servers here are really nice and quick to get your orders.
Their menu has a good variety but my friend really likes their bibimbap here. So I tried their octupus/​squid bibimbap. I really liked it and it wasn’t too spicy. I didn’t get to try their purple rice but maybe next time.
Also, I like the banchans they serve. I think it’s a good amount and a few are a bit different than the more modern korean restaurants I have been to. I will definitely come back and try their other menu items and purple rice.

This place is just ok in my book. I usually go to Lee’s Tofu for soondubu but thought I would try somewhere new.
We were seated really quick. Service was alright. Quick to seat us and take our orders, but not exactly friendly. Plus they were really slow to fill up our water and tea glasses. The side dishes seemed like they were days old… the kimchi was soggy. I hate when it doesn’t have a crunch! The actual soondubu and rice were really good but nothing better than Lee’s. Plus their soondubu is a couple bucks more.
All in all, I probably won’t return and will stick to Lee’s. It’s cheaper and their side dishes are more fresh.