Lapaba

The menu stood out for its excellent blend of Korean and Western cuisine. The fresh pasta was delicious, and it was fun to sample a variety of dishes tapas-style, though the portions were on the small side. The guys might leave feeling hungry.

I had high hopes and a lot of excitement for Lapaba and am sad to report that I left quite disappointed! As someone who loves trying new and interesting menus, Italian Korean fusion sounded delicious. The good: I saw previous reviews that complained about portion sizes, but we were happy with the portion sizes we got. Good sharing size for two. The price was very reasonable for two people who each got a NA drink, shared two starters and three pastas, including the lobster dish. There’s decent street parking available along with valet out front. The interior is simple, trendy, and nice. It’s mainly one looong pasta bar, best for a two person dinner or a date night. I tried the Yakult mocktail and really liked it. The meh: Sadly, the food. A friend and I shared the fried chicken and burrata starters and the cheesy corn agnolotti, radiatore and galbi jjim (short rib), and the lobster and tonnarelli. The fried chicken lollipops were our favorite bite for dinner, the sweet chili sauce flavor was great. The burrata is served on top of a slice of sweet potato with chili crisp and soy. It sounded like a fun dish, but we both only tasted sweet potato. Unfortunately none of the pastas were great. The radiatore galbi jjim dish was my favorite pasta of the trio, but it was at best like a nice meat sauce pasta. I did not like either the agnolotti or the lobster tonnarelli. As someone who loves a corn agnolotti, the main flavor of the agnolotti was a burnt flavor, strangely. It was lacking in both “cheesy” and corn flavor. The lobster had a slightly fishy flavor and the tonnarelli pasta was forgettable. I would skip both. We decided to skip dessert and grab soft serve next door. My hope is that Lapaba can improve their menu to really nail Italian and Korean fusion, but for now it’s not a spot I’d recommend.

We were super excited to dine at this new Korean Italian fusion restaurant. The restaurant is basically one large pasta bar and was well decorated. We ordered two of their pasta dishes and a few of their starters to share. While the main focus on the menu were the pastas, it felt like they only added a Korean ingredient to make it different rather than try to make the dishes feel authentically “fusion”. They were tasty but the flavors definitely lean traditional Italian. The starters were definitely where the fusion comes in. Echoing the same point as before but the flavor of the kimchi in the suppli was also very subtle. The most “fused” dish was the K meatballs that tasted like bulgogi and were paired with a traditional red sauce. The bread it came with was tasty but didn’t have the most shiny/golden crust. We got a few of their drinks (yuja sour, arancia yakult, matcha yuja-ade) and they were good but very very sweet. We ended with the BTS (black truffle soft serve) which was a lovely balance of sweet and savory. TLDR: flavors were good but the dishes didnt feel like a true fusion experience. We felt like the menu lacked intention.