Koreatown in Los Angeles has one of the most vibrant restaurant scenes in the city, from 24-hour Korean barbecue spots to mom-and-pop shops specializing in everything from steamy dumplings to giant bowls of icy cold noodle soups.
But K-town is also where one of the city’s most interesting coffee cultures thrives. The sprawling neighborhood, which encompasses more than two square miles, is home to the highest concentration of Koreans both in the United States and outside of the Korean Peninsula. Because of this, the coffee shops are often dominated by trends straight from the cafés of Seoul.
The menus even have their own lingo: While you will find lattes, cappuccinos, and Americanos, every shop is undoubtedly serving their take on the Viennese coffee staple, an Einspänner, a.k.a. creamtop, a coffee topped with a thick layer of sweetened and whipped cream. You will undoubtedly find several types of matcha, including the aforementioned matcha Einspänner, and the novelty beverages will come in flavors like corn, tiramisu, and misugaru, a powder made of toasted grains.
This menu style has proven to be popular: Many of the cafés often have lines out the door. The drinks are not only aesthetically pleasing and highly shareable on social media, but also often sweet and creamy, which makes them easy to drink. It doesn’t hurt that most of the cafés are also visually gorgeous in their own right. But do not let the crowds scare you, if one is full, there is another great Korean coffee shop just a couple blocks away.
Here are 9 of the best coffee shops in Los Angeles’s Koreatown:
3069 1/2 W 8th St, Los Angeles
instagram.com/staggercoffee
One of the newer cafés on the scene, Stagger is also one of the most popular thanks in part to their Double Matcha, an iced matcha latte served with a sweetened matcha cream top. It’s not uncommon to see a line out the door and into the parking lot of people waiting to get their aesthetically pleasing beverages, but it moves fast. If matcha is not your thing, don’t sleep on the iced mocha, which tastes like a chocolate-covered orange. The space may feel minimalist, but there’s lots of seating, which makes it a great place to catch up with a friend.
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3033 W 6th St #107, Los Angeles
instagram.com/yeemscoffee
This tiny café is for the serious coffee drinker who still loves a novelty beverage. Yeems slings hundreds of Vienna lattes a day, or their take on a cream top coffee, which they make in flavors like ube and buttercream. They also cold brew their house-blended coffee for 22 hours and offer a version laced with Earl Grey muscavado syrup. Yeems has a second, larger location in Gardena, but the K-town shop remains incredibly popular.
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300 S Hobart Blvd # 101, Los Angeles
instagram.com/cafeupper
When most coffee shops are winding down, Cafe Upper is just getting started. The café doesn’t open until 10:30 a.m., way after the morning caffeine rush, and stays open until 2 a.m. on weekends. In this futuristic looking shop, it’s not uncommon to see every clear plastic folding chair and neon orange seat occupied at 11 p.m., with customers knocking back pistachio or matcha Einspänners and orders of croffles, a croissant pressed in a waffle maker—a snack of simple genius.
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2881 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles
instagram.com/_memorylook
This café, which is also part eyewear store, was one of the first to put Einspänners on the map in Koreatown. Their versions remain in high demand, as does the daily doughnut selection, which fills up the pastry case. Super fluffy and yeasted, the doughnuts come in flavors like crème brûlée (complete with a crackly, touched sugar top), matcha, and tiramisu. And in rare Koreatown fashion, Memorylook also has a giant parking lot.
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3450 W 6th St #107, Los Angeles
instagram.com/harucake_
Technically, Harucake is a bakery and not a coffee shop, but alongside their selection of stunning minimalist cream cakes, which are available by the slice, they also make some of the best coffee in all of Koreatown. It’s worth visiting for the iced SooSoo Latte alone, made from espresso, milk, a deeply flavorful sweet corn cream, and topped with a whimsical tiny ear of corn made from corn ice cream. For non-coffee drinkers, don’t miss out on drinks like the mango yuzu sherbet ade, an adorable fizzy drink featuring a floating scoop of house-made mango sorbet.
3511 W 6th St, Los Angeles
instagram.com/elorea
The Korean perfume brand Elorea’s stunning LA flagship is part fragrance store and part café. All of the drinks are rooted in the company’s scents. Take the Jang, the brand’s fermented soybean-inspired perfume and a latte that arrives topped with a slightly salty soy sauce foam.
3850 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
instagram.com/document_coffee_bar
Document feels like an art gallery that serves really great coffee. The ceilings are high, there’s lots of concrete in the space, and the walls are filled with portraits of its regulars. This is the preferred place in K-town for pour-over nerds and really strong iced coffee—shelves are stocked with a who’s who of roasters, like Ceremony, Stumptown, Devocion, and others. Don’t skip the cold brew, which is gently sweetened with maple syrup.
7311 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles
instagram.com/bebrightcoffee
Technically, Be Bright is north of Koreatown, but it’s owned by Korean American couple Frank and Michelle La. Frank also happens to be the 2024 US Barista Champion. All of their drinks are incredibly well balanced, including their rotating menu of speciality drinks like a cold-brew yuzu lemonade and their signature Ultralight Bean, a.k.a. a caramel latte topped with a cloudy sweet foam. While Be Bright has a great Einspänner on the menu, it would be a mistake to skip over the espresso tonics, especially the once-a-year, gently spicy Strawberry Sichuan offering, made with actual Sichuan peppercorns.
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3510 W 8th St, Los Angeles
instagram.com/damoteahousela
The soft, minimalist interior of Damo has the ability to soothe anyone who walks through its doors. Not only does the café make stunning espresso tonics, lattes, and Einspänners galore, but Damo also takes its tea program very seriously, sourcing many premium teas from Korea but also China, Japan, and India. Don’t forget to order a little treat to go with your coffee or tea, such as dried persimmon stuffed with walnuts and cream cheese. These are traditional Korean snacks known as “da-gwa,” that are often served as part of a tea ceremony.