There is a particular kind of evening in Koreatown when nothing sounds right except lamb skewers.
Search for them and two names come back: Feng Mao and Fei Xiang Gong. Both Korean-Chinese. Both built around a grill that turns your skewers for you.
I have eaten at both. One of them I keep going back to; the other I tried this summer.
And the thing I did not expect is how little separated them.
At a glance
| Feng Mao 풍무 | Fei Xiang Gong 나래궁 | |
|---|---|---|
| 🍖 Lamb skewers | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| 🍳 The rest of the menu | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| 🪑 Room | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| 💵 Value | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| 🤝 Service | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ |
In one line: if skewers are the plan, go to whichever one is closer. The one real difference between them comes down to how you like your squid.
The skewers themselves are a wash, and that is worth saying first
Most comparison posts want a winner. This one does not really have one, at least not where you would expect it.
Both places run the same setup: a long trough grill built into the table, skewers laid across it, and a motor that turns them slowly so the fat renders evenly on every side. You do not touch them. The first time, your hands keep reaching in out of habit. Sit on them.
Both bring a tray of dry seasoning — ground cumin, chili powder, sometimes a chili oil and a soy-based dip. You roll the meat in it yourself when it comes off. That tray is half the flavor, and both places are generous with it.
Both menus are built the same way, too: lamb and beef by the five or the ten, then chicken hearts, gizzards, prawns, squid, pork belly, mushrooms, rice cakes. Then a page of dishes — sweet-and-sour pork, stir-fries, noodles, stews.
I ordered the sweet-and-sour pork at both. I could not tell you which was better.
And both have oi tangtangi (오이탕탕이) — cucumbers smashed rather than sliced, dressed with garlic and vinegar. A friend of mine who lived in China for years told me this is what you order with lamb skewers, and she was right. The vinegar cuts straight through an hour of lamb fat and resets your mouth. I order it at both places now, and I order it early rather than at the end.
So if you are standing on a street corner deciding, stop. Go to the one you can park at.
Feng Mao — look for the blue tile roof
Feng Mao sits on West Olympic in its own low building with a blue tile roof and a sheep on the sign. You cannot miss it, which sounds like a small thing until you have circled a block looking for a second-floor restaurant.
Sit down and the small dishes arrive before anything else: peanuts, a seasoned green, kimchi, braised fish cake. The grill is already lit under the grate.
The room is plain and bright, the kind of place built around the grill rather than around the décor. It has its own parking lot, which on a Friday night in Koreatown counts for a great deal.
Fei Xiang Gong — you have to go upstairs
Fei Xiang Gong is on South Western, on the second level of a plaza, next to a Korean barbecue place. From the parking lot you are looking at the wrong floor. Take the stairs.
The menu here runs longer — two laminated pages of it, in Chinese, Korean and English, with photographs. If you like reading a menu, this is the one.
The lamb chops are worth knowing about. They come bone-in, four to an order, and they take up most of the grate — a slower, more serious thing than the skewers. We tried them once and they have been on every order since.
Though I should say plainly that I am not the one eating them. Lamb chops are not my thing, even at a lamb restaurant. The rest of my table disagrees, every single time.
Four pieces is not a huge order. It is more than two people need, and about right for three or four.
Service here has been friendly and quick every time — water refilled without asking, orders taken without a wait. That matters more than it sounds at a place where you are sitting over a hot grill for an hour.
The 60-second version
No narration. Just the grill, start to finish, at both places.
The same squid dish, two different textures
Dry-fried spicy squid — 마른오징어볶음 — is my favorite thing in this whole category of restaurant. Squid with celery and dried chili, spicy, and served without sauce pooling underneath. Both places make it. I have ordered it at lamb skewer houses in Korea too, and some of them do not carry it at all, so I never take it for granted when I see it on a menu.
They are not the same plate, though, and the difference is texture rather than quality.
Feng Mao’s is softer. There is more moisture left in the squid, and it gives easily when you bite it.
Fei Xiang Gong’s is drier and chewier, and underneath the heat there is a deep savory note — the thing Koreans call 감칠맛 — that keeps me going back to the plate.
I prefer the chewy one. That is a preference, not a verdict, and I know people who would say the opposite without hesitating. If you like squid that stays tender, Feng Mao’s is the one you want. If you like it dried down and springy, go up the stairs on Western.
And that really is the whole difference between these two restaurants — one dish, prepared two ways, on menus that otherwise look and taste like siblings.
Worth knowing before you go
- Do not touch the skewers. The grill turns them. Reaching in makes them cook unevenly and burns your knuckles.
- Be heavy-handed with the cumin. Both places give you a seasoning tray. It is not a garnish. Roll the meat in it.
- Order the oi tangtangi early. Smashed cucumber with garlic and vinegar. Skewers alone get monotonous around the twentieth one, and the vinegar resets your mouth. Both places have it.
- Fei Xiang Gong is upstairs. Look up from the parking lot, not around it.
- Feng Mao has its own lot. On a Friday night in Koreatown, that is not nothing.
- Drinks are beer and soju. Tsingtao, Kloud, Cass, and the usual soju lineup. No wine list to speak of at either.
- Prices move. Skewers are sold by the five and the ten at both. The menus floating around online are out of date — check the current ones when you sit down.
📍 Location & details
Feng Mao Lamb Kebab (풍무 양꼬치 · 丰茂)
3901 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
(323) 935-1099
Hours and parking — please confirm before visiting.
Fei Xiang Gong (나래궁 꼬치구이전문점 · 飞翔宫串城)
356 S Western Ave, #204, Los Angeles, CA 90020 — second level
(213) 318-5588
Also in Buena Park: 6681 Beach Blvd
Hours — please confirm before visiting.
There is something reassuring about a restaurant that does one thing and keeps doing it. The grill turns, the cumin sits in its little dish, the peanuts show up before you ask. Nothing about it changes between visits, and I would not want it to.
If you have a lamb skewer place in your own neighborhood — or a plate you always order no matter what else is on the menu — tell me in the comments. I am always looking for the next one.
