New supermarket Doremi opens in Koreatown

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After months of construction, Koreatown has an impressive new supermarket in Doremi, which opened Monday on Olympic Boulevard three blocks west of Alvarado. Tubs of twitching crabs share space with vats of frozen squid in the seafood aisle.

A sizable area with a serve-yourself bar offers pickled and seasoned versions of everything from lotus root, squid and hot peppers to seaweed, small crabs and Japanese cucumbers.

An in-store franchise of Francois bakery tempts with luscious-looking European-style cakes, loaves of bread, custard buns and sticky-rice treats layered with pumpkin and red bean. (They’re especially beneficial for women, I’m told.)

The blocklong lot that was once home to the K-town outpost of Rodeo Mexican Grill (now located on Olympic east of Alvarado at Burlington) features a spacious, brand-new market that’s stocked with a variety of Korean fruits, vegetables, juices, seasonings, seafood, candy and, of course, kimchi.

It looks like area stalwart Market World, located half a mile west at Olympic and Berendo, has some competition. (A tip of the jeotgarak to Eating Korean for this exhaustive list of SoCal’s many Korean markets.)

Doremi also comes with an adjacent noodle shop, Doremi Udon, which isn’t big (nine tables and a tiny counter area) but serves an assortment of noodle soups (udon, soba and their own handmade noodles); bento boxes with teriyaki, katsu and bulgogi; and basic sushi rolls like California, spicy tuna, dragon, kimpab (similar to futomaki) and ‘kataphila,’ which I can only assume means caterpillar (it’s a typical California roll of minced crab, or maybe ‘krab,’ topped with avocado slices and a dab of not-very-hot hot sauce.

Doremi Market, 2323 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. Doremi Udon, 2323 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 101, Los Angeles.

— Elina Shatkin

All photos by Elina Shatkin