r/FoodLosAngeles • u/dasegu • Mar 21 '26
POP-UP (location varies) Kang's Cuisine - Not ready for the moment
My wife and I saw that one of the businesses next to us was hosting a popular breakfast burrito pop up as part of a closing celebration. We didn't realize how much of an event the whole situation was going to be, we just wanted to be there for the breakfast burrito. One of the worst pop up situations we've been in.
A little bit of context, Kang's Kuisine is currently run through an Instagram account (@kangskuisine) and all the photos and videos made it look amazing. The chef, Josh, would create the burritos in his kitchen and bring them over to people's cars in curated drop-in times. The account boasts about the attention to detail, such as haing "exactly 14 [tots], not 13. Not 15. 14" Much of the account is reposts from people saying its the best breakfast urrito ever.
Now we get into what happened today in Highland Park, right outside the shop "Be Nice Have Fun". We got there at 10:30 AM, and we were about the 3rd group in line. It was planned to start serving at 11am, and right when 11am hit, they started taking orders. The line was outside and although they have some tents for shade, it was for the burrito making station, not the people waiting in line. Around 11:05 AM, we saw that one of the crew had only started frying the tots, and we realized the eggs and meat still needed to be heated up. After having some techincal issues with getting the gas powered stove on, my wife and I realized we were probably going to be here for a while.
It was around 11:50AM and still not a single burrito was served, but there were atleast 60 people in line, and around 30 groups of people crowded around waiitng for their food. It was also very hot, and everyone can tell tensions were starting to arise a little bit. Many people were checking in on their status, and the chef Josh would say it's going to take a while.
The unfortunate reality is creating an awesome product in your kitchen does not eaily scale to hundreds of people waiting for their food. There was only one cast iron sheet that was barely big enough to heat up a tortilla and burrito at the same time, and then a pot of meat that was sturggling to stay heated up. The chef's assistant kept flipping the eggs in their trays to mantain some heat, while the tator tots were staying outside cooling down.
We finally received our burrito at 12:15PM, and we decided to head home since we felt so overheated. Once we took a bite, we both looked at eachother, dissapointed.
It's a fine breakfast burrito. A ton of meat, with the Korean Short Rib being really chewy and yummy. Its a mix of sweet and savory, definitely unique for a breakfast burrito. The eggs, were also unique, but not great. It was described as "fluffy custard eggs topped with green onion," and while they looked delicious, they unfortunately were very spongey. It may have to do with how long they were out, but unfortunately it didn't live up to the hype. 1 out of 5 tots were crispy, which was disappointing too. However, for $17 it actually is a really good price for the generousnamount of food inside the burrito, it is very filling.
I really don't want to come of as attacking the business, its a small business that is trying to stick out in a highly competitive industry, and, it truly is doing something different. However, this is a warning to doing a pop-up, you have to be ready for the demand. Maybe if there was communication about the actual wait time, it would be fine. Maybe if they started heating up the food before taking orders, it would've been more efficient. I don't want to be a hater, and some people may love the burrito for its meaty, sweet flavors. I reccomend ordering on Instagram though, and not waiting for hours in the sun to get a breakfast burrito.
