Hwa-On KBBQ Culver City: What the $165 Wagyu Combo Includes

Hwa-On opened inside the old Citizen Public Market shell at 9355 Culver Boulevard, the 1929 Citizen Publishing Company building that lost its food hall on November 2, 2025. On November 4, The Infatuation’s Cathy Park listed the room as open and posted the Culver City number, (424) 216-8187. The restaurant site still shows an end-of-October opening line. It also says the room comes from the team behind Mikomi Sushi and Seoul Alley, with a rooftop sister, Lune Terrace, planned upstairs later this year.

Park had not eaten there yet. She was flagging the opening. The useful part for a diner is what the public menu language already says before you book.

The number that matters is $165. Park says Hwa-On’s beef-only combinations start there for two to three people, built around wagyu brisket and galbi. That is the clearest posted meat price so far. Pre-opening copy on the restaurant site also promised combination platters and à la carte beef, so you are not locked into a set if the board looks better. What nobody has published yet are the tray weights, how many cuts arrive with that $165 price, or whether every tier on the combo list is wagyu the whole way through. The named cuts are brisket and galbi. Ask for the rest when you sit.

Park puts kimchi pancakes and stews next to the barbecue. In July, manager Daniel Chung Min told What Now Los Angeles the menu would also carry Korean side dishes and lunch specials. Opening press photos show a tabletop grill ringed with brass banchan bowls, the usual Korean barbecue table shape before the meat browns. Banchan usually come with the meal in rooms like this. Whether bowls refill for free, and which ones land first, still depends on the house. Ask the server before you assume bowls refill all night.

Park also names gochujang palomas and a doenjang caramel iced matcha on the drink list. Doenjang is fermented soybean paste, the salty-sweet base behind a lot of Korean stews and dips. In caramel and iced matcha, it does the savory-sweet work people already know from miso caramel drinks, with a Korean pantry word on the glass. We have not tasted it, and the public notes do not list a price. If that is the order that gets you in the door, confirm the number at the table. Chung Min also told What Now the bar would pour handcrafted cocktails, premium spirits, Korean beer, and soju.

Share the $165 tray between two and the meat alone runs about $83 each before tax and tip. Share it three ways and that line falls to $55. Culver City’s combined sales-tax rate is 11.25 percent on the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration’s October 1, 2026 city list, so tax on the tray is about $19. A 20 percent tip on the pre-tax meat adds roughly $33. Two people, one combo, no drinks: the table lands near $215, or about $108 a head. Add pancakes, a stew, or a couple of drinks and you are past $120 each in a hurry. Three people on the same tray keep the meat closer to $70 to $80 each before those extras.

Chung Min told What Now the team wanted barbecue in Culver City for people who do not want the Koreatown drive. Call for hours and a reservation, ask what the current combo trays hold, and leave room in the budget for tax, tip, and a drink if the doenjang matcha or a gochujang paloma is part of the night.