For UCLA students craving a taste of home or a first taste of something new, Westwood has a new Seoul food option.
Minari Express, a Korean grab-and-go market, opened on Lindbrook Drive in September 2025. The store carries traditional sides and dishes like housemade kimchi, vegan kimbap, banchan and Korean snacks, with a bonus – diners can sample anything. The food is all sourced from Umma Kitchen, a Korean food production restaurant in Koreatown, and there are no tables or a full kitchen on site. Owner Yunki Shin said the reason he joined the business area is because he always wanted to build something larger than himself.
“I love the vibes in Westwood … people respect the diversities around here, and there’s a lot of different populations and demographics,” Shin said. “What I found is that Korean food trends are rising in the States, but still, here, people have very limited access to Korean food, so I can show and give something that we have.”
Shin said the grab-and-go format partly stemmed from a lack of other options because of a tight budget, and this storefront was affordable. However, he added that a physical location naturally reflects personality, and interactions with the customers have allowed him to curate his own vision for the store, balancing creativity and a business mindset.
Shin said he curates his inventory based on four categories to bring in the most customers: trending items like kimbap, classic items like kimchi, something Shin calls rockstar dishes that might shock but please customers and lastly, something that can be expanded to related cultures such as mapo tofu – a dish originally from China but has some variations in Korea.
“(The customers) are the biggest part because I know how they are and how big the problem is for them,” Shin said. “They are searching for some food they want but they can’t get around here, and usually the students don’t have a car, so they can go to H Mart or other Asian grocery markets. They are my priority. I want to satisfy them. I want to give them what they want. When they ask, ‘Do you have something like this?’ I try to provide that.”
(William Gauvin/Daily Bruin)
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Natalie Cho, a second-year graduate student in music performance, has been working at Minari Express part time since its opening. She added that a lot of customers ask about Korean culture, and she is grateful to share not only the food but also the culture with them.
“It’s really nice to work here because it was hard to find Korean food around UCLA,” Cho said. “I can introduce some people to Korean food because some people are not familiar with them.”
Sydney Belanger, a third-year history student at Santa Monica College, has also been working part time at Minari Express since its opening. She said she was drawn to Shin’s vision for what he wanted in Westwood: the convenience without a loss in quality and the feeling that she would be appreciated compared to other jobs that overwork employees.
Belanger, who is half Thai and half white, said she has loved learning about Korean food and culture. She said she connects with a lot of customers over the sweet and spicy chicken – a popular item – but added she loves giving out samples of foods customers might not be used to such as dried squid and quail eggs.
“My manager (Shin) told me about how it’s (Korean history) reflected in Korean food,” Belanger said. “They use a lot of interesting ingredients when it comes to animals or meat. They use every part of the animal because they don’t want to put anything to waste. So even though there’s a lot of things that might not be familiar to an American like me … I think it’s really impressive how they’re able to use so many different types of ingredients and still find a way to make it really delicious. So that was one thing that I really had a lot of respect for.”
Shin said the customers that stand out to him the most are the ones he does not expect. Shin said they have a regular customer from Minnesota who really loves the food. He said the customer grew up with his stepmother – who is Korean – and whenever he misses some of the food, he comes to Minari Express.
“Whenever he comes here, it reminds him of something,” Shin said. “Whenever I see something like that, I feel that there’s something more than just the food. Food can recourse to your memory, your most precious time and relation to your family.”
Shin said his future vision for Minari Express is to expand stores to more locations, and he added that he wants to make the market something like Trader Joe’s or H Mart because he believes there is a demand for quality-selected and curated Korean food.
“This story, for me, is the American dream of diversity,” Shin said. “I get this opportunity, and nobody might imagine that I can do this store in the heart of LA but people here really respect the diversity, so I can do something with what I’m familiar with.”
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