Kogi Korean BBQ
truck-based restaurant in Los Angeles
Kogi Korean BBQ is a restaurant and food truck chain in Los Angeles that serves Korean-Mexican fusion cuisine. It is known for its use of social media, especially Twitter and YouTube, to spread information about locations and offerings, which include bulgogi tacos, kimchi quesadillas, and short rib sliders. Its owner/founder, Mark Manguera, a Filipino-American, married into a Korean family and was inspired to combine Mexican and Korean food as a result. The food truck has won recognitions that include a Bon Appétit Award in 2009 and "Best New Chef" for Roy Choi by Food & Wine in 2010, the first for a food truck.
History
After several weeks of parking in different locations and not getting any customers, Kogi began going to clubs and giving free samples to bouncers, whose recommendations helped increase its popularity.
Kogi gained attention when it contacted food bloggers, who then wrote about Kogi. Its subsequent use of Twitter to announce its location led Newsweek to describe Kogi as "America's first viral eatery".
Operations
In addition to co-founders Mark Manguera and Caroline Shin, Manguera's friend Roy Choi, a former valedictorian at the Culinary Institute of America, is the chief chef. Manguera's sister-in-law, Alice Shin, manages the business's social media accounts and informs customers of the trucks' locations. The name, logo, decision to use Twitter, and social media strategy came from consultant Mike Prasad, who is a best friend of Caroline Shin's brother Eric, who is Kogi Lunch Manager and a photographer.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6425795. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kogi Korean BBQ” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.