A war has broken out inside Koreatown’s red-hot hospitality and restaurant scene, and the combatants include some of the biggest names in Los Angeles’ dining industry, including famed chef and restaurateur Nancy Silverton and her partner Joe Bastianich.

At the center of it all is an aspiring nightlife maven named Robert Kim who over the past nine years has helped launch a collection of high-profile restaurants and bars along Western Avenue which are part of the changing face of Koreatown — the three-square-mile Mid-City neighborhood that’s home to the highest concentration of Korean Americans in the country.

Kim’s flashiest restaurant is upscale pasta bar Lapaba, which he opened last year in conjunction with Silverton and Bastianich, arguably the most powerful duo in LA’s dining scene. (In addition to being a co-owner in several of Silverton’s restaurants including Osteria Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Mozza2Go, Bastianich is also a co-owner of Eataly, where he worked with Mario Batali.)

Kim’s Koreatown portfolio extends far beyond Lapaba. He is a co-owner of the sushi restaurant Norikaya, where the head chef is the Michelin-starred Akira Back. He is also a partner in the extremely popular lounge/bar Mama Lion, where the line to get in often stretches around the corner of Western Avenue and 6th Street. As if that wasn’t enough, Kim was — until recently — a guiding force behind a soon-to-launch private club, Club Hue, which is opening in Koreatown’s Chapman Plaza and aims to become a Soho House for Koreatown’s jetset.

But Kim’s growing hospitality empire is being thrust into the center of a blooming scandal as a key business partner is now accusing him of fraud and embezzlement in an elaborate scheme to prop up his empire. Another one of Kim’s business partners tells Page Six Hollywood that he, too, has retained counsel over concerns of how Kim has allocated funds inside their venture.

On Wednesday, Kim’s longtime business partner at Mama Lion, Robert Ahn, who owns several businesses in Koreatown, filed a lawsuit in California State Superior Court alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, civil theft and fraudulent transfer among other charges. The 35-page suit alleges that Kim embezzled millions in company funds.

“From at least 2021 through 2025, Kim embezzled approximately $3,131,517.97 or more in Company funds through unauthorized personal credit card reimbursements, unilaterally burdened the Company with at least 2 high-interest debt[s] without authorization or disclosure in the amount of $236,600 and has refused to account for the use of any portion of the loan proceeds,” the court docs read.

The suit also alleges that Kim diverted “labor, resources, and funds” from Mama Lion to benefit his other businesses including Norikaya, Lapaba and Club Hue — meaning the blast zone from this suit could extend to multiple establishments. In fact, the holding companies for Norikaya and Lapaba are listed in Ahn’s suit as ‘nominal’ defendants which means they have a connection to the dispute, but are not the true target of the legal filing.

When contacted by P6H a representative for Lapaba declined to comment.

When contacted on Wednesday evening, Kim noted that he filed his own lawsuit against Ahn last week in California State Superior Court. In that suit, he alleges slander and negligent infliction of emotional distress among other things. “I need to see it before I comment,” Kim told P6H of the suit against him when reached by phone.

In Kim’s suit, filed last week, he claims that his business partner had spread “malicious and unsubstantiated claims” about him to other ventures including what his suit refers to as “a project that is slated to open June 2026 (the ‘JUNE PROJECT’).”

Club Hue may be the highest-profile venture in which Kim is involved. As P6H’s Katcy Stephan recently reported, a team of investors is set to launch LA’s newest private club at Chapman Plaza — the 1929 landmark which is in many ways the beating heart of Koreatown — this summer. The investors spared little expense. Club Hue, which is shooting for slightly less than 1,000 members, boasts a main bar area with vaulted wooden ceilings, industrial lotus-shaped chandeliers and a mural by Michael Haight.

Throughout Club Hue’s pre-launch over the past few months, Kim’s name was central. A March Time Out article, one of the earliest about the venture, said: “The project comes from hospitality entrepreneur Robert Kim,” and he was quoted throughout the story. But in recent weeks, Club Hue has distanced itself from Kim. One spokesperson for the club told P6H that it was a shift in the club’s PR strategy. Efforts to reach Club Hue’s PR team were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

In November of 2021, Thomas Park came on as a silent investor in Norikaya, the Japanese hand roll bar and izakaya. By the summer of 2025, Park had become more involved with the business. When P6H reached out on Wednesday over the lawsuit, Park issued the following statement: “Given recent events I have retained legal counsel. I have uncovered the misallocation of funds and I intend to investigate Norikaya’s finances further.”

This is all happening as Koreatown is rapidly changing. According to Mark Hong, founder of Korus Real Estate, which specializes in Koreatown, the shift started to occur about 15 years ago. “That’s when we started seeing younger people become attracted to Koreatown because of new residential projects and so much nightlife. No other place in LA has as many ABC [Alcoholic Beverage Control] licenses as Koreatown,” he said.

“Korean food is becoming mainstream and has become very popular. We’re seeing a different profile of restaurants. International restaurants are coming and in some cases they have institutional money or celebrity chefs, it’s a different profile than the last cycle and that’s due to the demographics.”