Best Discovery on a Return Visit at Pikunico

I am always bad with direction. This is something I can't denied. 

In any other times, my sense of navigation with my eyes and nose would not let me down. Somehow I didn't factored in that certain parts of downtown LA does not have a through street. I blamed that on the lousy google map app on my iPhone.

I was in a rush one night to get to this mini style cafe on one of the "newest" and "happening" plaza in southern California. There seemed to be a grass root campaign in opening up a trendy hub center for dining and shopping center that can generate buzz for the youngsters here. Yup folks, the mall is the blase of the 80s and we're living in the new Millennium.

In what was a overlooked decision on my research, I also didn't know that the hub center also holds a hip market/food stalls gathering where those Millennial would congregate every Sunday. That plaza is fabulous called ROW DTLA, a terminal market back in the old days with wholesale factory warehouses in walking distance close to each other. The Manufactory building is now a converted restaurant row while other parts of the factory warehouses become boutique stores, gentrified coffee houses and remodeled restaurants.

The wholesale farm market is now a weekly Sunday Foodies meet-up as new colorful, unique food are served on these food stalls.

So, what does it have to do with me getting lost? Well....google Map couldn't keep up the new happenings as the fences and walls are build up, while the neighboring warehouses bordered up the road with their mangy iron clad gates that used to connect to my destination.

Oh joy!

When I got there, I was assuming the place I wanted to visit would be closed up because I arrived a good 5 minutes after the reported closing time. To my astonishment, they pretty much welcomed me in on that frenzy Sunday. You can guessed I was in a much better mood to check out on parts of this cafe with picnic benches.

Click Play to see the interior

Pikunico have a modern look of a chic style cafe that serves Japanese Fried Chicken. They have a long communal table that is affectionately known as "The Bench". What I craved the most was their talked about "Golden Chicken Sandwich". When I was in a disparaged mode of trying to get into ROW DTLA, all my thoughts was on that sandwich. It was the only thing that was keeping me from falling apart in getting around the dead end streets.

Golden Chicken Sandwich

The lady that took my order was a cheery fella that was patient and more than happy to serve. She could have played it off as though they were closed. I probably would have been bummed, but I would have understand. To make one of their last order easier, I got the order of Chicken Sandwich and a mix tray of chicken as a takeout to go.

Mix Chicken of Wing, Thigh, and Tenders with Origni Rice

Let me just say that after tasting all of the chicken, I was ecstatic. One, I was pleasantly surprised by the evenly distributed of the breading in the fried chicken. My sandwich itself has one of the most unique turmeric bun that is filled with watercress, jalapeno, and a lemon flavored aioli. The part that conquered me over was their miso jam that was smoldered over the chicken. This sandwich not only won me over, but more importantly it made me go back to try something else.

Part of the weird journey was that I was in a happy mood to go back and try their other side items.

I decided to get their Chicken Egg Drop Soup. To my memory, they didn't included the diced up chicken bits in the Egg Drop Soup. I think that was a good decision to added on because it makes this bowl of soup more heartier.

The big ominous surprise that I will say was the onigiri rice. It's their housemade rice ball that seasoned with ginger and garlic that is wrapped with nori seaweed. That to many looks unspectacular, but in this was the best thing to arrive to my mouth in a while. It doesn't contained spam or meat, yet I was extremely in peace after chomping on those two onigiri rice balls.

The lady that took my order on my ill-fated trip to ROW DTLA? That was the creative chef Kuniko Yagi. Once I found out she was the executive chef at SONA, I knew there was a reason why I wanted to make that trip to this Fried Chicken cafe in the first place.

Truth to be told, I think I was searching up Japanese Fried Chicken and internet kept pointing me to that chain in Sawtelle Blvd in West LA. I was glad to be pointed here instead.

If that fateful trip didn't turned out well, I probably would missed out on the terrific Golden Chicken Sandwich. Worse... I wouldn't have discovered their onigiri rice.

My pro tip, ordered their chicken tray and skipped the fries by getting the onigiri rice. That would be winner winner chicken dinner any time. Pff...I can't believed that phrase was typed.

Pikunico
767 Alameda Street Ste 122
Los Angeles, CA 90021

Fresh Off The Boat at Sapporo Sushi and Grill

Does it matter where it comes from?

It's a hard question to ask when you basically connects with a specific cuisine with certain ethnicity. You figured if it's not made by the origin, it doesn't count. What I'm trying to get at is that for some people they would like to associate certain dish to a specific country in mind. Let's play a game, shall we?

Pizza: Italian. Tacos: Mexican. Greasy cheesy steaks in a sub: American. Ok, so far so good.

Sushi: Japanese.... not so fast compadre. Apparently, not many people think so and will debate this forever. They probably will go on Wikipedia to change the contents and the story to this. The back story is obviously in that sushi are fast food with assorted fishes that get cut into small slices and topped it on a steamed rice are the stuff of legend. Probably popularized as we know it as a Japanese cuisine that can be sold as a ridiculous high priced fancy meal in some uber posh high priced sushi gallery.

The Premium Boat

However, do you know it's actually originated in southeast Asia near the Mekong River? More importantly as a snack item that is prepared right after the fish are caught on a boat?

This of course brings up my question as many don't associated as a non-Japanese cuisine, which are now popular for many upstarts. Everyone in far east Asia like the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, and even Vietnamese loves the fish on the rice.

Beef Tataki

With that in mind, I figured trying out a place I always wanted to visit here in Buena Park, north Orange County that is bordered on LA as well. This city is very popular among the Koreans as the suburbia of the central region that have seen surge in dining cuisine outside of the traditional Korean fare.

Pleasantly, the ambiance would be not far off from what you find in most contemporary sushi joints where there are front bar counter seats to watch a few sushi chef slaved over cutting up the fine fishes into thin slice. Craftmanship on these preparation are better than watching slices of beef cooked on grill anyway at your local Mongolian Barbecue.

Interiors consist of a few dining area separating the booth tables with some modern style Asian decor that suggesting a sleeker furnishing, rather than the old bamboo hut style that tends to the butt of joke elsewhere. It's a step up from the other well known Korean owned sushi joints such as Kabuki (an popular chain in LA).

The big attraction here are two dishes that I wanted to get that are popular among users on Yelp. The sushi boat and the beef tataki. The menu options are pretty straight forward with sushi options as the big main courses, some sides that are gear towards the tempura and teriyaki sections, and a few closely related bento styles items (think a protein, a few veggies, and a soup).

The sushi boat was a combination of half order nigiri (fishes on vinegar steamed rice) and sashimi (slices of fish only). The variety of these fishes went from your standard fare of different tuna, yellow tail, sweet shrimp, amberjack, mackarel, and sweet omelet egg. Afterwards, the sweet shrimp's head can be deep fried for you, but I guess I wanted to be put on miso soup.

Teriyaki Chicken

Afterwards, I was informed there is also a choice of either of teriyaki chicken or fried chicken cutlet can complete the meal. Imagine my shock to discover the good news...after I was full from the boatload of fishes.

The greater question: Does it matter who prepared this? In the very end, craftmanship of these fishes being prepared mattered so little on who serves it. I hope the notion get dismissed quickly as we all know the best chefs in Chinese cuisine are pretty much Latinos in LA. Yeah, I dare to say that.

Leaves little doubt as this is a fine sushi establishment when you are eating with disconcerting taste buds.

Sapporo Sushi and Grill 
5491 Beach Blvd
Buena Park, CA 90621

I Fizzled, SobaPop Sizzled @ BreadBar (Mid-City)

One of my recent rant was about how I wished there were more pop-up places that can be more accessible and viable for diners to try out new dishes from the creations of upstart chefs. That particular wish was somewhat granted by the same people who brought us the Hatchi series. 

This new series was called the SOBAPOP...get it?...as in "Sodapop" for the introduction of soba noodles for the good people of L.A. This limited engagement was held in the BreadBar restaurant on Third Street that was the same location for the first two LudoBites series.

Cold Artisanal Tofu with Japanese Herbs and Grated Ginger - $8

I was somewhat skeptical on how inventive or how experimental soba noodles can be. More poignantly, I was more interested in what groundbreaking new ways for people who already can grabbed a bowl in anywhere else in east part of Los Angeles and south bay area of Los Angeles county where plenty restaurants can served this noodle in every way possible from traditional to cross-cuisines dishes.

For the limited engagement, the team of Sonoko Sakai and Akila Inouye introduced the healthy buckwheat flour of noodles that can be served stone cold dip in a sauce or served in hot broth soup. For those of the uninitiated, please check out my other post that dealt with soba in my reviews of popular establishments of Inchimian or Otafuku in the south bay area.

Summer Pickles with Cucumber and Japanese Turnip with Yuzu, Asazuke Style - $7

Will the people that are not familiar with the traditional soba noodles appreciated this type of traditional Asian cuisine? One big selling point to the uninitiated, they will appreciate the fact in that the noodles are originated from the stone-milled, organic wheat crops from the Gunma Prefecture in Japan. The noodles are served hand-made fresh daily in the restaurant. The only obstacle in the health conscious mind will be the fact that it is still consider cabs in the carb-free diet world.

Marinated Soft Boiled Egg, Tokyo Style with Garnishes served in a cold soy-bonito broth - $6

The appetizers are fine, but not really out of ordinary either. Pretty much of a safe play for these non-decrepit starters. You can't really screw the pooch on a boiled egg or seasoned pickles. At the same time, the tofu is pretty much very easy as long as you don't add too much sauce of a flavor to taint the soft tofu taste. Those can easily avoid a disaster, but also can't really go beyond either.

Tender Pork Belly, Kakuni Style with Greens - $15

As in for the pork belly, that I can give much more kudos because of different preparations with different style of seasoning and added greens for different savory taste of the simple pork and fat.

I was glad our table ordered a lot more appetizers than it needed to because the soba noodle dishes does take some time to be ready. In fact, the menu did put a warning on the bottom stating that it would take 20 minutes for each to be prepared.

Toro Toro Pork Soba - Tanemono Style, Braised Pork Belly, mushrooms, scallions, mitsuba, yuzu - $24

When the bowls of hot soba noodles does come, I felt a sense of a relief on that the dishes have arrived.

Honestly, I can tell a lot of work was put into it with many of the ingredients being imported from various prefecture regions in Japan was put into the bowl. At the end, I think it feel like the braised pork belly we just ordered was placed into that bowl of soba with soup broth. The soup taste fine with different elements of Japanese ingredients until I get a good bite out of the noodles.

Instantly my cold pessimism had gave way. Never had I felt the quiet moment to myself and just enjoying a simple bowl of noodle. The noodles just melt in my mouth with me taking a huge amount of slurp gobbling down whatever that was put into the bowl. Never mind the fact that my dining companions were sharing their cold soba with tsuyu sauce or they had a Kari-Kari Shrimp soba in their disposal. I just didn't have the care in the world to pay attention or share until it was too late.

I knew I was in trouble because I got a mean stare and a couple cracks of me not sharing the rest of the night, but thank goodness it was so good that I didn't mind at all. I was mean, but I don't think anyone would remembered after a day (Incredibly, I was so wrong when the same person brought it up again a few months later).

Broken Plum Wine Jelly and Dattan Soba Kanten Jelly - $7 each

For the desserts, we have two types of jelly.  One was a plum wine with Okinawan brown syrup and soba grannules (Left on the picture) with the other bowl having a clearer Umeshu Jelly with seasonal fruit. Both served well to cleanse our palate for the night and continue the trend of healthy eating for the night.

On the back of the menu, I noticed that both Sakai and Inouye were teaching classes on how to make hand-made soba noodles. It was only later that I discovered that I found out on that Inoyue had trained many Japanese soba chefs that went on to open their own restaurants and eateries around Japan. He has his own teaching academy in Tokyo, Japan where many of the aspiring soba chefs have gotten start. Sakai had written many cookbooks and is a film producer that was trained under Inouye at this said academy.

Here's the kicker, if I wanted to experience their soba adventures again, where can I find them again? I can ponied up a pretty penny to attend one of their soba making class for one day if they happen to be in town. If not, here is what I hope....Sakai resides part time in L.A. Hopefully Sakai can come back to do one more limited engagement in L.A. and bring Inoyue, the master chef and teacher to do this event.

Boy, do I kick myself for not going more often. I only tried one dish and that was not enough. This is why sometimes we do need more of these pop-ups to get one of these chef(s) to these events more often. Even if it's for one day, it's well worth it.

SobaPop

@ BreadBar

8718 West 3rd Street

Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 205-0124

Best Kept Secret Place in South Bay @ Otafuku (Gardena)

The decoy front door (the entrance is in the back door)

One of the my pal Frederick told me a story about one day he needed to entertain an out of town guest for a taste of food that would reminds the guest back home from Japan. Frederick at first was going to suggest and take his guest to a few spot popular in Gardena and Torrance, but the guest would rather come to this non-descript place because a popular Japanese tour guide recommended this little hole in the wall as the place to visit. Needless to say, my pal was hooked and I have since was introduced to this place based on a recommendation from a tour book.

The real entrance to the restaurant (next to the back parking lot)

In order to enter this noodle shop/Izakaya place, you have to enter from the back parking lot as front door is serve as a decoy entrance with the door being pad-locked down. I don't know why as maybe it deters people from the street to open the door for a lookie-loo.

One of the few things I learned about this place was that they served a mean soba noodles. My previous review of Ichimian can be a fair side by side comparison on who takes the nod as the top place that serve the best soba. In that review, I did proclaimed Ichimian over Otafuku as the place to go for this chewy flavorable noodle.

However, I do have to point out that this small enchanted place that looked like a cozy Izakaya in a small village does served other items beside the noodle dish that attract a full crowd at any given night. I think the small skewer items on the menu and other tapa like dishes of Izakaya are some of the big reason for the establishment's popularity.

My two favorites were the Japanese Black Berkshire pork cutlet and their handmade cold tofu. Single-handedly, I can eat the pork cutlet dish by itself. Nicely breaded and with the right amount of sauce, the cutlet was one of the better piece I have had. Nice too tough and definitely the breading was handle it correctly without falling apart. The handmade tofu was one of my favorite at this location. It is on par with another my favorite Agdeshi tofu at Izakaya Bincho as being the most refreshing tofu in town.

Handmade Cold Tofu - Radish sprouts, Japanese Basil with Bonito Flakes - $4.50

Japanese Berkshire Black Hog Cutlet - $10

Japanese Style Egg Omlette - $8

Mini Tomato Skewer Rolled with Germ Free Thin Sliced Pork - $3 per Skewer

One of my dining companion's favorite dish of the night was the tomato skewer wrapped by a thin sliced of pork. I can see why he raved about it as it is not a fresh piece of fruit being wrapped about everyone's favorite savory dish....a piece of bacon. In fact, what doesn't go with bacon these days?

Zaru Soba - $8

It's too bad Otafuku didn't have too big of a dessert section other than the traditional ice cream. I think majority of the dishes we had that night was something I would repeatedly order or suggest to others including the soba and the Japanese egg omlette. If the soba was the main attraction as it was often publicized for the place, I would give them kudos for that. If it invloves the Izakaya section, then it's a must go. You shouldn't missed both if you get that chance.

Too bad for me, it took a Japanese tour book from a friend of a friend to get me to come here.

Otafuku
16525 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 532-9348

Surviving the Stare Down @ Sushi Zo (West L.A.)

One of my friend have told me that I need to visit Sushi Zo before I make a visit to Urasawa. He had told me stories about unfair comparisons being made afterward for any place that have to follow Urasawa. So my friend had kindly made the suggestions that I need to visit Sushi Zo before Urasawa so that I won't give unfair and unrealistic expectations for Sushi Zo. In case the Big U lives up to the awesome expectations, it would be easy for every other sushi joints to pale in comparisons.

A little history and some footnotes about Sushi Zo before you decide to come here. On a last minute lunch meeting cancellation, I have decided to come here on a lazy Friday afternoon. Supposedly, if you are rolling in on by yourself and needed to be seated at a counter, you will be obligated to dine at an Omakase pricing set by the chef where dishes are ordered by the chef and you will not be allow to order anything from the a la carte menu. According to kevinEats, he heard that only Friday and Saturday will be accessed with Omakase (as in Chef's choosing the dishes in the terms of "trust us") for every diner.

Omakase can be a crap shoot because A) you don't know what the Chef have in store for you when he presents the dishes. B)The Chef will ask you ahead of time on what dishes you won't eat, however you cannot turn down a dish if you don't like the look of it. C)The cost is undetermined ahead of time. You can tell the chef when you want to stop eating, but there is no indication in that the price is strictly based on the numbers of dishes. The price is variable in either the amount of dishes you had or the type of the dishes you had, but the algorithm for any omakase is based on the price set by the restaurant with no real equations.

The man of the hour (or 30 minutes for my case) is chef Keizo. He is either often referred as the Sushi Nazi in the form of the famed chef Nozawa or the "Iron Chef" because of his uncanny resemblance to a younger version of Masaharu Morimoto.

There are some rules you will need to abide by before you they will even begin to service you. One is that the hostess/server will give you a long lecture about this place being a true sushi place where they don't do handrolls, California Rolls, or any absurd special request rolls. Once I agreed, I noticed a few more rules will need to adhere before hand. The two most important rules are that I can't used the soy sauce liberally as I have in the past. In fact, chef Keizo Seki will briefly tell me on how to eat the sushi either in "no soy sauce" or "little soy sauce".

The other rule is that you cannot mixed wasbi on to the soy sauce as they would not provide you with one. The chef will place the wasabi underneath the raw fish himself before serving to you. You cannot remove the wasabi and will have eat the fish as it was intended. There is also an unwritten rule where you have to eat the sushi within 5 seconds after he served it to you. The intention was that you are suppose to savor the fish as it was freshly serve to you and not let it sit too long. As Oshii Eats (no relation to kevinEats) found out, chef Keizo will admonished you about letting the sushi lingered on too long without being eaten.

Let me first off by saying that I was a bit intimidated by chef Keizo Seki at first because he does not look straight in my eyes and the stare down can be a little bit off putting. I was a little bit buzzed by the hot sake and the picture was snapped right away without much focusing. So bare with me on those pictures.

Here are the run downs of the items I have ordered before quitting the Omakase after #17.

1. Kumamoto Kaki/Oyster (picture not taken) - I have heard it's the standard for him to serve us this fresh oyster first as he wants to test how willing your palate is. It's delicious and I wish took a pic of it. Don't worry, I got braver after this.
2. Baby Squid - I like the chewy little squid as it was beautifully presented in this nice little dish
   
3. Awabi/Baby Abalone - This one was a danger to me before it ends because the abalone is a tougher chew and was the biggest piece in the whole repartee. If you can finish this big cut of abalone, you are on your way to a fantastic meal rest of the way. I have a good feeling that this will be an appetite killer or speed bump.
4. Ika/Squid Noodle with Uni/Sea Urchin - It was very subtle and an easy dish to eat with a touch of sea urchin with the squid noodle. Try to imagine eating slices of oyster and you get the same feeling of what's it like in eating this dish.
5. Hirame/Halibut - One of my favorite dish of the night. Love the freshness that was served as my blurry pic can attest on how excited I was in wanting to eat the halibut.
   
6. Tai/Red Snapper - another well cut standard bearer I come to enjoy. The red snapper and yellowtail are favorites in any sushi lineup. The red snappers are very fresh today.
   
7. Yellowtail - This was a solid standard bearer of all sushi. Never really can disappoint unless it's a bad cut of fish.
   
8. Hotate/Scallop - I thought I would like the scallop, but it didn't agreed with me as much. Honestly, I think the sake didn't go very well with it. This is one time I wish someone was with me to tell me to slow down with the drinks.
   
9. Aji/Spanish Mackerel - Luckily the next few dishes are spot on and this Aji melted in my mouth.
   
10. Toro/Fatty Tuna -Oh wow, the fatty toro explodes in my mouth. I loved the fattiness of the tuna which the toro is now winning me over besides being the part of the most expensive cut of the fish. Now I can see why. Very delicious.
    
11. Uni/Sea Urchin -Big chunk of uni will always test me out, but I think I'm getting to appreciate this popular item.
    
12. Madai/Red Snapper -No Soy sauce on this bad boy as it already put some sauce on top. Another standard bearer that passed the test.
    
13. Aoyagi/Orange Clam - This one will be a tough chew. I think most people would have ended right here because of the toughness of this item. Luckily I found the strength to move forward
    
14. Ha-Gatsuo/Skipjack Tuna - I attempted to put soy sauce before the Chef quickly told me "no soy sauce" on this one. Frankly I don't think it needed that either, but it was funny watching him in horror when I tried to dipped in the soy sauce.
    
15. Kanpachi/Amberjack - Just like the yellowtail, it's another standard bearer for sushi. The sauce on the fish was plentiful as chef Keizo sternly asked me not to put soy sauce.
    
16. Butterfish with Miso - My FAVORITE dish of the day. I think the sauce played beautifully on this tender raw fish. If I can this fish everyday, I would be very happy.
    
17. Engawa/Halibut Fin - This is the dish where I needed to end the journey. I think Aoyagi was still sitting rough in my belly, but at least I got to taste the butterfish and kanpachi.
    

Overall, my service was stellar. Yes, it's coming from the same server who probably lectured to every patrons about sushi. It can be considered rude, but I think she is going through the same mechanism to remind everyone about the place (and I also think she is taking the hit for the chef as he might not want to lecture about sushi).

Chef Keizo was really a nice guy even with the rough posture and the stare-down without looking at you at any time. Frankly, a man with so little words that would rather concentrate on providing beautifully crafted dishes that not only looked good, but tasted delicious as well, should be commended rather than misunderstood. He is always slicing and preparing the dishes as he is not in the mood for idle chit chat. Shy man perhaps? That's the theory that is floating out there about Chef Keizo.

For my lunch, it was about $72 for the Omakase and $15 for a hot sake that really put me on tailspin. I'm glad I came here before my big expenditure on Urasawa because I don't know if I really can appreciate this place on its own. I actually started formulating a review before the big U and found it surprisingly that this place still withstood in face of the formidable Urasawa as a top sushi place in Los Angeles.

Go here on a lazy after noon at lunch before 1:30pm and you will get an undivided attention like no others. Make sure you sit on the counter in front of chef Keizo as that is the best seat in the house.

Sushi Zo
9824 National Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 842-3977

Grade:

Revising the Best Noodle Question @ Ichimian Bamboo Garden (Torrance)

Last night, I get a chance to meet my hero, Eat Drink & Be Merry at a social function hosted by our man Teenage Glutster. For some time, I have been using his "other" noodle site for reference guide in my noodle adventures. For an unforeseen turnabout, ED&BM decided to ask me what was the best noodle I had recently and where at.

I fluffed and gave him an answer of Monterey Park's Daikokuya. The ramen-ya was actually very good and much better than Little Tokyo's branch, but the best noodle I had recently belongs to the cold soba from Ichimian Bamboo Garden.

Last month, a group of us decided to do a whirl wind tour of Japanese eateries around South Bay areas in Los Angeles County (ie Torrance, Gardena, Redondo Beach, etc.) hosted by Burumun of Gourmet Pigs. Members of this illustrious group also included Choisauce from Folie à Choisauce, Aaron from Food Destination, Kung Food Panda, Mattatouille, RumDood, and Teenage Glutster.

After a brief stop for an Okonomiyaki meal and pastry place, we decided to make soba as our noodle dining stop before ending the trip with an Izakaya meal. Yes, I can feel a heated question coming up about our soba destination choice.

Tea Station

Why or better yet, how come come we chose to come here instead of Otafuku for soba? To make a short answer, we tried to go to Otafuku on Saturday afternoon for lunch, but we didn't check ahead of time so that we may discovered that Otafuku does not open for lunch on Saturday. Yikes!

Another respected foodie blogger, Exile Kiss had mentioned about this tiny shop that have also hand made their noodle every day. This tiny delightful little shop only opens for four and a half hours every day (Monday-Friday at 11am - 3:30pm) or until they ran out of noodles. They are open on Saturday (11am-5pm) and closed on Sunday.

Ichimian (translation to Bamboo Garden in Japanese) specialized in these hand made noodle that are made from Buckwheat mixed with certain types of flour. The little noodle house is part of the franchise owned by the famed Ichimi Group who is trying to usher in soba as the new healthier product and market soba as the best Japanese fast food choice (as oppose to Yoshinoya?).

Soba can be offer in two ways: cold served with chilled dipping sauce or hot in a soup. The most popular option for cold soba to be served on was on top of a zuru plate (bamboo sieve-like tray) and provided with a tsuyu dipping sauce that closely resembled a sweetened soy sauce. To fully enjoy soba, it was often suggested you dipped it in the tsuyu sauce, swish it like you would in a shabu shabu, twirl the soba noodle like a yarn, and enjoy it cold as it was meant to be.

Uchiatate Zuru Cold Soba - $5.90

The soba noodle was firm, chewy, and elicited strong rich flavor when you dipped into the tsuyu sauce. The aforementioned sauce contains dash of dashi, mirin, and sweetened soy sauce. The tray also included fresh green onions and wasabi to enhance the flavor profile of the sauce. One big advantage to this cold noodle was that even if it was served cold, the noodle was not stiff like it was al dente style cooking. That was quite pleasing to me when the noodle was tender.

I decided to share and get the cold soba noodle with tororo on top. It resembles a soft puree made of Japanese Yam with a dash of seaweed. The soba noodle is already in its bowl of soup with a big spoon for your scooping needs.

At the end of the meal, if you still have left over tsuyu sauce, you can go to the tea station and add in hot or cold tea to the leftover sauce for your drinking consumption. That was actually not bad and a refreshing drink to boot.

Tororo Cold Noodle - $6.90

One of the interesting segment was that our entire group almost unanimously picked cold light colored enriched soba as the choice. Mattatouille decided to go against the grain and went with a hot soba instead. I think he chose the Tanuki, where the soba was accompanied with deep fried tofu. Not quite sure if that was it, but you can see that below along with a bowl of Negitoro Rice ordered by Choisauce.

Hot Soba Bowl

Negitoro Rice - $3.55

Here's the answer to the question most people will want to know. How is this place compared to the other handmade soba place in town, Otafuku? Since, the Panda and I had soba from both places on the same day, I would say my answer is that I preferred Ichimian's soba noodle over Otakfuku.

I thought the texture of the soba at Ichimian was much more firmer and had a better flavor profile. The flavor tasted less doughy comparing to Otafuku, but I think it was very small of a margin in that regards. This doesn't mean it ends the soba battle discussion, but for one night I did tasted a clear difference in which place has a better soba noodle.

If you are tired of ramen and Neu Ro Mein, the buckwheat soba from Ichimian can satisfy your craving needs for fresh and enriching appetite without being heavy. It in fact was trying to position itself as the prefer choice of best Japanese fast food. Good luck with that versus Yoshinoya.

So ED&BM, to withdraw the previous answer and inserting new one to the noodle question: this would be my place for the best recent noodle I have had.

Ichimian Bamboo Garden
1618 Cravens Ave
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 328-1323

Grade:

Waiting To Exhale @ Komatsu (Torrance)

I never knew what Omakase really meant until I went to a sushi restaurant and was taken care of personally by a detail oriented chef. For a price, the chef would give you as much as you needed until you are satisfied knowing he gave you what he thinks is the best.

Different spices in the tray

For a tempura bar, it would be interesting to see what they served considering you can only deep fried a few things like seafood and beef. Other than that, it was going to be a surprise.

Let's preface by saying that nothing get you more down than the fact that you were warned ahead of time that there were "BETTER" tempura places in South Bay than Komatsu restaurant. It was such a bummer to find out the warning to be true.

I came here on a weeknight evening to experience their OMAKASE (oma-ka-say, not OMA-saki) for their tempuras. I was in a smaller dining table joined by three companions. Everyone in our table ordered the pricing menu that is up to the chef. So it shouldn't take that long for the first order to come out.

Shrimp Tempura

Yet, we waited at least 50 minutes before the shrimp tempura came out. Why did it took that long for a simple order and miso soup to arrive to us? Apparently we found out, a Tatami room (traditional Japanese room with low table) full of 20 people have ALL ordered Omakase. Therefore the chef was going to give about 30 some odd people in four tables all the food at the same time.

Miso Soup

It was friggin' bummer to say the least.

Once the initial food came out, majority of the dishes start to fly out around the 80 minutes mark. By then, the service gotten better at clearing out the dishes and refilling the water. The first hour was a complete wash for me.

I was about to find out what you can deep fried when things are available left to the imagination. Such as:

First, we had the Deep Fried Onion Tempura. It felt like eating a supersized onion ring that is left in a big bulb. I think with ketchup, I would have really enjoyed it.

Deep Fried Onion Tempura

In a unforseen delight was the Stuffed Mushroom Tempura. In a weird thought, this could had worked out if the batter that accompany the mushroom was a little more flavored. Otherwise, I think this would have been a good appetizer anywhere else.

Stuffed Mushroom Tempura

Then came an interesting pair, the Salted Plum and Asparagus. This is a weird set as the salted plum in a bag can be purchased anywhere in an Asian market which would had been cool, but deep fried was a little foul for me. The Asparagus was actually done right. Both was salted, but the plum was a sweet and sour snack that usually was enjoyed when I was a kid, but not in a tempura batter.

Salted Plum and Aspharagus Tempura

Next up is the Sweet potato Tempura. This was the other interesting one we had as it was a baked sweet potato version of the tempura. Now that one was something I can enjoyed. With the skin peeled and smothered lightly with a tempura battered in a dipping sauce, I was amazed how delicious the sweet potato tempura really is. If there is a winner outside of the seafood or meat, the sweet potato would be great in a tempura.

Sweet Potato Tempura

We also have white fish, oyster, and sea eel, but they didn't come close to the imagination of the other fascinating tempura dishes.The service was slow in the beginning, but recovered when it was getting to closer for them to bring out the check. The big sticker shock was that the Omakase cost $44 per person. It was a lousy gamble because for the food we got, we didn't feel satisfied or fulfilled. I think for a tasting menu, this would have done great for a Japanese restaurant.

Oyster Tempura

Squid Tempura

White Fish Tempura

Just however a little let down because all around, it was only solid, but not spectacular on any of the dishes that we got. For the future, I hope they improve the efficiency of getting the orders in fashionable time and not making us wait. We got all of our items and enjoyed the dinner in about 2 hours and 45 min. I don't know if people have that much time to sit around and wondered when the food will come out.

Sea Eeel Tempura

Lychee Ice Cream

Like I pointed out above, solid for a tempura bar, but not spectacular.

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Someone asked me if that was more like preset menu than an Omakase, I have to rethink about that because it does felt like they have a preset menu ready than an "on-the-whim" type setup for getting those order items to you. I'll still treat like an Omakase since they listed as such.

Komatsu Restaurant
1644 W Carson St Ste B
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 787-0787

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