OTAFUKU

Otafuka in Gardena is a magnificent little Japanese Soba shop. The specialty here are soba noodles. A while back, I was reading the L.A. Times Food Section and it actually talked about this place. They were talking about soba noodles and named this one of the best places for it because the chef here at Otafuku hand makes the soba noodles they sell here. After I read it, the same week I went to try it out. It has been almost a year now and I have since made it to this place numerous times.

I ordered the soba in hot broth with eel tempura. This was good on a cold night, but the best way to have a sublime soba experience is to have it served in a basket with a bowl of cold dipping sauce. Either way the soba is chewy and definitely satisfying.

The side of eel tempura was huge! The meaty eel was longer than my forearm! It was crunchy and juicy and not at all fishy. It also came with a couple of tempura pieces of vegetables. I enjoyed it best when dipped into the broth of my noodles.

My brother ordered the mochi udon noodles. It cames with two good sized pieces of fried mochi squares. This is really good because it gives the dish a chewy texture. It also comes with a poached egg in the broth. The egg was awesome! I don't know how to explain it, but this egg is not your ordinary egg. The taste and texture is totally different from what you have eaten home.


I will be back here again as soon as my soba urge comes back. If you ever come here, expect this place to be small, even with the new expansion. They speak minimal English here so point to what you want on the menu. The front is really minimal and you could easily pass it up a dozen times without even realizing it. ~Bootsi


OTAFUKU
16525 S. Western Ave.
Gardena, CA 90247

YELLOW COW KOREAN BBQ

Let's get this out of the way, their website is amazing, so make sure you check it out (click the link underneath the address). That said let me start working this review.

Hanging out with some long time buddies we were craving Korean food once again. Something about smoke in the air that brings out the fat beast in me. Dinner on a freezing Thursday night, this place was packed! There was no seating list or anything, it was just a trust/trust factor. Not a great system for such a busy place. It was a really really long 40 minute wait because the waiting area is located outside with the parked cars and of coarse, fat folks, like myself, think everyday is summer so we never have a jacket handy. The only thing that kept me going was when someone would walk in or out of the restaurant and the aroma of sizzling meat came out the swinging door. This was the usual unusual sides that come along with the meal. Unusual because I never seen side dishes like these whenever I go and eat Korean food. First (top left going clockwise) was the flat sheets of noodle skins, good by itself but amazing when wrapped around meat. Next was daikon kimchi, not to spicy and had a great crunch. Steamed cabbage was a treat because of the flavorful soybean paste that came along with it. The salad was great, it consisted of cabbage, lettuce and other goodies and a wonderful dressing. Then there was some type of steamed fish over veggies that was also very delightful. Not pictured were the kimchi, soup and steamed egg in stone pot.

Here are some more sides, sauteed tofu with garlic was good and the other one was ...I have no ideal WTF that was. I don't think I even tried it.

We ordered a combo of any two meats. Our choices were Cha Dol Bae Gi (briskets), which is the rolled up meat. This was good and had a nice beefy flavor. Gal Bi (boneless short ribs), they came marinated and had two bones on them. The marinaded crisp the outside of the meat and gave it a nice smokey burnt flavor and when wrapped in the noodle sheets..man, it was oh so good! These meats were great but it wasn't enough for the 5 of us.

So we ended up with two more orders of meat. This one was the Huk Dae Ji Sam Gyup Sal (black pork bacon), which was hands down my favorite of the night. The longer we cooked it on the grill the crispier it got.

The other order was more of the brisket.

Watch out because the brisket can go from rare to well done within seconds. Everyone had to fend for themselves and the weakest link was left out.

More chopstick fight action! All in all, the service was OK, but you can't expect too much during prime hours. Parking can be a hassle also during this time because they share the same lot with Yoshinoya, Sumo Sushi and a tea house. For all the hustle and bustle, coming to Yellow Cow was all well worth it!

YELLOW COW KOREAN BBQ
1835 W. Redondo Beach Blvd

Gardena, CA 90247

http://www.myyellowcow.com/

SHIN SEN GUMI YAKITORI

Shin Sen Gumi is one loud ass place. Soon as you walk in, you are greeted by everyone that works there. I believe the kitchen workers in the back say "Hello," too! This place is always crowded so you must put your name on the list that's outside of the restaurant. The wait can sometimes be long and it can sometimes be short, this time it was long. It took us about 30 minutes to get in there so we had no choice but to enjoy the view of Southbay Toyota's fleet of cars that are across the street..

Soon as we got in there, they put a plate of cabbage on your table for you to munch on. I never liked cabbage, but for some reason I enjoy these because of the light sauce that it is covered in.

All the yakatori is approximately $1.5 to $3.5 per stick depending on what you choose. You are given two menus, one of them are the appetizers, sides and meals and the other is like a sushi menu that you mark yourself and that one contains the list of yakatori choices.

The first one of our choices that came out was the flap meat. Cooked medium rare and season with salt, the meat was soft, juicy and bursting with flavor.

Agedashi was good. This is made of fried tofu that is sitting in tentsuya broth w/ grated daikon and topped with bonito flakes, seaweed and green onions. This is a refreshing dish that got us ready for the rest of our meal.

This was the chicken breast w/ plum paste and shiso leaves. The plum paste gave the chicken a sour tart taste and the shiso leaves tastes of a lite basil. It was a good combination of flavor.

One of my favorites. This is quail eggs wrapped in bacon. This was awesome. The salty flavor of the bacon went wonderful with the mellow flavored yolk of the egg.

Chicken thigh w/ green onions (in house sauce) was great. The chicken was juicy and the sauce was something else. I couldn't get enough of the sauce, in fact, I wanted to dip everything in it and lick up whatever was left over.

One of these are the made of asparagus wrapped in pork belly and the other three are made of enoki mushrooms wrapped in pork belly. I didn't try the asparagus, but the enoki was excellent. The pork belly was like a bacon but not as crisp and not as salty.

Only two of us went for the beef tongue. To bad for them because this was good. It had a chewy texture the I wasn't expecting and was flavored with just a little sprinkle of salt.

This was the potato that we order. Everybody ordered this. At first glance, we thought it was covered in cheese, but it wasn't cheese, it was butter! This was just your typical baked potato with a char taste to it.

This was the killer right here. This is crunchy chicken skin. Not necessarily the most healthiest choice but was easily one of the best ones. This was glazed with the house sauce and was just amazing when you bit into it. It was crisp and when you take a bit all the fat greasy goodness runs right down your throat. So damn bad for you, but so damn good!

The skewers. For four orders of rice (also really good) and tap water to drink, the bill came up to be $80+. This is a fun cool place and the price wasn't bad because we all came out really full.

SHIN SEN GUMI
18617 S. Western

Gardena, CA 90248
http://www.shinsengumiusa.com/

REDONDO DINER

Many restaurants have come and gone in this Gardena location. It shares it's location with Quizinos, Dominoes, Jackson Hewitt and Smart and Final. I drive by the Redondo Diner at least four times a day, but never cared to go. I finally wanted to try it after seeing it featured in the Daily Breeze's RAVE, so I gathered up the family to eat there for lunch. The inside has not changed from when it was a Korean Tofu house. It is really simple with a lot of wood. The first thing I noticed on the menu was that they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. All the meals came with complimentary soup, today was chicken soup. The soup didn't look like much, but it was pretty tasty.

Of course, Moms ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, $3.95 or $4.95 can't remember, for the grilled ham n cheese sandwich. I didn't try it, but how can somebody mess that up right? The fries were OK.


Next up was the BLT that my brother ordered. He has never been impressed by a diner, so to him, a sandwich is just a sandwich. It looked good to me.

I ordered the French dip sandwich with potato salad. I wished they had more meat in it, but I liked it. The bread was really good, especially when it was dipped into the au jus. The potato salad was good too. I believe this was about $6 and it filled me up.

Pops went with the red snapper in garlic butter, which was on the dinner menu. Still under $11. The red snapper was a big piece of fillet that turned out really good. It was moist and cooked perfectly. It came with a choice of potato and a side of veggies.

The place is cool if your looking for a quiet spot to eat, not because everybody is quiet in there, but because there is nobody there. It opens early but also closes early, so definitely check the place out to get the times. The food is decent and the prices are low. It is a cool place to go when your dough is low. ~ BOOTSI

Redondo Diner

1546 Redondo Beach Blvd.

Gardena, CA 90247

SUSHI BEI

2021 W. Redondo Beach Blvd.
Gardena, Ca 90247

My cousin and I ended up at Sushi Bei, in Gardena, after waiting for a friend that never showed up(Yes, that's you Mr. Domo Arrigato Mr. Birthday Bato). Well it is his birthday and it was his family that he left us for, so we can't be too made, right? WRONG! I stayed in my jeans for over two hours when I could of been in my favorite, most comfortable pair of sweats! Ready to call it a night after the devastating news, but realized I had to put my jean wearing to use, so off we went.

This place is hidden in a plaza that is connected to the end of a Target's parking lot. It is a really small place that consisted of about six or seven tables and a sushi bar that seated about 10 more people. The place was empty when we got there around ten, so we grabbed seats right in front of the tube that was playing sport highlights. There's nothing better than sushi and sports, it's almost as good as chicken and waffles.

As far as decoration goes, there is nothing fancy about this place, just a very clean simple wooden decor. Sushi wise it's plain ol' good hands down traditional sushi with couple of exotic rolls to keep everyone happy. Once I had fresh sweet shrimp here and the sushi chef kill the shrimp right in front of my eyes! That was an enjoyable experience and the shrimp without it's shell was still flinching on top of the rice! It was cheap too, I believe it was about $7 for two shrimp and then they fry up the head for you afterwards. That's what I call fresh, but I didn't get it today! I'll make sure I get it next time.

The first thing on the list was salmon skin roll. The salmon skin wasn't as crunchy as I like it, but the fresh veggies made a nice crackle when I bit into it. Really good and fresh!

Then we went for the eel roll. I always loved eel sauce from here. It's not extra thick and sweet like most places. It's simple here, it doesn't over power the roll and you can really get a good taste of the eel.

Ume roll totally tantalized my tongue. We requested this to be made without the usual shiso leaf and cucumber slices. We just wanted ume (plum) paste and nothing but ume paste. We love that tart tangy taste of this roll. It made my mouth water like crazy as soon as the ume hit my tongue.

Scallop roll was really good too! There was a delightful contrast of temperatures in you mouth when you take a bite because the rice was slightly warm and the scallop mix was cold. There was big pieces of scallops in the roll mixed with mayo and tobiko (little fish eggs). This had big scallop texture and taste.

We ended our sushi run with and order of tuna maki. I love tuna maki because it is so straight forward and the best way, I feel, to get great flavor from the tuna.

Then there was free dessert! We had a choice of green tea ice cream or slices of orange. We both picked the ice cream and it was good. What a way cap off the night...good sushi...good service...and sports on the tube! ~ Bootsi

JANG SOO

So I have been in the mood for Korean BBQ for about a two weeks now and I finally decided to satisfy my craving. I ended up at Jang Soo restaurant in Gardena because I knew they had excellent "lunch specials." This place is located at the corner of Redondo Beach Blvd and Normandie. I have been here many times before but have been going less because the prices have gone up. They give you the usual little side dishes so you can snack on it before the main course comes to the table. The little plates consisted of (from L to R) cucumber kimchi (refreshing and crisp, always a treat), bean sprouts (nice nutty flavor), pickled daikon and carrots (the exact same stuff in banh mi sandwiches), steamed broccoli w/slices of mushroom and imitation crab (decent), potato salad (almost like Hawaiian potato mac salad, but with out the mac but with chunks of apples instead, OK maybe not like Hawaiian potato mac then), your usual kimchi (good, not too spicy), soup that came with our meal (it was a spicy broth that had cabbage in it and other things) and fishcake, the star of the bunch (chewy with a nice sweet glaze, it didn't taste like fish at all, shit it might not even be fishcake).

If you order the "lunch specials" here, everything comes out already cooked. They are served on a hot sizzling plate with the type of meat that you ordered with slices of raw onions underneath the meat, so while you eat your meal, the slices of onions gets cooked and becomes soft and flavorful. We ordered (from L to r) marinated BBQ chicken, spicy marinated pork and marinated sliced beef. Everything was marinated to perfection, the chicken was sweet and perfectly cooked. It was charred at the edges, just like all of the meat, so damn good! The pork was spicy, not so spicy where you couldn't taste anything else, but spicy enough to make your nose run just a bit. It was sliced thin and it had such great flavor when you put it in your mouth that you had to close your eyes for a second and just shake your head.
The beef, which is usually my least favorite of the bunch, was da SHIT! Aw-man, this was...I don't know what to say...fucking good! Sorry for the profanity, but I don't know how else to explain this dish to all of you. It was almost like sukiyaki, so soft and juicy. As you can see we totally destroyed the food. They also gave us a tea cup of sweet soup for dessert, which I really never cared for. ~Bootsi

Jang Soo Restaurant

1404 Redondo Beach Blvd

Gardena, CA 90247

EL POLLO INKA

1425 W Artesia Blvd
Gardena, Ca 90247
www.elpolloinka.com

After a failed attempt to find some grub at the Torrance farmers market (long story), a group of close friends and I met up for a late lunch at El Pollo Inka in Gardena. It is located in the same plaza and right next to the California Fish Grill. This place definitely pleases the taste buds and for any reason your meal is not that good just put a nice drenching of green sauce over the food and it would make your meal hella good. Every meal here during lunch time includes a bowl of chicken rice soup. Some day old chicken and rice, throw in some veggies and WALLA....a nice hearty delicious soup, but add some green sauce on that mug and it tasted even better!

One of my friends ordered the Saltado de Camarones. This plate had lots of shrimps that were stir fried with the usual red onions, french fries, tomatoes and special seasonings. I did not try any of the shrimp because I didn't want to look like a fat ass, but believe me i was eyeing them. She said they were really good, especially with some of that green sauce!

This was a whole rotisserie chicken and rice, my friend's usual. I couldn't resist the offer to receive a piece. The skin of the chicken were burnt at the edges and crisp at the bite. The breast was soft and moist, so good that i wanted to put that whole breast my mouth with some green sauce of course.

This was my order of Saltado de Pollo. It's basically the same thing as the Saltado de Camarones but with chicken. As you can see the first thing I did was drench it in green sauce. I would of put a lot more but we did have a table of six, so I wanted everybody to have a chance before I go postal on my food with it. Chicken was moist and tender, but it could of been a little more burnt on the edges ( a little char is all I'm asking). It was really good none the less.

This is the magical green sauce after I demolished it. I cant explain the taste but it is refreshing with a real little kick to it. My friend Peter said it is so good that he would put it on everything he ate if El Pollo Inka had this stuff for sell and I, 100% agree with his absurd statement. ~Bootsi

CALIFORNIA FISH GRILL

California Fish Grill is one of my pops favorite lunch spots. This place is located at the west end of the 91 fwy which turns into Artesia Blvd. We have been here many times and this place get so packed during lunch hours that I feel like I'm at Costco on a Saturday or like clothes in a women's luggage. This place gets busy and for good reason!

My pops ordered the white roughy. It was the special of the day but I believe it's the special every damn day, well at least the last five times I went there. You have a choice of flavor for the fish; Cajun or buttered, fries or rice, coleslaw and bread. The fish was cooked perfectly, it flaked with the piercing of the plastic fork, and it didn't have that strong fishy smell that us guys hate. The fries were really good too, crisp and not that greasy.

I ordered my usual fish tacos and grilled zucchini, gotta get the zucchinis. The tacos are made of fried fish, sign of a good fish taco. It did not have a lot of cabbage on top either, which is another good sign. These tacos were pretty big, in fact, I had to pullout (that's what she said) some fish just so I could fit the taco in my mouth! ~ BOOTSI


CALIFORNIA FISH GRILL
1425 W. Artesia Boulevard
Gardena, California 90247
http://www.cafishgrill.com/