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Issen Joki Restaurant
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- None
16 reviews for Issen Joki Restaurant
for years i've been walking past this place and finally i tried it today.. (thanks lina!) i've been looking for an authentic japanese restaurant with lots of variety and i was pleasantly surprised to see what they had to offer.
the two ladies in the restaurant were super nice and friendly. the cooks were japanese too!!! of course i'm always skeptical about new places... but when the miso soup was actually good... my hopes were rising. i ordered the katsu mix combo, she said it is tonkatsu with shrimp katsu and oyster katsu... kaki fry (right scott?). the bf ordered nabeyaki udon since hes never had it before. also ordered a side of boiled spinach.
(photos posted of our yummy food!!!)
the spinach had roasted sesame and soy kind of sauce and it was delicious. my mom makes it like this and i looooove it... his udon was yummy... tho i dont eat udon, i tried a bit and tasted the soup. it seemed small but he seemed very satisfied.
the katsu were all very good. having the kaki fry was my frist time and it was nice and juicy... i'm definitely going to start trying this kaki fry thing again! it came with half of a potato that was really good... 3 string beans that seemed to be like tempura? side of pasta salad and cabbage. everything was really good and the whole meal was more than enough.
price was nice too. udon about $9, katsu mix about 13? spinach was about 5. all worth it and i'd definitely go back... hopefully soon!
BTW its inside the yaohan/mitsuwa/korean market building. 3rd floor right next to hanaichi monme. you can get a validation at the restaurant for free parking :)
People thought this was:
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I love this restaurant!
The restaurant is located on the third floor within the Japanese Village Plaza.
Parking: Entry to the parking lot is off of Alameda Street, past 3rd Street. Parking is free for the first hour even without validation. Definitely one of the places with the best parking situation in Little Tokyo.
I'm mostly there for lunch so this review will be limited to that should there be any difference between the lunch and dinner menu.
I almost always go with their lunch special ($8.95) because it is such a good value for the quality of food served.
Lunch special comes with vegetable salad, noodle salad (noodle tossed with some sort of mayo-type dressing, yum!) , sashimi (almost always tuna/maguro sashimi), rice, side dish and their choice of meat for the day. The sashimi has always been fresh and tasty.
Service: Service is good and friendly. The lunch special always comes with miso soup and a plate of pickled vegetable.
This is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in little tokyo.
I came in here for the first time some 3 months ago with my buddy. I tried their most expensive item there though I can't remember what exactly the name of the dish was. It had sashimi, rice, salad, soup, pickled veggies, and something else. I think it was $12.95 or $13.95? Well, whatever. Just go there and find the most expensive item there and that was the item that I picked. If there are two with the same price tag, I picked the one with the sashimi then.
Anyway, I thought the dish was decent though the sashimi had a bit of fishy taste to it. That's to be expected given the price tag. The texture was a bit firm but edible. The rice is nothing special. It's just jasmine rice, medium grain, soft and fluffy--typical Japanese rice. The salad was alright. Nothing special here either. Just diced lettuce, carrots, eggplant, and some salad dressing. The miso soup was...miso soup. Tasted about what I thought it would taste. Pickled veggies were...just pickled veggies. Overall, It was filling and relatively tasty (for me, at least).
I liked the fact that this place makes you feel right at home. The grandma/owner of the place along with the grandpa/owner were very nice and prompt to get our orders and refills of oolong tea.
I came back here a second time with the same buddy I brought along the first time and this time, I bought the chicken curry rice plate. Now, when I think curry, I think Curry House curry or Indian curry or Chinese curry, or Thai curry, but their curry was definitely different from all the other kinds of curry I've tried thus far. The difference? It's not overtly spicy. It's rather subtle. Don't be deterred by this, however. I thought the dish was good. It had good portions and it was filling.
As a side note, I must warn you that the taste may be more bland than other places in Little Tokyo. I would put it in the same category as Hana Ichimonme as this place also has food that tasted rather bland. Not a bad thing in itself but if you're used to eating something bold and full of flavor (which is an American thing), like the food at Daikokuya or Oro-Chon's, you're probably not going to like this place.
The office closed early so my friend & I decided to go to Little Tokyo for lunch before our mani pedi. I usually go to Hana Ichimonme but we decided to go to Issen Joki instead. When I walked in I remember having lunch here and it was not good. We ordered lunch special (teriyaki chicken, tuna sashimi, rice) and teriyaki beef and tempura combo. I'm not into basic teriyaki beef/chicken..it's boring Japanese food but it's been a while so why not. My teriyaki chicken was average, miso soup tasted like water and sashimi was not as good as I expected. I asked for the straw and the waitress got us unwrapped straw. I saw her touching the top part of the straw and I couldn't drink from that straw. The only thing I enjoyed was my friend's shrimp tempura. First hour free parking and an extra 1 hour from restaurant validation.
People thought this was:
- Useful (5)
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I love this restaurant.
I've lived in the area for over 10 years now. I go there often and always enjoy it. The beef teriyaki is wonderful. If you're hungry get the beef teriyaki & tempura combo. I also enjoy the salmon bowl. I've had the chicken curry many times and enjoyed it.
One of my favorite places in Little Tokyo!
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The difference between eating the $8.95 Lunch Special (today's was tonkatsu and tuna sashimi) and ordering the Sashimi and Tonkatsu ($13.95) from the menu is five whole dollars. Damn, that's like working 37.5 minutes bagging groceries at minimum wage**.
Eat smart, eat the lunch special!*
*only if the lunch special display looks good
**current california minimum wage is $8, effective 1/1/08
see pics!
Located in the 3rd level inside the Japanese village, this place seems like the authentic Japanese restaurant. I suppose it is, however, authenticity is rather irrelevant when the taste is simply not delicious.
We've had Oyster fry, Sukiyaki and Sansai Udon. The Oyster fry had too much flour in it, Sukiyaki tasted very plain and Sansai Udon tasted very similar to Sukiyaki broth.
Don't get me wrong, the food isn't bad. It's rather too plain and as someone who can cook Japanese food, I feel I'm better off making it by myself. And that's what I'm going to do. No repeats for me here.
For a place that I always go to, its sorta sad that I didn't know how to spell their name....
When I yelped it up, I was appalled by the ratings this place got, and I knew I had to do it justice.
My girlfriend took me here the first time, I was really impressed with how it felt so authentic. Mind you, just like how you would goto certain places for different kind of foods, this place is no different. People should not go to this place for sashimi and sushi. Issen Joki is known for two main things. Their udon noodles, and their fried items. This joint is the perfect place for noodles; if you come here thinking to eat other things, you minus well throw in the towel. Every place has their strengths, and you go there for that, not to eat their worst items and complain about it... would you goto Denny's and eat steak and shrimp thinking its the same surf and turf at Ruth Chris? I don't think so.
Having said, the best are their udon noodles. The place is great for fried items like Tonkatsu and croquettes potato cakes. I really recommend their Tempura Udon. The noodles are firm and the soup base is made perfect every time. It is not everyday you can find a bowl of udon like this. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I've traveled down to San Diego. No where in that 500 mile stretch of a road will you find udon as good as this place.
Take my word, for it. Most places specialized in one thing, this is their thing. And the price is very reasonable. The waitresses or grandmas are a very old fashion Japaneses, they mind their business and not very nosy
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People thought this was:
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We too ended up at Issen Joki because of the line next door. Had I checked on Yelp beforehand, I would have gone for the udon. The grilled mackerel combo I ordered instead filled the bill, but I've had much better at Korean-Japanese places. I didn't try my friend's curry rice - she said it was okay, but heavy. The eel in my brother's donburi was thick and appetizing, but his lunch came with no other sides than the obligatory miso soup and pickles.
I can see the homespun appeal of Issen Joki, but with so many other places offering better value (and distinctive dishes) for the money, I can't see myself going back.
the oyako don is decent. the chicken isn't too dry and the sauce is light in flavor and not too sweet.
the tempura is OK. the batter kinda tastes old.
the soba noodles were a tad mushy.
i like how they serve barley tea.
they have mini -dons. for example the ikura don which is $4.50
oyako don, mini ikura don, tempura +soba = $22
decent prices.
it's right next to hanaichimonme. and i think this place is better. but i guess next door they have more ramen dishes where here theres udon, curry, soba, rice bowls...
I have been here a couple of times. I have to say that the first time it was better, and last time it was basically terrible. The food was almost cold. I ordered the oyakodon last time. I love trying Japanese restaurants, and I would have to say that this is not little tokyo's best. All the food had a funny taste, especially the soup. The first time I was here and I ordered the katsudon, and it was alright. I don't think i'll be coming back here, simply due to having a bad meal last time.
It's really sad this place is so over looked. I love this place, and setting the facts straight about this place finally got me to join.
So, Peter W. was right on the money. They also have great Tea, I have to add. I had genmai cha (roasted rice green tea) that everyone at our table loved so much, we asked the grandma running the front where she got it from. They roasted the rice themselves, and import the tea from Japan themselves. Wow. No wonder it was so good.
The noodles were great too. It's an udon place, and the other things are really not bad at all if some in your party aren't noodle lovers. The tempera was pretty good for one, but nothing spectacular. Good prices, authentic taste that really reminds me of Tokyo suburbs.
This place is a Japanese Diner. Its serves Japanese Soul food. It even has the cool plastic fake food like most Japanese diners have. Its is located upstairs of the Mitsuwa building on the 3rd level. The food is good, quick, and fairly reasonable price. It accepts credit cards.
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In comparison to a lot of Japanese restaurants, the prices here are very reasonable. The lunch specials are definitely a good deal. I think they're usually priced around $8.95. That's a darn good price for a meal that comes with a good sized portion of sashimi. They also have some great combos...like the tempura udon and zaru soba. That's almost like two meals for the price of one. Probably one of the best deals is the salmon. I've never seen such a large piece of salmon served at a Japanese restaurant before. You'll pretty much get what you expect here without spending too much money.
i always always get the nabeyaki udon!! i haven't ordered anything else because i'm scared that it won't be as good as the nabeyaki udon!! their nabeyaki never lets me down. their tsukemono is also really good.
My husband has never been to Little Tokyo so I thought it would be a nice little Sunday afternoon excursion. We ended up in the Mitsuwa shopping complex and chose to eat at this place cuz the restaurant next door had a bunch of people waiting (um, hello Candice? Red flag?) and we were starving. Boy... big mistake. First of all, whats up with the sticky tables? Second, my mom's vegetable bowl was completely bland.... zero taste. Third, my vegetable curry was overly salty and tasted/ smelled particularly oily. And it was that reused oil smell... which made me want to throw up. Finally, my husband tried to order sashimi but the waitress told us they were all out. Fine... so he ordered something else and ate that. After we were done eating, what do I see her bring out? A nice big plate of sashimi for the guy at the table behind us. I asked her why she told us they were out and she just randomly pointed at some other waitress and said, "she told me" and walked off. No apologies or anything. Learn some customer service skills lady!
