Mako "I'll try that" S.'s Profile

Yuzen is a great place to relax and catch up with old friends. The food can be a little pricey for an Izakaya, but I've yet to be disappointed with anything on the menu. I never thought I would ever say this, but I love their salads. This coming from a guy who constantly write reviews about meat. Technically they pass as salads, but the menu says salad, so that's what they are. The Radish Salad with Non-Oil Sauce and the Tomato / Yam Salad with Plum Sauce: If I was ever forced at gunpoint to just eat a salad for lunch (it happens more often than you think), I would eat these together. Maybe even mix them to create some kind of delicious franken-salad. I've already wrote more about salad than I ever have in my life, which is a sign that you should give it a try.

Chicken Karaage (Fried chicken): The second best karaage I have ever had. No one makes a better karaage than my wife's aunt in Nagasaki, but this one comes in at a close second. Throw in your usual Izakaya skewer items like the beef with ponzu sauce, beef tongue, chicken legs, tsukune (ground chicken), followed by the diced tuna with avocado in soy sauce, and grilled marinated gindara (black cod) and you'll have yourself a great meal. Don't forget to share or old friends will become new rivals.

I don't know if it's just me, but when I'm at an Izakaya, I tend to like to order finishers at the end of eating skewers. Sort of like a small meal to finish your meal. My choices are the tenmusu (Shrimp tempura and salmon roe wrapped in rice and seaweed) and a hot bowl of plain soba (buckwheat noodles).

Usually at Izakaya's, a pitcher of beer is the best way to wash down all that delicious food, but here, I like to get their Otona no Coffee Milk (Adult milk coffee - Kahlua, Milk and Frozen-coffee). My wife ordered the grapefruit chuu-hi (soju, Perrier, and grapefruit) and we were a little disappointed when the waiter told us that they were out of grapefruits......bummer right? Well, our waiter went out of his way to a nearby Whole Foods to buy a grapefruit and serve my wife her drink. A +++ service, as they would say in eBay.

Star BBQ is my all you can eat home away from Korea town.  In the past, I've been so distracted by all the Japanese restaurants in Torrance / Gardena, I rarely had the urge to eat Korean BBQ. That was until one evening I was craving the KBBQ (would be a great radio station name) and I was not in the mood to journey to Korea town. The Hunger took over and in my mind, driving from Torrance to Korea town was equally far as if I were to row a boat from Japan to Korea. Everything is far away when you're hungry. After yelling "Screw that, I am not rowing a damn boat to eat Korean BBQ" and confusing all of my friends, I headed to the stars....er Star BBQ.

Their menus are straight forward. Basically if you pay a little more, you get a little bit more variety of meats that you get to choose from a list attached to the wall. Once you start ordering, the briskets, beef tongue, short ribs, pork belly, and intestines will rain down on you like...meat rain. Side dishes go as far as the eyes can see. I threw in a bowl of rice because meat + rice is a must, steamed egg and at the end the waiter recommended the bean paste soup which was brought to our table and warmed over the grill. Genius. Overall I had a great experience here and I smelled delicious after wards. Lastly, I have to mention that our waiter was very attentive and nice. I salute you, Sir Bringer of Meats.

One of my favorite wine bars from when I used to go out and do things. At times it can get pretty crowded and noisy, but I've always enjoyed the selection of wines that come in stemless wine glasses to keep your drunk friend from knocking over good wine. The food + wines can get a little pricey, but if you're cheap like me and can't stay out past 10:00pm anymore because you're old, happy hour is the way to go (5pm - 7pm).

I wouldn't say I know a whole lot about wine, other than the fact that if it's red, I'll drink it, but Bodega is the only place where I bothered to remember "bored doe" (a merlot, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot from South Africa) as my choice of red wine. It also helps when I imagine how my mom (who was born in Japan) would pronounce the word "bored". Ah, "bod-o", now I remember.

Bodega has a simple menu with foods that just go well with alcohol....or does alcohol just goes well with everything? (Except for domestic violence) The Margherita pizza is amazing. The best pizzas I've had in the past always seem to come from places that don't specialize in pizza. Like the one they had at a Chinese buffet I used to go to. Strange, but a nice surprise. Of course this isn't enough for me, so I always combine this with their Cheese plate and bruschetta with olive tapenade. A 3-hit combo of delicious. Don't forget to share you food, I always seems to forget that when I'm here.

Last time I was at King's was in 2009, but apparently they serve sushi now. Great for them. I'm glad that they are expanding their menu and are doing great. To me King's will always be that burger joint that almost gave me a heart attack. ( I have been eating here since 2001) Yes, I'm talking about the King's Special. Pastrami on top of a beef patty packed so tightly together that it's deceiving. It looks small to the eye, but this burger shaves years off your life with every bite. Leaving out the lettuce only hastens the process because they just replace it with more pastrami. I bet they had meetings before opening the place and some guy was like "Hey what do we serve the vegetarians?" and the owner just yelled back, "Screw them! Just add more pastrami to customers who want no vegetables. I don't care at what cost" I want to hug you Mr. King. Though I hear it's Korean owned so your last name will probably not be King, but whatever (correct me if I'm wrong).

The King's Special comes with fries, but you have to ask for their ranch sauce. If you've read any of my reviews, you know that I talk about how unexplainable delicious foods are possible because of Jesus parts. (dipped in Jesus' sandals, soaked in slices of Jesus, etc.) Jesus took a mouth full of this ranch sauce and spat back out greatness. I laugh at the Hidden Valley commercials where kids are happily eating vegetables like candy. If they had this ranch sauce, they'd be murdering each other to get it and then use the ranch sauce to eat the corpses.

I'm giving King's one extra star this time for not changing their burger. I don't care if the service is bad every now and then, as long as they don't change the King's Special, they are 5 stars in my nonexistent book.

Hard name to remember, but I just call this place "that place that serves great pad see ew". Thai Ice Tea, I know I'm drinking a mug full of sugar, but it goes so well with my food. It's a shame that this place is in such a small location hiding in the corner where no one will ever see driving by. Then again, maybe that's good because I'll have all the food to myself without waiting. My theory is that I keep them in business with the amount of pad see ew I eat here. I know nothing about how a restaurant runs, but that's probably how it works?

Tiny hidden places like these always have amazing food. It's like when you go deep into the jungle to discover an ancient tribe untouched by the world that serves the best hamburger you've ever had.....with their ancient burger grill and deep fryer.

A small restaurant with few tables, but HUGE flavorful food. That and an elephant jumps out of your menu. Yep, you heard me. I'm not explaining it here, you'll just have to go and see it yourself. Bring your monies, because they don't take credit cards with your imaginary currency. Real food requires real money.

Brunch, burnch, bunch, blunch, burunchu, bro-lunch. I was looking for a place to eat brunch and was lucky enough to discover this place after searching "brunch" on Yelp. I spelled "brunch" several different ways to make sure that this place will show up in your search. Why? Because no one can spell correctly when they are starving. Sometimes I type "fud" when I'm hungry and my brain stops working, so I'll include that too.

I've said before that I love breakfast and nothing makes breakfast better than eating it out on the patio under amazing Redondo Beach weather. Throw in a Wildflower stack (Bananas, Walnuts, Blueberries, and Strawberries all tackled into a buttermilk pancake) with some eggs, ham, fresh orange juice and I am having the best Sunday or Saturday brunch of my life. This is a weekend place. You don't want to come here on your lunch break, because you're not going back to work and you'll be fired....unless you grab a Wildflower stack to take back to your boss:

"I'm sorry Mr. / Mrs. (Insert name here) for not coming back to work. I was in a food coma and not in my right mind. Please forgive me wi..." *proceed to climb over desk and shove pancake down your boss' mouth and see eyes roll up.*  I guarantee you won't get fired.*

*disclaimer: guarantee is not guaranteed. Eat at Wildflower during your lunch break at your own risk. Buy me a stack while you're there. I promise I'll pay you back.*

*disclaimer for the disclaimer: All pancake stacks purchases for Mako Saito are considered a donation.

"The Kobe beef is so good that you'll laugh." is how this place was described to me when I asked what's the food there like. It's a shame that they don't have those words on the entrance door. Let me tell you, the last time I laughed hysterically from eating meat was when I had Kobe beef in Kobe. Kobe Gyu, if you didn't know, directly translates as "I'm so delicious I piss on all other meats", is one of my favorite things to eat. If I could afford it, I would eat it everyday and happily die an early death. If you haven't tried it, then I pity you....I really, really pity you. Really.

Great BBQ meat requires great dipping sauce (tare), and the sauce here is so delicious I could bathe in it, making myself more delicious. I don't know exactly how it's made, but it's sweet, garlicky, and Jesus probably washed his sandals in it. (If you haven't read my previous reviews, Jesus parts make food taste amazing.)

A few things to remember to make your Japanese BBQ experience great:

- Order the Kobe beef (duh), and don't over cook it. I like to just grill each side for only about a couple seconds.
- Get rice, always.
-  Highly recommend that you call ahead for reservations.
- Go early because they will eventually run out of Kobe Beef before the day ends.

I was able to catch the deliciousness on wheels for the first time behind a shady parking lot behind the K-1 Speedway building for the South Bay DDaGG. The second I saw the word "buns" I was already ordering the Kalbi buns expecting to see something shaped like steamed pork buns, but instead I was confused to see it sandwiched in a flat steam bun. Flat or round, it still looked delicious, and my taste buds agreed with my eyes. Unlike the time I had Tarako (fish roe) spaghetti, thinking it was topped with tomato sauce. I never trusted my eyes again. Thank you Bun Truck for making me believe my eyes again.

Since I ordered 2 buns (one for me and my wife. Although I originally was getting two for myself, but then I ran into my wife and was asked "Where's mine?" and had to reply, "what?....I mean, of course I got you one too.") the truck lady recommended that I also get the Duck fat fries which are garlic rosemary fries fried in duck fat with a drink and make it into a combo. Touché, madam. You know how to make me give you more money.

I was low on cash because of all the food trucks I had visited on my way there, but it was good to know that they took my credit card.

A very nice venue. I used to live down the street from the Staples Center and hated how I would always end up in traffic while getting off at my exit during events, but now that I live in Torrance, I love everything about this place. I have seen the LA Kings, the Lakers and Linkin Park play here and every single time I had an excellent experience. The only disappointment I have is seeing the Kings lose every time I go see them. At least I was comfortable, so in a way, we were are all winners.

Even when sitting in the nose bleed section all the way at the top, I was still clearly able to see the puck miss goals at Kings games, see enough hair on on Derek Fisher's head to know that it's time for a haircut, and go deaf listening to Chester Bennington when he yells "Shut up when I'm talking to you".

You can't really avoid paying a lot for parking in the area unless you walk from your home or ride a segway, but at least there are plenty of restaurants and shops to visit on your way to the entrance.

It's like they took the words right out of my mouth and made it into a sign. What a great name for a place that also serves great boba. I can't say that I know what great boba is anymore than the next humanoid, but I know what I like, and it tastes so good in my mouth. (that's what she said) I am confident that this tiny shop will continue it's business even in the distant future. Assuming that my Yelp review will be read by different species and robots of the future, I am future-proofing this review by writing "humanoid".

Back to the boba. Again, my credibility on boba is not very strong because the only flavor I ever get is milk tea no matter where I go. At the same time, it's an advantage because I've had milk tea boba at every boba shop imaginable, and this place is one of the better ones as far as flavor and boba texture.

Last time I checked, this place had free wi-fi, so it's great if you have to check-in with Yelp and write a review on the spot because Yelping is like crack to you.

They have a small parking lot in the back, which is sometimes hard to see and is easily confused by the bank parking lot next door on the other side. I guess it works out. I don't know about you, but I always crave boba after going to the bank.