Gokigen Tori – Best Yakitori in Culver City — Restaurant in Culver City

Revisit - this time a la carte instead of the fixed Omakase menu. We miss sitting at the counter as the tables are small and tight and we cannot easily interact with the chef, but we like to control our own food destiny. This is a great choice not just if you prefer trendy, LA Japanese food, but also if you want something more authentic. You just have to know how to order it. The default is going to be well-cooked chicken with tare, a sauce that is slightly on the sweet side. We prefer it shio, or with salt and no sauce. Chef also knows we like it the way they do it in japan, which means moist and succulent and a little pink. The Sasami, upon request, was VERY pink…and pefect. They also have special hearts, succulent liver, and an egg yolk to dip the tsukune (meatballs) in. The ochazuke comes with a rich chicken stock that you pour over almost uncooked chicken breast and rice, a beautiful, satisfying way to end the meal. Besides all the offal, they have plenty of the classic cuts as well. Also plenty of other options; tempura, salads, rice dishes, sashimi, more. $30 corkage. We will return again soon. #thefoodietraveler

New Restaurant Alert! Gokigen Tori. Just opened in April, this a legit Yakitori Izakaya restaurant in Culver City. Beautiful, modern restaurant, subdued lighting, not loud, not smoky. The chicken is free range, and all the other ingredients are well-sourced and of excellent quality. It is not just chicken on a stick, there are plenty of delectable options such as sashimi, tempura, noodles, clay pot rice (awesome,) and more. Originally, we were going to go for a la carte and quietly check it out from a table. However, then I read the incredibly irritating Yelp reviews that suffice to say lack a basic understanding of what to expect from an authentic Yakitoriya. Because of that, we grabbed some friends who were up for the adventure and tried their $150 Omakase. So happy we did. In the true spirit of omentenashi, they even sat us as two couples catty-corned from each other. If you choose Omakase, you get to sit at the counter and hang with the chef with a great view of their beautiful, open kitchen. There we learned about Chef and owner Kiyoshi Nagae (Kyo) his partner Ken and their ambitious idea of "I want Americans to eat real Yakitori.". There were so many courses .. Frankly, my biggest regret was how much of the core yakitori we did not get to try this visit, but that just means we need to go back. The A5 wagyu + uni was a supplement, it is not included. The chicken stock (tori tori "ramen") served at the end was the best we have had anywhere in LA since Japan. THey even let us grate our own wasabi. We could have easily spent far less if we ordered a la carte. I don't think we have to drive to Torrance anymore. 🙂 Corkage $30....

Been eagerly awaiting this restaurant for many months, but I am sad to report it is not ready for prime time yet. I waited around an hour for my food to come out. The table next to me was also frustrated, and they canceled their last few items so that they could leave the restaurant. There is poor organization of the service staff and poor communication between the servers and the kitchen staff. There did not seem to be a general manager running the floor which was just surprising to me on the second day of their grand opening.

A few notes: they marked someone else's table as taking my reservation so when I showed up my reservation was gone. Not off to a great start. they did not provide water even though I asked twice until at least 20 minutes after sitting down the non-Japanese servers clearly don't know their own menu and can easily mishear or get confused during ordering we didn't even get napkins. When I asked for napkins, the server went into the bathroom and got me paper towels after an hour and eight minutes of no food, we finally started getting one skewer at a time. Food came out at a rate of about one skewer every 4 to 12 minutes. This was not an enjoyable way to eat yakitori. Between 7:38 and 8:20 pm, 6 more skewers trickled out. Eventually, I also lost patience, cancelled remaining orders, and got the check. -Yakitori is one of my favorite types of Japanese food. Sadly, the yakitori here is hit or miss. The chicken heart was high quality but lacked sufficient smokiness/charcoal flavor, likely because it was rushed. The shiitake mushrooms, on the other hand, ended up being carbonized on one side and did not taste good. The rest of the food was somewhere in between. Overall, I think the food quality is about 25% lower than what I expect at this price point in LA. However, it's possibly better than other Yakitori places in West LA, so from that perspective there is potential.

I really look forward to coming back in a few months so I can revise this review!

EDIT: came back on a weekday evening. It was relatively quiet, yet service was still quite mid. Still had to ask for water multiple times, but food at least came out fast this time. Food quality was far better than first time, but not as good as the price justifies. $6-12 for a single skewer is just much more expensive than the other places...

I have NEVER written a restaurant review before. Ever -- and I hope I never feel the need to do so again. This REQUIRES me to take the time to write this up, however. We got there at 6:55 for our 7:00 reservation on April 20th. Four of us -- three Japanese and American me. (A 94 year old, an 89 year old and my wife and I -- the old folks being her parents.) And we LEFT there, finally, at 9:35 -- TWO HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES LATER! Let me repeat that: to get what we ordered, pay and walk out took TWO HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES! HOLY FRIGGIN' CRAP! I had to take the old folks back home half-way through -- after we sat there, waiting and Waiting and WAITING AND WAITING. (And when I got back nothing had changed -- I hadn't missed a thing. NOTHING of what remained on our order had arrived during my absence.) INCREDIBLY disorganized -- this was THE Single Worst Restaurant Experience of My Entire Life. Yes, of My Entire Life! (My wife said it was the worst of her entire life as well. And we ain't kids.) Food? Okay, I guess. Nothing at all special as far as I'm concerned -- WHEN ANY OF IT FINALLY GOT TO US, that is. We live just two blocks away, and given that my wife and her parents are Japanese we had been eagerly awaiting the place finally opening -- a full year after it was supposed to. (Yes, it was originally scheduled to open in April of 2024, not April of 2025. Maybe that tells you something about how competent the owners are? I dunno.) The couple across the street from us walked over three weeks after we were there and came back with the same experience. NONE OF US -- those neighbors or we four -- will EVER go there again. Period. (Oh and by the way, when our bill came -- that two hours and half later -- we were charged for three things we DIDN'T order, and NOT charged for two things we DID order. Five -- yes FIVE -- errors on the bill! Just utter, across-the-board incompetence. We straightened it out and left ten minutes...