Hannosuke — Restaurant in Los Angeles

This USED to be my favorite restaurant at Mitsuwa. But the quality of the food has been on a steady decline while prices have gone up. Each time I stop by, I reluctantly try my usual order of a la carte items, in the hopes that perhaps the inconsistencies in quality of both customer service and food are subject to unforseen circumstances. That is not the case. In my observations, its been due to the carelessness of the employees who, perhaps due to management issues, have been doling out subpar food and service. On my last visit, i was not greeted at all but rather glanced at and ignored by a woman who continued to do "busy work" rather than acknowledge me at the counter. After a few moments i was taken aback by a rather hastily and annoyed "Do u need something?" Yell from the back kitchen of the restaurant. I smiled and kindly stated I would like to order from a clerk like i always do. The woman never came to the counter to speak to me but yelled from afar to use the new giant grease stained covered screen to order. After looking at how dirty the screen was and the lack of personable service, I wanted to walk away. But, being the hopeless optimist that I am and my love for this restaurants tempura, i begrudgingly used the filthy screen to input my order. Much to my dismay, the quality of the food continues to decline, both in freshness and presentation. Sadly, i will not be patronizing this...

Hannosuke specializes in Ten-Don or Tempura rice bowl. Everything is fried, down to the soft boiled egg and the sheet of seaweed so it's not exactly health food. You can choose from 10-12 different combinations. The original has 2 shrimps, a fairly big slice of whtie fish, sweet potato, seaweed, and an egg. That's confusingly #2 on the menu.

The Ten-Don itself is pretty darn awesome except for the fact that there was no veggies in my bowl at all. Everything is fried fresh when you order and they dip the tempura in this amazing sauce. It's not the typical ginger and soy sauce you usually get at Japanese restaurants. Their sauce is more robust and does a great job at sticking to the tempura.

Hannosuke is located inside the food court at the Mitsuwa near Mar Vista. They only take cash. In fact, the whole food court only accepts cash. They do have a little BofA ATM inside and there's a Chase in the same plaza.

I will be back one day to try their #1 bowl called the Edomae Ten-Don. Instead of white fish, they use anago or sea eel. From the picture, it's a huge...

Some of the reviews and reviewers about this place are idiotic, complaining about things that are inherent to a Japanese, fried food, place in a good court.

It's tempura, from the folks that have specializes in it for years and years in Japan. They specialize in this fried dish that is served over rice. The quality and consistenc won't be the same compared to the original because it's thousands of miles away, but it's still some of the best tempura options in the area.

It's in a food court, a supermarket food court so what kind of service are you expecting?!? It's basically a damn cafeteria!

All that being said, a proper tempura is crispy on the outside but still holds the integrity of the ingredient in the inside and Hannosuke does it really well and on a pretty consistent basis. My favorite is always the soft boiled egg that is still runny and gooey as it spills over my rice but still had crunchy bits of tempura batter.

It's all definitely worth a visit if you are a fan of freshly made tempura and Linda know what you are...