Nanbankan — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Rumors are swirling that this was Nobuyuki Matsuhisa goto spot for a relaxed dinner before he dropped the "uyuki Matsuhisa" and became known as just "Nobu." Being known by only 4 letters is such a power move ahahaha... I think I'm gonna start going by… "John."

Walking into Nanban-Kan is like entering a wormhole in the sense that you walk right off of the trash littered high traffic street that is Santa Monica Blvd, and enter into an authentic Yakitori restaurant in the heart of Shinjuku. The waiting room is separated from the dining area by a short white curtain with Japanese script, and a small, maybe 10 inch, TV that has likely been hanging in that very spot since the early 90s.

As I was taking in the ambiance, surrounded by traditional Japanese art and framed light flexes of Nanban-Kan being mentioned in magazines and articles, a well dressed Japanese man came and greeted us. His suit jacket fit so perfectly, that thing was DEFINITELY tailored. Don't ever mess with someone in a tailored suit you know they mean business ahahaa. He was working that room so crazy too ahahaha, just talking to all the customers, having them laughing a little too hard, checking in on everybody every so often, etc. You can tell he BEEN doing this.

We were seated at the bar in the middle of the room that wraps around the open kitchen concept where you can see them grilling your skewers right in front of you. Lol I said "open kitchen." The Japanese invented the open kitchen, it really should be called the "Japanese Kitchen."

The front page of the laminated menu read "Yakitori and other good things," and idk why that made me laugh, but they are NOT lyin.

I came with one of my best friends, who doesn't post me on social media anymore because I don't have enough clout, as he LOVES this place with all his soul.

He asked "You cool if I just order for us?" Honestly, I always say yes to anyone who asks this question because how could I not respect that level of confidence? And to be fair he does have impeccable food taste, even though he wont post me.

All in all, we got shishito peppers, hot dog, bacon wrapped asparagus, eggplant, dark meat chicken, white meat chicken, NY steak, chicken leg, shrimp, fish, chicken liver, and mushrooms.

I've been trying to string together some glowing adjectives intertwined with some sly metaphors and similes that will make you laugh and then cry in the same thought loop to get across how delicious this food was, but I'm just gonna leave you with this:

I get why Chef Nobu was an alleged regular here.

I often see restaurants that were once amazing start to go through the motions after a certain amount of time. To be in business 40+ years like Nanban-Kan has and still have this level of care and attention to detail defies the known laws of physics….they must be operating in the quantum physics realm….

Eternally grateful that my friend showed me this place, even though he won’t post me haha :(

-John

IG @jnov_ Tiktok...

TL;DR: This restaurant does not care for its customers. They lack compassion and are instead rude, unforgiving, and stubborn. Their food is also not as good as everyone thinks. Believe me, I’m Japanese. Do not go to this restaurant if you want to have good service and good food.

First off, as first-timers, we came into the restaurant thinking that there would be sushi, but it turned out they no longer serve sushi. After coming to this realization, we decided to still give this restaurant a try and waited for another thirty minutes for our table to be ready.

After having finished eating our dinner, we were rudely told that we could not leave unless we paid the $10/person minimum that was stated in the menu. Furthermore, we were told we had a “diner’s responsibility" to read the menu front to back. Upon examining the menu, we found at the very end of the drink menu (which we did not see as we ordered water to begin with and don’t drink ourselves) in fine print that there was a $10/person minimum.

As a party of three adults, we had ordered $22.45 worth of food, so we were short $8.00. When we told the manager that we were not made aware of this minimum by the waiter, originally wanted to order sushi but stayed, and that this minimum statement was not placed in a visible area, she paid no attention or care and demanded that we pay the $30.00. When we tried to relocate so as not to take away from the other customers’ eating experience, the manager PHYSICALLY blocked us using our baby stroller.

I told the manager that the restaurant would benefit from moving the minimum statement to the front of the menu or somewhere more recognizable. In return she spat, “Yeah yeah bad design, whatever”.

I felt unheard and very hurt. It didn’t help that the waiter even dumped water on me and didn’t apologize. All in all, will never return. As a designer, I would redesign their menu (i.e. place that statement on the front of the menu) for free if it weren’t for the bad taste left in my mouth from the experience...

I'm in the Navy visiting home from a recent deployment and I was looking forward to some good yakitori after having amazing yakitori in Japan; however, I did not get a chance to try any... Immediately as my sister and I walked in, the owner (presumably) came to the front and already receiving a horrible attitude, looked at me up and down to see what I was wearing (I was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and Nike Jordan's) and asked me if we had a reservation. I then replied "no we do not." He slammed his clipboard down on the table closest to him and rolled his eyes as if it was an inconvenience that we walked in even though there were plenty of tables available. He then mumbled something (not too quite sure what he said). Thinking he said to follow him to a table, I followed him into the main dinning area. He stopped at his podium and then told me to either choose one of the high tables right at the front that separates the main dining area to be served or to wait over at the high tables, I'm not too sure what he meant when he pointed at the tables, he didn't give clear instructions. My sister and I immediately left after only being in there for 30 seconds because of the owner's lack of professionalism, attitude, blatant disrespect, and immediate judgement of my appearance. Based on the 5 seconds of walking in to main dining area and scanning the room it seems that they cater to certain clientele that have a more WHITER complexion (mind you, I'm Asian wanting to dine at an ASIAN restaurant). Based on other reviews from Yelp and Google, it seems that Chinese people in particular are being targeted. Based on the owner judging on my appearance, I think he thought I was Chinese, which I am not. I'm very disappointed and felt so disrespected, especially for being one of their kind. 10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND. Please don’t waste your time trying to come here, I’m sure you’ll find better yakitori...