South Bay Rice Things — Restaurant in Redondo Beach

Our family has eaten here since the early 2000s and this was one of our go-to locations for cheap and delicious food. We haven’t been here since 2019 but it seems like the taste/texture has dropped :(

Food/Taste/Flavor: 3/5 - we ordered 2 combo plate and a sushi roll. The pork and chicken katsu were pretty dry and the sauce was fairly salty. The vegetable tempura surprised me since it’s much more American ingredients than Japanese and included items such as carrots and green bean (imagine my shock and disappointment when I bit what I thought was a sweet potato…. but it was a carrot?!?! T_T). Recommendation to ask if you can get the sauce on the side for chicken teriyaki since it’s a bit sweet. The chicken karaage (fried chicken) was delicious and juicy when we first opened the box but became hard fairly quick as the food cooled. The salmon avocado roll was really good with lots of salmon! The South Bay Firecracker Roll had a nice kick but we probably wouldn’t get again since it really is just spicy tuna on a California roll with some spiciness on top. There's not much alvocado in the either of the rolls and they were a bit wonky. Wasabi doesn't have any kick.

Ambience: 3/5 - took the food to go. The restaurant only has 3-4 tables to eat at and one of the walls was just stacked with boxes. Looks like some remodel or design has changed in the past few years

Service: 5/5 - cashier was extremely friendly and let us take our time to make our order. Her quoted time of about 15 min was on point!

Value for price: 4/5 - this place has increased in prices but it’s still very reasonable and one of the cheaper locations. Unfortunately, the...

Great sushi that is quick and relatively cheap.

Update as of 11/16/2019: Sadly I'm changing my rating from a 5 to a generous 3. After the changes my wife and I have stopped coming here every week to maybe not coming back.

The good: New lean chicken katsu is better than before Miso with the combo seems bigger Updated registers Haven't tried it yet but glad ramen was added Sushi seems better Plastic drink cups instead of styrofoam

The bad: New salad dressing is not good, bring back the old one The calamari salad was my wife's favorite but after the iceberg lettuce she had last night I don't think she will return Too many changes

Ultimately I think the best option would have been to update the registers, maybe remove a few items and/or add a few new ones, and update the prices. It seems like the prices were so low for so long I'm sure it wasn't that profitable so I can understand a small increase. I have noticed the 3 times we have been here since the changes it hasn't been busy unlike before. I hope the new owners can correct most of these issues because I don't want Rice Things to go away.

Side note: I know the plastic straw ban has forced you to use other straws but the paper straws you have now don't work with the new plastic lids. The paper straws were okay, not great because they start to fall apart way too early, but now with the stronger plastic lids they crush almost immediately after taking...

Rice Things is a great place for a quick and delicious Japanese meal of delectable foods like vegetable tempura, all kinds of sushi, chicken teriyaki, veggie egg rolls, etc, all at reasonable prices. It's a short-order restaurant, where you place your order at the counter, but then, it's brought to your table. Plates come with a nice green salad and white rice. Everything is tasty, plus most of it is very healthy.

The only thing is...often, they bring the meals to each patron with time in-between - too much time! Last night, March 22, I ate there with my daughter, and my food came out very quickly. Luckily, I had ordered egg rolls (1 order = 3) along with the meal. Her meal didn't come out for a good 20 minutes after mine! In the looonnngg meanwhile, we shared the egg rolls, and she had a couple of my pieces of sushi. I hated to eat too much of mine, because like a lot of people, I like to eat the meal together. We noticed the same occurrence at several other tables.

That's the only thing I'd change - I might call or e-mail them and put in a suggestion! If you dine alone, you won't have to worry about this. But when with someone - I'd suggest you say, "Can you please serve us together, even if one meal takes longer?" - that way, maybe you'll be more likely to be served at the same time. The food there is...