Hoka Hoka Express — Restaurant in Torrance

I’m thrilled to have decided to try this place for lunch, we’d likely to come back again soon.

Plenty of easy parking outside, and the store looked clean and well organized from the outside. We walked into upbeat music, clean tables, and neatly organized drinks and snacks shelves. There is a poster for $2 hot sake specials which I might try it next time, ha ha.

Ordering: since it’s my first time, I was slightly overwhelmed by the selections and options. My recommendation is to try one of the combos which simply means a main bowl plus an “age” (means fried appetizer items). The bowls are basically sushi without the seaweed.

With that in mind, everything simplified a bit for me.

Food: I kept it simple with California bowl (half rice and half salad) with fried blue crab combo, it was excellent. I’d probably come back and try something like salmon skin hand roll which my sister highly recommended.

My wife had classic eel & avocado bowl with calamari, it was also very tasty. She had salad only without rice, and would prefer to have salad dressing on the side next time.

We also shared a passion fruit ice tea from the frig, it was pretty good, too.

Service was professional, the lady brought our food out for us fairly quickly.

Restroom was clean, with touch less sink with cool...

After driving past this spot countless times, I finally decided to give it a try—and I’m so glad I did. This unassuming restaurant truly delivers fantastic food, and the glowing reviews are well-deserved.

I ordered the Super Hoka bowl (spicy tuna, eel, and shrimp tempura) with half rice and half salad. The salad dressing was extraordinary—easily the best I’ve ever tasted. The eel was tender and perfectly cooked, the spicy tuna was premium quality, and the shrimp tempura was crispy, complemented by an amazing sauce.

I chose the combo with portobello mushroom tempura, which was hands down the best tempura I’ve ever had. The accompanying mayo sauce was absolutely exquisite. The portions were generous, even for someone with a large appetite like me (I’m 6’3”).

My wife had the same craft bowl but opted for karaage chicken, which was equally delicious, with large, satisfying portions. Just to be safe, I also ordered the tuna mayo and blue crab onigiri. Both were fantastic—the seaweed, furikake, rice, and fillings were perfectly balanced.

Torrance is lucky to have this gem of a restaurant, offering excellent Japanese food at such reasonable prices. I’ll...

The food was prepared quickly and the service was fast, owner was on top of things. The cafe is very clean and cute with lots of snacks and drinks for sale.

I had the salmon hand roll, which had decent tasting fish, but I really didn’t like that it’s a DIY kit. Plus, the seasoned seaweed was just a single packet of grocery market seaweed snack. If I was ordering to go, a DIY kit makes sense, but if I’m paying $15+ in store (plus tip), they need to properly roll my hand roll for me.

My kids had onigiri, which had way too much rice. The meat tasted fine but they could decrease the rice load a bit to make it easier to eat. Could also use a salmon option. My kids usually love onigiri and they were not that into this.

The curry was good with some tempura shrimp and a side salad. It’s instant curry though, so very cheap and easy to make at home.

Their fruity ice teas were good, not too sweet. Parking is easy as they have a big lot. I’d probably eat here again if I were in the area or driving by. Wouldn’t go out of...