Torihei Yakitori Robata Dining — Restaurant in Torrance

My son, husband and I just went to this restaurant this afternoon on 10/1/22. As we sat down, they gave us the menu order sheet to write how many of the items we want. There were no prices or pictures so we assumed that the portion of the food would be rather small with a friendly price since the restaurant is considered “Izakaya”. And the order sheet looked just like regular yakitori restaurants listing small portioned items. Besides, no waitress mentioned anything in detail, just told us to write down how many pieces of the items we wanted to order. We got 8 items with drinks( thigh yakitori2 skews, meat ball skews3, wing skews 2, short ribs3, salmon carpaccio2, karaage 3, rice bowl with meat3, salad2, and 3 drinks. Drinks were fine though). One of the waitresses was nice enough to ask if we only wanted 1 salad instead of 2 because the portion of the salad was big (compared to what we expected) when she brought the salad to our table but no one else mentioned or advised us that we ordered too much food for 3 of us. At other restaurants we have been, they all mentioned/advised us when we were ordering more than enough but it wasn’t the case In Torihei. We ended up having a whole lot of food and big bills like $177 before tax and tips at the end (half the food, we took it back home). The restaurant should list the prices on the menu or at least they should show the pictures of the items. That way, customers can at least take a wild guess of how much food they are ordering and they may guess how much each item may be by looking at the portion. As for the food quality, it was ok overall except karaage and short ribs. Karaage didn’t have any flavor (just coated with starch and fried, no salt, no soy sauce, no garlic flavor whatsoever) and the short ribs are unusually fatty as if it were floated in the cooking oil. This meal was supposed to be a casual meal for us today so we can have the real meal tomorrow for our marriage anniversary but I don’t want to spend more money after what we went through at Torihei today. I feel that the restaurant takes advantage of the customer who doesn’t have thick face to ask how much each item is every time they want to place the order. Can you imagine when you go on the date or business meal, you don’t ask how much each item is because that makes you look like stingy or embarrassed. Besides, the order sheet gives customers the impression that the item can be small portion served so customers can enjoy ordering many different items at a friendly price which it wasn’t the...

I've been hesitant to leave a review because my selfishness believes I can keep this place my own little secret. haha. This is absolutely the best yakitori ever. The charming decor with the illuminated sake bottles and red walls will surprise you as you enter from the rather inconspicuous exterior with tinted windows. The ample space of the bar/counter top is my preferred seating aside from the main dining room and the friendly staff won't shout at you upon entry like some other places do. I've seen a few rounds of turnover with the staff through the years but all where very accommodating with Yoko being the cheerful standout that I believe has been there since the opening back in '95. They offer a bountiful menu selection, oh and the food. They offer a great selection for each stage of the meal. From cold apps like sashimi&rolls, torched miso with fresh veggies and my favorite, takowasa (rare to find). Izakaya style dishes like grilled whole squid, broiled yellowtail collar and the juiciest and crispiest fried jidori chicken. The yakitori is the star of the show. You can really taste the quality of the binchotan charcoal and care of the grill master here. That subtle smokiness from the coals and the sweetness of the tare is what leaves with your palate causing you to go through withdrawal the next week asking yourself, "what am I craving so bad right now?". The meatballs are basically bbq'd crack on a stick and the chicken wings?... You'll be hard pressed to find a chef who will take the painstaking time to flap the meat of the wing away from the bone leaving you with two perfect bites of chicken. Oh my god, I'm going to go ahead and make a reservation for tonight and...

Thanks to my friend, ex-wife and fellow local guide Hanae K, I had the opportunity to feast on an amazing array of izakaya dishes at Torihei. I am definitely a fan of Torihei and will be returning again for more.

Pretty much everything is good from the various items that we ordered. The ones that stood out the most were the chicken meatballs (OMG so good seriously), fatty pork, beef tongue, and chicken with green onion. Those items are all on the grill menu for you to fill in the number of items you want.

I also ordered a chadzuke with beef collagen. The flavor was good but the broth was a little too heavy for my preference. The meat was tender and delicious though. They also serve 20 orders to chicken broth shoyu ramen daily. We didn't try it but it's a great deal at only $5.

They have apple shochu that comes with frozen apple cups. It was so cute but not very practical as it was a complete pain to drink out of. There was too little alcohol and too much apple juice so the whole thing was very sweet.

I highly recommend their fried kabocha dessert. It's Japanese pumpkin slices covered in corn flakes then fried. It's served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream with blueberry sauce on the side. It was super delicious.

The service was pretty good. We ordered too many orders of a particular dish for the amount of people we had. The server was nice enough to come back and warned us about the portion size. We ended up reducing the order from 5 to 2 orders and it...