Waraku Japanese Dine&Bar Torrance — Restaurant in Torrance

Hooray for Hanbay!

In the mood for authentic Japanese food in a traditional izakaya setting, my culinary radar led me to Hanbay in Torrance. Formerly a soba restaurant, the place was reformatted into it's current iteration. I salivated at the thought of dining on fresh seafood and the other foodie delights Hanbay had to offer.

Sashimi assortment- Excellent presentation! With an ice bowl as the centerpiece of the plate, the assorted sashimi were cut thick & tasted as fresh as can be. Oddly, although the plate came with wasabi, ginger did not. Being a ginger fan, it was imperative for me to ask for some. My favorites were the yellowtail & saba (Spanish mackerel).

Mizuna daikon salad- Light & refreshing, the mizuna daikon salad was an excellent palate cleanser after the fatty cuts of fish.

Dashimaki- I'm generally not a fan of dashimaki, as it's an omelet and I'm more interested in the loaded omelets that can be had at the local greasy spoon. Hanbay's dashimaki was simple, each piece fluffy & easy to eat.

Kushi age assortment- Gotta love fried food on a stick! What I thought were fish/squid balls, were actually breaded cherry tomatoes, which quite surpised me, with the tartness of the tomato enveloping my tastebuds. All of the kushi age were fried to perfection, complimented by the sweet & salty dipping sauce.

Tonteki- One of the highlights of the night, the pork loin was succulent & packed with flavor, especially with the pour over of sauce. A little overcooked for my particular taste, nonetheless, the tonteki was presented well & was a more substantial dish to eat.

Cold soba- In-house made noodles, the cold soba was hearty & filling. Being the gringo that I am, I started pouring the sauce over the noodles, which one of the staff politely corrected me on. The sauce is meant for dipping. Duh! I happily slurped up the soba noodles. Again, simple yet elegant.

Green tea crème brulee- Of all the dessert options (ice cream, panna cotta etc.), I the one that I had to try was the green tea crème brulee. I do not regret ordering this, not one bit! Breaking the crunchy sugar shell revealed a crème brulee that had a subtle sweetness, toned down by the earthiness of the green tea. I relished each bite, and left wanting for more when the bowl was empty.

Panna cotta- The strawberry panna cotta looked delightful as well. I didn't get to taste this. Others in my party like theirs.

Service was excellent! The staff were attentive & ready to provide service. My party was never wanting for water and/or hot tea. Each plate we ordered came out in a reasonably timely manner. There is bar seating (serving beer, wine & soju), sushi bar seating, tables & 3 private tatami mat dining rooms (for a fee).

Parking is in a private lot, shared by 85 Degrees & other businesses.

What more can I say, Hanbay? You definitely impressed with your fresh seafood, excellently plated dishes & your house made soba noodles. The great service equally matched your delicious food items. I'm looking forward to coming back & trying the rest of the menu.

Highly...

This used to be my favorite spot for sushi before they changed names. This was way before the pandemic actually. Recently on April 25 I went again and noticed that they had changed the names.

Anyway, my friends and I went on a Sunday evening at 5:30. And we basically closed out the spots a little after 8:30 when it rolled around we were kindly kicked out and realized they close at 9:00. I know it’s a Sunday, but that made me think to myself… They’re barely open!

OK, don’t add me for this… But I think my favorite part of this restaurant is their iced green tea served in a wine bottle. It was so good. We got two bottles.

Some of the other things we got included, beef tongue, salmon sashimi rice bowl etc. They were all good and shareable, but nothing mind blowing good. Maybe my memory serves me wrong but from what I remember it going there for family meals before the pandemic. The portion sizes were delicious and the cuts of raw salmon and tuna were out of this world. I just didn’t feel that same...

My wife and I got really lucky one night when we walked in to see what all the hoopla is about. We had been seeing lines form at lunch and figured it must be good. We didn't have reservations but there were 2 seats at the very small counter. The gods were with us and we had a most wonderful dinner. The sashimi is beautifully served on ice in a small wooden box. We had a beer and watched as orders were filled by the chefs. After watching a while we were convinced that the sashimi was a must: tuna, salmon, hamachi and more tuna. We learned that there is the toro price, the regular tuna price and the almost toro at the regular price. We rewarded our chef with a toast and some of our beer. There is a cooking station but we might never get to try it. There are several private rooms (no shoes in there) and one large table in the dining room. We returned another night but the counter was filled. The table service is very good but the experience at the counter cannot be...