Review: Coco Ichibanya Curry House in Torrance

Location:

2455 Sepulveda Blvd
Torrance, CA 90501

Overall Rating:

Almost.

Price:

~$10 Per Person
Service:

Needs Improvement.
Food:

Excellent.

Comments:

I was VERY excited about visiting this restaurant! I actually visited the location in Tokyo, Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku this past summer and was very curious to see how they were going to aim it towards more American clientele. I was struck at exactly how SIMILAR the menus looked and the food was almost identical. I do have to say, on the plus side, my curry was PIPING hot and had a lot more flavor than the Japanese counter part. Overall, the food was absolutely amazing. 

Now, service. Aiyaiyai. I'll let them slide because this is a brand new restaurant. The waiter who served us did not speak Japanese and pretty much ignored us once we got our food. We had to ask for refills and had to pretty much do jumping jacks in order to get our check. The restaurant had not filled up at this point either. Once the Japanese manager got our check, she was all politeness and had very Japanese service (my readers who have been to Japan know EXACTLY what I mean).

There is not a lot of seating but I think they will remedy this in the future. Thankfully, we got there early as to avoid a wait.

Overall, it has a whole lot of potential. Food was great and very nostalgic.

I got the sausage salad and they gave me two options for salad dressing they left on the table.

This was the sliced pork curry with an added chicken katsu cutlet.

Another view of the pork curry with chicken katsu.

I chose the mini and it was JUST the right amount. I went for the traditional beef curry with added vegetables.

Pizza naan bread. This was VERY interesting. I had never seen such a thing before so I HAD to order it. Essentially, a piece of naan bread with curry on top and melted cheese. Very interesting flavor but also very good. My boyfriend thought it was the bees knees. Definitely worth a shot.

Now, I wanted to add some photos of the Coco Ichibanya in Japan:

For better views, click on the photos. As you can see, the Japanese versions were much lighter. Nonetheless, I did like the flavor of the American version better!