Popular Japanese Yakitori Restaurant Torikizoku Just Opened in Torrance | Eater LA

"The first U.S. location in Torrance opened on January 24, 2025; the chain began in Osaka in 1985 and has grown into one of Japan’s most popular izakaya brands with more than 600 locations and additional outposts in Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Best known in Japan for affordable, flame-licked chicken skewers served in a boisterous dining room alongside beer and sake, the Torrance outpost offers a simple menu of kushiyaki (any kind of skewered food), including yakitori (skewered chicken) with options listed explicitly as kizoku yaki (jumbo yakitori), momo (thigh), teba (wings), tsukune (meatballs), hatsu (heart), sunagimo (gizzard), and yagen (cartilage). Other skewers include hotate (scallop), ebi (shrimp), uzura (quail eggs), tomato, shishito, and harami beef, while sides and small mains include edamame, cucumber salad, yaki onigiri, rice, karaage, takoyaki, agedashi tofu, okonomiyaki, yuzu shio ramen, and soboro don (ground chicken rice bowl). In Japan many plates sell for a set price of 308 yen (a little over $2); at the Torrance location each plate is offered at a set price of either $4 or $8. The kushiyaki are prepared in a glass-enclosed “yaki-bar,” with chefs dipping the skewers into tare (sauce) before putting them on a gas grill, and the bar-centered dining room features a U-shaped wooden bar looking into a glass-enclosed extension of the kitchen. The interior echoes the chain’s Japanese locations but with a more upscale, minimalist design: a semi-enclosed host stand under parallel wood beams and a slanted ceiling, carefully arranged bottles of sake and wine alongside cookbooks and pottery on shelves, rustic wood tables, circular Noguchi-style paper lamps casting soft light on gray lime-washed walls and concrete floors. Beverage options include a yuzu sour, grape Ramune soda, hot green tea, sake, umeshu, and bottles of wine and shochu, and the menu notes that items like karaage, takoyaki, agedashi tofu, and okonomiyaki pair well with the Suntory lager on draft. The Torrance location is open Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., is located at 21839 Hawthorne Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90503, and “reservations are not currently available” (—Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest)." - Rebecca Roland