Tendon Tempura Carlos Jr
Japanese restaurant · Torrance ·
Edo-style tempura specialist offering seafood, vegetables & soba
Edo-style tempura specialist offering seafood, vegetables & soba
"Run by a Peruvian chef who trained in Japan, Carlos Junior specializes in tendon, or sauce-seasoned tempura over rice (the original location is in Torrance). Bowls come mounded with hot and crunchy things like fried shrimp, vegetables, seaweed eel, and a mind-melting tempura egg with a runny yolk. The sushi and noodles that make up the rest of the menu are somewhat unremarkable, so stick with the fantastic namesake tempura, paired with self-serve pickled ginger and celery that comes on the table. Expect a wait if you show up around peak lunch or dinner time, but there's always Vromna's bookstore across the street if you want to put your name down and go kill some time." - brant cox, sylvio martins, andrew ryce
"A tempura bowl specialist opening a new location in the Del Amo mall’s Mitsuwa food court." - Mona Holmes
"This blink-and-miss-it Japanese spot in downtown Torrance—semi-hidden behind a pair of big white curtains—is dedicated to bowls of tempura in the same way that The Rock is dedicated to bicep curls. Run by a Peruvian chef who trained in Japan, Carlos Junior specializes in tendon, or sauce-seasoned tempura over rice. Bowls come mounded with hot and crunchy things like fried shrimp, vegetables, eel, and a mind-melting tempura egg with a runny yolk, paired with self-serve pickled ginger and celery that come on the table. Get the fully loaded Special Tempura Bowl if you want to taste a bit of everything—it’s one our of favorite lunches in the South Bay." - garrett snyder, cathy park
"This blink-and-miss-it spot in Torrance (with a second location in Pasadena) is dedicated to bowls of tempura in the same way The Rock is dedicated to bicep curls. Run by a Peruvian chef who trained in Japan, Carlos Junior specializes in tendon, or sauce-seasoned tempura over rice. Bowls come mounded with hot and crunchy things like fried shrimp, vegetables, seaweed eel, and a mind-melting tempura egg with a runny yolk. Order the fully loaded Special Tempura Bowl for a perfectly portioned lunch." - garrett snyder, sylvio martins
"Led by chef Carlos Pinto—who moved from Peru to Japan, trained at Tokyo’s Hannouske, and later oversaw its Torrance outpost before opening his own—this temple to tempura emphasizes restraint, balance and careful technique. The signature tempura bowl is a towering mound of crackling batter: each item is dipped in a simple mix of Japanese flour and very cold water and fried in a sesame-soybean oil blend so ingredients finish softly cooked (not mushy) while the coating shatters like a croissant. Components include flaky white fish for meatiness, sweet kabocha squash, ocean-kissed seaweed for salt, spicy shishito peppers, large shrimp, a cluster of tiny scallops for a luxurious touch, and a poached egg whose yolk pools over pearly sticky rice. Cartoonish drawings of Pinto decorate the restaurant and the menu recounts how tempura rescued him from loneliness; he says the food is made with passion. The reviewer called it the reason to keep returning to Torrance, California." - ByElyse Inamine
