Teishokuya of Tokyo Inc. - Los Angeles

There is a reason some places have a 1-hour wait and others have more seats empty than full. Well the restaurant I wanted to go to had a line down the street, and we were in no mood to wait. The menu seemed to have something for everyone so here we settled.

The starters seemed promising, standard Edamame and a quiet Agedashi.

The Kara-age was crispy and enticing. I love thigh meat, and this meat was fried and fried well.

It went a bit downhill after that. They didn't have either type of cod roe udon so the server stood over me and glared wordlessly until I chose something else. I frantically choose the tsukemen udon. The udon was perfect, and the dipping broth made a pungent statement with chunky slices of pork, but rudeness murked up the concentrated broth.

The Unagi-Don tasted great...well, more like the eel sauce tasted great. The eel was tender, a small step above the prepackaged stuff in Asian marts. That said, $23 was a bit much.

I haven't been to Tokyo yet, but T.O.T feels like it could be a mediocre eatery somewhere along with backroad streets. The decor is expected and the simplicity seems authentic enough, but the Japanese food is much better in Torrance and this trip did NOT convince me to keep trekking to Little Tokyo.