While this blog is dedicated to ramen, I figured I’d throw in some reviews of other noodle dishes that I love to eat in the area. Kotohira is also in the Tozai plaza and serves, udon, soba and other Japanese dishes. The food is very authentic Japanese and good at very reasonable prices.
My wife loves to order kitsune soba, which is soba with fried tofu (kitsune literally means “fox” in Japanese, and apparently in Japan foxes love to eat fried tofu). She thinks that the fried tofu should be more juicy and not so dry, but that the noodles were pretty good.
I usually order one of their chicken or fish dishes with the kake udon side. The kake udon is delicious, as they hand make their udon noodles. The soup base and the noodle firmness is also perfect.
The prices are really reasonable. The combo meals like the mini katsudon set (which comes with a katsudon bowl and the kake udon) is only about $9. The restaurant usually gets pretty busy in the evening, but I’ve never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for a table. The service seems kind of hit and miss, but it usually just depends on how busy they are.
Kotohira Restaurant (Tozai Plaza)
1747 W Redondo Beach Blvd
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 323-3966