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When I first got to L.A. ten years ago, I let a guy I knew from Oberlin give me the lowdown on where to hang and where to eat. Westside neighborhoods figured heavily into his recommendations, with Palms and its affordable, worldly cuisines like Cafe Brasil and Versailles topping his list. Torrance, the less than glamorous sprawl of suburbia south of the 105, didn’t make his top ten.

In fact, he recommended I skip it entirely. “There’s nothing there,” he said. “Nothing at all.”

After a decade in L.A., I’ve learned at least two things: One, this guy from Oberlin was kind of a d-bag; and two, he couldn’t have been more wrong about Torrance.

We’ve been believers in the Torrance-Gardena stretch of Japanese restaurant heaven for some time. But after a recent feast of kushiyaki and Kyoto-style oden at Torihei, the only U.S. outpost of a franchise with eateries in Ginza and Yokohama, we’re officially South Bay fanatics.

Torrance’s zoning is a complete mystery; there’s block after block of warehouses, stitched together with strip malls packed with cell phone shops (what is this, the ’90s?) and Mom ‘n Pop eateries.

The problem is, which one of these places is good? And once you pick a place, how do you know what to order? The best thing to do is to let a local pick the place and do the ordering. That’s what we do with Kano, at least, an old friend of ours who unabashedly has a bottle in every South Bay izakaya with her name written on it (literally!).

With Kano, there always ends up being too much food. But it also always ends up being an absolute feast.

Since Torihei is an izakaya, you’re basically looking at an evening of Japanese pub fare: A bunch of shared small dishes (mostly on a stick), washed down with cool mugs of Asahi or Sapporo, or some sake.

We tried and adored two different kinds of oden, one with a pouch of shrimp in a slurp-worthy broth, the other with a brighter, tangier broth and a boiled half-egg stuffed with salmon roe.

Torihei’s karaage—succulent Japanese-style fried chicken—sets the So Cal standard. We’ve praised Orris’s karaage here on LA Food Blogging, but Torihei’s has just the right fatty tang of chicken skin matched with a dark, rich meatiness of moist thigh meat.

Other stand-outs included the daikon (Japanese radish), which was smothered with ume (plum), twisting together refreshing, tart, and sour flavors; fish cakes, which were tender as soft tofu and in a broth with a garnish of yuzu; and the gyutan (beef tongue) kushiyaki, each slice of which was topped with a dollop of sharp wasabi.

Chicken on a Stick

As the place’s name implies, though, Torihei is all about yakitori, or grilled chicken on a stick. We ordered four (yup, four!) different varieties.

The first was the plain Jane, straight-ahead yakitori, tender and bursting with flavor (and dipped in a mound of salt). The second was entirely made of chicken skin accordioned on a stick, each bite almost disappearing like smoke in your mouth.

According to Kano, when you order the chicken hearts (our third pick) you have to always order the “special heart,” not the regular kind. The special heart is fattier, apparently, and is threaded together with cloves of garlic.

Our last yakitori was the chicken meatballs. These suckers were almost too big for a single bite, but had a just-crisp-enough casing and mild ground chicken flavor on the inside.

Kids, Chowhounds, and Boozehounds

To round things out, we started the meal off with a woven basket of roasted ginkgo nuts. On the disappointing side, we also ordered kalbi, which wasn’t charred enough, and asparagus, which was too raw and didn’t blend with the bacon and Japanese curry it was served with.

When all was said and done, though, Torihei easily had the best pub grub we’ve ever had. And that includes in Japan.

Our nineteen-month-old son even loved it, and since izakayas are noisy, his end-of-the-night antics blended right in!

But whether you’re towing along a toddler or are just looking for a place to throw back a couple of brews and eat some down-home, perfectly made Japanese food, we suggest you do yourself a favor and block out a few hours to eat (and drink) at Torihei.

It may blend right in with Torrance’s thousand other strip mall joints, but trust us: It’s as good as it gets.

For (a lot) more photos, check out our original post on our blog, MIXED WELL.

By Chris and Yuri (see more of their posts). You can find more of Chris and Yuri's writing at their own website MIXED WELL.