Kouraku Restaurant (Little Tokyo, LA, CA)

Located at:
314 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Date of Visit: 10/20/13


     I was meeting up with a few of my friends for dinner and none of us were in the mood for anything too "hoity toity" and opted out for a more humble establishment. Then we recalled a Japanese diner which served more homey styled meals. And so we decided to pig out here for that evening.

     First thing I noticed when I got there was that it looked different. They had remodeled the exterior to give the diner more of a rustic look. And they kept the window display of plasticized foods that they served inside. (they were so shiney)

      Another thing we noticed was that there was a wait. But we really wanted some of that nice Japanese styled home cooking that night. So we mustered up all our patience and waited a whole ten minutes before we were seated. :P
     The waitress was quite nice and prompt with taking our drink orders while we looked over our menus and checked out all the specials they had written up/printed out and posted on the walls. In addition to all the items they had listed as daily/weekly specials, they have pretty good sized menu. It covers starters/appetizers, entrees, rice bowls, ramen and other more homey warm Asian dishes. Which usually leads to me wanting to pig out extra hard.

      "Ika Butter Yaki - Squid Sauteed in Butter" Off to a totally awesome start. The squid was nicely cooked but by itself it felt rather bland. However the butter was there to save the day. And it worked wonderfully. But a little warning. Thought tempting, do not ingest all of the butter sauce because it would lead to a very messy aftermath. Same goes going overboard dunking the squid into the butter sauce to coat it more. Or even drenching that cabbage in the butter....don't judge me!

      "Honrenso Garlic - Spinach Sauteed with Garlic" I love spinach. I love garlic. So this dish is a wonderful medley of the two. Though it was a tad too salty for everyone else, I thought it was fine (I love salt too).

      "Tanindon - Beef, Onion, Green Onion and Eggs on Rice" Granted it looks uninspiring but i can assure that the flavor is very good.

      I mixed the bowl up a bit to show what lays underneath that layer of egg. The texture is all over the place with the chewy meat, crunchy onions, stringy green onions and the mushy rice. But it somehow works..

      "Mabodon - Ground Pork, Tofu and Green Onions with Spicy Sauce on Steam Rice" The tofu is nicely cooked and the sauce has a nice mild kick to it. It just gives you a very homey and hearty feel to it.

     "Beef Teriyaki - New York Steak" Unlike more places that gives you slivers of beef in a bowl and calls it Beef Teriyaki. This place gives you a slab of meat instead. It makes for a pretty picture but man that bugger put up quite a fight. The meat was so tough it was like trying to take a bite out of a chew toy. But the Teriyaki sauce they used was very nice.

     "Chicken Karaage - Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets with Seasoned Batter" Now I'm very particular when it comes to Chicken Karaage. Because it is yet another one of my favorite things so I'm very much a Chicken Karaage concessionaire. And this one did do not do very well. The chicken was moist on the inside but the batter was on the heavier side. They also claim that the batter was seasoned.. if it was it was too much on the subtle side. Overall the chicken karaage here is not for me.
     This diner may not be serving super duper pompous and dressed up foods. And it may not be for everyone. But if you're just in a mood for some place that has a homey feel, friendly and prompt service that serves homey food this place is it. But I'm still rather unsure about how i feel about this place. Its got a bit of lows and a quite a bit of highs. So I'm going to give this joint a thumbs up?