Happa Restaurant

Prices are high and food was fair. However, the bar and karaōke was great. People who came, we’re so nice.

Service here is pretty slow. I have yet to order something that gets here in less than 20 minutes. The oyako-​don takes the longest!!! By the time I got my meal everyone else at my table was half way done.

This is my go-​to place for dinner. Always check the Specials board first before you order. The Char Siu Spare Ribs are a must-​try. The tofu steak with ground chicken is awesome. Love this place!

Sort of ono for Hawaiian/​Japanese grinds. The dinner special sounded like a good deal. Large servings of fried pork chops, green salad, and miso soup. I also tried the mac salad and everything I consumed was pretty decent and tasty.
The sweetie and I normally would not have dinner here unless we were attending a musical performance in the room with limited tables, chairs, and a bar. For the jazz fusion performance, the cost was a 10 dollar cover charge. All the artists that performed that night were incredibly talented. At one point that Saturday evening, the power actually went out on part of Redondo Beach Blvd. The saxophonist kept the show jumping and a lady from the audience even came up for a little bit of jazzy singing. A fun evening for sure!
This review is a combination of my experience with the musical night on a Saturday. Awesome to have a South Bay local restaurant that features great talent for a bargain cost. I’d give Happa as an entertainment venue 4 stars.
For food alone, I would grade a 3.0.
Service was just fine.
Parking options are good as it shares covered parking with the hotel.
Make sure you check their hours because I think they are only open in the evenings for dinner.
Overall 3.5 rounded down to 3.
Mahalo Arigato!

The food is great. I’m never disappointed when I come here. Some of my favorites include the happa chicken curry, ground chicken with tempura nasubi, the pork chops, and the tonkatsu.
The service is always friendly and outstanding. They make sure your soda glasses are full.

Took some of my favorite items off the menu… Still love the Char-​Siu Fried Rice!

This place was very unexpected. My first time being here. I kept telling my friend that his place looked getto but it was really nicer than I thought.
Looked like this place was family owned. They open till late late midnight. From outside ot seems like a just normal restaurant but when you go inside you will notice that there is a bar there as well.
So its like… two faced restaurant. One side great for kids and family and another side good for night life. How awesome is that. Well I think its awesome.
Food was greatly clean and showed great quality plus great taste!
definitely try this place out.

A bit confusing when you walk into the bar area instead of the restaurant! Yep that was me who did that and then looked really confused until I saw a door that led into the actual restaurant area.
On a Friday night it’s still pretty chill here with only a few tables filled. There’s only one waitress walking around who was very nice and had a good rapport with some regulars. Other than that there’s some interesting Japanese artwork on the walls and everything else is pretty much functional and nondescript.
The food was a fusion of Hawaiian, Japanese, and American! Interesting in ways I didn’t expect.
HAPPA FRIED CHICKEN WITH CHILI RICE SPECIAL
The specials are definitely the way to go. Everything on the menu is a la carte but with the socials you get macaroni salad, greens salad, miso soup and the entrée. Pretty good deal for $ 11. Portions are generous and I definitely took home food.
The happa fried chicken was not what I expected at all but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Small pieces of chicken thinly battered and deep fried. The chicken was juicy and the batter was slightly sweet, a bit crunchy on the thin batter parts with some chunky batter being crispier.
Macaroni salad wad extremely peppery and I didn’t eat much of that. The greens salad was pretty big for a side and was decent.
As for the chili rice it was actually American style chili with white rice! I thought it would be a chili fried rice. It kinda worked but I didn’t really love the chili.
When I’m feeling liking trying something different I’ll probably come back here!

Hands down the best Loco Moco I have ever had. It was like fireworks in my mouth. I am coming back for more. Yay!

When my friend told me that he knew of a place that sold a decent $ 15 ribeye dinner, I didn’t believe him. What was even harder to believe was the place was a Hawaiian restaurant. A Hawaiian restaurant serving up ribeye? That place my friend was referring to was Happa restaurant.
Happa restaurant is a no frills Hawaiian restaurant serving your typical Hawaiian plate lunch, but with other added features. One being their $ 15 ribeye dinner with a side of mac. Since I had in-​n-​out for dinner, my stomach was not in the mood for more beef, so just sampled my friend’s ribeye. That shit was yummy and the ponzu like dipping sauce was a great substitute for steak sauce. Make sure to order your steak one level of doneness below what you want. For example, if you want medium, i suggest ordering medium rare as their cooking temperature is usually off from my friend’s experience.
I ordered the happa chicken and curry. The happa chicken which is marinated in soy sauce, sugar, and other things, right before being dropped in the deep fryer was tasty tender and in abundance. The curry was one of the best Japanese curries i’ve had. I think the secret to their curry is the pieces of beef they use in the curry sauce.
The location of happa is a bit hidden because it’s located on the 2^nd floor of a building next to a hotel. Parking is in the garage on level C I believe. Don’t expect too much in terms of interior as it’s no frills like their food. There is a separate room with a bar and karaōke. It looked pretty dead the night we visited which was on Friday.

1^st Japanese to settle in California were Samurai families seeking refuge from the upheaval of the transition of Japan being ruled by the Tokugawa Sho-​gun clan representing a feudal system to a more modern, more Western based system propagated by factions backing the Meiji Emperor as the titular head who would introduce & legitimize this new form of government.
Interesting since the last emperors having some power died almost 800 years before. Throughout most of those 800 years emperors became figureheads, and the Sho-​guns or generalismos had the true reins of power.
The 22 Samurai families started the Wakamatsu Tea & Silk Colony near Coloma, California in 1869, but due to agricultural failure in a new land, the colony disappeared in 2 years. Other Japanese migrations would introduce them back to the Golden State.
1^st Japanese to Hawai’i, which was its own kingdom then, was in 1868, the year the Meiji Emperor ascended the Chrysthanthemum throne. About 150 men & women made landfall & most became laborers. They were treated so badly by the plantation management that the Japanese government restricted immigration to Hawai’i until 1885 when the Hawai’ian government negotiated & agreed to protect the laborers.
With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese laborers were in even more demand so that by 1924 about 40% of the Island population was of Japanese descent when all Asian immigration was restricted to the U.S. Japanese Hawai’ians along w/​the original native Hawai’ians, Chinese, Phillipinos, Portuguese, Koreans, Anglo Americans exchanged cultures & traditions so that a true «fusion» culture was established. For reasons unknown to me, many Japanese Americans from Hawai’i had settled in Gardena & remain to this day. There are probably more Japanese/Hawai’ian restaurants here than any other place in the United States except Hawai’i.
Happa means leaf in Japanese, but also means a person of mixed parentage in Hawai’ian from the English word «half», and like Hawai’i, Happa restaurant is an eclectic mix. Food is mostly Japanese & Hawai’ian run by Cantonese speaking staff in the Japanese run New Gardena Hotel. Ladies here are very welcoming & smile a lot. They are fast, efficient, & the food comes out reasonably fast. Kitchen is sometimes off in getting the dishes out so that one person in the party might get their food about 3 minutes faster, but not a major problem except for people who are easily offended. Just remember that this is not the Ritz Carlton nor the Montage. It’s a downhome eatery & as such don’t expect Christofle, Bacarat, Lalique, nor Ricci. Just imagine you are at a local place, nothing fancy, somewhere along Kamehameha Hwy in Pearl City.
White board specials mostly include a two combination plate w/​mixed green salad topped w/​soy sauce/​Japanese rice vinegar dressing w/​pureed Daikon radish; a hybrid mixture of macaroni & potato salad w/​plenty of mayonnaise, but not much of anything else; Miso soup w/​Wakame/​green seaweed; big bowl of steamed Japanese short grain rice; homestyle Tsukemono or pickles of cabbage, thinly cut cauliflower, slivers of Nappa cabbage that seem more Hawai’ian inspired w/​more soy sauce infused saltiness rather than the typical salt brined Japanese style & by the inartistic way of just slapping it into a small bowl.
I ordered the Poke & Sweet & Sour Sparerib combo for $ 15.95. The chopped up Ahi tuna had a nice fresh pinkish red glistening color that seems marinated in light soy sauce, touch of ginger, good dose of sesame oil for a smokey, nutty, sweet, unctuous taste & aroma. Dressed w/​slivers of green onion to add sulfur based funk to the meaty Ahi, Daikon Tsuma which looks like finely cut Capelli d’Angeli pasta, but refreshingly watery, crispy, crunchy. A bit of red seaweed resonated w/​the color of the Ahi as well as adding a light sea minerality. The flavouring was subtle to showcase the freshness of the Ahi tuna. Excellent Poke as good as any in Hawai’i.
There was a pile of pork ribs thick w/​meat & had a nice chaw. Very lean, our friendly waitress let us know that the spare ribs are first fried to render out the fat & then braised in the soy sauce/​vinegar sweet & sour sauce. Ribs seem braised long enough to soften the meat somewhat & to infuse the sweet sour sauce deeper into the flesh of this lightly porky dish. This spare rib dish may be Cantonese influenced & reminded me of the Hawai’ian version of what is found in dim sum restaurants called «jin pai gwut».
Had Japanese green tea, but there is a full service bar in the back room so perhaps you can order & pay for a drink at the bar & then bring it to the front room or just dine in the back which is darker & more cave-​like to create a more closed in feel. Nice service, good food, come-​as-​you-​are laid back atmosphere. 3+ Unilocal stars for when the warm winds from the tropical isles hit in the back of the mind to indulge in the venerable fusion food of Hawai’i.

I went there with some of my friends and my family for dinner.
Atmosphere
There is a restaurant section and a bar section. We sat in the bar section since there was no available seats at the restaurant section. The room was very dark. Interior and all the furniture are dated and old.
Service
There were three waitresses working at the restaurant and the bar area. They appeared to be disgruntled and upset. (I wonder if it was because they had to service the bar area). We had to wait at least 10 minutes to get the menus and another additional 15 minutes to get our order taken. The waitress seemed to be annoyed that she had to take our order. One of my friends ordered fried rice. She got it 15 minutes before we all got our food. (My friend was waiting for us to get our food because she believes it’s rude to eat until everyone has been served). By the time we started eating, the fried rice got cold. The reason why they brought her fried rice very quick was that the table next to us ordered the same fried rice and the cook probably cooked two orders at the same time. When our food arrived, we noticed that there were no utensils or napkins.
Food
Terrible! I ordered Saimin. A piece of noodle was hanging down from the side of the bowl. The soup had no flavor at all! It’s like a hot water with a pinch of salt. The chashu was mostly fat and the noodle was very firm. I have tried saimin at many other places and I have to say that this was the worst. I wonder if they had a new chef? If so, he definitely needs to learn how to make saimin. My friend had ordered the Kalua Pork. There was much more cabbage and onions compared to the pork. It seemed that they mostly used the hard part of the cabbage. My daughter had Mochiko Chicken. It was drenched in a very salty soy based sauce. The sauce was way too salty. My daughter was unable to finish it.
I felt like we wasted our money. I will not be returning here in the future.

One of my friends celebrated his birthday this weekend at Happa Restaurant. Hapa in Hawaiian means «Half» (typically referred to mixed race kids). I have no clue what Happa means, but I’m guessing it means something in Japanese? It probably doesn’t mean anything in Hawaiian.
In the early hours of the evening (about 7 – 9) the owners reserved the bar-​side of the restaurant for the 50+ guests in our party. At 7:00 p.m. when we arrived on a Saturday night, there was about 3 – 4 of the 12 – 15 tables on the main dining hall taken by customers.
For the birthday celebration, my friend ordered from the pre-​set menu, which included:
Green Salad: A really nice bowl of fresh green salad topped with thinly shreaded cabbage, and tomatoes. They served the salad wth two home-​made dressings. One was an oil and vinegarette (a bit bland, but safe for most tastes) and one of a thousand-​island-​ish dressing (very delicious). Grade: B+
Macaroni Salad: First, I have to admit that I typically don’t like macaroni salad unless it is made by Zippy’s (popular restaurant in my home town of Honolulu). Happa’s macaroni salad had a weird brown tinge to it — I couldn’t figure out what it was, and I wasn’t going to eat it to find out. Visually, it didn’t look appetizing. Grade: N/​A.
Chop Chae: This was a Korean-​style clear rice noodle stir fried with onions, bell peppers and other veggies. This was perhaps my least favorite dish, because the noodles were overcooked and the dish lacked flavor. Grade: C–
Fried (mochiko) chicken bits: Chicken thigh meat cut into bite sized pieces, marinated with soy sayce and garlic, and deep fried. It was a fun orange-​brown colored batter. The chiecken was tender, but it was a bit tasteless and salty. Good bar food, I guess. Grade: B–
Pork Spareribs with pineapple: This dish had a lot of potential, but it was another one of my least-​favorite dishes. The pork ribs were super tender and fall off the bone, but the marinate which it was cooked in and served was bland and the dish lacked flavor. There were nice chunks of canned pineapple in the dish, but it did nothing to help out the flavors. Grade: C
Teriyaki Beef: The *highlight* of the night was the sliced teriyaki beef! The beef was super tender and delicious! It was cooked to perfection, and there was plenty of flavor. It was so good — I went back for seconds (and thirds). This style of teriyaki beef reminded me of the kind of old mom-​and-​pops saimin stand in old town Honolulu (For the Hawaii Kama’aina, tasted like Dillingham Saimin & Stadium Saimin teriyaki sticks). Nostalgic, tender, delicious! Grade: A!
At 9:00 pm, the bar opened up to the general public and the Karaōke started flowing. Us Hawaiians had a good chuckle, because the bar’s fixtures (the old people who hang out here all the time) showed off by singing their typical songs for the crowd — «Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You», «Endless Love», «Reunited», «Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.»
The servers and bartenders here are super friendly and hard working. Looked as though there was two main waitresses (mother and daughter?), two kitchen help, one main bartender, and another owner who managed the cash and inventory. Everyone worked super hard!
I’m willing to give this place another try, because I’m always looking for a place that serves home-​cooked Hawaiian meals.
Food Grade: C+/B–
Service Grade: A
Worth the Money Grade: B
Overall Impression Grade: B-​/​B

I’m not really a fan of this place but people keep choosing to eat here so I am socially obligated.
The portions are huge. The quality is just ok.
Most recently I was here while there was a concert in the bar, the music was bad and they couldn’t keep the door connecting the bar and restaurant closed. Ugh!
If you like miso cod, order that.

This is my sister’s and I’s go-​to spot when craving some good local style (to Hawai’i) food.
Mac salad is fat-​head-​portagee-​hawaiian approved. Guaranteed to stick to your ribs and expand your midsection.
I come here for the ahi poké. 9.99 times out of 10 its fresh and delectable.
Check the specials. Usually they will combine two separate entrees to make one super awesome plate. The pork chop and fried scallops is a usual occurrence on this board.
They’re a little on the pricey side. You can expect to pay somewhere in the vicinity of $ 65 for 2 fat people assuming you both get an entrée and drink and share an appetizer or two or three.
The Japanese-​Hawaiian fusion bar/​hotel restaurant combo is spacious and great for any type of large gathering with the additional outdoor seating. Aside from the Karaōke I hear they have comedians perform from time to time on the bar side.
The Happa Chicken (mochicko chicken), Poké, and the fried scallops are my favorite here. The rib eye steak is not a bad choice either.
If you’re dish doesn’t already come with the fried scallops order it on the side. For 5 fried scallops its $ 12.95.
Staff is always very friendly and prompt. Occasionally you’ll have to wave them down when they get really busy. Get to know them and soon they’ll be greeting you by name!
Multi level parking garage is ample and free. Never have we had a problem here.

Just very odd.
We were in Gardena for a long meeting and wanted a place for dinner and drinks. Our options were very limited. But we finally found this place located in a hotel and were tired of driving around so… we went in.
It’s a Japanese/​Hawaiian restaurant. Sort of. It’s a half restaurant half hotel bar with all that implies. Bartender was saucy and very funny. She was the best part of this interesting experience.
Don’t expect much from the bar. This is strictly a «beer and cheap booze» joint. Wine options are very limited. A French martini order was met with a «Yeah, what??».
One friend ordered fried chicken wings. They were sort of unrecognizable. Another ordered «Loco Moco» and I don’t even know where to START with that except to say there was actual Spam involved. I had fried potato wedges covered in cheese. And they were clearly «fresh» from the freezer/​microwave.
If you have absolutely no place else to go (and frankly in Gardena, that might happen), you could probably make a meal here. On the plus side there is FREE garage parking and you can take your drink outside and smoke on the patio. So they have that going for them.

Last Friday, I came here with about 20 people. It was a large party, so they gave us a preset menu of 3 items to choose from. The servers seemed a little older and not as used to handling large parties. They were nice, though.
I had Happa chicken and Mochiko chicken combo. They both tasted good and was the right amount of food. The only thing was the potato mac salad was a tiny scoop. Kinda weird.
I may return to look at the real menu.

First off, LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. GREAT FOOD & NOT PRICY AT ALL! Most everything is $ 10 & under.
Decided to go on a Unilocal adventure two days in a row, always for late night grub. My boyfriend and I, along with our good friend, found ourselves here after being torn between whether to try this place out or go to Azuma. Located on hotel property, but easy to spot from the major street it’s located on, Redondo Beach Blvd, we decided to try this out.
This place was SOOOOOOOO worth the –itis that came after! It was around 10pm when we arrived to a completely empty restaurant! Small and simple, we were seated by this Japanese mom that reminds me of my boyfriend’s mom (= We browsed the menu & were so overwhelmed by everything that sounded tempting. From your standard hawaiian choices, kalua pork to kalbi, to dinner specials such as potato croquette curry and New yYork steak… everything just sounded too good not to try.
Sadly, we had to choose. I ordered the Loco Moco with fried egg. The boyfriend ordered Chicken Katsu Donburi (Chicken Katsu with egg over rice), as well as the bacon fried rice, & our good friend ordered the well talked about Happa chicken with chili. We had a short wait before our food came out and we were highly impressed. The server even accidentally brought another dish to our table, Mochiko chicken. THAT WAS PROBABLY THE BEST THING! The one item we didn’t order was the best thing on our table.
My loco moco was cooked perfectly with a rich, creamy gravy surrounding my burger & fried egg topped rice. The best part is that they put spam under the rice, hidden under the surrounding gravy to give the plate that much more meat! Spectacular! The boyfriend’s traditional Japanese Donburi was also tasty, but he especially was fond of the bacon fried rice. Our friend’s Happa chicken?! BOMB! Hawaiian, open late & without the crowds?! YES, please!

We haven’t been to Happa in a while. My sister and I were thinking of a place for my Mom’s surprise 90^th Birthday and decided to check out Happa.
Between my sister, bro in law and I, we tried:
Happa Fried chicken — loved it.
Mochiko chicken — it was good but liked it less than the Happa fried chicken. This was more on the sweeter side.
Sweet and sour ribs — loved it! Just like Mom used to make.
Beef kalbi — loved it. Flavorful and tender.
Fried rice — loved it. Just as good as the family homemade fried rice. Very tasty and flavorful.
The owner Rand is a nice friendly guy. We decided to have Mom’s upcoming 90^th birthday lunch here! Yes, it’s on the pricier side, but definitely worth it.

My family and I stay at The New Gardena Hotel and we always eat dinner with relatives at the hotel restaurant (Happa’s). It has good food and we’re never disappointed.
Last night we went to eat dinner and I ordered the chicken katsu dinner, and it was great. The macaroni salad was tasty (always is) and the portion was big. I couldn’t finish it.
It was the first time that I saw the place so busy. There a few parties going on in the back room so people were waiting outside for tables. But service was fast and people were seated eventually.
I like this place: Good food, friendly workers, and fast service. Can’t go wrong with coming here.