Izakaya & Beer Bar by Ryozanpaku

So I have to admit I’m not an expert on Japanese dining, but it was a great experience altogether. I’ll definitely be back again and I’d recommend it for others to give a try. It’s a good traditional Japanese experience and a pleasure to have here locally in Torrance.

Had a great time with friends but when it came to ask for the tab, I felt like a criminal because some of my friends had to go to the chase bank, 45 second away to get cash, since they couldn’t split the bill, she asked for the money more than 12 times, I wanted to tip her good, but the way she made us feel, it was otherwise. Other than that, had a good experience?

Authentic basic Japanese diner, not the best of the best, but all around good experience. Not sure why there are so many whiners posting derogatory reviews. It is what it is and its awesome! If you’re coming here for fine dining, go elsewhere and save your criticism for someplace that gives a rip… I’ll be back.

If I could give negative stars I would. I came here with a party of 2 with no reservation. The place was basically empty. The waiter was extremely rude to us when he told us they were full. I used to love this place when the little older Japanese lady was working here. Cannot comment on the food but the service was unforgettably awful.

The food is not so good. My miso soup was cold. The only good thing is they are opened till late!

8 of us came here to try out their sushi and it was disappointing. It took 1 hour and 30 mins to get all of our food to come out. My friend got the unagi don which is $ 12 barely ate any of it he claimed he could get the same quality at mitsuwa for $ 8. There was barely any people in the restaurant and our service was terrible. We are never coming back again.

Supposed to open 5. We came at 5, not open. Came back 15 min later, we could take a seat, but they are still «getting ready». When we tried to order, server told us grill chef won’t come until 6. It’s past 7 now, but no grill chef. Only one chef cooking for all customers; definitely slow service. And server brought bill before serving last 3 orders. And ask us if we want to wait for those items. Does she think we going to leave before getting food we paid for??? If you don’t mind to spend couple hours for dinner, it’s okay. But if you want eat and get moving, this not the place. And food is okay; not really special about it. We haven’t been here for a few years, and I remember it was better back then. Kind of disappointing.
***We were there until 8:30pm because they didn’t bring some of our orders until 8:15pm or so. When we left there at 8:30pm, still there wasn’t the grill chef yet. And we couldn’t use our Groupon because we couldn’t order Yakitori. Don’t get any Groupon deal for this place!

I wish I could give this place no stars. We got here at 11:00pm ordered 2 green teas a hot sake and two waters. They are great at getting our drinks… But still waiting for our 4 rolls … ONE HOUR LATER!
I will never come back here again.

The food is good but SLOWWWWW. This place could be awesome but I would recommend avoiding it.

Just decided to stop by even though the ratings 2.5 stars. This place really does suck!
I got 5 tiny calamari rings for $ 6!!!
It took 25 minutes for these!

The last 3 times I’ve been to this restaurant, Ive sat around for about an hour and a half receiving little to almost none of my food before leaving hungry and unhappy. Service is nonexistent, they will avoid your table like the plague. All 3 times the waiters nonchalantly blamed the busy kitchen but it was never even busy nor would they give me a food update or ask if I wanted anything to drink. If it’s soo busy, why are the servers just crawling around the place doing nothing Oh! And I asked for more cabbage, was told no. Then she brought the table next to us more cabbage when they asked. I love late night asian cuisine but this place won’t be getting my money anymore. Train your servers and staff more kitchen employees if youre going to waste people’s time when they just want a quick dinner.

To fuck all these negative comments and reviews on here! This place is amazing! And it’s the best place to go after work and have a couple of pitchers of beer! The restaurant itself is amazing and there small places is soooo good! I recommend this place to anyone! Great food and drinks and vibes

I am really surprised with all the negative reviews. The service is always great, the ladies are super nice… I don’t eat meat so I get the tofu nuggets (yum) and some version of a vegetable roll… my friends order tons of food and have never complained. They ask the ladies all the time for recommendations and they are really helpful. The one thing I would say is I feel I get jipped on the pitchers of beer (I mean there is a solid cylinder in the middle of the pitcher that takes up quite a bit of room). We always go late (happy hour here is late which is awesome) so it doesn’t rock the pockets too much but I would probably complain a bit more if we were paying full price for it. I haven’t noticed if there is a long wait for the food but with all the socializing being done, time seems to pass by quickly. I would give this place 5 stars if it weren’t for the pitchers.

AVOID !!! If you are hungry, you will die here. Honestly I have never given 1 star nor have I experienced such a horrible service and food.
It’s Saturday and my friend say he buy me dinner since he got a voucher from groupon,
Arrived 7 ish, sat down and the waitress ask us if we want sake or beer, we both don’t drink. The attitude totally changed. First flag.
Took her a good 10 mins to return to take order. She told us the groupon cannot use for others except the yakitori and even advised us to get a refund from groupon.
But my friend insist we go ahead. Well. We order 16 skrews of yakitori value about $ 50, a ton Katsu, a pork belly small dish and 2 sprite.
After that, it all wait, wait, wait, no service at all. 30mins
Finally she came with my Katsu but after 5 mins on my table and I even touch on the pork, waitress came and say it was not mine and quickly gave to another guest next booth, shockingly unbelievable.
Fine, I try to be nice and patience. Another 15 mins, the pork belly came and Katsu with no rice, nothing Except some shredded cabbage, (that’s $ 11.95)
Another 20 mins, 2 skrews of chicken, disgusting frozen chewy meat.
From there we wait again, waitress don’t even come checking us. Said and done, almost 2 hours passed without full meal. Totally pissed off and ask for my check. I could just walk out but we paid with zero tips.(Never ever I leave no tip)
Bottom line, how can a business survive with this kind of service and food quality. I am not sure who will enjoy eating here and how long they will be in business.
My advised, avoid this place by all mean.

Until today I would have said it’s impossible to mess up ramen. I guess it is. Talk about bland. And the noodles were strange is all I can say about it. Of course I’m in Japan often so maybe I’m biased. But still how do you mess this up? I hate to say I would have liked top ramen better. We ordered edamame which was good. Gyoza, that never came. And a few sushi rolls which was pretty good. Lots to choice from here which made the menu a little confusing to me but maybe it’s just me.
The staff is really nice but slow. Our food came out in a strange order. You have to flag them down. The table next to us sat dirty for nearly twenty minutes. And it wasn’t crazy busy. But there’s a tv to keep you preoccupied. Maybe they are too.
I really liked the décor of the place. It’s probably a cool place to grab a drink but I’m not sure about the food.

Good news people! Last night I am excited to say that I received my first order 100% and everything came out quickly! (+1) star and will gladly give more if the service keeps getting better. Food taste and selection still amazing!

Happy hour, after ten at night, was a delight.
I wanted good food at a decent price at a late hour of the night. I’m glad this place came to mind.
The place is cozy, the staff is friendly.
The price is great, at a pretty good discount. The food is tasty, and if you do feel disappointed about what you get you don’t feel too bad about it.
Lots of variety from ramen to sushi to yakitori.
For a late night appetite Ryo zan paku is just right.
Quality of food 4.3÷5
Décor/​interior ⁴⁄₅
Service 4.8÷5

Need a late night meal… this place is open
it’s not bad but not good for a regular meal place, it’s a the only option at 1030– is here…
it takes a long time for food to come out
miso cod, skip it, it was ¼ size of my hand… rip off
ton of dishes and none were memorable

I’ve been coming here for years and agree with the prior reviewer who said it was a LOVE-​HATE restaurant.
LOVE: I love this place because they are open late, especially for the Torrance area; they serve sake, plus beer and shochu; and they allow me to sit and linger for hours. I compare it to Starbucks in the sense that I can order something to drink, eat a little food, and sit and read for a couple of hours.
HATE: The service is terrible. The staff is friendly (and I know they try), but very, very slow. Ironically, I probably can sit and linger so long because the service is so slow. Orders also get mixed up frequently.
INDIFFERENT: The food is okay, not great but also not bad. There are a variety of dishes to choose from, everything from kalbi to kushiyaki to sushi … but like places that try to do too much, most of it is just okay. There is a wide variety of kushiyaki (grilled skewers) from which to choose.
ADVICE: If you have a movie to catch at the nearby AMC, have somewhere to go, or want a reasonably quick meal, then avoid this place. However, if you have nowhere to go, are willing to sit around for a while, and don’t mind having to flag down your server once in a while to ask about your order, then it’s not such a bad place.

After a year of coming here, we won’t be back. It’s went totally down hill. The manager manages to do nothing but make excuses… We like the staff. They are nice, just not enough of them. Food is very good, but so slow.

We went here because we bought a groupon. Ended up not using it and being able to return it on the same day because the groupon did not cover what we thought. The groupon can only be applied to food on a specific menu. That food was too exotic for us and we did not order too many items from it (Another table ran into the same problem). Thus, we returned the groupon and just ate what we wanted.
Food was okay, service is slow because they are understaffed, but I wanted to write a review to offset the negative reviews :)
This restaurant is definitely understaffed, but they do hustle! You can tell that they are trying their best and I did not see one worker take a break or stop to rest… kudos; however, management does need to hire some help for them in order for people to start enjoying the atmosphere and food.
A few of their food items were good. My husband liked the fried chicken skin and most of the food he ordered. I wish I could tell you what it was… The waitress recommended the sashimi, but we were not
looking to spend that much money.
Try the restaurant and if you like it, go back. Expect to be patient and try new things. :)

Sushi was good— but not amazing.
I did like the ambiance. The ramen was great.
White House wine was OK.

Simply, food quality is very low.
Avocado and tuna salad, some sushi,
Yakitori, everything.
They do cut their cost in material.
Service as well, there are no professional waiter or waitress in this place.

I love this place. Stumbled upon this place by accident a few years back when I was trying to kill time before a movie started at AMC.
The atmosphere is quite unique. It feels like a pub in Japan. Lots of artwork on the walls and some crazy Japanese music. I have come here for a few birthday parties they have lots of dishes that are great for sharing.
The prices are reasonable, but it adds up quickly when you’re with a group and if you’re drinking.
They have a great selection of Japanese beer. I’ve had some beers here that I haven’t seen at any other Japanese restaurants.
The Soju, Shcochu and Sake selection is great too. They have this peach nectar which is great for mixing with any of those too.
I recommend the Ebi Mayo, the Chinese Chicken Salad, the yakitori, the quail eggs, the pork belly and the coconut ice cream!
The reason I give it 4 stars is because I used to come here and they had a ton of staff and the service was just right. But the last few times I’ve been there it seems that there is an entirely new staff but not enough and when the place gets busy you can wait for over 45 mins for a beer. It’s been extremely frustrating.
I feel bad complaining especially when you can tell the servers are working their butts off but there just isn’t enough people working there to serve a large amount of hungry customers.
If you want the best experience I would suggest going mid-​day or not on a busy night.
I still highly recommend this place.

I never write reviews and enjoy others regularly especially the bad ones as i an NEVER imagine thongs could be soooooo bad
I bought the Groupon BEFORE I saw the horrible reviews… but I have it… so dragged my family of 4 to enjoy a nice Friday night together… OMG
…we arrived only minutes after 8pm… it is now 10:14 and we just got one ramen and another they are checking on… now we did have Yakitori… one at a time and then 2 Sushi rolls in the last 2 freaking hours!!! What the?! My teenage sons are giving me so much sh*t for putting them through this… seriously I will hear about this in the old folks home when my teeth are in a jar…“hey mom, remember that crappy service at that Izekaya Restaurant in Rolling Hills Plaza? What horrible service and all because you got a deal on Groupon?”…yeah…I am stupid… stay away if you know what is good for you!!!

Oh my goodness. I must say this is probably one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to in my life. At the first glance this place seems very cute with very izakaya like decors.
We had a groupon and ordered quite a few skewers. It took us probably over an hour to get our very first skewer. And then they slowly started to come out one by one. Honestly just eating the food I would have given it a 3 star. But the wait and customer service was the worst. I will see say the mochi wrapped in pork belly was unique and I enjoyed that dish, but most of the skewers were just alright.
When our bill came, it totaled to 32 dollars without tax plus the 30 we had paid for from the groupon. This means that our bill would have been almost 80 dollars without the groupon. We payed 11 per person and most of us were still hungry after. We ended up going to in-​n-​out afterwards because we were all still hungry.
I think people can come here if they’re not hungry and just need a place to snack and drink some beer. But seriously though the price and wait Of this place is almost unprofessional.

You can never judge a book by it’s cover, but seriously, this place sucks. From the outside, you’d think that it was an acceptable establishment. The inside is even setup in the usual izakaya style. It’s quite roomy. Tables in the front and along the back. I believe there’s a small room in the rear for a private setting.
The main problem here is the service. As in the lack of. Everything is slow, even when there’s a light crowd. I’d order something and it would take forever to arrive at my table. I’d have to ask why it’s not here and they didn’t care much. I also believe that they gave away my entrée to the table next to us. Had to ask twice for the bill, in agonizing delay.
The food is alright, but doesn’t compare to the competition around the South Bay. Such a shame, cause there’s so much potential. I don’t believe the owner comes around much, which pretty much leaves the workers to run the place amuck. No quality control and no urgency whatsoever.
I asked for more lemon slices for my iichiko shochu and they told me that they’d have to charge me. Fine, there’s a cost for everything. But, don’t tell me that it’s because lemons are expensive. WTF are you talking about? Any restaurant that buys in bulk gets them for super cheap. If not, that’s your bad, not mine.
The only credit I can give is that it opens till 2am and their beer, sake, and shochu selection is quite expansive. Other than that, it’ll be a waste of time to visit here. I rarely write so negatively about a business, but I think this time it’s warranted. I won’t be back, so you shouldn’t either.

Cool atmosphere! You can sit on the tatami mat floor, at tables with keg barrels for seats, at a couple of regular booths, or at the bar with raised benches! The restaurant set-​up and décor is pretty authentic-​looking. For a little while, you can feel like you’re at an actual izakaya in Japan!
Service:
Servers were polite and friendly. The menu has quite a lot of options, and she was nice about giving us plenty of time to decide what we wanted. Also, the sushi rolls don’t have descriptions listed, so she was very nice in explaining to us what a few of them contained. It did take a while for us to get the check, but we didn’t mind since we weren’t in a hurry.
Food:
— Cabbage Salad with Sesame Dressing — Brought out for our table to share while we waited for our food. Just enough to tie us over! The dressing was pretty good.
— Itame Somen — with shitake mushrooms, green onions, and topped with nori. This dish is similar to yakisoba but with thinner noodles, and the sauce is a little wetter. I enjoyed having the mushrooms, but I feel like there could have been some more vegetables included in the dish. Overall, it was very tasty!