Koshiji

Good Yakitori with nice lunch specials. Try the chicken meatballs, the duck, and the okra.

I decided to try this place out since I was in the area. It looked like something different, and yummy! I walked in and stood there for a bit before I was acknowledged. Once the waiter helped me, I didn’t feel very welcome. I have a major pet peeve when it comes to going into any establishment and not feeling welcome. Although they were nice, the fact that I was spending money in their restaurant was like whatever. That alone will prevent me from visiting a place again. I mean at least smile! Now when it comes to the food, just know that the portions are small. Each skewer is around 6″ long. I spent $ 27 on what is pictured. They may look larger in the picture, but they are pretty small. Everything was tasty. Not too salty and I really enjoyed the Japanese peppers. The salad in my opinion was a bit overpriced for $ 6.75.
I’m not saying I won’t visit this place again because I did enjoy the food, but please work on customer service when guests come in. People like to see a smile when they walk in the door and don’t like to feel invisible.
* BTW– I placed my order to go.

Been here a few times for yakitori because my dad really likes this place. I can see why he likes it — they have yakitori, plenty of Japanese liquor, and the place has an authentic feel to it with tatami mats and private rooms to dine in.
What really doesn’t stand out to me is their yakitori though… It’s always been too salty in my opinion. They have all the essentials — chicken, liver, gizzards, beef tongue, meatballs, etc. but they’re all way too salty! I got their yaki onigiri yesterday which was incredibly bland sadly…
But I have to give them props to their nankotsu karaage (fried cartilage)! It is super crunchy and the batter is slightly crispy. It’s really good, I highly recommend it. Pricing for these yakitoris are all incredibly reasonable. They also have a set menu where you can try a little bit of everything. I usually go with the a la carte options though because I find that the set menu has too much chicken options and I like to try different kinds of meat/​vegetables.
Service is also a hit or miss. Yesterday, we were completely neglected. It was to the point where my dad had to actually call for a server to get any attention.

The BEST yakitori chicken wings, chicken skin, chicken tail, green onion, yakionigiri, shrimp, roasted garlic, potato and roasted corn. All delicious, you will not be disappointed! Things I had that were ok but better other places were chicken meatball, beef tongue, pork belly, and soup. I enjoyed the homemade coffee jelly dessert, perfect ending to a great meal! Very friendly and helpful staff. Lots of parking. Make reservations for dinner if you can. I highly recommend and will definitely be back soon !!

Was very good, but torihei tastes better. The drink menus a lot better here though. For 2 people, I recommend getting the dinner course and just add any of the side dish or extra sticks you want.
If you ordered rice menu, you will have to let the staff know when you want it otherwise it won’t come.

Koshiji had pretty decent Yakitori! The flavor weres infused in the meat well. Do note that it is an yakitori place, so it takes a while for the meat sticks to come out.

Such a great deal for lunch. It’s hard to find a yakitori restaurant that serves during lunch hours. I ordered the Lunch Box and it had so much food. The menu changes according to what the chef wants to make but the Lunch Box had soboro on rice, fried chicken, a bite size amount of curry macaroni (yum), yakitori: eggplant, chicken meat ball, and porkbelly shiso. I also ordered a side of yuzu which was the cherry on the top. The meal also came with miso soup and salad. The price is very reasonable for what you get. Wish this was closer. I’d be there regularly.

First time trying Japanese skewers. I liked the fried chicken and corn. My hubby loves meat so of course he loved everything. Everything else was average like having bbq out with family or friends. It was a bit pricy for the portion size. I thought it was okay but my hubby said he’d definitely go back. We shall see.

This a very good Japanese restaurant. The ambiance is great and the food is even better. I would definitely return.

This is my favorite Yakitori restaurant! It’s an authentic, Japanese family owned, skewer /​yakitori restaurant (no sushi). they are of course known for the skewers and traditional sides like monk fish liver and eel.
My favorite items are the duck and beef tongue skewers.
–Duck — I love duck but it has to be cooked right and this place does a great job. It has a miso based sauce that makes it super flavorful.
–Beef tongue. Delicious ! The thicker cut makes it Juicy and meaty, at the perfect level of chewiness
— Chicken and green onion. Super juicy and tender.
3 unique items I had were the mushrooms stuffed with mashed potatoes, baked scallops which had cheese and the Chicken broth soup, a nice change to miso soup
Finally the Grilled rice ball. One hint, if you order the grilled rice ball, order it first since it is cooked to order and takes a little bit.
Don’t forget dessert. Can’t wait to come back!

We drove to Torrance from San Gabriel Valley, just to dine at Koshiji! We used to go to their Little Tokyo branch, but they closed it down. We love Koshiji! Beef Tan, chicken meat ball, gizzards, liver, chicken wing, saboro don, yakitori unigiri are all yummy!!! Service is fantastic as well! Can’t wait to go back

Love the chicken skin and my wife loves the beef tongue!!! Lots of items in the list were going to try

I love koshiji
It is JAPANESE yakitori place and
Owner and stuffs are so kind and friendly!
I come dinner and lunch very often.
I am sure you will love it too!

— Locale Destination —
It’s on Hawthorn Blvd and W 230^th St in Torrance.
It’s located in the middle of the big and quiet shopping plaza. The sign is sorta Japanese, so it might be a bit hard to spot this place.
Ambiance: Simple, modern yet cozy. Quiet.
Menu: Pretty extensive. Yakitori, Ramen, appetizers etc. izakaya menu.
Service: Not bad
Parking: plenty
— Gluttony Expedition —
Nonalcoholic drink:
1) pick the juice (kyoho grape, white peach, lychee, mango, green apple etc.)
2) pick the drink to dilute (water, soda or Calpico)
(1) — white peach (juice) w Calpico. Calpico is a bit too strong. I need more water to make it normal. But the white peach juice was pretty dense and yum!
(2) — kyoho grape w Calpico. It’s great! Kyoho was very strong n yum!
Yakitori: cooked and seasoned well, though it’s a bit smaller and more expensive than others.
Cartridge: it usually doesn’t come with meats, but it does here. Cartridge wasn’t too chewy, pretty good!
Hatsu (hearts): it’s super small yet good. It wasn’t as good as the one at «Torimatsu», but not bad.
Wings: it’s very small but not bad.
Chicken ball: it’s super tiny, but good. It’s not as good as the one at «Torihei», but it’s good.
Gizzards: it’s very small, not bad.
Yaki onigiri: looked good, tasted alright. I never like this item.
Homemade coffee jelly: very small, very strong coffee flavor, not sweet at all without whip cream and chocolate sauce. I kinda expected the typical «Japanese» coffee jelly in Japan. Interesting.
— Conqueror’s Deduction —
What a gem. Yakitori here is pretty good, though I still prefer «Torihei» slightly to here overall. Even drinks got a quality. Price seems a bit more expensive than others, yet I wanna try more items!

Oh mannnnn! Such a good yakitori place!!!
All the skewers we ordered were mouth watering. My personal recommendations are the beef tongue, scallops, chicken tail and chicken skin.
Those were my favorites for sure. The beef tongue ran out at the end, so I opted for a beef skewer in its place which was imo not as tasty as the tongue.
We ended up doing three rounds of meat. So amazing. Kind of pricy. But definitely try it out!!!
They have two different set course meals at the back of the menu but we didn’t end up choosing those.
Echigo beer only comes in a medium size in a bottle. Super good beer. Very light and sweet.
I’ll be returning here!

Wow what a find. I’ve lived near this place for a while and I have never ever thought of walking in. The plaza is old and kinda outdated so it is not something you’d think twice about.
Walking in the door on a late Saturday night and the place is calm and truly OG Japanese quite style. Not a big fan of dead silent restaurants but wow does the food go above and beyond. Service as well. Amazing.
Ordered. A la carte
Yakitori– chicken skin. Chicken tails. Chicken everything they have. All great!
Yakitori– Duck, steak, shishito pepper, squid, octopus, yummy yummy.
A small bowl of steamed rice for each of us.
Finally the Chicken Ramen is made of a chicken stock… winner winner. My favorite! New spot for sure and will return over and over.
Had the soda with lychee and the mango. Mmmm a good touch. Hot tea and a coke to finish.
For two people 55 $ all that food. A great deal!
Enjoy this gem!

My family has been going to Koshiji in Little Tokyo ever since I was a kid. Hmm, must be like 20 years easily. We would go at least once a month but I was told by my family that the Little Tokyo location closed. Sad. Other Yakitori places (like Shin Sen Gumi Yakitori) may be good, but they’re just not the same.
Well, I’ve always known about the Torrance location but I’ve never gone there until one day I decided to go there for lunch. Their lunch combo is a little pricey for regular weekday lunch, $ 10. But they give you so much food it can be made into two meals (but I ate the whole thing because I’m a pig apparently). The three skewers are chef’s choice but I would imagine that it’s pretty consistent and will usually be their most popular items. I got chicken meatballs, chicken with green onions, and bacon wrapped asparagus. All delicious and tastes just like the ones from the Little Tokyo location. Comes with a generous serving of soboro rice, and also karaage, macaroni salad, and miso soup. Holy cow that’s a lot of food! So yeah, $ 10 is a little much for lunch but it’s worth it!

Great authentic yakitori with yummy izakaya dishes and sochu (and chu-​hai) and sake!
Very expansive yakitori menu, including the more unusual chicken parts like gizzard (sunagimo), tail (bonchiri) and heart, as well as ginkgo nuts (ginnan) and shishito. The usual chicken meatball (tsukune), wings (tebasaki) and thigh w scallion (negima) were solidly delicious
The deep fried cartilage (nankotsu karaage) were quite well done. Loved the foil wrapped mushroom and scallops. Scallops were a little sparse but great buttered veggies with them. And salmon skin salad was a nice fresh option (ok, not best).
We had two shochu drinks — chu-​hai with lychee and pickled plum (ume). Lychee super sweet and ume is tart, both yummy
Good if not fast service
For a very filling meal with one drink each, $ 45 per person all in

Cool, small yakitori place hidden in the middle of a strip mall near the intersection of Hawthorne and Lomita. Two private traditional low tatami dining rooms in back. Overall, seemed like a very authentic experience.
Asahi Super-​Dry in an insulated pitcher was a nice touch. As for the skewers, the scallop and onion had a very good «meaty» flavor. Eggplant was very good. Smelt were a little dried out and overdone. Be careful when ordering, as the $ 3 skewers do add up quickly.
$ 5.95 green salad was big enough to share. Several other options in addition to the skewers, such as ramen, mochi in broth and rice balls. Really like the Tempura Jalapeño. Nice service. Nice bathroom, basin type sink. We’ll be returning.

There are lots of businesses in this area and all share the same parking lot. Ample spaces, but I’m sure it can fill up quickly, especially with the Grand China Buffet right there!
My daughter brought me here today because she enjoyed the Yakitori she ate when she came here for a friend’s going away dinner.
The restaurant is nice and clean. I like the Japanese artwork. One thing I think is cool is the curtain partitions. They look like they can be lowered to give the diners some privacy from the neighboring tables. The waitress was on top of her job. We didn’t have to wait for anything except the food.
Basically, this review is only for the Yakitori and dessert. We ordered 9 skewers. We got asparagus, pork belly, okra, salmon, beef (2), & chicken with Green Onion (2), and corn. The only one I wasn’t wildly crazy for was the pork belly… it was a little tough and not juicy. If I could choose a way to eat salmon, I’d eat it as Yakitori! I could have eaten a bunch more of the salmon, asparagus and the okra! The pieces are tiny … but they were prepared so deliciously!
For dessert, my daughter had the green tea ice cream and I had the homemade coffee jelly. I love this coffee jelly! The presentation is neat and they pour some milk on top, then drizzle chocolate over it, and add whipped cream and frozen grapes. So cool! The jelly is a little strong, but it is so good with everything on the plate!
We were served hot tea along with the desserts. I don’t know if that is the norm, but we didn’t order it. It was not on the bill, so I’m not going to complain! It was pretty good, too. I’m not sure what type it was because it wasn’t green tea.
Next time I come back here, I would have to try a combo or something to add to the meal like rice or noodles.