Focus

I was very sad to hear that this place closed! I loved going to Focus, it was a like a time warp to 1984, complete with the smell of cigarettes. The food was very authentic too!
However, the owners have opened a new place called Key Coffee at Weller Court! Hopefully they’ll be serving food in addition to coffee at the new location!

Business is NOT closed.
Focus is one of my favorite lunch spots in Little Tokyo. I like the relaxing café-​like atmosphere and their servers are always very nice. They have a decent selection of Japanese comic books on the bookshelves to keep you company if you choose to eat here by yourself.
The price for their daily lunch specials is quite reasonable. I’ve had Fried Chicken Curry, Ginger Pork, Hamburger Steak and Japanese style pasta — dishes that are somewhat similar to what I make at home. Everything I’ve tried was good. I also like their parfaits and melon cream soda. Melon cream soda is ice cream float made with melon flavored soda topped with a scoop of vanilla. It’s like root beer float but way better. It’s very refreshing and delicious. I don’t know any other restaurants in Little Tokyo that serves this little treat.
Focus has a «patio» area where smokers can enjoy destroying their lungs and those around them. If you have very little tolerance, stay inside.

During lunch hour, when all the other restaurants are crowded, my sister, my cousin, and I would retreat to our «dining hideout», Focus. No one knows about this place, which is sort of a good thing, as it’s one of the few restaurants in J-​town that isn’t packed.
They have generous portions for the price. I always take what the friendly waiters/​waitresses suggest, and they’ve never recommended anything I didn’t enjoy. I enjoyed their nikomi tonkatsu, which is like a pork cutlet soup with onions, and their pasta is good, if not great.
Unfortunately, during one of my visits here, I ordered pork cutlets for the first time. Not to be a drama queen, but I could swear to god that the sauce they used tasted exactly like/​was A1. It wasn’t that bad, per se, but it was kind of unexpected. Good thing I also ordered a soda float, which made me kind of forget about the sauce and lightened my mood.
Other than that, they have excellent food, and I keep on coming back because they have very friendly staff and good service. I would recommend their steak with sautéed mushroom in French sauce, their cutlet sandwich, their potato wedges, and their ramen.

Setting is nice and relaxing. Going in early exactly around 11AM with my friend.
Tried the Hamburger Steak with Bacon and Japanese sauce and it’s quite the taste. Sweetness was the surprising part. My friend got the Meat Spaghetti and it’s quite tasty.
Best part was eating the dessert where my friend got the vanilla Parfait and i got the Chocolate Parfait. They are worth it! And the Green Soda Float is delicious to drink. It was a hot day so it was perfect.

Hidden in the corner of the Japanese Village Plaza, Focus is a nice quiet place to lunch. Nice view and natural lighting. I like the atmosphere inside — reminds me of kissatens (cafes) in Japan. Even the way it smells of cigarettes. And their menu too. They have cream soda and parfaits XD all in Japanese style (as in green melon soda for the cream soda and pocky sticks in the parfait). At night it seems more dingy because of the dark, but that sets off a certain mood of its own. Food is decent and good service.

I’ve been going to Japanese Village Plaza forever but I don’t really explore the connecting building, Little Tokyo Mall. Focus is this raw gem hidden inside this quiet place.
Nothing special about this place. It is a karaōke/​restaurant/​manga place. It has wifi so you can bring your laptop here. The workers are so friendly and helpful, they let me change table and move some plugs.
I enjoyed my yakisoba and parfait. It’s been a while since I got yakisoba. The picture looked very good and picture didn’t lie. My pork yakisoba was oishi. Perfect combination of noodle with pork, ginger and cabbage.
I had my first pafait there. My parfait had peach, banana, pocky sticks, corn flakes, coffee jello, green tea ice cream, caramel pudding, whipped cream and of course cherry on top. 4 stars for both yakisoba and parfait.
It’s a very private and quiet place. This place has one of the cleanest restroom ever. But there’s a chair in the restroom so that’s kinda odd.
4 stars! I will be back… maybe for some karaōke with a little alcohol.
Focus is yummylicious!

Very polite waiters/​waitresses. Totally my hideout to take my work or a friend. Decent food and great coffee and dessert. I love their coffee jelly. I can’t really explain why I like this place so much but I do =) never crowded yay. It smells familiar there haha like faint cigarette smell and that’s okay.

I have been to this place a few times before. The main reason why I would come here is because it is walking distance from where I live. The place is quiet, and it is never packed. Their hamburger steak is bomb! I tried their other dishes before but i think it is only so-​so. The staffs inside are friendly and they have a smoking section. Their drinks are small and the tea does not have enough flavors. If you want a place to smoke a cigarette and read a book than this is the place where you want to be. It’s a nice quiet place for an urban get-​a-​way. It is a little hard to find the entrance though. Its on the second floor of the japanese village plaza off of second st and san pedro.

Cuss! Cuss. CUSTARD GREEN TEA PARFAIT!
Custard is homemade! FOCUS! How can you focus surrounded by food, coffee, and free wifi?
The menu items are a little higher priced, but taste decent. Ham and Egg sandwich was pretty good. The Hamburger Curry was also a surprise. The lady told me the curry was made in the back. That may be, but it was still just AOK.
So, why come here? This is probably the best coffee shop around J-​Town. Food is decent. Nice view from the patio window. Friendly service.
My favorites:
1. Ice Coffee 4 Stars. Strongest Japanese Coffee I have had.
2. Hamburger 4 Stars. Curry was average but Hamburger was great!
3. Ambiance 4 Stars. Coffee joint but open and airy. Secluded.
4. Service 4 Stars. Very nice, friendly, and helpful staff.
Green Tea Custard Parfait-​5 Stars
Green Tea Ice Cream, Coffee Jelly, Corn Flakes, HOMEMADE Custard, more green tea ice cream, Fresh bananas, peaches, and whip cream.
I am a fan!

I’ve walked by this place so many times and only in the past year have I decided to give it a try.
The inside décor of this place looks like it hasn’t changed since the 80’s. Despite that, it is actually more of a pleasant (maybe even nostalgic) feeling, than feeling like you’re in an out –of-​date dump. There’s an outdoor patio and a little bar area for those to sit around. There are also some karaōke rooms.
The food here is excellent. I usually get the chicken katsu and it’s so good that I haven’t been able to persuade myself to get something else yet. They have a good variety of food. The prices are fair.
The drink selection is interesting. Despite being a café they are missing iced green tea. (which tends to be a staple at most other Japanese restaurants in the area) There is no alcohol here.
The staff is very polite and nice. Some of them might not be as fluent in English, but they will try their best. As long as you’re not asking them something like «Can you put this strange food in my dish?» they will understand you fine.
The karaōke is great. There’s a good selection. They also have an early bird deal for those who come in early or come in for lunch. If you’re looking for food and karaōke, this is a great place to go.

Authentic Japanese Café.
Green tea parfait– green tea ice cream layered with corn flakes, pieces of coffee jello topped with whip cream w/​green tea syrup, fruit and 2 strawberry pocky. $ 6.75
I was happy.

I tried the Japanese pancake known as the Okonomiyaki. OMG! it was delicious. So good, and filling.
It is served on a hot plate, so watch it, it’s hot. The fish flakes or whatever they put on top was dancing with the steam, the sauce is pretty light on here, and what ever else they use on it, was good. It has some shrimp in it. :D
TRY IT! OMG! it was delicious! :D
NOte: The guy speaks English, I don’t think the younger female waitress speaks English.
Very sweet and friendly. :D

This is a Nice 2^nd floor Karaōke
Box Hidden away in Little Tokyo.
It is BYOB
They have snacks and for some reason
It is Ok to Smoke here.
A friend from Japan took me here and she said it was Authentic.
They have about 10 Private Karaōke rooms here.
The Good part about this place is
the rooms are really private, so you may be able to get busy here.
Extensive English & Japanese Song Selection.
Modern Equipment with quality microphones.
Nice Little hideaway In Downtown LA.

Focus seems like a hidden restaurant that only Japanese nationals know about. I thought I knew Little Tokyo like the back of my hand until my wife introduced me to Focus (she’s from Japan). Stepping into the restaurant is like stepping in to a local coffee shop in Tokyo. There’s a «patio» for smoking, your utensils and napkins come in a small basket, there’s manga for you to read. The food is good, and also feels like Japan. I like the katsu sandwich and any of the hamburg dishes. I’ve never tried the karaōke there though. I go there for lunch sometimes.

This place is a good place for karaōke in Japantown. The karaōke is good, although mainly Japanese. The English language karaōke is not bad, but I have seen better selections. The Japanese karaōke is very up to date, although I actually missed some of the older songs.
The place is open till midnight and they will let you in till whatever time until then.
If you go specifically only for karaōke, as I did, know that there is a 1 item minimum, and they don’t really serve alcohol. They have white and red wine, and that’s it. I’m not sure if they allow BYO in the karaōke rooms.
All in all, I think that this place was decent enough. The indoor smoking annoyed me but it wasn’t totally overwhelming.

Salon De Café Focus, one of my favorite hidden gems of Little Tokyo. It’s on the second floor in the main plaza right above Animé Jungle and across from Zenchu sushi. The food is great I love the omurice one of the best I have tasted, the okonomiyaki is also to die for, I would also recommend the Menchi Katsu, Curry, Katsu Sandwich, and assortment of pastas. The Hamburgu Steak is only ok. They also have wide variety of drinks and desserts their ice cream parfait is pretty close to what I guess they would serve in Japan. You sit out in this inside patio which allows the patrons to smoke. The restaurant has a pretty nice view of downtown LA and is never that crowded so its a really nice place to chill. They never bother you with the check so you can stay as long as you want, usually I just go up to the front and pay when I am done. Their karaōke rooms are pretty nice also they let you bring your own liquor as they don’t serve any Most of the songs were pretty old when i went there but its always fun singing the classics, I don’t know if the song list has changed as I have not sang there in awhile. The waitresses are always really nice and friendly. Its definitely nice date place, or a place to get some work done, read a book, or just to chill and enjoy the view.

this place has character. i can’t really speak about the karaōke bar, but rather the seemingly separate «focus — salon de café» downstairs. 8pm on a friday, the place was empty except for maybe 4 older japanese men reading in the dining area.
I’m one step closer to finding a sane place to get some late night work done near downtown.

Great place to get together with your friends, whether or not you love to karaōke. You get to rent your own karaōke room where you and your friends can rock out in private. Only downside is that it’s a byob joint. Japanese menu available.