Izakaya Haru Ulala

When I was in right before Christmas, they had a sign up that they were moving to a location on 1^st Street. What happened?

Sooooooooo sad this place is gone! There’s nothing quite like it in LT My husband and I would go just about every week. Best izakaya, best staff, phenomenal presentation! We’ve had to redefine our lives since Haru closed… Hopefully Haru Ulala is just on hiatus and will return soon. We love you HU — come back soon please!

This is a cute little place, with simple, small little dishes. It’s the perfect place to go for a casual dinner with friends and some drinks. The staff is welcoming and you will definitely feel taken care of here. Everything is pretty affordable and tasty for the price. This is definitely a great place to go for some good late night eats.

Pros: The sushi was good! Affordable, good portions, and tasty, with good service.
Cons: the sushi fell apart a bit, and the awful rap music killed the ambience.

I’ve been eating here for years. I adore this joint.
Everything is delicious and there is something for everyone. Order a bunch of dishes and chow down. Don’t forget the sake and pitcher of beer and do check out their specials board.
I noticed the posted sign that Haru Ulala is closing at the end of 2014. Breaks my heart. There’s no other spot like like this with as much charm and authenticity. I’m gonna have to find another first date spot. Damn. So come down and throw your money at them and FEAST before they go away forever.

looking for a late night place to sit and eat in lil tokyo.
what i ate:
— yakitori (chicken skewer): very good! nice mix of fat and meat
— shishito peppers: very well cooked
— bell peppers: i wish the cut on these was a bit different, but still nice to nibble on
— potato w/​butter: omg, i love you butter. this potato was perfectly cooked. the butter was amazing. i ordered this towards the end, and honestly wasnt sure what to expect, but was amazed at the simplicity of this
— beef: very tender and well seasoned
— grilled rice cake: a tad unremarkable. it was wrapped in a sheet of seaweed. wasnt what i was expecting.
— pork sausages: little japaneses hot dogs served with hot mustard. very good
— salmon rice balled (grilled): the grilled version wasnt on the menu, but when i asked, the server was nice enough to say it could be done. very nice way to end the meal. HUGE though, way bigger than i expected. probably a bowl of rice
— pitcher of kirin: always refreshing
— mochi ice cream: green tea and chocolate: the chocolate mochi was surprisingly really good. i usually get green tea, but the chocolate took the cake
pros:
— open late! one of the few spots open late!
— very typical izakaya menu. plenty of small things to order and nibble on while you drink
— they had sushi there, though i didnt order any
— server was very nice. she forgot to put in my order of okonomiyaki, and so she comped us some mochi ice cream at the end
— pretty reasonable price: i ordered all this food and a pitcher of beer and it came out to around $ 40ish
— it was a monday night, and there were a handful of couples that dropped in for a late dinner. presumably because it was one of the few restaurants still open. i dont imagine this place getting too busy during the week.
cons:
— lil tokyo parking can be brutal. private lots over charge, and street parking is luck of the draw
— only kirin on tap
would i come again? sure!

If you’ve been to Japan recently prepare to be disappointed. If not, Kanpai! Chicken Karage is bomb. Okinimiyaki is not.

Their grilled makarel is awesome. Great size and the best part… The price.
Good Izakaya, nice interior and the good thing is, it’s open until midnight.
I recommend it.

Izakaya Haru Ulala is a nice place to have Sushi and other japanese food.
The price is decent, the Sushi is fresh. I had my Spicy Tuna Roll for $ 6.50. You can pick to sit either right at the Bar in front of the people preparing Sushi or at a table.
They have Sushi Happy Hour from 3pm — 8pm. i.e. my Spicy Tuna Roll would be $ 4.50.
I like the grandpa preparing the sushi. This always gives me a feel of real old traditional quality sushi. Old is good!
The service is like all the japanese people friendly and attentive.
I just don’t like the Electro Dance Muisc they played. WHY? Doesn’t fit in.

I really like this place, I do. I like the staff, they’re fun and cool peeps. What I can’t stand is that the owner won’t kick down some ends to fix or buy a new AC. it’s get hot in there and some times it’s cooler outside. It’s been like this for a while.
the owner owns Nirvana on 1^st st and 5 go go sushi in the Tokyo Plaza mall so she’s got some duckets.

Came to celebrate a friend’s birthday here and had a great time.
Great okonomiyaki here! (around $ 10 — and takes 20 minutes for it to prepare).
They have a lot of little treats, rather than full menus, so it’s pretty fun picking and choosing little bites to eat and trying out different types of food.
Had spicy tuna roll (pretty big rolls, worth the price) and a salmon skewer ($ 2.5– but very tiny, do not recommend) – but really, the okonomiyaki is what we came for.
+1 star for friendly service as well

Nice Izakaya style place. I love how the menu’s written in crayon. Cute
I like coming here because Honda — Ya just seems like a hassle. Up the parking lot, wait in the long line, wait for service… I want to eat now!!!
This is the list I usually carry on my phone…
Yakitori
Beef Tataki
Hamachi Kama
Nasu Miso
Albacore salad
Mushroom Miso soup
Yaki Onigiri
Asparagus wrapped in bacon

When I went to Japan I loooved the okonomiyaki I had in Hiroshima. I don’t find okonomiyaki in many places, so I figured in Little Tokyo it would be my best shot to try it again. Unfortunately, Izakaya Haru Ulala’s okonomiyaki didn’t reach my personal expectations. I have heard that there are various styles of okonomiyaki and so it’s probably just that this restaurant simply does a different style than what I had hoped for. I came here with my aunt, though, and I shared my plate with her (it was a big portion!) and she liked it.
It was my aunt’s first time eating such authentic Japanese food. Never even used chopsticks before! She was forced to be adventurous and she enjoyed the peppers and Teriyaki Yellowfish dish (I think that’s what it was called), though she felt the portions were small like a 5-​star restaurant.
She would give it 4, I would give it 2. It was an okay experience.

Apparently this is where the chefs go to eat at the end of their day. This place is open late and has great wide range selection of Japanese food. Everything from sashimi to izakaya items to nabeyaki udon. Best of all, everything was good. They also have Japanese beers on tap as well as a wide selection of sake and other drinks. Take note that they open late and also have a great HH!

Came to Little Tokyo to hit up one of my usual restaurants, but decided to try this place because I’ve never been.
It was happy hour so we ordered most of the items off that menu. They were all… just okay. The pitcher of beer for $ 10 was definitely nice and we took full advantage of that.
My biggest complaint is probably the lack of A/​C. It was pretty hot outside, and it wasn’t much cooler inside. Hard to have a good time at dinner when you’re trying to stay cool.

came on a normal light jacket cali night… the second I walked in I was hit w unwelcoming heat. i felt uncomfortable and felt like sweating instantly.
i tried to get someones attention but the waitress was on her phone at the podium for a while.-.-.when she finally came to my table i had to ask them to turn off the heater and get me a beer… i was wondering if this was why it was empty on a Monday night or the food. .or cuz it was a Monday night…
anyhoo once the heater was turned off. we ordered the:
agadashi tofu
mushroom Miso
enoki squid butter
yellowtail collar
uni
grilled giant clam
tho nothing was that bad nothing was outstanding either. the only thing id stay away from is the grilled giant clam. I assumed it would be on its shell still. but it was prechopped and skewered. didnt really have that fresh clam taste
if u want small jap dishes id recommend this place over hondaya but dont expect greatness. or great ambiance. or great service.
its just. ok. at least i didnt wait forever…

Late night sushi.
Honestly it was the only thing open, and it wasn’t that bad either. I love Cha Wan Mushi at 2am in the morning.
The rest of their selection was pretty run of the mill Little Tokyo style minimalist sushi.

I think I may need to come back to give a real review, only because the first time I came here, I don’t remember eating much. It is a small restaurant, so large groups might be hard to have. They have regular table seating and sushi bar seating. My table were ordering family style — it was like we were eating tapas, but with Japanese food. I don’t remember the service ever being that great, but nothing horrible either. I think they might have also had some deals for HH.

Okonomiyaki. Who knew there was a place in Little Tokyo.
It wasn’t as amazing as I’ve had in other places, but Okonomiyaki is their specialty at those other places.
The boyfriend loved it, but it was too thick and bready for me. Beef, Pork and Seafood are the choices. This place is much cheaper than Gottsui on Sawtelle which charges you $ 14! Oh westside.
The fried cheese was great! It was like a gourmet Japanese Cheese Stick similar to Hotdog on a stick except with better breading and brie-​like cheese.
The space felt very Japanese. Not kitschy Japanese, but it felt like you were in a neighborhood in Japan enjoying local eats. Very cute and homey.
3.5 Stars — I wouldn’t return, but the boyfriend would.

Not much ambience, but the food and happy hour prices here are solid! I was having a bad week and so Andrea T and I went here on a Monday night to nibble and chat. The place is pretty small, and nothing to look at really. The most interesting sight was the display of fresh produce on the little counter behind the sushi bar. But, despite somewhat slow service, I think we both enjoyed our visit.
We decided to share several things off the HH menu to start. We ordered the bacon-​wrapped enoki skewer, the steak skewer, the salmon skewer, the tempura shrimp roll, the saba (broiled mackerel), and a Philadelphia Roll. Everything was really tasty! We both really liked the bacon-​wrapped enoki. and the tempura shrimp roll was fat and stuffed. I had to give credit to Andrea for being perhaps the only super-​cool white girl I know who enjoys good saba as much as I do! Perfectly cooked and delicious! Lastly, even though I don’t ever order Philly rolls, the one at Haru Ulala was pretty good and generous. I wasn’t drinking but with her one beer, our bill seemed quite reasonable.
Overall, not a place for bringing anyone you want to impress (like a date) or a big group, since there are so few tables, but I quite liked Haru Ulala and I wouldn’t mind going back!