Otomisan Restaurant

I really wanna give this place a better review since it seems like one of the last places to get no frills Japanese food, especially of the non-​sushi or ramen variety which kinda dominate the Japanese food scene in LA.
The food itself is really solid: their tempura and teriyaki chicken combo was generous and delicious and reminded of the recently closed Aoi in jtown or Bungo’s for those of you who are closer to Crenshaw.
However, my friend and I waited slightly over an hour to get our food served at a time when the restaurant was not particularly busy (Monday night dinner). It’s hard to be mad since there’s such a family feel to the place, but I don’t see myself coming back unless I have mad time to burn.

The real draw here is the atmosphere. With just a handful of booths and a few seats at the counter, the Japanese-​American 1950’s nostalgia runs deep. The décor is amazing, the clientele legit on a Friday night. There was a man around 90 with an oxygen tank sitting at the bar drinking straight from a bottle of white wine. You really can’t make this place up. The food is solid, nothing special, but it’s the sort of home style Japanese cooking you would come back for. Unfortunately they were out of the tonkatsu curry so we settled for just the tonkatsu, some tempura, tuna and salmon sashimi, and the gyoza. Loved the gyoza and tempura the most. Will have to come back for that curry… and maybe some grilled pike.
I really hope this place never closes.

I got to say best Japanese food I have had here in L.A.The Tempura is the best I have tasted, it was so crispy just the way I like it. It is a little pricey but so worth it. The owner is so nice, could not have ask for better service. I lived in Boyle Heights for 29 yrs and never tried it till yesterday, I didn’t know what I was missing. Coming back soon.

I can’t understand why anyone has given this restaurant less than full marks. We loved it!
After reading the Unilocal reviews, I tried to book a table for our last night in Los Angeles, but I had left it too late. Instead, we decided to take a walk through 1^st St and take our chances. If we ended up with pizza, so be it. However, as we passed the Otomisan Restaurant, we tried our luck and asked if they had a table. «Unfortunately not», came the reply, «but you can eat from the full menu at the Sushi (wet) bar». So we did, and it was delicious. I asked the waitress to choose a few oysters which were delicious although I don’t think my palate is sophisticated enough to properly distinguish between the different tastes and textures.
Next up was a selection of sushi that we watched the chef prepare — watching him work is a treat, by the way — again, delicious. I surprised the waitress by ordering the filet steak, but my wife had ling cod.
I must have been in a generous mood because although the steak was as good as I’d had in years, I suggested swapping our mains half way through so she could enjoy it too. The cod was very nice, but it didn’t follow the steak too well. Cod then steak was excellent according to my wife.
The meal was finished with Grand Marnier Crème Brulee, and a selection of ice cream which we shared. I can take or leave deserts usually, but I loved these! We had aperitifs to start with and we shared a bottle of Muscadet. I can’t remember how much it all came to, but I don’t care, it was wonderful.

Damn good Sushi and bowls and sweet service from the owners. It takes a while to get your order but it’s worth the wait. If you’re looking for a great Mom and Pop shop for authentic sushi bowls, this is your place! True, not comparable to Panda Express and their orange chicken… but why get the usual, when you can get fresh sushi :) give them a try and you’ll love it :)

This is the quintessential mom and pop hole in the wall – in the best possible sense of the phrase. There are 3 booths and a handful of seats at the counter. To get to the bathroom (which is clean), you literally have to go around the side and in through a different door. But who cares – they serve what is probably the best tempura I’ve eaten outside of Japan. I’ve had it on several occasions, and it’s light and fluffy (unlike typical American-​style tempura, which is overly battered and heavy) and not greasy. In my visits here, I’ve also had their katsu curry, which was very good, as well as their regular katsu and some sashimi, both of which were solid. Yesterday, since the very nice older lady who runs the front of house recognizes me at this point, she gave me a taste of these vinegared noodles on the side. They were mixed in with a bit of corn and maybe some edamame. Super delicious and refreshing when paired with my katsu curry. The main dishes tend to come with miso soup and salad (and rice, of course). The salad is pretty generic, but the miso soup is actually quite delicious. Anyway, if you like the feeling that you’ve «discovered» a restaurant (even if it’s been here for years), come on down and get yourself some great Japanese home cooking. And make sure to start with their amazing tempura.

My wife and I decided have dinner at Otomi restaurant in Boyle Heights, this restaurant have been in the same location on 1^st street in Boyle Heights for many years. Even my dad who lived in Boyle Heights often have lunch with his friends at Otomi many years before I was born. Otomi has lots of history in this community.
This is our first time at the restaurant and this place is really amazing and feels like your in the past. We sat down at one of the four booth in the restaurant and the owner comes with menu she was nice and telling the prices went up slightly and the old prices haven’t change from the menu. The owner bought us the miso soup it was really good with great flavor with the Tofu in soup it wasn’t over powering the soup it was delicious n
We decided order my wife order the teriyaki chicken with vegetables and I order a combination plate with two item shrimp and vegetables tempura and teriyaki chicken it’s comes with a salad and rice. After the miso soup she brought our meal, my combination looks good I couldn’t wait to take bite of the shrimp and vegetables tempura and the teriyaki chicken. The shrimp and vegetables tempura was delicious and light and crispy and not greasy it was cook perfect.
The teriyaki chicken was cook perfect even the chicken skin on chicken was fry perfect when taking a bite it was crispy I enjoy It very much. The salad was good I really enjoy my Combination. My wife enjoy her teriyaki chicken with chicken. Overall we enjoy our meal at Otomi and learning it history, we would back again.

This place is so legit. Haven’t found a sushi place I loved yet in LA. I’ve been spoiled by fresh fish in Seattle and all the sushi joints up there. This is a great little place for sushi. I had the salmon sashimi bowl and it was so good. The rice was cooked perfectly and the pieces of salmon were generously thick. Wouldn’t think to find a good sushi joint in this area and the fact that its a mile from work makes it even better. Check this place out!

So here it goes. We got there at 7:10 there was two booths taken and the rest of the place was empty. I stood there because They has the closed sign out. So I wasn’t sure. She looked at me and I told her two and she didn’t say anything other than go back to the kitchen. I sat at the booth by the door. The table was still slightly dirty. My husband was craving this place so I didn’t want to leave. He came in after I waved him in.
She wiped the tables and have is menus. He wanted the chirashi. I decided to get the same thing I got last time. Seafood tempura and beef sukiyaki. This place is awesome but she speaks Japanese to you and we don’t understand half of what is said. We ordered at 7:20 she said too many tempura orders you can get a small order no seafood. I felt like it was the tempura nazi telling us we can not get what we want you get only what we make you. We just agreed right away, when I said sukiyaki she said very long time I told her okay. Then he asked for the chirashi and a slight hesitation but she said okay. We ordered water only.
We got the tempura first and it was yummy yum yum!!! So fresh hot and delicious. Then we got our soup it was luke warm and tofu was cold. Then I got my sukiyaki at 8:05 35 minutes after we ordered but I know at any place it can take 20 minutes. I didn’t mind, the udon noodles were so chewy and yummy yum yum, the beef was tasty and tender the veggies everything is just what I wanted.
About 8:20 hubby gets his chirashi, when he bite into his salmon he knew it was still slightly frozen. They took long because the fish was still frozen. He ate the other stuff since they were frozen, the tuna was yummy I had a piece.
I took home my Just spoke to the niece Jerry and she wants hospice 100%food because I could finish it was like 49.00 for the three things. Out the door 60.00 not bad for authentic Japanese food.
Even though she cleaned the table it is slightly sticky greasy and it could use a good cleaning.
The service was slow and she will kick people out and say closed we just got luck today.
this is great for Japanese food!!!
Yummy yum yum
The grade down was the service kind of slow but I guess expected

I came here for lunch today, Friday, at 1:30. I had lunch plans earlier but after reading the reviews I decided to push lunch a little later to try and miss the rush. There was no one here! Perfect timing! :)
We sat ourselves and grabbed a menu because no one was out front. The lady must have went to the restroom. She popped out and immediately greeted us and took our order.
We ordered the Spicy Tuna Tempura Roll and the Tempura entrée which came with miso soup, a side salad and a bowl of steamed rice. It didn’t take as long as some of the other review had said, but again we were the only table. It took about 20 mins from the time we ordered until she delivered the food. OMG, the tempura was so fresh, light and crispy! The side salad had a good sesame miso dressing. The spicy tuna tempura roll was realllly good. My only problem is, I don’t like roll that are too big to eat in one bite. They end up falling apart in your soy and on the table. But it still tasted AMAZING. Perfect amount of tempura to cucumber, to rice, to tuna ratio!
I can’t wait to come back with more coworkers. All in all, time spent at the restaurant was about 45 minutes.
We parked at a meter right outside, $ 1 for 1 hr.

4.5 STARS
I wish I could give this place 5 stars! I’m a little understanding that it’s a small place, and everything in the front is pretty much run by a small Japanese lady with a slight language barrier, but still, the service is a little slow for such a small joint.
That being said, I love the coziness of the place. There’s only 3 booths? (Or 4) and a couple of counter seats. It really feels like you’re eating at home, haha. The Japanese food here is solid — I’ve tried the tenzaru soba, a bit of the sukiyaki, some of the unagi don, the spicy tuna bowl, and the seafood tempura.
My favorite so far has been the spicy tuna bowl. I’m rarely, if ever, impressed by spicy tuna, but Otomisan gets it right. The spicy tuna to rice ratio is perfect! The soba was pretty good as well. The seafood tempura, although a little overwhelming, was delicious.
It’s a cozy, cute restaurant with a home-​y ambiance. There’s solid Japanese food at a reasonable price — what’s there not to like?

Got the spicy tuna bowl, as it was mentioned a lot in the reviews. It was a perfect lunch. Love the mini-​salad in the bowl. Not sure what the dressing was, but it was lightly dressed in some type of miso or sesame I think?
Wish it was cheaper so i could get it for lunch every single day. But it’s the perfect place to go in Boyle Heights if you want simple Japanese food.

Old school restaurant open since 1956. When entering the restaurant you will be in a time warp, the lady who runs this place is the 3^rd owner. The place is small so expect to wait if you arrive during the busy lunch hour, it has room for only 17 customers. The food is very authentic I ordered the spicy tuna bowl which was good but I will stick with my favorites next time like the teriyaki chicken bowl. We waited almost 30 minutes for our food to be served because it was busy, while I sat at the counter the owner had to turn away customers.

Pros:
–Food is good, but I’ve had better.
Cons:
–It takes a LOOOOOONG time to get your food (and water). There weren’t a lot of customers at the time, and it took almost 45 minutes to get my food. Mind you, I was dining solo and I ordered something simple. Bottom line: DO NOT come here if you’re in a rush.
–There’s a language barrier with the female owner, she ignores you, she’s not personable, and there’s never a sense of urgency with her.
–The place is dingy. Definitely needs deep cleaning and remodeling. Mr. Clean to the rescue!
–Restaurant is tiny. There are only three booths and some counter seats, but the owner’s daughter and her kid are always occupying the last booth doing homework. Really? Who does that!!! That’s why they invented libraries.

Very good quality but allow for possible wait for peak times. Very homey place with lots of neighborhood support. Metered street parking only — read the signs! Was full during lunchtime. I’m glad that it continues to serve great J-​food.

This is a small Japanese restaurant tucked into a plethora of Mexican shops along 1^st street. This place is here for a good reason. Reasonably priced refreshing Japanese food to your hearts content.
The first time I came here I had hot tea, gyoza, and a few plates of sushi. All were good and reasonable. Te tempura roll and spider roll were my favorite and very crunchy. This time I ordered the spicy tuna bowl, which came with good miso soup, a small salad in the bowl, and a very good portion of spicy tuna atop rice. All in all very good. My friend had the chicken and egg bowl this time and said it tasted like what he ate as a child.
I will be coming here often. I recommend it for a low key legit Japanese outing.

Otomisan is located in Boyle Heights. There are residential houses right across the street. This threw me off, as I have been exploring more industrialized areas of LA recently. The dining room is like an extension of Mrs. Watanabe’s house. It’s well decorated and homey. Some of the decorations look like they’ve been in the same spot for 20 years. The chef is Mr. Negishi. Street parking is available right outside from 8am-​8pm. I arrived at 7:15, so I only had to spend 3 quarters for 45 minutes; parking is free after 8pm.
Isobel L was already inside waiting to offer me some of her croquette. These fried potato balls were perfectly crispy and not over battered. The flawless execution of this simple dish indicated to me that Chef Negishi knows exactly what he is doing.
Gary and myself both elected to try the chirashi box, which is not on the menu. Sometimes they don’t have it because they don’t have all of the ingredients to assemble it. As luck would have it, both Gary and I were fortunate enough to experience what it would be like to «eat a Japanese garden,» to quote Gary.
The chirashi arrived and immediately impressed the table with its stunning presentation. A hidden bed of sushi rice was the base for a collection of fish worthy of an art exhibit. Tuna, salmon, eel, octopus, spicy tuna, crab, shrimp, egg, kampyo (Japanese dry gord), smelt egg, cucumber, ginger, and wasabi painted a perfect culinary portrait. I definitely ate with my eyes first.
My two favorite items were the eel and salmon. The eel melted away in my mouth. It was soft, yet meaty. The sweet eel sauce was the perfect compliment to one of my all time favorite foods.
The salmon was stellar. It also had that melt away quality that makes sushi so spectacular. It was succulent and fatty, and I loved all four pieces. It was some of the best salmon I’ve ever tasted. It had the melt in your mouth quality usually displayed by toro.
The tempura dish included shrimp, eggplant, squash, lotus root, broccoli, sweet potato, and onion rings. All of the tempura was airy, like a cloud; crisp, not over battered. I could’ve eaten more and more. I’ve had Hannosuke in Torrance; Otomisan’s tempura was a level above Hannosuke. Dare I say it is the best tempura I’ve ever had. When biting into the onion ring, I exclaimed that this is what a real onion ring tastes like! The same applied to the broccoli and the other pieces. At Hannosuke the tempura is over battered and becomes overwhelming over the course of the meal; at Otomisan the enjoyment of the tempura increases with every bite.
Otomisan can get packed quickly; there are only three booths and five counter seats, so plan accordingly.
If you’re ever in the area, I recommend this place. The high quality chirashi box and tempura are some of the best I’ve ever had. They have a big menu, and I’d definitely return to try other items. Enjoy!

Dinner at Otomisan is like dinner at your favorite Japanese great-aunt’s house, if you are lucky enough to have a favorite Japanese great-​aunt. You know, a super nice great-​aunt who always has a kind word for you, who hasn’t really redecorated since they bought the house in 1956, who watches Japanese soap operas and whose cooking is out of this world? Wouldn’t it be nice if she really existed?
Well, she does, at Otomisan. And she can be your imaginary Japanese great-​aunt for the evening, for the price of dinner. And what a dinner it will be.
I arrived first last night and while waiting for my friends to trickle in, ordered tea and asked Mrs. Watanabe for a suggestion for something to nibble on. Croquette? she said. Potato croquette.
Now, the potato croquette is not what leaps to mind when I think of Japanese cuisine. Cuban, maybe, but not Japanese. But abiding by my Prime Directive of Dining (try to go with a suggestion from the staff and/​or the locals), I agreed.
Out came two of the lightest, crispiest, most perfectly fried items I have ever had in my life. The potatoes themselves were creamy and perfectly seasoned. Each croquette had the perfect balance of crunchy exterior and smooth, delicious interior. The chef at the fryer is a genius, I thought to myself.
And the tea! Having been to tons of restaurants where the tea is little more than beige water, I was shocked by the outstanding rich flavor. Turns out Mrs. Watanabe blends the tea herself! Of course.
After friends and fellow Unilocalers Gary I and Ben L arrived, dinner began in serious. I had the tempura/​sashimi combo which was quite a good deal for $ 12.95. The tempura practically floated on my plate, it was so light. The flavors of the food (shrimp, broccoli, squashes of various types, the perfect onion ring!) shone. And the sashimi (salmon and squid) was absolutely some of the freshest and most flavorful I’ve ever had. The combo includes miso soup which was delicious.
Honestly, I think Otomisan has ruined me for all those hoity-​toity overpriced supposedly cutting-​edge Brussels-​sprouts-​with-​an-​egg-​on-​top restaurants that have clogged the City of Angels in recent years. I am tempted never to go anywhere but Otomisan ever again.
Arigato, Mrs. Watanabe.

Food is so good here! I always get the spicy tuna bowl because they give you such a heaping portion for a reasonable price. I’m always full by the end of lunch. Just enough.
My friends like the udon tempura and spicy chicken bowl. That’s like their go to faves as well.
The place is small but has a great home feel to it. So if you want some quick yummy homemade food, hop over on 1^st st at Boyle Heights!

Otomisan Restaurant — opened in 1956 and probably the only Japanese restaurant left in Boyle Heights
This is truly the epitome of your typical mom and pop Japanese restaurant — a tiny restaurant (a small bar + 3 tables), one waitress (also doing the cashier and greeter’s role), and a simple dining menu.
WARNING: Super nice lady, but service was REALLY slow (took 30 minutes for two sukiyaki orders) and my friend was complaining about how slow it was; however, she was apologetic about it (she said sorry in Japanese) and you can’t be too harsh on mom and pop restaurant — I say take your time and enjoy the slower dining pace.
Tempura battered deep fried shrimp and vegetable ($ 7.95): Fried eggplants, fried broccoli, fried sweet potato, fried onion, and most importantly — fried shrimps! Top quality tempura and one of the best tempura that you can find in LA.
Sukiyaki beef cooked in sweet broth (with rice and miso soup, $ 13.5): Otomisan’s speciality — a delicious Japanese hot pot with savory broth and flavorful beef udon. I REALLY liked it — a LOT.
Spicy tune roll ($ 6): Slightly above average quality, not exactly the best place for sushi.
Amazing sukiyaki and tempura — it was definitely refreshing to try home-​cooked Japanese food and a hidden gem in East LA.