Sawtelle Place

Nijiya, Curry house, Yogurt Land, Daiso, Max Karaōke, and the list goes on. In the heart of the awesome Sawtelle conclave. I’ve coming here for years. Watch out for drivers and pedestrians coming in and out of this plaza though!

This review is for Sawtelle Place, the two-​story shopping center located in Sawtelle Japantown on the small stretch of Sawtelle Blvd in between Mississippi Ave and W Olympic Blvd. We visited this little U-​shaped strip multiple times during our recent visit to LA. Here’s what’s inside:
* Blutusk Ice Shavery
* Curry House
* Day Spa
* Max Karaōke
* Yogurtland
* Video Jun
* Sawtelle Family Dental
* Karate Kyokushin
* HIS Travel
* Daiso Japan
* Kula Revolving Sushi and Noodle
* Pain Control, Acupuncture, Herbs Clinic
* Loops Hair Studio
* Nijiya Market
* Beard Papa’s
We had dinner at Kula and dessert at Beard Papa’s (cream puffs) on separate nights. We also went to Nijiya Market a couple times. Kula is good if you want quick, affordable sushi. It’s not high end or fine sushi, but it’s fresh and satisfying enough. It’s casual conveyor belt sushi like they have in Tokyo. There are several other Kula locations in Southern California including in Little Tokyo in downtown LA.
Beard Papa’s churns out delicious cream puffs in a low key, nondescript café-​like setting.
Nijiya is a great, compact Japanese grocery store that has all sorts of neat and unique Japanese foods and goods including produce, meat, and seafood. The staff is nice and the store has clean restrooms.
Parking can be hard to come by. It’s almost a joke. There’s a free surface lot on street level, but it’s quite small. There’s a multilevel underground garage, but it’s old, dark, and dirty. You also have to pay to park in there and the price you pay seems to be totally up to the attendant on duty. It feels shady. I don’t recall seeing a sign posted with parking rates.
One night, the parking attendant was waving people into the garage even though there were no more spaces left. WTF? That wasted people’s time and gas. I noticed tandem parking in some sections of the garage which I assume is for employees of businesses at Sawtelle Place. There’s a beat up elevator you can take from underground to street level.
I recommend skipping the whack parking situation here and instead street parking for free along any of the residential streets a couple blocks west of Sawtelle Japantown. It’s much easier that way.

I’ve been coming to this plaza for years… and years… and years. I think I’ve just had enough and it’s all because the parking attendants who keep on trying to scam money from me. Sometimes it’s ok but they’re always on the lookout. If it were a proper system it would be ok but sometimes it’s a «you can go». Other times it’s a «$ 2 dollars». One time it was a «$ 5 dollars». For going to Daiso and Nijiya, paying for parking is ridiculous. 1 hour parking for free. Unfortunately, just picking up groceries sometimes takes more than an hour. There’s no fancy restaurant in the plaza. Just everyday stuff and it used to be ok but now a days the parking is just frustrating. The two attendants are just really odd. I did notice something, if you go with a pretty lady, it doesn’t matter if you stay for a couple hours, they’re happy to let you go. Otherwise, you just have to stare up at the guy and wait for him to say some random number.