Tawada Cafe

Possibly my favorite place in Los Angeles. 5 stars all around.
I love ramen and I’ve tried it all. These guys know what they are doing. The beef is not too fatty which I appreciate and is like butter in your mouth.
It’s a very small, quaint place with odd hours of operation. The inside seats like a fast food place but the outside has nice picnic tables. Extremely casual

What a surprise to fine a place like this this location! Across the street from Lowe’s on Pico near Rimpau. This tiny hole in the wall Japanese restaurant is making real deal tonkotsu ramen! The quality was great especially considering the price. I had the chicken katsu curry and the it was really tasty and good size portion.
You can see right into the kitchen and it’s super clean and everything is made to order. I hope people support this little mom and pop gem.

The OLD TAWADA WAS MUCH BETTER. Even though it still wasn’t that great. The food has no good taste to it. I ordered a chicken teriyaki plate with no rice, no Mac salad and teriyaki sauce on the side with just all green salad. 20 minutes later I pick up my food there’s sauce enough For 2 plates in the chicken. I specifically said sauce on the side, there was also a WHOLE BED OF RICE that weight the plate to like 3 lbs of just rice. There was less then a handful of salad with a big ass scoop of potato salad on top of it. Smdh. All I wanted was chicken and salad. THATS IT! But he gave me what he wanted me to eat. Completely ignored what I asked for. I go back and tell them where they messed up. He said «OMG I’m sorry complete forgot that you said sauce in the side «
He brings my plate and STILL HAS EVERYTHING ELSE I DIDNT ASK FOR !!! I explained AGAIN and he’s just looking at me like he’s stupid or something. THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! Food is not even good !! DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AT ALL !!! SAVE YOUR MONEY! THIS IS A WASTE OF LUNCH, TIME AND MONEY !!

Quick Update On Tawada! Reopening Once Again! By Ends Of This Month Or Starting September! Hope To See You Guys At Tawada Again!

Very very good, great Service delicious food, and close to home slightly affordable but recommended

Great lil spot to stop & get fresh sushi & fried tempura & teriyaki bowls. Food is fresh & delicious. Yummy & prices are good!

Cone here regularly, it is not a place you take your date to. It is a place for a daily lunch but not more. They do have seating inside and outside which is nice. But nothing special.

Very nice lil place for simple sushi fix for lunch. Always fresh, haven’t had the tempura or bowls yet. Just can’t get past the sushi, I just wish they would expand the sushi menu or even better do a special. Friendly staff, parking and super close. And my kids love this place! I guess it’s byob, but who’s got a bottle saki in the car?

Nothing special about this place. Sushi is low priced not a huge selection of sushi but they do offer other items as well. Its walking distance for me but I always feel like its closed. I will drive by when it is supposed to be open and its closed. Ill eat here again in the future just have to catch it when its open.

Ok, went back, ordered the same thing and it was not as good. The rice was a little dry and the salmon had too much white part. I can’t recommend at the 5 star level, but it was still not terrible. I took off a star for inconsistency. Still worth a try!

I tried to order a chicken teriyaki bowl with white meat but i was told that they didnt carry white meat.
I switched to a beef teriyaki bowl.
I was disappointed it was thinly sliced beef with lots of fat.
The food is cooked fresh!
My bowl came with rice and a salad, the salda was really good.
It was a salad with field greens, cabbage, raddish, and romaine lettuce with a asian style dressing very yummy.
Drinks come with $ 0.55 refills disappointing.
Overall it was ok experience.

Not happy with the customer service on my first visit but the teriyaki chicken was delicious so I will return.

The food is great, well actually the spicy chicken is great, I haven’t really tried anything else other than their spicy chicken and their fresh salmon roll which is excellent and inexpensive. Oh and their crunchy roll is just as great

this place is a beautiful disaster. I believe i showed up at a particularly busy time, there were a number of beligerent customers, but I always side with authority. always. at any rate it was pretty cheap and fairly well presented. calling it fast food demeans the quality. very LA, a cheap place that is trying to do a lot with very little. girl behind the counter very attractive.
hard data, i showed up at an estimated 6:00 my order was in by 6:07 and i ate by 6:24. so it seemed fairly reasonable to me. also it was pretty delicious so yes this is my seal of approval.

I’ve been going here for about 6 years and the food has always been simple but delicious. The meat is always cooked to perfection and the sauce is never overpowering. I like the salad and macaroni that they put on every plate. Also, their $ 1 mochi is perfect after meals. It’s definitely a hole in the wall type of restaurant, but I hope it stays around for years to come. If you’re in the area and you’re craving Asian fusion food, choose Tawada, not the Panda Express a couple blocks down.

I think you may like this place depending on what you order. I thought the tofu salad was a generous portion, but something was lacking in the dressing, and the tofu was obviously the medium to low quality packaged kind.
I didn’t like the salmon roll because I thought the fish was too mushy. The tempura was fine but the crust isn’t my style – quite dense and thick.
However, the chicken teriyaki and gyoza were good, and my friend liked her yakisoba. Also the fried chicken and vegetable rolls seemed appetizing.
The lady at the counter was very pleasant and she worked hard to bus the tables as soon as people finished.
The patio seating was lovely in the early evening.
For those reasons I would go back for more.

It was my first time coming here so I was really unsure on what to try Juana the cashier was great she was very patient with me and offered me to try the Shrimp tempura which by the was was really good.

I am so disappointed by this place :(
Their pictures look delicious and the service was super friendly. But, the food was a failure. Namely the spicy chicken. The first piece I tried was small and had great flavor. The rest were terrible. They were so undercooked that all I could taste was sticky, grainy batter. I had to throw them in the trash. I ordered for pickup shortly after they opened and the restaurant wasn’t busy… there is no excuse for not cooking the food thoroughly. This place may have potential to be good, but my experience was not. I only had a 30 minute lunch, which is how long it took me to get the food, so this is what I’m stuck with.

Overall:
I only come here because some of my coworkers took me here. The food is decent, but for the price — I have no complaints. If you’re looking for authentic sushi, turn away, but if you’re just looking something quick a long the lines of sushi — to — go than this place could be a good place to come for lunch.
Food:
I only ordered a few things here: the salad, salmon/​avocado roll and the tempura. I ordered a side salad for less than $ 5 I believe and this thing was huge! However, there isn’t enough dressing and the salad is mainly just chopped up cabbage bits. I think it’s worth it for the price, but it’s not the ‘best’ salad. The avocado and salmon were good. The fish didn’t smell fishy, but the rolls here are so freaking small… I’m a small girl & I eat a lot so those 8 pieces did not fill me up, which always makes me end up ordering something else. This led me to try some tempura, which is typical vegetable pieces fried in batter dipped into a soy sauce based sauce.
Service:
The waiter/​cashier are very nice. I have gotten my food pretty quickly except once during lunch time because someone did a to-​go order of like 16 items, and it took me almost an hour to get my salmon/​avocado roll. They’re also very good at accommodating extra items I ask for like ginger or sauce.
Environment:
Small place, but there are inside & outdoor seating. It’s more of a fast food environment.

In a part of the city that – for some inexplicable reason – struggles to yield any decent Teriyaki, Tawada Café stands out as an exception.
FOOD. Came here a couple times. The first time didn’t wow me, but the second time… Oh the delicious second time. Very good teriyaki chicken, in my humble opinion. I don’t like teriyaki that isn’t grilled… Tawada grills the chicken and they cook it damn well. I was drooling on the ride home, as the aromas from that little styrofoam to-​go box wafted through my car.
At home, I DOVE INTO THAT BOX. (
) I got the Beef & Chicken Teriyaki Combination. The teriyaki beef was good (
), but the chicken stood out. (
)
The Macaroni salad was not that great, as the little bit of cream that was used had coagulated into a clumpy mess. (
) The seasonings on the mac salad fell short, as well. Did that keep me from trying it? Nope.
The side salad was so-​so. I am a sucker for ginger-​soy dressing, so I was an easy sell, but truth be told, the salad was just about average. (
)
The rice was well-​cooked. Nothing worse than dry or soggy rice. Tawada’s rice was right on point and complimented the teriyaki perfectly.
LOCATION INFO. It’s basically around the area where Pico hits San Vicente, mid-​city. They have a little parking lot that allows free parking… Score. The cute, green «shack» is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the cookie-​cutter corporate establishments that surround them (i.e. Panda Express, Chipotle, etc.). Inside seats about a dozen at about four small tables, but they also have a cute little outdoor patio.
I like this place… I will be back. I will probably get to know the staff. It might become a problem. With really tasty teriyaki chicken at VERY AFFORDABLE prices, the decision is easy: Tawada is the place to go for great grilled teriyaki chicken, when you’re in the area of Pico & San V.