Help me survive my week in [Torrance]

Regional Dining Discussions Los Angeles, SoCal, Vegas
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I have a bit of an unusual week in Torrance coming up soon. Without going into too many details, I will be at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center at Torrance Blvd and Hawthorne Blvd for 2-3 days and staying at Sonesta Suites at Prairie Ave and Del Amo Blvd the rest of the time (really, we’ll be at the hotel the full week, but I have a feeling we’ll be sleeping at the hospital a bit).

We have packed some instant foodstuffs for cooking in the hotel kitchen to get us through the week, but we (or I, at least) are going to want to get some real food.

We are from Northern California, East Bay. The only requirements are that it has to be takeout and it has to be within a 10 minute drive or so from the above locations. Are there any must-try places in this area, preferably that I can’t get up north?

Thanks!

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All of the following offer take-out, though some will obviously hold-up better than others:

Rascals Teriyaki Grill
5111 Torrance Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503

Mitsuwa Marketplace - Torrance Del Amo
3525 W Carson St Suite 164, Torrance, CA 90503

Tendon Tempura Carlos Jr
1510 Cabrillo Ave, Torrance, CA 90501

Addi’s Darbar
800 Torrance Blvd #101, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Taishi Hainan Chicken
1000 Torrance Blvd ste b, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

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Can’t help with recommendations, @cluskillz (I’m rarely in the Torrance area), but you might also want to cross-post your request to FoodTalkCentral.com - there’s a very active LA-area community that might have ideas to expand on what @strongoxman has offered.

(Link to search results for “Torrance”, though you might want to start your own thread: https://foodtalkcentral.com/search?q=Torrance)

Good wishes for the hospital-related stuff to go smoothly.

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There’s a great thread on foodtalkcentral.com called South Bay something… tons of amazing food recs that helped me a lot when we first moved here. Someone mentioned Carlos Tendon below and that’s solid. Could do Kagura for katsu, Gaya for korean stews, Full House Plus for Korean Chinese fusion (although it was only “meh” last time I was there). To be honest (as a Norcal transplant myself), there isn’t all that much you can get here that you can’t get up north… We also like Local Kitchen for simple American fare and Clutch and Coffee for breakfast items. You could also try Maderos for solid Mexican and I actually, I don’t know if this is too much trouble, but you could hit the Torrance Farmer’s Market on Sat. AM and pck up amazing fruits (strawberries here put Norcal’s to shame) + very good prepared foods (pupusas, crepes, malasadas, sandwiches, burgers, etc. that are all solid.

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Don’t know if we’re allowed to crosspost FTC links, but this is the South Bay Staples thread I mentioned which is a treasure trove of ideas… if you’re willing to drive a little furhter, the options open up as well!

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To add on to the list above.

Fatto a Mano
The pizzas here are all outstanding, totally underrated, not sure how they hold up as take-out though, but who cares, they’re that good. Lasagna worth a gander too.

Barsha
Again, not sure how these things hold up as take out, but the beef cheeks, tunisian bruschetta, and falafel sliders are must-gets

Baran’s 2239
Breakfast burros are killer, as are the Indian Egg and the fried chicken

Phanny’s
Speaking of breakfast burritos, no trip the South Bay is complete without a stop at Phanny’s and indulging in one of their famed burritos, I prefer the one with chorizo, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them, even the vegetarian one

Proudly Serving
Smash burgers, duck fat tater tots all for under $15, what more do you need to know?

Enjoy your stay.

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These are awesome! Thanks, everyone!

One last question…I noticed a few mentions for King’s Hawaiian in the FTC link. I figured it was just a gimmicky theme restaurant thing, but is it worth stopping in? For actual meals or stick with the baked goods? My wife’s coworker is a relative of the founder that presided over the King’s Hawaiian empire and she might get a kick out of stopping in for something.

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King’s Hawaiian is a decent family restaurant. Decent – not bad, not amazing. Take a look at their menu and see if that appeals to you.

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Jus Poke in Redondo Beach. Real poke in a sea of McPoke’s.

Chicken Maison. Spicy garlic chicken with spicy potato salad and sweet-spicy slaw.

I go to those 2 pretty regularly.

Ichimiann. I love the ume shiso soba. So refreshing.

Kagura for some of the best katsu.

Definitely Baran’s or Tigre Fuego (both weekends only) for the breakfast burritos.

Aunty Maile’s for furikake chicken, chicken katsu, loco moco.

Aunties Kitchen for Portuguese sausage breakfast burrito.

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So I didn’t realize Kagura is affiliated with T.O.T. in Little Tokyo, and their millefueille katsus are really quite good. Highly recommended.

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We love king’s hawaiian. Good food and desserts. Solidly executed Hawaiian fare.
also, Eboshi is good for japanese ramen, fried rice, etc.

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Thought I would report back on our time in Torrance.

The hospital deal was as smooth as could be, but the schedule was thrown off and we had a lot more time at the front end to dine out than I thought we would, then frustratingly little time at the end.

First place was Baran’s 2239 with takeout breakfast burritos. I made the mistake of not ordering ahead, but thankfully they had 3 burrito specials left (carnitas). Wow, were they good. I’m not usually a breakfast burrito kind of guy, but I’d eat these all day long. That extra gooeyness inside (from the rice?) knocked it out of the park. I am a convert. I hope to have dinner here one day.

We went to Lazy Dog that night. Local friends picked the spot (well, originally BJ’s but it was an hour and 45 wait). That’s fine. Whatever. It was the wonderful company that was important that meal.

Went to Nagomi Cake House to pick up some pastries for the following day. Also not super into sweets, but my wife loved the chestnut cake. I liked the cream puffs and chocolate ganache.

For lunch, we went to Tendon Tempura Carlos Jr. I really wanted to like this place, but we found the tempura flakiness to be a bit lacking. I did like the mixed seafood tempura, I thought that came out quite nicely.

Still waiting around, we ventured to Manhattan Beach to walk around and eventually have dinner. We wandered into Manhattan Beach Post and had a great meal there at the lounge. The buttermilk biscuits were and the shrimp with a saffron and separate citrus sauce were standouts.

I didn’t think I would have time for this, but we stopped by Monkish Brewing for a bit and really glad we had the time to do so. Great DDH IPAs. The smell of the Korean BBQ food stand was very tempting, but we had dinner lined up with non-beer drinkers. I stopped by Smog City Brewing also, but only took beer to bring home with me. I haven’t tried any yet but plan to crack open the barleywine tonight.

We went to Kagura also, and we really liked the oyster katsu. We found the pork to be a bit dry though the breading was very good. Perhaps it’s a bit unfair but the last katsu place we went to was this great restaurant in Osaka and I was hoping it would be more or less a recreation of that meal. Maybe I should have ordered the millefueille katsu as recommended by @strongoxman but I unfortunately did not see the post recommending it in time.

At night we went to La Esperanza. The pupusas were really good and I found the carne asada done with green onions on top were fantastic.

The following day was action packed but we were able to order takeout from Chicken Maison and I very much enjoyed the spicy garlic lemon chicken. I licked that plastic takeout container clean!

The following day, delays caused us to miss meals and ended up having to have In N Out for a quick late lunch. Not what I was hoping for. But for dinner we ordered out from Fatto a Mano. Wow, what a great meal. @ipsedixit , you weren’t kidding about those pizzas. The lasagna was a bit hit with everybody as well. There was a spicy pasta dish that wasn’t as good. Could have used some more oomph and substance. Also ordered a pesto ravioli and it was fantastic. The staff was also super friendly. Great last meal in Torrance.

I had hoped to try takeout from Phanny’s to see how their breakfast burritos stacked up against Barran’s, but the hospital was just taking its sweet time with things and we missed the window. I was also hoping to get something from Proudly Serving, but that turned into In N Out, again, due to schedules. Addi’s Darbar was high up on my list but was vetoed by my mom, who doesn’t like Indian food (though she is maybe slowly coming around). Taishi Hainan Chicken was edged out by Chicken Maison. I’d love to check out all of these places some time in the future. Definitely bookmarking this and the FTC thread. We skipped King’s Hawaiian. It turns out my wife wasn’t nearly as interested as I thought she might be.

Thanks, everyone for the great recommendations! Maybe I was a bit overly-harsh on the two Japanese restaurants above, but we found great things in every single recommended place.

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