Gardena Restaurant Week is currently taking place through Sunday, Oct. 27. I view restaurant weeks as an opportunity to become familiar with restaurants in a particular area of town. Among the list of participating Gardena restaurants, Happa Restaurant caught my eye. My wife and I dined there this week.
Happa Restaurant is located in the New Gardena Hotel on Redondo Beach Blvd. The hotel is located directly across the street from the Pacific Square Shopping Center. The shopping center is best known for Marukai Market which is now Tokyo Central.
The menu is rather large and best described as Japanese American comfort food. There is also a smattering of popular Korean and Hawaiian dishes like dakgalbi, pork kalbi, buta kimchi, loco moco, fried saimin, and spam musubi.
We also took advantage of the fact that Happy Hour is from 5 – 7 p.m. and I selected a pint of Sapporo draft ($3) and my wife ordered a gin and tonic ($6). Because takoyaki pairs nicely with beer, I selected that. To offset the meat, I selected cold tofu topped with bonito flakes.
The cold tofu topped with bonito is Japanese American comfort food and something that I grew up eating. On the other hand, takoyaki is a more recent discovery after having Tanota Takoyaki from the cart in front of what used to be Marukai Market in Torrance. The takoyaki was served piping hot and it was a great beginning.
Our server brought over a cast iron pan, the type you typically see with fajitas. The rib eye was sizzling in the pan and still smoking from the heat. It was served with sliced onions and topped with grated daikon radish. The onions nicely caramelized in the pan while my wife enjoyed the steak. Her dish also came with a generous side salad and a scoop of potato mac salad.
Because I filled up on tofu and takoyaki, I only made a dent in the happa chicken. They were fried Japanese chicken nuggets made with thigh meat. It was marinated in a soy sauce with sugar and grated ginger. The exterior was crispy and not mushy like some karaage.
Participating restaurants are offering specials during Gardena Restaurant Week. Happa Restaurant offered the rib eye plate at only $19.95 and the Happa Fried Chicken (ala carte) was only $6.95. Combination plates are discounted 10% which is fairly substantial when you consider that their prices are already low.
Some of the other participating restaurants include Amandine, Auntie’s Cafe, El Pollo Inka, Fish Bone, Larry Flynt’s Bar and Grill, Lomeli’s, Oh My Burger, and Shilla Korean BBQ.
This is a great opportunity to try a new restaurant, enjoy a romantic dinner or grab a group of friends and experience something new.
You can check out the action by following #dinegardena on Instagram.
Gardena Restaurant Week
gardenaawaits.com/restaurant-week