Nanbankan

They don’t have a web-​site and they are not on OpenTable. Why bother, if the customers keep on coming, moreover, they are often completely booked and if don’t have a reservation, they won’t sit you.
Cheap printed menu — pages inserted into files. Why get a better design, this one is ok too. All Japanese names, thanks God they indite in English what’s that mean. And some specials are written on the blackboard. Like Wagyu Beef (14 $ a tiny little piece) which was more boiled if you ask me than grilled. Pork belly tasted better to my mind. All portions are very small and you have to order a lot of different things to feel full. But better know what you want and like — cause we ordered a lot of variations and half of them were not really delicious.
Okura is very popular, but I didn’t like it that much. The octopus was very unsuccessful this time if you know what I mean — very rubbery and rigid. Grilled rice was a bit burnt.
They have typical sushi and sashimi of course.
So may be if you love Japanese grill and all that — it’s a place for you. But it’s very specific and peculiar.
The ambience of a typical Japanese place and a lot of guests like to sit around the counter and see how they actually cook. They say it’s customary if you buy your chef a beer.
They bring to each table small plates of a market garden in the beginning and a sauce.
And they use too much oil I guess, cause I felt uncomfortable and some heartburn.
They don’t take American Express, by the way. And out of three cards I gave them — two were «denied», but in reality, the money was authorized on all three cards and they were holding it for two weeks.

My husband loves this place. The quality is wonderful and it tasted so good. Don’t really like the smallness of the place… but it’s ok. The food covers for it. And the service of the waiters and waitresses were exceptional as well.
But make sure to make reservations before or you may have to wait an hour… or more. Will be back again cause the hubs is a fan!

My new spot. Really good fair prices. This is a nice place to take a date. Good options for meat eaters and vegetarians and pescatarians. Can’t go wrong with the black cod or chicken wings.

Super tasty yakitori, great service and an excellent selection of saki (tip: ask for a saki tasting). My only complaint. you never get full and that’s not a good thing since yakitori is generally a bit pricey, so don’t be shocked when you see the bill. Oh, and parking is a bit of a pain, but that’s expected of this area.

I wasn’t too impressed with their food. I ordered the Nanban Complete Dinner and nothing really blew me away. It tasted like the meat wasn’t that high quality and were overcooked. Since Japanese food tends to not be as seasoned, you can really tell if meat is cooked wrong or quality is subpar. The squid tempura we ordered was just awful– very rubbery and hard to chew… don’t order this. I think the only thing I enjoyed was the black cod, which we ordered separately and was on the special menu.
The complete dinner comes with side of rice, pickles, miso soup, and mochi ice cream. Forget the complete dinner and just order off the specials. Seems like since it’s slightly more expensive, meat quality is a little higher.

This place is my fave! I love coming here and getting the best yakitori in town. Everything is amazing– my personal favorites are the gingko nuts, the kawa, the nonkatsu and the beef tongue. The prices are reasonable too. Highly recommend!

Not many places deserve 5 stars. This places does, for its food and its service. Actually, I’ll be even more honest, food is 5 stars and service is 4.5. I’m not going to go into details, all I can say is regardless of your taste buds, you gotta try this place at least once. I like most of their seafood items, theirs chicken wings are to die for and their veggies dishes are awesome. I’m not a big fan of their beef dishes, but it’s just me, go ahead and try it.

One of the very best places for yakitori you will find.
The food is outstanding, and service is tremendously good. You are family walking in the door.
Lots of wonderful options. If you are a fan of Japanese food, you must come.

Yakitori was excellent. I always try to get some when I’m out on the west coast and this time I was staying in a different part of town, making the drive to my usual place pretty long given LA traffic.
It’s a small place, but the service was great and the food was excellent. Eggplant was probably the best vegetable; and the waygu beef was to die for. Wish they had draft beers, but the large Sapporo bottles were fine.

I have been coming here for years now and I can’t believe I haven’t written a review. This is my favorite restaurant. I have had everything on the menu and nothing has disappointed me. My favorite things to order are: okra, chicken meatballs, tomato maki, Australian lamb, black cod, and their grilled Ongiri. Everything else on the menu is as delicious if not more. You should definitely come here and give it a try.
P.S There is free parking around the corner in back of the book store. It’s always empty so don’t pay for valet.

I think I found my favorite yakitori place in LA! Hurray!
Where should I start about how amazing my experience was here. I’ll go through it one by one.
First and foremost, food. Probably the closest yakitori I’ve had that tastes like it would in Japan. The set up they have is exactly like it would be in Japan.
The service is phenomenal. The manager greeted me really kindly and remembered my name through out the whole dinner.
On top of all this, the price was surprisingly cheap. (I’m comparing to other yakitori places or fancier Japanese places) The type of service and food you get from here is something you’d expect to spend $ 50 a head, but I don’t think I even spent half that and we had 2 large hot sakes too.
Most definitely recommended and I will come back again soon.

I came here with a reservation for total 9 people. Someone brought a last minute guest and the place was nice enough to add another seat to make it for 10 people.
We came here for my birthday and since 60% of the party was late and we had only up to 2 hours since our reservations we proceeded to order.
We got 1 large bottle of sake, 1 $ 50 bottle of cold sake, 3 glasses of beer, a bunch of orders for chicken liver, beef tongue, sirloin, asparagus, a few bowls of ground chicken, 2 orders of fresh eel with rice. There was probably other stuff we ordered.
The restaurant surprised me with green tea ice cream. It was delicious and I’m glad most people took a spoon of it. =]
Thanks for having us!

Came here Saturday around 5:45pm.
–Parking–
Ample metered street parking for 2 hours, or valet parking for $ 5 I believe.
–Ambiance–
The dim lighting, wooden décor, and jazzy music make this place perfect for a casual gathering with friends or going out on a date. A crowd started forming around 6:30, so if you plan on eating here, make a reservation or arrive early. Despite how crowded the restaurant got by the end of my meal, the noise level was still pretty low and I was able to hear each of my friends clearly (we were a party of 10).
–Service–
ON POINT. Everybody was attentive, patient, and kind. Our servers made sure we had everything we needed without coming off as overbearing. Our food and drinks came out within 5 to 10 minutes of ordering. Only downside: Nanbankan only accepts two credit cards max per party, so I suggest bringing cash if you’re part of a large group. Also, reservations only last for 2 hours.
–Food–
Most bbq order comes with two skewers, so I recommend ordering several orders of each skewer if you’ve got a group!
Pork-​wrapped asparagus: best asparagus I’ve ever had. There was a crispy, thin layer of pork over the veggies — I almost thought they were fried in panko crust. Yumm
Regular beef: meh. They were tough and chewy. Sauce was good, like a homemade teriyaki.
Beef tongue: thin, but not as tender as I expected it to be. Still delicious and my favorite skewer of the night.
Chicken liver: DELICIOUS! Even though it’s covered in sauce, it’s enough to still get the buttery texture and slightly irony taste. My friends weren’t fans of it, but I definitely was!
Quail egg: it was bland, more like hardboiled mini eggs that I make for meal prep with a little bit of sauce on top. Wouldn’t order again.
After all this, I was still hungry so I ordered a Soboro Don, which was rice with ground chicken, miso soup, and a side of pickled vegetables. Pretty good value: $ 7. The soup was flavorful, not salty like some other miso soups I’ve had. The rice bowl was okay. If I were to come back, I’d either order the tuna or unagi bowl next time or just sample more skewers.
Free matcha ice cream for birthday boys and girls!
Nanbankan is a trendy place to eat at. But come with either a small stomach or larger wallet if you’d like to get full.

I love izakayas (Japanese bars) and I especially love yakitoriyas (Japanese skewer restaurants), so when a friend of a friend recommend this place, I’ll admit, I was really really skeptical since I already know and love an amazing yakitoriya in Torrance which I frequent at least once a month.
On Monday night, parking was fast and easy. The metered parking out front on Santa Monica Blvd. is free after 4pm.
Upon entry we were happily greeted but I didn’t know which of my friends made the reservation so that was a minor headache as I had to give a couple possible phone numbers that the reservation might be under. The hostess/​manager was very nice though and asked us to wait in the front at a small table and brought us out a menu to peruse.
The service here is fast, professional, and friendly but not in the way you might be used to. They don’t kill you with smiles and jokes but our servers were super friendly and very helpful with questions we had.
Recommend:
Tebasaki (chicken wings)
–crispy, juicy, flavorful, seasoned meat
–delicious
Kawa (chicken skin)
–crispy, slightly chewy, savory, yum
–highly recommend getting it w/​«teriyaki sauce»
–their «teriyaki» is unlike anything you’ve probably had it’s more like thicker lightly sweeten, less acidic Worcestershire sauce.
Kimo (chicken liver)
–savory, delectable, yum
Hatsu (chicken hearts)
–some of the best hearts I’ve ever eaten
–try one before you judge, it’s good!
–tender, meaty, not gamey, juicy
Bonbochi
–BEST. THING. EVER.
–lightly crispy edges, but melts in your mouth
–so tender, juicy, perfectly salted, literally just melts
One thing to note is this place isn’t cheap. Basically in order to get full you’ll have to order quite a bit and it can add up so watch it if you’re on a budget.
I only had a couple issues with this place that kept it from getting a 5 star review. I know this is primarily a meat place but being a huge seafood lover and seeing that they served quite a variety of seafood I tried a few things and wasn’t impressed. The asari clams were not good, they didn’t see fresh. I make clams often and I just get them from Whole Foods and they’re a lot better the the clams here. Also, the soft shell crab was good but wasn’t quite crispy. I like my deep fried food, crispy. Lastly and this is just nitpicking, the ambiance is brightly lit so don’t expect a really romantic place.
Overall though this place is good! Great food, excellent service, the manager is very friendly and welcoming. If you are craving yakitori and don’t want to drive all the way to Torihei and are wanting a place that’s more brightly lit, you have to try this place!

Just came back from here and I’m so disappointed with this place. After reading many positive reviews we were excited to try this place out. We love going to eat yakitori, and when we lived in DTLA we often went to our fav spot. However, we moved to the Valley and getting to DTLA all the time is difficult.
We arrived at opening and since we made reservations we were promptly seated. We ordered a bunch of stuff and everything was going well. Service was attentive and everyone was really nice. Food was decent, nothing really stood out to us.
Since my mom was babysitting for us, we ordered her some food to go. We ordered it during the middle of our dinner so that by the time we left it would be ready. We ordered the soboro don, a whole grilled squid, beef tongue, and ginkgo nuts. We literally waited over an hour for our entire order. The soboro came out quickly, but since the other things needed to be grilled we knew we had to wait a little longer. However after thirty minutes we asked them about our order. They told us that they had forgotten about it and that it would be done shortly. Hey, it happens, I used to work in the restaurant biz and totally understand.
What I got mad at was that they had asked us to move to the waiting area until our take out was ready. If it was going to take a few mixtures I would have been ok with it, however they just put the items on the grill as they asked us to move. We literally waited another thirty minutes in the waiting area. The host brought us our food and even gave us some free beers to take with us. Ok, wasn’t quite as annoyed now with the good will gesture. However, when we got home we only received half our order! We got the squid, but there was no beef tongue or ginkgo nut! I know they got the order cause I looked over the itemized receipt when they gave it to us.
Never again.

Went here on Thursday to grab dinner with my sig. O.
Wow. I ordered the meal, and she ordered the scallops, rice and a veggie skewer. I love watching them cook over the hot coals. They could have 10 000 000 things cooking, and somehow they would all come out perfectly cooked.
There wasn’t one thing I received with the meal that wasnt awesome. It’s a bit pricy for the meal, $ 23, but worth every penny.
Will be coming back again, everything they were putting up on the grill looked amazing.

I want everyone to take me here for my birthday… one at a time! I took a friend here for her birthday Friday night and was excited about going after having looked at their menu on line. So much to choose from! I ended up trying the chicken meat balls, sea bass, beef, scallops, and mushroom skewers (some shared and some not). I passed on my friends squid legs and smelt, but she was as pleased with her selections as I was with mine. We also shared an order of tempura. The tempura was far better than average, but I’ll focus on more skewers next time, only because they really are that good. The glass of Chardonnay was a good one, and we ended the meal with green tea ice cream. I can’t wait to go back and am actually kind of glad it’s not in a more convenient location or I’d be tempted to go weekly. Soooo good!!!

Came here with two friends on Saturday to try out their skewers. The restaurant had a problem with electricity so there was no air conditioning and there were flies flying around, which definitely was not a pleasant first impression. However the waiters and waitresses were all very friendly and apologetic in this manner.
Food: 2.5÷5
The food was very mediocre and costs around $ 60-​$ 70 per person for me and my friends, which I thought was ridiculously expensive because the food was very poorly cooked and the quality they used was frankly terrible. I don’t think I’ve had such terrible wagyu ever. But that saying, I would take into consideration the fact that their electricity cut off on a busy Saturday night and I suppose they had to compensate in some way. Definitely didn’t come out of the dinner happy though, full yes but satisfied with the quality? Nah. I was frankly quite disappointed considering their high rating on Unilocal.Their beef tongue was extremely chewy and rough and same goes to their cartilage, same goes to their wagyu beef which was too salty and too tough, I am rather suspicious that it was not wagyu…
On a brighter note, their house special yaki onigiri was quite flavourful and their asparagus with side pork was pretty decent.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Service was good compared to the food. The servers really tried their best to make up for the heat, but 15 minutes after I ordered my coke and it still was not served I definitely was not amused… They did try and we could tell they were trying their best to balance with the large number of customers in the store and they also apologized on behalf of the kitchen as to how slow the food was coming out so I don’t blame them.
Needless to say I wouldn’t be coming here again. Disappointing food.

I’m not a big Yakitori eater. If I’m in the mood for Japanese, it’s usually a sushi place that we’ll end up at. Nanbankan was on my bookmarks and we were in the area. We casually strolled in and were asked if we have reservations. Oh, this is a reservations type place. No, we didn’t. The couple behind us did. I’m sure we looked like noobs.
We were still able to get seated after no more than 10 minutes of waiting. We got a seat at the bar. The menu overwhelmed at first. Mainly because we wanted to order everything. And then we discovered the specials on the board and we wanted everything there too. We started our process of elimination and narrowed down our choices, then turned to our waiter for more guidance.
The result:
–eggplant skewer: Although I love eggplant, this was bland and ordinary. To be skipped
–chicken heart: Possibly the best chicken hearts I’ve ever had. Cooked and seasoned like a boss.
–bacon wrapped okra: This is the veggie you want (well veggie wrapped in bacon, that is). No slimy okra here
–chicken liver: I can’t do it because liver is one of the few things I won’t eat. I tasted it and passed the rest. Ugh, that texture
–lamb: So good. Again their seasoning. Just enough meat to fat ratio
–sea bass: We ordered this because they were out of the black cod. Solid fish dish, but the bf was still craving his black cod after. Sea bass is flaky, but lacks that buttery-​ness
–top sirloin skewer: Tender, but wait for the next one.
–wagyu beef: Oh so tender. Juicy, flavorful meat that will disappear from your plate quickly.
I’m very glad we got the opportunity to sit at the bar over a table. It added to the experience. We were provided great service the whole night (constantly clearing our dishes and keeping the food coming) and we were greeted by the owner. He even told us, «See you next week!» on our way out. Yeah, I considered that return visit.

Wow. I may have been to my first authentic Japanese yakitori place. I have been to Backhouse. but with the slightly cheaper prices, comes the smaller food portions. Given that I said that. I think the food portions are reasonable for the price you are paying. You know this place is legitimate with the number of Asians that come here.
They have a big bar area for you to sit and watch. I wouldn’t suggest sitting with more than three people. It’s a lovely spot for a date for the more adventurous eaters. I would also make reservations because this place is packed like no other during the normal dining hours.
I would say most of the things here are pretty fresh. you have to actually like yakitori. I would go for the following:
— Eggplant
— Stuffed Shitake (I didn’t love these. but I would probably just go for regular shitake)
— Seabass
— Black Cod (omg so good)
— Kobe Beef (don’t get the slider. the slices are amazing)
— Chicken Meatballs
— Cartilage
— Asparagus (wrapped with a thin layer of bacon)
Yaki onigiri was interesting. it’s a grilled rice triangle stuffed with salmon or whatever you desire. I am not sure if I loved it though…
Wait staff is friendly. thorough. and grillers are awesome. I would come again. especially since it’s so close to me. Great recommendation from one eatie (somebody at another restaurant) to me…

I went out tonight to this restaurant expecting it to be a normal Japanese restaurant. Not surprisingly, this place came out to be outstanding.
First of all, service was great. We had reservations at 7pm and were sat down immediately in a table for 4 — we were 2. The host, this cute Japanese old man, welcomed us and took us to our table.
I had the dinner combo — makes it easy to order. It comes with the whole shabang: miso soup, rice with minced ground pork, I don’t remember how many yakitoris we had but we had so much & dessert (you can pick between red bean, green tea, strawberry).
Prices were relatively normal for a Japanese restaurant and this one was quite fancy too!
I envy anyone who lives around Westwood & Brentwood! Highly recommended.

The interior is nice. Has a good layout.
The food is mediocre and somewhat pricey for what it is. Agedashi tofu was not soft, and it looked like their just used hard tofu and fried it. A let down
Complimentary was a celery and carrot stick served with some miso dressing which was very salty, even for my taste (and I love salty stuff)
The pork sausage was hotdog-​esque
Mushrooms were just grilled with no flavor or seasoning (no salt)
I think by far the oddest thing was that they cleared all off our table before they finished serving everything we ordered. We had ordered a steak skewer and thought they just forgot about it, which would have been fine.
But the waitress brings it over afterwards and looks at us like «you’re going to eat this». So we did. Tasted and had the consistency of boiled chuck — hard chewy and unpleasant
All in all, i probably won’t return. I’m not sure how this place got rave reviews to be honest

YUMMY YAKITORI!
PARKING:
Valet for $ 5 or metered street parking. It does get crowded so I say, just pay for the valet.
FOOD:
I love yakitori. I mean, you can’t go wrong with delicious vegetables and meats grilled on a skewer. At Nanbankan, they have mastered the art of making yakitori and best of all, it doesn’t smell like smoke in the restaurant.
Everyone gets a complimentary vegetable plate where you can dip it in this sweet and tasty sauce. Typically, I get the dinner set which comes with various meats, vegetables, rice, soup, and your choice of dessert. So much food for a reasonable price.
In the dinner set my favorites include the chicken meatball, asparagus, quail egg, and steak. All seasoned perfectly and the meats are still juicy. Off the set, I really like their beef tongue (which is so tender and of great quality) and their stuffed shitake mushrooms.
I get their soboro don (marinated ground chicken served on top of rice) as my rice option. It is very filling but so tasty. The chicken is on the sweeter side but complements the rice nicely.
For dessert, I got their green tea mochi which is the perfect finish to the dinner set.
SERVICE:
Great! The food comes out quickly because they have several chefs making the yakitori. And the servers constantly come around to make sure the food is good and your drinks don’t need any refilling.
The manager here is the best. He takes care of all of his guests to make sure everything is okay. I didn’t drink my miso soup immediately so he brought out another one to make sure I drank the freshest and hottest soup. Thank you!

I am a big fan of this place, because of its busy & jovial atmosphere plus great Japanese BBQ.
Food: Can’t go wrong w/​the liver, chicken, brussel sprouts, okra wrapped in bacon, gingko… ok basically its all good. And give me a box of cold sake & I’m in heaven!
Service & Ambiance: Super friendly service, chefs, & customers… sit at the bar otherwise you miss the whole experience!
Bottomline: If you want delicious, fresh Japanese BBQ this is the place for it.
PS Sit at the bar — seriously! Its half the fun!

My husband surprised me with a date night here. I was really excited when we walked in as the place was full of energy. We were seated at the counter right in front of all the action. The robata grill was full of tasty looking meats and veggies.
We ordered from different sections of the menu and got an assortment of meats, fish and vegetables. The low points were the scallops and the wagyu beef. The scallops were fishy and the beef was a bit chewy.
The highlights were the chicken meatballs and the seabass skewers.
Overall I was not that impressed with the quality of the ingredients. All meats and veggies were dipped in the same terriyaki-​like sauce before being put on the the Robata. Nothing blew me away in terms of flavor.
Prices were really fair and service was friendly. It was also a unique experience and something different, so they are A-​OK in my book.

Stopped by this place on a visit to LA, we didnt really plan on coming, it just appeared on my radar when i was Unilocaling the area and decided to stop by. We were really lucky, because we didnt have a reservation, and it so happened a table opened up.
This place was a more up scale izakaya, very different from almost all places. We had Beef tongue, Chicken heart, Shishito peppers, Skin with shio and sauce, Wings, Tsukune, Yagen, Shimeji, and the wagyu beef.
Everything was really delicious, although the yagen and the shimeji needed a little salt.
my favorites were the beef toung and the wagyu beef. This place definitely took me back to my trip in japan.

Yakitori in a fine dining style with a classical music background and a white linen table top? It is a cute idea but results in a failure.
First of all, I called in to ask for its location because my navigation took me somewhere I still did not see its sign, but the receiver was not able to speak proper english. It would have been more appreciated at least the call answering staff spoke better english.
It is nice, clean and modern inside but too tiny and packed with tiny tables. On the tiny Hobit’s tables, dried out raw cabbages and some kinda sauces were already set up, grabbing more dust for an extra flavor, which wasn’t so much of «fine dining –ish».
Since table is super tiny I suggested that I would keep ordering as I go, not all at once upfront. I didn’t like the tiny crowded table situation at all that made me rush to finish my plate so I could make some room for the next plate’s arrival.
They didn’t have many choices on the menu unlike the notorious SSGM yakitori place.
Pork belly w salt; salty.
Shisho wrapped pork: overcooked.
Shisho chicken: juicy, and tender.
Mushroom tempura: love the texture of enoki.
Tongue: very much like an animal tongue, a bit gamey.
Sirloin beef: tender.
Wagyu beef: wow, buttery goooood.
DUCK: first place knows how to cook duck. Fresh, tender, juicy, light crispy skin, not rubbery or too fatty, not STINKY. The Best Duck I have ever had.
Okra: fresh, plump
Cold sake: smooth, yet strong. Got me so drunk.
Soft shell crab: kinda soggy and wet
Ice cream: nothing special
The manager seemed «no smile» represents «fine dining, upscaled restaurant» attitude of something, looked pretty scary.
My server was changed a few times so I needed to explain what comes next to my table, was annoying.
They better find a clear direction on their theme. Fine dining attitude and marker board, unstable tables, constant subtle vibration on the walls, partitions, replacing podium with inventory cart covered with linen top, stuffy ventilation, and to top these all off, the restrooms are not fine at all. With an attitude only doesn’t support the rest tacky facilities to an upscaled classy restaurant where they can charge $ 8 for three pieces of not even silver flakes garnished california rolls…

Clean, classy, cleavage, just kidding, Wanted to make sure y’all were paying attention.
Nanbankan is one of the top Japanese yakitori, yakiniku, izakaya spots I’ve been to. Actually not sure whether this falls under the izakaya category because it is more of a restaurant than a pub atmosphere. Nevertheless, the price of the small plates of food do add up here, but the attention to the food preparation and the quality is a step above the rest!