Omotenashi: In-n-Out Burger does it much, much better. Won't say more.Katsu: Wife's tonkatsu was pretty good. Nice bread crumb texture.Katsu-don: Found the texture of the pork a little strange. It was tender, perhaps a little too tender for pork. Medium grain CA rice is ok on its own, but when used for katsu-don it doesn't hold together, and you end up with soupy rice at the bottom.Sides: Not sure if the soup on the side was supposed to be tonjiru, but it was lacking in both broth and miso flavor. Wasn't impressed with the other sides as well.Price: Bill for the family came out to $120 including tip. For $30/person I expected more. YMMV depending on your level of expectations.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
Paul Willenberg
Great food, great atmosphere. I can't wait to try everything on the menu but the Uni Risotto was my favorite.
The food is pretty good and the service was good. I got the mille katsu. The only thing that wasn't great was the rice that came with the meal. It was cooked well and everything but it tasted like some kind of medium grain rice so the texture was a little different. It was still really good, but maybe different rice would tie the meal together better.
Johnny Thai
So, Kagura is one of my favorite restaurants in all of Torrance.It's one of the few Japanese restaurants I've been to in Gardena/Torrance that serve sake glasses in a wooden hasu box, allowing the sake to overflow. It's quite mesmerizing and twice as cool that it's a serving style with centuries of stories; I adore it so much and I just wished more places would do it. Their sake selection is quite good and you can surely find a glass that you'll like. For myself, I like the nanbubijin.I've been going to Kagura for several years now, and I keep coming back for the Millefeuille Cheese Katsu Gozen. This should be the first set you order when visiting Kagura, ignore everything else. The meat quality, paired with the beautiful breading allows for one of the best bites of katsu you can get. Upon first bite, you'll know what you're getting into. The set comes with a wonderful bowl of soup, rice, cabbage, and small assortments of other things. It's enough to keep you full, and you should probably try ordering just one side if you were wanting more.I'm always a fan of their agedashi tofu, ordering it every time I visit. But the rest of the menu has been often unexplored for me due to their specialty being katsu. I've tried the steak, which I thought was forgettable, as well as some of the sashimi which was too expensive for what you get.The restaurant is very pleasing to look at. The building is divided into two parts: one side has more private wooden booths, which I love so much for its intimacy, and the other side is an open table layout like other restaurants are.I've visited as recently as January 2023 and I've noticed the booth I was at no longer had a button to press for service. I'm not sure what the rationale is, but I find that my service has gotten slower due to it. Due to the wooden booth being so private, I often miss a server passing by and fail to grab their attention.Additionally, the reservation system is quite funny to me. They stand by their Yelp Reservation policy, even if it's clear that there are empty tables with no one waiting in the lobby. I'm not sure if they're doing it to have an accurate count of customers everyday, but sometimes I think forcing a patron to join the Yelp Waitlist just out of principle is a bit odd.Anyway, that's the main hiccup I have...and I've been going back and forth on this, but I do think the price is a little bit higher than it should be. After all, the katsu is amazing but the overall presentation still feels like a lunchbox set I'd see at any other casual restaurant. Then you end up with a $50+ bill. Anyways, I love Kagura for the food, ambiance and location. I'd wished it was open just a little bit later but that's a common theme among many places in the city.Get yourself a glass of overflowing sake, you'll love it.
R TANG
Filet is fantastic! Love the Japanese sauce for the pork chops! Would be even better if the crisps are kept dry and crispy from the moisture.
EricInSF
Food - 4. Service - 2. We had a reservation and were seated at the table directly next to the door. When I got up to use the restroom, I noticed there was a second room with private tables, many of which were open. Since we were already seated, I didn't complain. But with a reservation made 2 weeks in advance, it would have been great to have a better location. It took 30 minutes just to take our drink order. Food didn't arrive until 1 hour after we arrived. And, again, there were empty tables! The tonkatsu and side dishes were really good. Everyone enjoyed their food. But the poor service brings my overall rating down. There doesn't appear to be a professional manager running the front. The young staff appear to be frantically running around, without any direction
Kyo-Q
Busy place. If you have big party better have reservation before going. Staff are nice and friendly. Food just as expected, good.
Having lived in Japan, I constantly crave authentic, mastered Japanese dishes and tonkatsu is always a craving to me. Kagura was wonderful. I had the cheese millefeuille katsu and added curry sauce to the side. It truly felt like a Japanese experience when they delivered the meals as a set, complete with umeboshi, simmered vegetables, miso soup with simmered veg, salad, and pickled cucumbers. The tonkatsu was tender, juicy, soft, top quality meat. The panko coating was flaky and crisp and fried in fresh oil. You can really tell that everything was done with expertise and quality, exactly what you can expect at a speciality cuisine shop in Japan. The katsu sauce was excellent too, just the perfect authentic taste you’d expect. I’m glad I got the curry sauce because I was craving katsu kare, but i would have been fine without it
Alan Yao
Unusually bad experience, contrary to the reviews. Came at the open, and was seated quickly, but the waitress didn't come to take our orders for about 30 minutes, and I had to walk around and ask for someone not once but twice! The waitress was busy doing miscellaneous tasks and even ignored us to take the orders of several other tables that arrived after us. The busser ended up helping us out and flagged down a waitress for us, who ended up coming by after about 5 minutes...Sadly despite all that the food was very mediocre. It's decent by American standards but I would expect much better for a restaurant in Torrance.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Mr. Eatalot
I wanted a true Japanese experience at a Tonkatsu restaurant. Well, workers didnt speak Japanese but whatever.Normally at tonkatsu place, you get to make your own sauce, grind sesame seeds, etc. Wasnt available here. Just normal katsu sauce.Best thing I had was actually the Gindara. The fish. It was the best piece of fish I had. Wow.Katsu was good but not great. We had different kinds but nothing spectacular.I love you get your own tiny room and its private dining. Nice atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
Huey Holweger
I wanted a true Japanese experience at a Tonkatsu restaurant. Well, workers didnt speak Japanese but whatever.Normally at tonkatsu place, you get to make your own sauce, grind sesame seeds, etc. Wasnt available here. Just normal katsu sauce.Best thing I had was actually the Gindara. The fish. It was the best piece of fish I had. Wow.Katsu was good but not great. We had different kinds but nothing spectacular.I love you get your own tiny room and its private dining. Nice atmosphere.
Andy Leung
Perfect restaurant if you like Katsu don. They offer different lunch/ dinner sets with pork cutlet. The cutlet is juicy while crispy. The sides along with the set are great as well. The appetizers are with decent price. However, you may want to join the waitlist earlier if you plan to go on Friday or weekend. It is usually packed with people during dinner time on those days
The best so far in the Southbay!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tonkatsu
nice quality nice service.
Incredible katsu
Omotenashi: In-n-Out Burger does it much, much better. Won't say more.Katsu: Wife's tonkatsu was pretty good. Nice bread crumb texture.Katsu-don: Found the texture of the pork a little strange. It was tender, perhaps a little too tender for pork. Medium grain CA rice is ok on its own, but when used for katsu-don it doesn't hold together, and you end up with soupy rice at the bottom.Sides: Not sure if the soup on the side was supposed to be tonjiru, but it was lacking in both broth and miso flavor. Wasn't impressed with the other sides as well.Price: Bill for the family came out to $120 including tip. For $30/person I expected more. YMMV depending on your level of expectations.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
Great food, great atmosphere. I can't wait to try everything on the menu but the Uni Risotto was my favorite.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Spicy Maze Soba, Sake Sampler, Tonkatsu
The food is pretty good and the service was good. I got the mille katsu. The only thing that wasn't great was the rice that came with the meal. It was cooked well and everything but it tasted like some kind of medium grain rice so the texture was a little different. It was still really good, but maybe different rice would tie the meal together better.
So, Kagura is one of my favorite restaurants in all of Torrance.It's one of the few Japanese restaurants I've been to in Gardena/Torrance that serve sake glasses in a wooden hasu box, allowing the sake to overflow. It's quite mesmerizing and twice as cool that it's a serving style with centuries of stories; I adore it so much and I just wished more places would do it. Their sake selection is quite good and you can surely find a glass that you'll like. For myself, I like the nanbubijin.I've been going to Kagura for several years now, and I keep coming back for the Millefeuille Cheese Katsu Gozen. This should be the first set you order when visiting Kagura, ignore everything else. The meat quality, paired with the beautiful breading allows for one of the best bites of katsu you can get. Upon first bite, you'll know what you're getting into. The set comes with a wonderful bowl of soup, rice, cabbage, and small assortments of other things. It's enough to keep you full, and you should probably try ordering just one side if you were wanting more.I'm always a fan of their agedashi tofu, ordering it every time I visit. But the rest of the menu has been often unexplored for me due to their specialty being katsu. I've tried the steak, which I thought was forgettable, as well as some of the sashimi which was too expensive for what you get.The restaurant is very pleasing to look at. The building is divided into two parts: one side has more private wooden booths, which I love so much for its intimacy, and the other side is an open table layout like other restaurants are.I've visited as recently as January 2023 and I've noticed the booth I was at no longer had a button to press for service. I'm not sure what the rationale is, but I find that my service has gotten slower due to it. Due to the wooden booth being so private, I often miss a server passing by and fail to grab their attention.Additionally, the reservation system is quite funny to me. They stand by their Yelp Reservation policy, even if it's clear that there are empty tables with no one waiting in the lobby. I'm not sure if they're doing it to have an accurate count of customers everyday, but sometimes I think forcing a patron to join the Yelp Waitlist just out of principle is a bit odd.Anyway, that's the main hiccup I have...and I've been going back and forth on this, but I do think the price is a little bit higher than it should be. After all, the katsu is amazing but the overall presentation still feels like a lunchbox set I'd see at any other casual restaurant. Then you end up with a $50+ bill. Anyways, I love Kagura for the food, ambiance and location. I'd wished it was open just a little bit later but that's a common theme among many places in the city.Get yourself a glass of overflowing sake, you'll love it.
Filet is fantastic! Love the Japanese sauce for the pork chops! Would be even better if the crisps are kept dry and crispy from the moisture.
Food - 4. Service - 2. We had a reservation and were seated at the table directly next to the door. When I got up to use the restroom, I noticed there was a second room with private tables, many of which were open. Since we were already seated, I didn't complain. But with a reservation made 2 weeks in advance, it would have been great to have a better location. It took 30 minutes just to take our drink order. Food didn't arrive until 1 hour after we arrived. And, again, there were empty tables! The tonkatsu and side dishes were really good. Everyone enjoyed their food. But the poor service brings my overall rating down. There doesn't appear to be a professional manager running the front. The young staff appear to be frantically running around, without any direction
Busy place. If you have big party better have reservation before going. Staff are nice and friendly. Food just as expected, good.
Restaurantji Recommends
Having lived in Japan, I constantly crave authentic, mastered Japanese dishes and tonkatsu is always a craving to me. Kagura was wonderful. I had the cheese millefeuille katsu and added curry sauce to the side. It truly felt like a Japanese experience when they delivered the meals as a set, complete with umeboshi, simmered vegetables, miso soup with simmered veg, salad, and pickled cucumbers. The tonkatsu was tender, juicy, soft, top quality meat. The panko coating was flaky and crisp and fried in fresh oil. You can really tell that everything was done with expertise and quality, exactly what you can expect at a speciality cuisine shop in Japan. The katsu sauce was excellent too, just the perfect authentic taste you’d expect. I’m glad I got the curry sauce because I was craving katsu kare, but i would have been fine without it
Unusually bad experience, contrary to the reviews. Came at the open, and was seated quickly, but the waitress didn't come to take our orders for about 30 minutes, and I had to walk around and ask for someone not once but twice! The waitress was busy doing miscellaneous tasks and even ignored us to take the orders of several other tables that arrived after us. The busser ended up helping us out and flagged down a waitress for us, who ended up coming by after about 5 minutes...Sadly despite all that the food was very mediocre. It's decent by American standards but I would expect much better for a restaurant in Torrance.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
I wanted a true Japanese experience at a Tonkatsu restaurant. Well, workers didnt speak Japanese but whatever.Normally at tonkatsu place, you get to make your own sauce, grind sesame seeds, etc. Wasnt available here. Just normal katsu sauce.Best thing I had was actually the Gindara. The fish. It was the best piece of fish I had. Wow.Katsu was good but not great. We had different kinds but nothing spectacular.I love you get your own tiny room and its private dining. Nice atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
I wanted a true Japanese experience at a Tonkatsu restaurant. Well, workers didnt speak Japanese but whatever.Normally at tonkatsu place, you get to make your own sauce, grind sesame seeds, etc. Wasnt available here. Just normal katsu sauce.Best thing I had was actually the Gindara. The fish. It was the best piece of fish I had. Wow.Katsu was good but not great. We had different kinds but nothing spectacular.I love you get your own tiny room and its private dining. Nice atmosphere.
Perfect restaurant if you like Katsu don. They offer different lunch/ dinner sets with pork cutlet. The cutlet is juicy while crispy. The sides along with the set are great as well. The appetizers are with decent price. However, you may want to join the waitlist earlier if you plan to go on Friday or weekend. It is usually packed with people during dinner time on those days