Mitsuwa Food Court (Torrance)

The food court at Mitsuwa always has something good I want to eat, and since we were there to check out their gift shops and meet up with Dean and Ryan, we decided to eat there for lunch as well. The variety in choices and the quality of food is such a treat, even though it's a bit of a drive from our usual radius of "food we're willing to waste precious gas money on". Anyways, I love that we all can get what we want and compare food...maybe I'll get THAT (pointing at someone else's tray of awesome food) next time! Here are some of the things we got...

Bryan got a ham sandwich combo from Italian Tomato. I've only ever gotten slices of cake from here (when they have it in their display case, sometimes they don't though), so it's nice to see what they have for meals too. The sandwich looked very dainty and diner-like. The sandwich was on white bread, with ham, egg, cheese, cucumber, lettuce and tomato. The set comes with a side salad and some sort of creamy soup (Bryan didn't eat it and it formed quite a nasty layer of skin on top of the bowl).

Here's what Dean got from Curry Club - a port cutlet curry.



This is what Ryan got, a variation on the special of the day - curry with fried shrimp, sausage, a fried egg, and fried tofu, with a drink and a little styrofoam cup to come back and get soft serve ice cream after you're done with your meal. This looks awesome! And like a good amount of food...

...as was mine, which was also the special (fried shrimp, sausage, curry rice), but I added a "crokke" - fried potato. I shared the crokke with Owen, and couldn't finish this plate. The sausage itself was WAY too salty, to the point of unpleasant salty, so after 2 pieces I was done with those. The curry and rice are always spot on - I love Curry Club for that - and again, being able to get the soft serve after the meal is freakin' awesome. More on that later...

This is part of Owen's ramen set - a plate of stuff. Near the top, going clockwise: cha-su pork, a naruto fish cake, green onion with an ume plum, bamboo shoots, and in the middle, some black..uh, fungusy stuff. You eat all this along with...

...this, a bowl of ramen noodles (salt ramen soup flavor). Owen said he was cool with the noodles but the plate of toppings was not to his liking.

Owen got this coffee float from Curry Club, when I went to get my soft serve after I finished my meal. He loved this - the simplicity of having cold coffee, then soft serve on top acting as the cream and sugar in the coffee as it was melting - it was very good. He is sure to get this again.

Another trip to Mitsuwa yielded a plate of fried stuff. I forgot what number combo this is but it had pork cutlet, 2 pieces of fried shrimp and a crab crokke. The combo also comes with rice (probably some of the best rice in the store, they really do a good job of cooking rice here, all really good quality), miso soup, cabbage shreds, pickled cucumber and napa cabbage, dipping sauces, fruit cup and tea. It's an amazing spread.

Here's a close up of the fried action. This pork cutlet rivals all other pork cutlets I've had in my lifein the top 3 spots of the best I've ever had. Juicy, crispy on the outside, seasoned well, everything is perfect about this pork cutlet. Paired with amazing rice, it really is a flavor combo out of this world. Also, the fried shrimp are great, and the creamy crab crokke's insides are what you think they would be - creamy, delicious, savory, around a fried outside. That's some good fried stuff.

I love Mitsuwa - where else is there a one stop shop for good Japanese food, and shopping for little Japanese toys or trinkets, or Japanese dishes or tea sets, or perhaps some Japanese art books? And then to do the weeks' grocery shopping on top of that? It really is the best.

Mitsuwa (Torrance Location)
1815 W 213th St # 235
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 782-680