Midtown Lunch

Back in August, we got Betty Hallock from the L.A. Times to be one of our Profiled L.A. Lunch’ers, and she responded by giving us an amazing list of lunch suggestions in Downtown L.A.  Ever since then I’ve been using it as my de-facto guide to Little Tokyo, and yesterday I finally got to cross Yakitori Koshiji off my list.  I love me some chicken parts on a stick- but Yakitori places are traditionally after work drinking kind of spots. So often it’s tough to find an authentic one that is not only open for lunch but also gives you a filling amount of food for under $10.  That’s why I was super excited to discover that not only is Yakitori Koshiji open for lunch from 11:30am to 2pm (in the Weller Food Court on 2nd btw. Los Angeles and San Pedro), but they also have a bunch of lunch specials under $10.

For $7.50 they have a tasty yakitori-don, a big bowl of rice topped with slices of chargrilled chicken.  Smokey and sweet, the dark meat was super tender and pretty filling (it helps that it comes with miso soup, salad, and Japanese pickles.)

For a little bit more ($8) you can get the saboro-don, a rice bowl featuring ground chicken, ground up scrambled egg, and a little bit of the chargrilled chicken that comes in the yakitori-don.  It was also really tasty, and I thought the ground up scrambled egg gave it a really unique taste and texture, but if you are a fan of the typical oyakodon (chicken and egg donburi) served at most Japanese places in L.A. you might miss the fried egg goodness that doesn’t quite come through from ground up scrambled eggs.

The rice bowls were fine (and you can get smaller versions of each alongside udon or soba, also for under $10) but the yakitori is really what you go to Koshiji for.  $9.95 gets you 3 skewers (chef’s choice), plus fried chicken, soboro rice (rice topped with ground chicken- but no egg) plus the miso soup, salad and Japanese pickles that come with all the lunch specials.  At first I was surprised by the veggie-ness of the chef’s choices (he sent out eggplant with a spicy miso sauce, standard chicken, and asparagus.)  But once I realized the asparagus was wrapped in bacon (hello!), and took into account the ground chicken on top of the rice and the 3 pieces of fried chicken you get, it’s actually a nice bit of variety.  And a great deal for $10.  I’m not sure if they give you the same three skewers every time, or if the chef changes things up depending on how adventurous an eater you are, but they all tasted good to me.  The fried chicken was super tasty as well, although it wasn’t crispy at all… and truthfully, if kara-age is what you want, you should go next door to Chin Ma Ya.

In the end, I found myself coveting the 6 skewer lunch special on other tables.  They got meatballs, and chicken wings, and all sorts of other fun looking stuff.  Sadly the 6 skewer lunch is $12.50 (aka out of the ML price range) but if you’re craving yakitori and looking for a splurge, this one seems totally worth it.

THE + (What somebody who likes about this place would say)

• Yakitori lunch specials for under $10?  Yes please!
• Everything is grilled to order, with a good char-grilled taste
• If you want to go ala carte they’ve got all the interesting stuff too (gizzard, liver, skin, heart) as well as seafood, beef, lamb and pork options as well
• The lunch specials are a lot of food, and the grilled chicken on the donburi bowls is super tender and delicious
• They validate 1 hour of parking in the garage- entrance is on 2nd btw. Los Angeles and San Pedro

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• Get there as close to 12 as possible.  It gets pretty packed pretty quick, and since everything is grilled to order service can be a bit slow for a one hour lunch
• I like to chose my own skewers
• Eggplant? Asparagus?  Screw that.  I want meeeeeat.
• I like my donburi bowls with fried egg.  The scrambled egg thing is kind of weird.
• You don’t get any of the weird bits on the lunch special.  I want heart!

Yakotori Koshiji, 123 S. Onizuka Street (2nd Floor), 213-626-4989