[Los Angeles] [Japanese] Taiko Japanese Restaurant

Taiko Japanese Restaurant
太幸
11677 San Vicente Blvd Ste 302
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(310) 207-7782

Sunday night, we felt like having some Asian food. Korean? Too lazy to drive to K-Town. Thai? Didn’t like the Americanized Thai food in WLA and Thai Town is too far. Chinese? Nah I rather have Chinese on my side of town. Japanese? Yes, but somehow I didn’t feel like having sushi. Then Dr. P remembered this Japanese udon + rice bowl combo restaurant he used to like back in his UCLA student days.

We got there pretty early. It was about 5-ish and the restaurant was empty. A lot of families with kids showed up later. Something strange we noticed…. EVERY family and EVERY couple that came to the restaurant that night was Asian girl + non-Asian guy, including us! Hmmm….

Salad

We ordered 2 combos. We didn’t share because if you share a combo, they will charge extra $5. What is up with restaurant not letting people share food? What if we are just small eater or not that hungry? I didn’t like that. Anyway, the combos came with a small salad with ginger dressing.

Yellowtail Jalapeno Cut Roll ($6.50)

Dr. P ordered the Yellowtail Jalapeno Cut Roll. I wasn’t expecting too much because this restaurant specializes in noodle and rice, not sushi. Suprisingly, this was the best dish of the night. The yellowtail was really fresh. As long as the fish is fresh, sushi always tastes good.

Oyako Don + Hot Udon Combination ($12.00)

My camera ran out of battery so I took the rest of the pictures with my cell phone. Dr. P ordered the Oyako Don and Hot Udon Combination.

Oyako Don
Chicken and egg cooked with donburi sauce

The oyako don wasn’t very good in my opinion. The chicken was tender and the egg was soft. That was probably the only thing they did right. There weren’t enough donburi sauce so it lacked flavor. And the rice underneath was just dry and plain white rice. And where is the onion? I have to say, my version tastes much better.

Hot Udon

The hot udon was pretty good. But nothing too special about it though.

Niku Don + Cold Soba Combination ($13.50)

I got the Niku Don and Cold Soba Combination.

Niku Don
Saute thinly sliced beef and onion with Yakitori sauce

I thought the Oyako Don wasn’t good, but the Niku Don was just bad. The beef was overcooked and dry. Again, not enough sauce and not enough flavor.

Cold Soba

Cold Soba was good and portion was pretty big. Again, there was nothing too extraodinary about it though.

Dr. P was surprised how different the food tasted then and now. Back in the student days, almost any non-fast food tasted great. Did we become too picky now? Or our taste buds changed? I guess something is best left in memory….