Mitsuru Grill
long favored by city hall bureaucrats and elderly nisei, mitsuru grill is an old-school style J-town hangout with food that just might remind you of eating at your (JA) grandma's house.
it all starts with the ubiquitous dish of complimentary tsukemono, regardless of what you order or the time of day. tsukemono is salted, pickled cabbage that's a staple in every elderly JA's home. [my grandma would always have a jar (or 2 or 5) in the fridge at varying levels of pickled-ness and another batch in process out on the counter.]
mitsuru serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and has japanese, japanese/hawaiian/american, and plain old american fare. i've tried items from each genre and have found the grub to be solid and dependable.
my personal favorites include:
for breakfast - gacha (pictured above with portuguese sausage) with rice. basically, it's scrambled eggs with spinach, onions, and your choice of meats (bacon, ham, wiener, spam, or portuguese sausage). i've had both the p.s. and spam gacha and both are winners.
for lunch/dinner - honey stung fried chicken, broiled salmon collars, or broiled mackeral. the fried chicken and salmon collars are not on the regular menu, but can be found on daily specials menu, when they're available.
i also like the chirashi and think the jo-chirashi (big chirashi bowl) is a pretty good deal, for the amount and variety of fish you get. their sushi, in general, is ok -- not great, but ok. i don't like the spicy tuna here and would not recommend it, but as i've written before, i'm not a spicy tuna fan in general.
their ramen is also reliable -- i've heard other people say it's among the best in little tokyo, but i don't know about that... you can also get a regular old hamburger, tuna melt, patty melt, ham sandwich, or club sandwich -- all of which are pretty straightforward, but seem a little like what you'd get if your grandma made it for you.
that said, mitsuru grill is one of the go-to places i always rely on when meeting people for breakfast or lunch in little tokyo. it's pretty much a given that anyone can find anything they'll like here. an added bonus are the comfy/roomy booths in the back of the restaurant, large enough to seat 6 comfortably.
mitsuru grill is located on first street, just east of the corner of first and san pedro in little tokyo.
it all starts with the ubiquitous dish of complimentary tsukemono, regardless of what you order or the time of day. tsukemono is salted, pickled cabbage that's a staple in every elderly JA's home. [my grandma would always have a jar (or 2 or 5) in the fridge at varying levels of pickled-ness and another batch in process out on the counter.]
mitsuru serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and has japanese, japanese/hawaiian/american, and plain old american fare. i've tried items from each genre and have found the grub to be solid and dependable.
my personal favorites include:
for breakfast - gacha (pictured above with portuguese sausage) with rice. basically, it's scrambled eggs with spinach, onions, and your choice of meats (bacon, ham, wiener, spam, or portuguese sausage). i've had both the p.s. and spam gacha and both are winners.
for lunch/dinner - honey stung fried chicken, broiled salmon collars, or broiled mackeral. the fried chicken and salmon collars are not on the regular menu, but can be found on daily specials menu, when they're available.
i also like the chirashi and think the jo-chirashi (big chirashi bowl) is a pretty good deal, for the amount and variety of fish you get. their sushi, in general, is ok -- not great, but ok. i don't like the spicy tuna here and would not recommend it, but as i've written before, i'm not a spicy tuna fan in general.
their ramen is also reliable -- i've heard other people say it's among the best in little tokyo, but i don't know about that... you can also get a regular old hamburger, tuna melt, patty melt, ham sandwich, or club sandwich -- all of which are pretty straightforward, but seem a little like what you'd get if your grandma made it for you.
that said, mitsuru grill is one of the go-to places i always rely on when meeting people for breakfast or lunch in little tokyo. it's pretty much a given that anyone can find anything they'll like here. an added bonus are the comfy/roomy booths in the back of the restaurant, large enough to seat 6 comfortably.
mitsuru grill is located on first street, just east of the corner of first and san pedro in little tokyo.
posted by illewminator at 3/21/2005 12:03:00 AM
4 Comments:
What was the insider breakfast tip when you want both rice and hash browns?
grubclub maximizing tip: when ordering the gacha, you get a choice of rice or hash browns with it. if you want BOTH rice and hash browns, it's cheaper to order it with hash browns and then get a side order of rice rather than the other way around.
genius. only on grubclub do you get this type of in-depth analysis.
awesome!
mitsuru grill may not make it onto other culinary websites, but hey. that's their loss.
i LOVE mitsuru grill.
the spam gachas there are heaven.
speaking of chirashi, my mom also likes the mini-chirashi. while anything mini may not be worth MY while, some might find it to be "just enough."
also, they sometimes have salmon collars, which are GREAT. (and cheap).
Finally, as an extra added bonus, they serve $1.50 beers ALL DAY LONG.
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