Shin Okinawa Izakaya

A little pricey, but the food is good and the ambiance is great. It really has the Okinawan vibe (Japanese but tropical). Just know that the portion sizes are very small, tapa style and it’s not your typical Japanese izakaya since it’s from the Okinawa region.
Soki buni — pork ribs, very yummy. Stewed so it falls right off the bone
Black cod with miso — our favorite dish, the black cod is light and tasty but meaty. The miso sauce on it is really pleasant but not overpowering
Hiraya-​chi — similar to Korean pancakes, pretty good. More of a filler to go with the other items. It’s more chewy then crispy
Tofu patties — really good if you like tofu. The pancakes break apart but it’s so good I didn’t mind. Forgot what this dish was called
Yaki Onigiri — yum, can’t go wrong.

Deep fried garlic w/​Miso paste — I’m a garlic lover and I have to say this is the first time I’ve had it fried. It’s pretty good but I like my garlic brown/​charred.
Shisamo — I was so happy to hear they always have shisamo. Most places I go don’t have it anymore but leave it on their menu to tease people like me… perfectly cooked and oh so delicious
Pork w/​spicy mustard — 2 green beans? aw. I wanted more. It’s ok. the pork is very tender and good especially with the mustard
Deep fried squid legs — I don’t know if the oil wasn’t hot enough or too crowded but the legs came out really oily. if not for that, I would have enjoyed it more
I actually like the ambiance although other Unilocalers don’t. It’s an izakaya, not a fine dining joint. Definitely planning to come back as well

I really wanted to like this place since I am Okinawan, grew up eating Okinawan cuisine and had been missing home-​cooked Okinawan food (why oh why did I ever move out???).
The place is not bad… I just wanted to like it more. However, I believe it provides a good introduction to Okinawan cuisine. Perhaps what I ate growing up had a bit of my mom’s personal twist and that’s what was lacking to my biased taste buds :)
I had the following dishes:
— Andansu (pork bits mixed with miso) — Just OK. Lacked the miso flavor IMO.
— Mimiga w/​Miso (pig ears) — Mmmm, crunchy! Sounds gross but they’re actually pretty good. I would have preferred a more pronounced miso flavor but whatever. I was just glad that I got to eat pig ears!
— Soki buni (stewed spare ribs) —
.gawd. Sooooo goooooood! The pork just melted off the bone. This was my fave dish of the night.
— Goya Champuru (bitter melon stir-​fry) — Good. This is a legit Okinawan dish and I was happy with it.
***If you’re like most people, you may have an aversion to bitter melon (I sure did as a kid!) but don’t be afraid to try it. Goya pieces were thinly sliced at Shin Okinawa so you’ll be able to eat them as much or as little as you want with each bite.
Check out the place if you…
— Love pork
— Want to get your bitter melon fix (like who doesn’t, right?)
— Try something different from the traditional food of mainland Japan
The food will not blow you away but I think you will leave satisfied knowing that you got a taste of Okinawa! :)
Tip: Go with a group of friends since it is an izakaya and you’ll want to try as many different dishes as possible.

Papaya champuru — YES, please. Have you had champuru? Have you heard of that animé «Samurai Champuru»??? Well, make no mistake; they are totally unrelated (except for the word usage).
Papaya champuru is green, crispy, yummy papaya ‘mixed’ with eggs, tofu, onions, and the like — served with miso soup 1^st, and a side of black/​white rice mix. This is so good, I can’t wait to come back.
Now if only the restaurant moved closer to me…

Looking for a new late night Izakaya to try in the South Bay brought us to Shin. Surprisingly the place was almost completely empty around 930 on a Saturday night, and the bar was totally empty so we took a seat. This wasn’t my first experience with Okinawan food so i had high hopes that Shin would hold up to Habuya in the OC since they are local but the food was just ok, nothing to write home about.
We tried several dishes: mimi-​ga (thought would be crispy pig ears but was more soft and like a tempura or calamari texture), pork belly (hard to get this wrong, melted like buttah), sting ray (nice salty snack like a jerky), Okinawan fried rice (pretty good but definitely needed the ginger to cut through the grease), and chicken skin (again it was not like a Japanese Izakaya, here it is boiled and comes off as healthier but it was bland). Some hits, some misses but overall a very heavy and rich meal (the fried dishes were accompanied by mayo as a condiment). I might give them another chance on a drinking night (MAYBE?) but for a late night food fix i would pass.

I would say the staff are very friendly and laid back, very okinawan food. Food is very affordable, they dont serve Asahi beer which is a big downer for me. I would come back here but not my first choice.

Worst ever experience from Japanese restaurant.
Food and service failed to get even one star.
I still can not believe that this is Japanese own Japanese restaurant.

We trekked out to Torrance for our second meal here, and tried to vary our order a bit from last time, and had some definite hits, and a few slight misses.
The fabulous:
— rafutei (pork belly): melted in my mouth!
— Goya chanpuru: seasoned perfectly and not too bitter… didn’t need any soy sauce.
— Mimi-​ga marinated in soy sauce: the texture of the pig ear sliced so thinly reminded me a bit of motsu nabe, and the marinade softened it up a bit; very flavourful.
— Kara-​age: always succulent!
— hiraya-​chi: similar to Korean pancakes, absolutely delicious.
— crab cream croquettes: creamy and yummy!
The so-​so:
— fried mimi-​ga: very oily, and the mayonnaise they served it with didn’t bring out any flavours. Sprinkling some red pepper on the mayo and eating it with their homemad spicy oil was far more of a complementing flavour.
— beef tongue marinated in miso: I love beef tongue, but it tasted very gamey.
I will definitely go again!

This place is awesome!
I came with a bunch of Japanese pals and what an experience.
We had fish fins
Peanut tofu
Regional shochu
Fried chicken cartilage
SPAM
other simply awesome and unusual shit.
It’s rare I feel like I’ve actually gone and tried something new and different, especially within a known sect of food. But the fare here is just a bit different than any other Japanese food I’ve encountered so far.
The service is good, works to stay mostly invisible.
The décor is a warm, comfortable but not what I’d call fancy atmosphere. A good balance of comfort and casual. It would be hard to not feel at home here.

If you have ever lived in, visited, or wondered about Okinawa, then you should definitely hit this izakaya. The menu feature the food famous in this region. I lived in Okinawa for several years, so I was pretty excited about dining here.
The wait staff were all friendly with the typical «work with any server» izakaya method of ordering. I was a bit surprised that they couldn’t serve fu-​chanpuru, but on second thought, was appreciative of a restaurant that will only serve what is fresh.
Everything we got was well-​prepared. I don’t think we had a disappointing dish at all. The winner was the chef’s stir-​fry, really more of a chanpuru style and really delicious. The second place winner was the somen chanpuru – very well done. Also good was the taco rice. The geso karaage was a bit soggy and the vegatable soba noodles weren’t great, but that didn’t disrupt a great dining experience.
If you care at all about traditional Okinawan food, or just curious, you owe it to yourself to go here!

This place looks like nothing from the outside, but inside it was charming and very well decorated– bamboo and flowers run across the ceiling, there is a beautiful wall mural of Japan, and overall the place is very cozy and inviting.
I came here because this place serves Okinawan Japanese food, and I wanted to try their bitter melon and papaya dishes. I did not think there was a language barrier but… after very clearly stating that I did not eat pork (I wanted to be sure my papaya wouldn’t come out with pork on it– you never know) I received a dish with… pork. Yup. So apparently there was a language barrier of some sort, although my server– very friendly and competent in every other way– didn’t indicate it at the time. I would like to go back and try the bitter melon lunch special… but… we’ll see. Just be careful if you go and have specific things you don’t consume.
Also, they close for a few hours after the lunch rush so you may want to call before going if you don’t live in the area.

And do I love Izakaya!
I came with a buddy and was quite impressed by the croweded dining room. It was hustle and bustle. We sat down and the entire restaurant cleared. completely empty except for us.
The special for the day was the pork cutlet curry. This was AOK but I am super picky about curry (Oumi Sasaya is my fav for curry!). The price was mutch greater than the enjoyment I got out of it. I think it was about $ 7 or $ 8. Karaage was average (3 stars) and I cannot even remember the other items I got. I left with a let down feeling, as I had had better hopes for this place. However, it was AOK.
They are Open for Lunch (Major Bonus)!. Friendly hostess and a warm and chill environment. For evening hours, I would go about a block or two east and cross the street and you will be at Musha. I prefer their Izakaya.
I have been to a different Okinawa Izakaya place that I enjoyed much better in the OC (Habuya).
Parking is easy. They have their own lot.

The food was definitely spot on! To be honest, I had a PB&J before venturing out to Gardena to eat dinner here, so for me to think the food was excellent goes to show I wasn’t just hungry.
I really wanted to have the bitter melon again but it seems to be out of season as this is the second restaurant confirming this fact. Everything was savory and perfectly seasoned. My favorites are definitely the Avocado Seafood Salad, the Papaya Champlu, the Fried Rice, and now the Soki Soba. I also had a new item which was this fried chicken karage type dish topped with a japanese style potato salad which was really good. The chicken was a little sweet and little salty and went well with the creamy potato salad. Another simple but awesome concoction was this new type of tofu that I tried. It was made from tapioca and peanut, I think, which gave it a more chewy texture without that distinct soy taste to it. It was served with a soy sauce, but I wonder how it would have been if it were coupled with a sweet sauce of some kind and served as a dessert … hmmm …
There always seems to be new items being put on the menu and tried so this is definitely proof positive that the new owner at Shin Okinawa has a passion for food.
I went with a group of 5 plus an infant and the staff was very accomodating. Definitely worth going to this place with a group so that you can have a variety of times. Well worth the drive to Gardena.

This joint is a cool little spot to eat Okinawa food (idk the difference yet), drink Okinawa beer (Orion), and spend all your Okinawa money (hard working money). Anyways, if you’re looking for a nice Japanese restaurant to eat and fills your stomach up, at least then this is not the place to visit.
Their portion size are ridiculous! I understand that its a «Japanese tapas» place but even the entrees are TINY! I mean if you’re going to charge me $ 12 for a stir fried soba noodles w/​chicken and veg, you better make sure I get at least 8 oz noodles, 4 oz chicken and 4 oz veg!
Quality of the food here is pretty straight forward… ONE FLAVOR, we tried firefly octopus (raw baby octopus w/​ginger) eh… grilled beef tongue w/​ponzu (its actually boiled beef tongue) bleh, tempura bittermelon heh, and the pickled pig ears, YEY finally something good out of the kitchen!

Decided to make the trek back down to Torrance for some good Japanese food. After about an hour of trying to figure out where to go, we decided on Shin. Note it has been about 3 months since my first visit. Arrived and was quickly greeted and then seated.
Ordered their Camu Camu drink w/​shochu to start while waiting for the rest of our party to arrive. One good thing I noticed was that they had fully replenished their stock on suzume! Too bad I had to work the next morning so we only ended up finishing one bottle.
One thing we noticed was that they had some new additions to their menu.
Onto the food that we ordered for the night:
Avocado seafood salad (
) The perfect balance between seafood, greens, and the salad dressing. Most restaurants tend to drown their salads with tons of dressing but Shin has perfected this… not dry and flavorless and not too wet so that everything swims in the dressing. Another bonus is how they don’t skimp on the amount of avocado, as yo ucan see in the picture. Fish and other bits of seafood were fresh.
One of my favorite dishes… grilled Portugese sausages (
). A must have dish here at Shin … tasty as hell!
A-​sa omelette (
) first time I have had this dish and it was very good. The omelette was light and fluffy, only wished they had a variation of this with some ground pork! Omelette was also perfectly cooked, as it was not dry.
Pork belly sliders (
) How can you not like stewed pork belly that is grilled to perfection and then served on mini buns? I ate a plate myself … wished I had room to put down more.
Deep fried squid legs (
) Another dish that we didn’t get to try last time. Perfectly fried with a light batter.
Red sweet potato tempura (
) I love the fact that this dish is not oily as with most tempura one would get at most Japanese restaurants. Sweet potato has a vibrant red color that has a slight hint of sweetness. Another well executed dish.
Miso black cod (
) Shin has marinated this piece of black cod perfectly. You can taste the deep flavors of both the sake and of the miso. Perfectly cooked so that the fish was moist and hella flavorful. I find that most Japanese restaurants serve this but fail in over cooking it or just not marinating it well or long enough.
Okinawan fried fish (
) If you’ve been to Furaibo, you’ll notice that most people order fried fish (I think its called the Karei). Each time someone orders this, I find that the fish is typically fishy and end up drowning it in ponzu sauce just so that I can put down a piece. However, this is not the case with the fried fish at Shin. Each piece that I consumed was not fishy at all. Paired perfectly with Shin’s homemade hot sauce. Wish I had brought a container so that I could’ve sneaked some home with me. =)
Pig ear (
).
Okinawan tofu (
). Cold tofu dish which has a very subtle tofu taste. I forgot to add the bonito flakes and soy sauce when eating this. I simply put some of their hot sauce on and went to town.
Fried shrimp (
) The perfect vessel to consume their homemade hot sauce with. Squeeze a little lemon juice (to add a little tanginess) and dip into their homemade hot sauce. Oiyishii!!!
Fried smelt (
). I’m not a fan of this dish but others stated that it was good.
Dessert!
Warabi mochi (
) closest thing to the mochi one would find in Tokyo. I’m lucky enough to have coworkers that frequenly head to Japan and bring back some for me.
Black sesame ice cream (
) For those that don’t know… you must try. This ice cream is amazing! Wish I could find this stuff at Mitsuwa, Nijiya or Marukai.
Another great meal at Shin, wished I lived closer so that we could go back regularly.

I came here late the other night, maybe around midnight, just before some good ol’ karaōke fun.
First of all, the décor looks like an authentic hole-​in-​the-​wall Japanese place… like actually from Japan. Second, although the server had some difficulty understanding our orders, she was attentive and friendly.
Since this was a tapas-​style restaurant, my party of 5 tried quite a variety of dishes. Any of the omelets are delicious. The tofu soup was pleasant and creamy as my gf described it. The short ribs were a little tough, but definitely tasty… nothing too horribly tough compared to other short ribs. The PURPLE sweet potato tempura was very good and a super vibrant color. Very cool. The juice were good too — we had guava and camu camu (recommended).
Overall, I’m definitely comfortable giving this place 4-​stars. I had to get some explanations about Okinawan food compared to traditional Japanese food, but I think for what it is, 4-​star is appropriate. You’ll probably have a less than stellar experience like some other folks if you go in thinking it’s just another Japanese joint. Most dishes were under $ 8.

I’ve never had Okinawan food, but the food tasted okay. Like other izakaya’s the menu is vast, but the picture menu is very helpful. Words just are sufficient enough to describe the mixture and presentation of the dish.
deep fried sweet potato — this wasn’t bad served in slices and battered
deep fried pork ear — couldn’t taste much pork ear. i bit into it and it tasted luck a gush of oil in my mouth.
pork noodles — the spare rib was a bit fatty and the noodles seems like it could have been better
bitter melon and egg — pretty good, the bitter melon had the right amount of crunch
fried crab croquet — seemed a bit to runny, i guess i was expecting it to be a bit more meaty
pork spare rib — tasted dry and the mustard only helped a little
pumpkin spring roll — this was pretty good. i guess it’s also because i haven’t had pumpkin in a while.
sweet potato sesame — this was nice and unexpected. sweet potato with a good compliment of sesame
sweet potato ice cream — this tasted more like chilled mashed sweet potato. not much ice cream at all

2 to 2.5 stars.
I went to lunch here the other day with Nikki R. and Todd B. This Japanese spot is right around Old Torrance (near Café Luna). It is your standard hole-​in-​the-​wall Japanese restaurant. There are a few dark brown wood tables and a bar. There was some latin music playing when we arrived, but they changed it up a little bit during lunch.
The menu had a few dishes I have not seen on a Japanese menu. A friend informed me later that Okinawa prefecture actually has their own signature dishes and style of cooking. In terms or prices, there are a few lunch entrees here you can get under $ 10. You can also do combinations that run $ 12 to $ 14. Todd B. said they had tapas here on his last visit.
I went with the fried chicken and the broiled mackerel combination. There was a good portion of karaage fried chicken (some pretty big pieces of dark meat). Sometimes, this chicken is sauced/​glazed with a sweet soy-​based sauce, but that was not the case here. A side of citrusy ponzu sauce was provided for dipping. The karaage chicken was decent. I prefer the karaage chicken at the spicy ramen place Chin-​Ma-​Ya even though Chin-Ma-Ya’s chicken pieces were much smaller.
The mackerel was a little disappointing. It was not the freshest mackerel I have had and it was a little dry.
The combination came with a lot of stuff – miso soup (quite salty), some good white rice, shredded cabbage with mayo, sliced tomatoes, orange slices (I liked these), and what-​I-​thought-​was-​sherbet-​but-​what-​may-​have-​been-​red-​bean-​paste.
Service was fine.
Nikki R. was not too impressed and said it was maybe 3 stars. I felt 2.5 stars. There are a lot of pretty good Japanese places in the South Bay and I probably would not rank this one that high. The chicken was okay while the mackerel was a little subpar. I could see myself going back if the group leaned this way, but I would probably order different dishes.
Shin Okinawa is located in a strip mall that has a few parking spaces. Parking was easy to find and free.

This place has been in my bookmarks for quite some time now, so when Cathy Z. wanted to try a new izakaya, we met up here on a Thursday night.
We got there at 6:30, and it was completely empty. A bit worried at first, but hey no turning back now. So, Japanese izakayas kind of remind me of dim sum. You drink (beer or shochu in this case), converse and have a few small plates for taste. But, hey, I’ve never followed that rule of thumb for dim sum, so why would I for izakayas. We ordered 7 plates right at the beginning, and of course we referred to Unilocal review recommendations.
The Beni Imo Ten aka Purple Sweet Potato tempura was very good, especially dipped in the salt accompaniment, really brought out the flavor. The Goya Champlu was pretty good too. Basically a stir-​fry of bitter melon (used in Chinese dishes as well), bean sprouts, thinly sliced fatty pork and scrambled egg. I also enjoyed the Taco rice. Yea, I know, we weren’t at a mexican restaurant, but they had an interesting take on it with the purple rice. Definitely tastes better when all of the ingredients are mixed.
The Raftei, pork belly, also had good flavor, but very typical. And if you don’t eat it right away while it’s warm, the soup gets all congealed and gross. The Hiraya Chi, savory pancake, tasted very close to the Korean style pancakes. It was a bit too thin and greasy for me. The Ankimo came in 3 small slices with some seaweed salad. Not worth the price really, and definitely had better. The okinawa donut texture was too chewy and greasy. Definitely not worth trying.
Overall, the food wasn’t bad. Okinawa food definitely has its own flare. The prices were actually not bad ranging from $ 5-​$ 7 per dish, and most dishes that we ordered were rather large in portion as well, which is also unlike most other izakayas. Oh, and by the time we finished our meal, the whole restaurant was full of patrons. Good sign, but nonetheless, I would still come back to try more of the menu.

We went to Shin for my wife’s birthday a few weeks ago. Pretty awesome vittles I would have to say. I thought it was sublime. We REALLY enjoyed the ambiance, the cuisine, and the service. Food was beautiful, and we decided to make it a point to come back.
Here’s the reason for not more than 3 stars:
On our second visit, we came for lunch, the service was noticeably different, and not in a good way. The appetizers took a REALLY long time, and then came out with the meal at the same time. One. Then when we were ready to go (which we said), the waitress took forever to bring our check. While waiting for her to come get the card, she and the other waitress goofed off while on the phone. Then we waited again while they laughed it up waiting for the return of my card.
SO – Overall, my opinion is this, go in the evening when there seems to be a more competent staff present.