Daikokuya ~ Little Tokyo / Los Angeles

On January 5th, 2012..  Yelp announced on their blog the Top 10 US Yelp Restaurants of 2011. We were very happy to find that Daikokuya – Los Angeles (Little Tokyo) was #6 on the list!

This is a notch up from last year’s Top 10 US Yelp Restaurants of 2010, which Daikokuya came in at #7 US, and #4 on the Los Angeles list. Not sure yet if there is a Los Angeles list for 2011, but we are honored to be included on the US national list along with the other great restaurants that were named.

According to Yelp, the results were determined by “how many people in the Yelp community have bookmarked the business in 2011, as well as combined with average star rating, total review count, and total check-ins.”

So we owe our gratitude to the many customers who have given us such wonderful support! A Big “Thank you!” from Daikokuya and Bishamon Group Restaurants!

(9/5/2011) – Bishamon Japanese Restaurant in Covina is set for remodeling this month. Some years ago, the 2nd floor Karaoke Bar was remodeled, and now finally it is the restaurant’s turn to get a makeover. The Karaoke bar will remain open during construction, but the restaurant dining area will be closed from September 15 – 30, and expected to reopen on October 1st. A pathway from the front door entrance to the stairs will be made for customers to enter the Karaoke Bar, opening at 9pm – Tues thru Sun.

I was involved in the initial ideas at the beginning of the year, but not much after that. So what the decor will actually look like will also be a surprise to me. What you can expect.. is that the sushi bar will be extended from the original 10 seats to about 18 seats. There will be 2 Sushi Chefs running the sushi bar together, so all sushi orders will come from the sushi bar. For the dining tables.. most of the booths will be eliminated.. replaced with long bench booth seats along the walls, with 2-4 person tables and chairs in front of it. This way.. the tables can be easily configured to accommodate groups of any size (within reason of course lol). So the restaurant will be much more ‘group friendly’ with the changes.

Luckily my office is stationed here at Bishamon, so I will be able to watch the construction, and offer more details and photos as it unfolds. “Pardon Our Dust” as they used to say at Disneyland lol. Hope you’ll join us for the Grand Opening of the new Bishamon!

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(9/4/2011) – Just a quick update on the new coming Oreno Yakiniku BBQ restaurant, for the first post of this new blog. I spoke with the owner recently, and apparently they are going through some of the final steps, and waiting for approval with the usual Fire and Health Department. Of course those are the ones that usually hold things up lol. Although he was hoping it will open sometime in the 2nd half of September, if everything goes smoothly.

He also showed me some photos of the unit that were overlayed with some design concepts, which looked nice. It appears to be a decent size place, and has table configurations that will be good for both groups and couples etc. There is also another room that they plan to make into a sort of private party area in the future.

From our discussion about the menu, there will be a variety of meats, seafood, and vegetables for you to grill at your table. Also choices that are marinated or seasoned with different flavors ready for grilling. Plus a menu of appetizers that can be ordered from the kitchen .. and of course beer, wine, sake, etc.

The location will be on the third floor of Weller Court in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles. Hopefully I’ll get some photos in the near future. We’re looking forward to the opening. I think Oreno Yakiniku will be a nice addition to the restaurant group.

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