Gottsui Original Okonomiyaki [CLOSED]

Japanese Food Los Angeles

Tsuyoshi Ihara is a Japanese actor who appeared in “Letters From Iwo Jima” alongside Ken Watanabe. He’s also a restaurateur. In August, he opened an L.A. outpost of Gottsui, a popular Tokyo okonomiyaki parlor that dates to 1991, with a name that means “great” in Osaka, one of okonomiyaki’s capitals. Their menu features handy okonomiyaki diagrams that list options like beef, mochi, shrimp and/or scallops, which all end up folded into the griddled savory pancake. One of our choices was Original Okonomiyaki ($13.75) featuring thin sheathes of omelet and pork that enshrouded supple shrimp and squid and big chunks of potato. Yes, this is comfort food, and yes, okonomiyaki can be heavy, but at least it packs a lot of flavor. The toppings consisted of squiggled mayo, sweet-savory okonomiyaki sauce, and “Dancing Bonito,” sheets of dried, micro-planed fish that look like pencil shavings and move to the heat. Unlike at Lomita’s Gaja Moc, where it’s DIY, Gottsui’s cooks prepare the okonomiyaki for you, which might not be as fun or interactive, but it’s certainly faster, and there’s less margin for error. Bonus: original okonomiyaki comes planted with an adulterated Japanese flag.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

Was happy to see this on my feed this morning. Stacey and I were talking about Okonomyaki last night (and trying to remember how to pronounce it)! I have a hard time getting into this dish because I can usually only taste the BBQ sauce (which I am not a fan of).

TreasureLA,

Okonomiyaki sauce can be sweet, but even though they cook your pancakes at Gottsui, they were friendly and would no doubt dial down the sauce.

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