Beni-Tora Giant Gyoza [CLOSED]

Dumplings Los Angeles

Size matters with the giant pan-fried pork dumplings at Beni-Tora in Torrance and Sawtelle Japantown.

Bigger isn’t always better, but when it comes to Beni-Tora’s giant gyoza, that’s clearly the case. The growing company, which started in Tokyo in 1990 and sports a fierce red tiger logo, first opened inside Torrance’s Mitsuwa Market, delivering fiery tan tan men. The new location in Little Osaka features all of the same dishes from that focused food court menu, plus a surprisingly large number of Chinese plates. I’m not sure about that shift, but as long as they keep serving Giant Gyoza and spicy tan tan men, little else matters.

Giant Gyoza apparently travel in packs of three, since that’s how Beni-Tora sells them. I opted for three pieces ($4.90) which were each about six inches long, packed with pork meat, glass noodles, cabbage and scallions. Thin-skinned, pan-fried wrappers cradled juicy fillings and pork juices. Dip the dumplings in soy sauce to maximize the savory effect.

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

I looked up the menu on menopause.com, and didn’t see the giant gyoza. Still, Sawtelle is close enough for me to stop by and give them a try.

Nosh, this is a low-risk proposition. It’s also worth trying their spicy tan tan men, which I really enjoyed in Torrance, but haven’t tried yet on Sawtelle. Let me know what you think.

Nosh, do you mean menupages? The menu there looks incomplete. For example, there’s no mabo dofu (the Japanese-Chinese version of mapo tofu) but I’ve definitely had that there.

I also second Josh’s rec of the tan tan noodles (the J-C version of dan dan mien). Very respectable.

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