琴平 Kotohira Restaurant

🇯🇵 JAPAN / No matter how out of style udon can be, the noodle love of Kagawa Prefecture is front and center at one of Gardena's longest running favorites.

🇯🇵 JAPAN
📍 1747 W. Redondo Beach Blvd.,
Gardena, South Bay
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 Beer, wine, and sake

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

Before seeing a menu at the almost 35-year-old Gardena institution Kotohira, an astute world diner will already have a guess at the specialty of the house. The name comes from the city in Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Besides being home to the largest shrine on Shikoku, Kotohira is also famous for being a part of what makes Kagawa Japan’s “Udon Prefecture.”

Many tourists to Kagawa, both Japanese and foreign, combine visits to the Kotohira Shrine with udon-making classes. Back in Los Angeles, the only home to these techniques is in the corner of the always busy Tozai Plaza, which is just as old and the longtime home of Kotohira Restaurant’s chewy, chubby, and slippery wheat flour udon. The restaurant has changed hands a couple times over the years and the noodles are no longer handmade on the premises, but their source is of a good enough quality that they are still some of the best around.

While you unfortunately will not find the same people and process described so wonderfully in Jonathan Gold’s 1992 Los Angeles Times article, you will find a warm, welcoming place that is a joy once you tuck into a booth. You can hear your neighbors bustling at their tables and the occasional slurp, but the privacy the design allows for makes it seem like you are the only customer.

There are quite a few routes you can take when you open the lengthy and somewhat intimidating menu, but when you come for the first time try to focus on one of their sets. These come with multiple offerings and let you sample udon alongside a wide variety of other options.

Once you order, a small dish of their creamy homemade potato salad arrives to whet your appetite and is promptly followed by any appetizers that may have been selected. Some of these will be discussed at the end of this article, but first the focus has to be on the star of the house.