Musha - Torrance

I was very much looking forward to trying out Musha after reading so many raves about it on Chowhound and LA foodie blogs. I went to the Torrance location which is pretty hard to find. It takes up one quarter of a building in a very typical looking shopping center. The rest of the building is taken up by a large Korean BBQ place. There's a single green sign that says "Musha" on the side of the building, but the entrance could just as well be the entrance to the BBQ place, so I was a bit confused at first.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was first struck by how different the place looked than I had imagined. For some reason I was picturing a modern, upscale type of place like Katana. Instead, Musha has a very traditional Japanese feel to it. Even the menus are handwritten with Asian calligraphy highlighting each dish in Japanese. I felt like I was really in Japan. It helped that there was a large table of rowdy young Japanese diners who were thoroughly enjoying themselves and talking about all manner of apparently hilarious topics in Japanese.

After checking out the menu and ordering a kettle of green tea which was warm at best. The waiter squatted down by our table and immediately reported that they were out of 3 dishes already: the signature takotama (some kind of seafood omelette), the buta kakumi (braised pork belly), and one other dish which escapes me right now. Right away I knew that these must be the best dishes the place has to offer. Nuts. We ended up ordering the Musha Fried Chicken (MFC), tongue shichirin (thin slices that you cook yourself atop a grill of glowing charcoals), aburi shimesaba (marinated mackerel torched at the table) and baguette dish (baguette stuffed with cheeses, scallops and shrimp I think).

Maybe my expectations had been pumped up too high, but I was pretty disappointed with these dishes. They were all good, but none of the dishes were spectacular or worth the $7-11 price per dish. The MFC was good, but without any real kick. You can get a more flavorful version of this at any number of places for half the price. The tongue dish was decent also, but consisted of 8 thinly sliced pieces about the size of pepperonis from a pizza. Having been to places like Mu Dong San and Manna where you can get plate after plate of Korean BBQ meats of all sorts for one low price, shichirin seems like a slap in the face. The taste had at least have some special character to it. The baguette dish (I don't remember the actual name of it) was an interesting combination of flavors and seemingly out of place for a Japanese restaurant. This one was worth a try, but I'm not sure I'd order it again. The mackeral was the best of the bunch. Both warm and cool at the same time and Slightly acidic, these thin slices of fish tasted great with a bite of pickled ginger. We were still hungry after finishing these four dishes, so we ordered a spicy fried rice to fill our stomachs. I'll admit that the fried rice was better than average, but not by much.

For dessert, it was chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream and sesame ice cream. While the rest of the meal was just so-so, the desserts were very good. To me, the sesame ice cream could have had a bit heavier sesame flavor, but my tastes probably aren't very typical. I REALLY like sesame desserts. Adding a drizzle of maple syrup and a small pile of corn flakes were a nice touch and really enhanced the dish. The chocolate souffle was also very very good. With a texture that got progressively more gooey toward the middle, the souffle was dark and rich, but not too sweet. It paired perfectly with the vanilla ice cream.

I will give Musha another try so that I can sample the dishes that weren't available on this visit. My guess is that I was not able to experience all that Musha has to offer. That being said, my initial impression is that Musha is quite overpriced for what you get. I don't mind paying Musha's prices, but for those prices I expect to get something a bit more special than what I got.