For anybody who misses the Sawtelle Kitchen or Del Rey Kitchen, chef Satoru Yokomori has teamed up with Kathy and Kosuke Otaki to reopen  Japantown’s  mainstay since 1949, Tempura House.  The trio has already hosted a few soft openings, at its original Sawtelle location, but will officially open in January.

The Japantown neighborhood was in a tizzy for about six months since a sign on the door signaled that, due to unforeseen circumstances, the take-out only favorite was closed by its elderly owners, Nobuo and Mihoko Anzai.

The bad news is that there will be no tempura. The good news is that Yokomori will bring back Sawtelle Kitchen favorites like his ponzu chicken, white fish, mench katsu and tonkatsu.    There will be plenty of udon and bowls including a wide variety of curries. Salads include seaweed, spicy caviar noodle and a detox green noodle salad. The Yoshoku-style Japanese Hamburger steak from Yokomori’s Del Rey Kitchen will make a comeback on the to-go only menu as well.

The Tempura House opened on Sawtelle in 1949, shortly after the World War II Japanese-American internment displaced many of the neighborhood’s residents, then known as Little Osaka.

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