Manpuku Japanese BBQ

Written by: Jane Ong

Sawtelle Boulevard in West Los Angeles is lined with lots of Asian restaurants, from Chinese to Vietnamese to Japanese to Korean.  It's the place to go for lunch because of the many options in East Asian cuisines.  But parking in the area can be very difficult and seating may be hard to find in some of the most popular restaurants.  Just when we were feeling frustrated by the long waiting list in each of the restaurants we strolled by, we were so happy to find Manpuku to have plenty of seats available for us.  Besides, we couldn't resist the enticing  fragrance of the Japanese table BBQ that was drifting by.  With our short lunch hour, we didn't feel like barbecuing ourselves at the table so we ordered the lunch special BBQ bento.  It was a decent and balanced meal even though it wasn't  as good as the Japanese BBQ we normally did at the table top.  The meats were just not as good in quality as the ones we had in other Japanese BBQ joints but they were decent and they tasted good enough for a no fuss quick lunch. We rate it a 6 out of 10 for lunch.  We intend to go back sometime for dinner  to try out their table top BBQ menu. 

Restaurant: Manpuku
Address: 2125 Sawtelle Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tel: (310)-473-0580