Tori Tori, Mills Ave

I tried this new (one month) Japanese bar/eatery (izakaya-esque) near the corner of 50 and Mills on Tuesday night? I decree that it is the new hot spot in town. It was even full at 9pm on a Tuesday. You order through the bartenders and they give you a number on a stick and the food is delivered to you. You can sit at the central (almost all encompassing) bar or one of the tables or booths on the periphery. I sat at the bar. Service was quick and attentive  The bar side seemed to tilt towards cocktail inanity, but, they had a good selection of whiskey (Japanese et al). The menu is in between snack food and a real menu. I had a salmon "handie" roll for $6, garlic fried rice with blue crab for $8 and pork belly fried gyoza for $6. The roll was ok/ The salmon wasn't clean. It still had sinews attached to the flesh. The owner has tinkered with the roll methodology and places a piece of baking paper in the roll to keep the rice from softening the nori wrapper. I wasn't clear on if this is something he invented on his own or if it is the proper way to do it per the Japanese. I've seem a lot of shows and been to Japan. It's the first I've heard of it. But, who doesn't love a gimmick or this kind of obsessiveness? And the price is on par with most places. They didn't give you soy sauce with it. Whatever sauce they did put on it was imperceptible. As such, it was bland tasting. And his little experiment left you tasting mostly nori. And dry nori ain't so good. Taste wise or texturally. The garlic rice was ok. The rice itself was overcooked, overworked and very garlic-y. It was oily as well. I saw some pieces of real looking crab. It's very dark in there, so, I can't say for certain if they chintz or not. Who knew chintz would pass spellcheck? It was a big portion that they give you a wooden spoon to eat with. The gyoza were the best. And I can't remember having better. Anywhere. The substitution of belly for that ground pork meat you usually get makes all the difference. Plus they were well fried. A bit oily. The bottoms were soft. I think they give you six. They place them on a mayo-y sauce that once again it was too dark to identify. And the price here is also in line with even medium grade Japanese places. The soda I had was a bit weak. They may need to test the tap if it's not a weirdo bitch cola knock off. The rest of the menu (as I recall poorly) was uni and crab and scallop handies (although they were already out of scallop and that can't happen if you only offer four item), some other fried rices, a lot of cool yakitori (like chicken hearts and cartilage) and I just can't recall the rest. Sorry. I just got of a plane after being on the road for two weeks and it was dark and the print on the menu is tiny. The interior reminded me of the bar next to Black Rooster. It's modern. Very square. One level. The outside is painted white. It's very LA. I can't remember the color scheme inside. I remember wood. The ceiling looks like they ran out of money and is exposed framing. The kitchen is open and in the rear. They have a fairly big parking area. The crowd wasn't all Rollins-y. Most of the people looked like they just got off work from other kitchens. It's from the guy who runs Domu, etc. I've been waiting for it for over a year and it met expectations. It will be on the Favorite's List just because it's open until 2am (when most places close at 9pm) and it's cool and they don't gouge you to make you think you are styling. If they tighten up the food execution, it will be a real triumph. Now, if the just did lunch too. Double check the 2am thing. Maybe that was just weekends? However, I think it is till open until midnight at least on weekdays. Not sure what days they close.