Restaurant review: Banzai Beach – Eating Well on the Italian/Polynesian Border
Gary Cheung, a 26-year-old chef, sets an onion aflame at Banzai Beach Teppan Grill and Tiki Lounge in Hermosa Beach. Photo by Chelsea Schreiber Los Angeles has many restaurants offering eccentric combinations of cuisines – Ethiopian/Italian is actually natural thanks to the colonial era occupation of the country, but Korean/Italian and Portuguese/Greek are rather more unusual. A new Scandinavian/Turkish concept is scheduled to open soon in Culver City, which probably takes the prize. The South Bay’s current champion for odd combinations, Banzai Beach, has something for almost anybody. They serve Italian cuisine and pizzas, tacos, and Japanese Teppanyaki, all in the atmosphere of a tiki bar. The story behind the restaurant is convoluted, but the brief version is that Chef Manny, formerly of Il Bocaccio, used to cook downstairs at an Italian restaurant called La Campana. A Japanese restaurant called Banzai Beach moved in upstairs, then the space became Italian again. Competition between both traditional Italian and Japanese restaurants is fierce in the area, so the owner decided to change the concept to something more novel. He noticed that no place in this beachy area serves…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com