King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant
2808 Sepulveda Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90505
Summertime is for vacations. It seems like almost everyone that I know has gotten out of town at some point during this summer. I've seen my friend's Facebook posts about their summer trips to Italy, Colombia, Vegas, Japan, Miami, Alaska, and more. Even my friend Carol, who I was dining with on this particular afternoon is headed to Chicago at the end of this month, and she never goes anywhere. I have extreme travel envy at this point. I was hoping that a birthday lunch for Carol at King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant in Torrance would transport me to the South Pacific, at least for an hour or two.
The King's Hawaiian story begins in 1950 in Hilo, Hawaii. This is where founder Robert Taira opened his first bakery, before moving his family business to the more metropolis Honolulu. His bakery restaurant became pretty well known for their Portuguese sweet bread, which would eventually become known as King's Hawaiian Bread. The mainland was introduced to this famous bread in 1977 when they opened their first factory in Torrance. This restaurant and bakery followed in 1988. In 2001 they opened The Local Place, which is a fast-casual version of their original restaurant and bakery.
Now that you are all caught up on their history, let's get back to our visit. As I mentioned earlier, it was my good friend Carol's birthday, and since she now resides in Torrance, it has given us a chance to visit some restaurants up this way. Besides Gen BBQ, King's Hawaiian is the most reviewed restaurant on Yelp in this South Bay city. Close to 3,000 reviews and a mighty impressive four-star rating.
The outside of the restaurant, which sits alongside busy Sepulveda Boulevard kind of reminded me of the house on Fantasy Island, for the few of you that remember that 70's and 80's TV show. Once inside I was a little taken aback by the very large bakery case. This could be one of the largest bakery cases I have ever seen. They had plenty of cakes, pies, cookies, donuts, muffins, pastries, large displays of their Hawaiian Bread, and other assorted desserts. I did not know this before coming here, but they also do quite a large amount of wedding cakes as well. Very impressive, but we were here for some more substantial food after my long drive.
Breakfast is served every day before 2pm, but some items are available all day long. Lunch begins at 11, and they have plenty in the way of choices; appetizer, Hawaiian bowls, Hawaiian local favorites, combination plates, burgers, sandwiches, noodles, and fried rice dishes. Prices hover right around the $12 mark for breakfast and lunch and dinner options will set you back on average $14. Let's see if my trip up the 405 Freeway to King's Hawaiian could help ease the vacation envy I have of all of my friend's vacation plans.
Probably not shocking to anyone, but once you are seated you are brought out a six-pack of Hawaiian Rolls to start things off with. These came out warm, but with only two pads of butter, I had one and we packaged up the rest so Carol could take them home to her sister.
While looking at the menu, Carol had made mention of the Macadamia Nut Onion Rings ($11.25) and since it was her birthday, we needed to give them a try. This plate of rings could have easily served four. These were a very solid onion ring. The breading did not pull away from the thick onion underneath, which is my biggest pet peeve with onion rings. The panko and macadamia nut breading was very sturdy, but maybe due to the deep-frying, the macadamia nuts did not really come through flavor-wise for me. The ranch dressing and barbecue sauce were fine, but I was maybe hoping they would have gotten a little more creative with their sauces and done a sweet and spicy pineapple dip or something else. Still, if you are a fan of the onion rings, these are a must-order for you.
Carol very rarely goes out to eat for breakfast, so when we try new places, she likes to give breakfast a try. At King's Hawaiian, she tried what I assume is one of their most popular breakfast plates, the Big Island Breakfast ($11.75). This breakfast combination plate comes with two eggs, three strips of bacon, and their famous King's Hawaiian French Toast. The eggs were cooked to her desired wishes and the bacon was nice and crisp. I tried a bite of her french toast and thought it was fine, but it did not blow me away. Decent, but nothing that really made me think I needed to have more than one bite, which is a good thing since Carol ate all of this rather quickly. Man, that 73-year-old woman can eat.
When people talk about breakfast dishes from Hawaii, Loco Moco ($11.75) is definitely what I think of. This was a pretty traditional version, which starts with white rice as its base and is then topped with a hamburger patty, brown gravy, and two over-easy eggs. A few of my bites of this were good, but this needed more gravy to bring it all together. The hamburger patty also needed to be seasoned a bit more to make it pop. The best part of this dish was the scoop of potato macaroni salad that came with this. It's the perfect mash-up for people who are fans of both macaroni and potato salad.
I was a bit disappointed with my visit to King's Hawaiian. I think I expected a bit more than just an average coffee shop. Nothing was totally awful, but nothing was really so great that it would make me want to drive up here again from OC. I can see why people like this place though. It does kind of put you in a vacation mood by helping you recall a long-ago vacation that you might have had in the South Pacific. There's definitely more traditional and better Hawaiian restaurants out there to eat at. King's, based on what we had on this visit, appears to me to be Hawaiian food for the masses, which probably is the key to their popularity.
Out of five cups of coffee, (because the state of Hawaii is the only US State which grows everyone's favorite morning pick me up), five being best to zero being worst, King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant gets 2.5 cups of coffee.
For more information about King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant, head to their website here: https://www.khbakery.com/
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