Chinchikurin Sawtelle

Originally from Hiroshima, this Japanese chain restaurant specializes in okonomiyaki—the gloriously crunchy-on-the-outside, slightly goopy-on-the-inside pancake studded with cabbage, meat and seafood and cooked over a teppan grill. While there are regional variations in okonomiyaki across the island nation, Chinchikurin brings a Hiroshima-style flair to the dish, which means each pancake comes with grilled yakisoba and a fried egg on top. Aside from a few izakayas around town, its three locations (Sawtelle, Little Tokyo and Torrance) are the only place in L.A. where you can reliably find okonomiyaki, so stop by here whenever you’re craving a glorious, over-the-top heap of noodles, meat and seafood drizzled with kewpie mayo and a thick, slightly sweet brown sauce made of Worcestershire, ketchup and soy sauce.