Last weekend we traveled from Sweden to Hawaii, all in one day! Actually we drove to Ikea in Carson and then stopped at the Local Place in Torrance, on our way back. Located conveniently right off the freeway next to the King’s Hawaiian Bakery (you can even see it from the freeway), the Local Place is like a little slice of Hawaii, only much closer.

It’s fast-casual dining so you place your order at the counter, pay, find a seat and then wait for the server to bring you your food.

I have to admit, I was expecting this place to be more of a hole-in-the-wall and was surprised to see that it looked very clean and bright, with Hawaiian music playing. There’s even an aquarium for kids to enjoy.

There are  rice bowls, sandwiches and of course, plate lunches. For the plate lunch you can choose up to 3 entrees and then two sides.

I ordered the kalua pork and Hawaiian chicken with potato macaroni salad and steamed veggies. Yes, I know I should have gotten the rice instead of the veggies to be more authentic but I felt like I should gets some vitamins in there.

The food arrives on environmentally friendly paper plates. The portions are decent-sized – not the ginormous portions that you would get in Hawaii, but enough that I couldn’t finish my food and had leftovers. The kalua pork did not have too much liquid smoke and wasn’t too fatty which was nice. I made up for the lack of fat with the Hawaiian chicken which I thought would be Huli Huli chicken but turned out to be fried chicken in a sweet batter. Damn. The fried chicken was good. It came with a little container that I thought was salsa but turned out to be a very salty lomi lomi salmon.

My husband opted for the mahi mahi, which was a pretty generous portion. As you can see, he also felt too guilty to get two carbs and had the steamed veggies too.

The Local Place also has a kid’s menu so my daughter got a teriyaki chicken bowl. She loved the teriyaki sauce and ate everything up (except for any food that was touching the pickled ginger).

Being next door to the bakery, The Local Place also has a nice display of baked goods.

There is a wide array of prepackaged bakery items that I have never seen before – several types of cookies, breads/rolls and even this strange rainbow bread…

The colors of the rainbow bread were a bit off-putting so we passed on that one. We got a pull-apart cinnamon roll loaf to take home.  Somehow, we ate it all before I could take a picture of it.

The Local Place also serves breakfast and has French toast made with their Hawaiian bread, with Spam, Portuguese sausage or bacon.

Believe it or not, King’s Hawaiian bread is made in Torrance, and if you’re in Hawaii and buy it from the market, you’ll see that it was shipped over from the mainland. So if you’re looking for fresh baked Hawaiian rolls, guava cake or some Hawaiian food, save yourself the long plane ride and stop by the Local Place.

Location- 18605 Western Ave, Torrance 90504
Website – http://www.thelocalplace.com
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – Yes
Pesco-Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Vegan/Vegetarian Friendly – Not really
Gluten-Free Options – Yes