Chris A.
Yelp
This place is amazing. It's styled like a Japanese izakaya, or bar, and after visiting Japan in March of this year, it wasn't far from the real deal! The bar, the silliness, the uncomfortable seats, the small portions. It was very Japan. I didn't know that at the time, but I certainly know now.
As for the service, the guy was really nice. Very attentive. Service has to be good at a place like this where the point is to order a few items at a time. No complaints.
They have a bunch of sakes to choose from, as well as a bunch of non-alcoholic options. I had a milk tea and a fruit juice soda thing. I'm not sure, but everything we drank tasted very good.
Then, the food. We ordered a bunch of things and shared, as it should be in a place like this.
We got the Chicken Karaage (Japanese fried chicken, lemon, salt w/side yuzu mayo), the Susuru Gohan mini bowl (soy cured organic raw egg yolk, sweet aged soy, onion, Japanese seasoning, steamed rice), the Okonomiyaki (cabbage, Kewpie mayo, beni shoga, bonito, scallions, okonomi sauce), a slew of Yakitori skewers, and the main event, the Hamachi Kama (yellowtail collar, ponzu, lemon).
Karaage was superb. Crispy, juicy, just enough salt to really enhance that wonderful chicken thigh flavor, and a nice, tangy acidic mayo for dipping. Really the best karaage I've had in town.
Mini bowl was wonderful. I feel like you get a lot of massive rice bowls in this country, just way too much. But this was a perfect little portion, fun for sharing, and you can get in, get out, and move onto the next dish. Intense yolk, just a dash of seasoning, simple flavors really singing against the plain but necessary white rice. Yum.
Okonomiyaki. This is the best dish you might have never had before. A crisp crisp crisp cabbage pancake, doused with Kewpie and covered with delicious bonito. I can't even describe it. It's just fun and delicious and charred yumminess.
Yakitori. Skewers. There's nothing better than getting a whole mess of skewers and sharing them with people. Don't be afraid of any of these. The chicken hearts were delish, the chicken knee cartilage was delish, and the lowkey star of the show might have been the shiitake mushrooms. How do you make mushrooms taste that good??
And then, the Hamachi collar. If you've never had collar before, you're missing out. This thing was So succulent. Ridiculously flakey. Don't bother with lame utensils. Just pick this thing up and go at it like a chicken wing.
Overall, wow, I'm so glad I stopped by this place. I tried to get some things for each major category, but I didn't even scratch the surface. I'm gonna have to come back soon and try everything else.