Izayoi Los Angeles 90012 | 89 FoodDigger Rating

Sort Results By

Page 1 of 1 Prev | Next

kevinEats Favorite Cuisine: Japanese,French 86 Reviews

FlavorMatch With You ? See FlavorMatch!

User Restaurant Rating 89

Izayoi (Los Angeles, CA) 9/4/2009 Izayoi's story begins with its owner and head chef, Junichi Shiode, who previously helmed Sushi Ryo, a well-regarded, but not particularly bustling place in Hollywood. Though a favorite of those in-the-know, Shiode-san shuttered Sushi Ryo and reincarnated the place as Izayoi in June of 2005. Izayoi is considered an izakaya, basically a Japanese restaurant primarily focusing on small plates, or "tapas"-style food meant to be eaten while drinking (alcohol). It's a relatively uncommon concept here in the States, but has been catching on in recent years.

Located in the heart of Little Tokyo, Izayoi is situated along a row of modern-looking storefronts, right next to a Quizno's. Catty-corner is infamous yakitori-ya Kokekokko, which just happens to be one of Shiode-san's favorite restaurants. Parking is free in the nearby Office Depot lot. Note the "B" rating, par for the course for Chinese joints, but rare among Japanese eateries. Inside, the room is split between a large, open kitchen-cum-sushi bar and table seating. It's a fairly austere, but comfortable, environment.

As usual, we requested omakase, and ended up with a 34-course tasting, at a cost of $150 per person:

1: Mozuku
This was my first experience with mozuku, a type of seaweed primarily from Okinawa. It had a very fine, very stringy consistency with a bit of crispness to boot, and was served here in a transparent, slimy, gelatinous mass. Flavor-wise, the mozuku was sweet and briny, with a delightful finish of ginger. A nice start to the meal.

2: Mixed Green Salad
We moved on to a light, refreshing salad. I appreciated its slightly bracing tang and crunchy texture, along with its simultaneously sweet and savory flavor. The most interesting part of the dish, though, was the use of slivers of you tiao, or Chinese-style fried breakfast doughnuts, which added a palpable weight to the salad.

3: Idako
This was fried baby octopus from Japan. Initially, I tasted the crisp, rich, savory, oily crust, but this then gave way to the chewy, subtly sweet flesh of the octopus, which was immensely satisfying. Superb.

4: Beef Tataki
A presentation of seared beef filet sashimi, accompanied by onion and daikon oroshi. The meat itself was actually quite mild, so the key was to experience the contrast between the tangy onion and sweet daikon over the canvas of beef.

5: Sazae Tsuboyaki
This was a first for me: sazae, or turban shell, a type of sea snail. Here, it was done tsuboyaki-style, grilled in its own shell with kombu. I'll admit that it was a rather intimidating-looking dish when it was brought out, and note the large calcareous operculum "door" to the shell, removed in the second photo. The sazae's flesh was snappy, sweet, and slightly briny, with a bit of savory char flavor as well. I also had the snail's innards, which were mildly bitter; the entrails' strong taste was tempered by the use of kombu, which lent a great, vegetal tang to the entire dish.

6: Ebi-Jalapeno Spring Roll
Taken by itself, the shrimp was sweet, soft, and nicely contrasted by the roll's crunchy wrapper. However, the key here was the jalapeno and the hot dipping sauce, both of which accented the shrimp's sweetness beautifully with a distinct spiciness. One of the best egg rolls I've had.

7: Cold Chawanmushi
Just in time for summer was this refreshing chawanmushi, served cool, containing egg, chicken, shiitake, uni, kamaboko (fish cake), fresh wasabi, and nori. It was definitely one of the better chawanmushis I've had, with the chicken adding a superb textural play and gravity to the dish, while the wasabi provided an excellent counter to the creaminess and weight of the egg.

8: Spicy Tuna
The following bite was spicy tuna tartare, topped with scallion, atop a crispy rice cracker. A seemingly pedestrian dish, it was nonetheless delicious. I first was able to experience and enjoy the mild creaminess of the tuna, with the heat coming in only later on the lingering finish. The rice cracker, meanwhile, proved a superb textural contrast.

9: Ankimo
Ankimo, or monkfish liver, accompanied by scallion, momiji oroshi, kombu, and cucumber. This "foie gras of the sea" was noticeably milder than most, with a slight brine that was countered by the cool, crisp cucumber.

10: Chilean Sea Bass
Though I'm not a huge fan of Chilean sea bass, I did enjoy this preparation, marinated in miso. This gave the fish a slightly sweet flavor to go along with its unctuous, oily savoriness and supremely flavorful skin. At the same time, the tart pickles were key in balancing the weight of the soft, tender flesh. It actually reminded me a lot of Nobu's world-famous miso-marinated black cod.

11: Mussel, Croquette, Shrimp Head
Our last course before the sushi gauntlet was this troika, served with two condiments: a tonkatsu sauce and a ketchup/mayo/honey sauce. I started with the mussel, baked in tomato sauce. The sauce added a significant gravity to the mollusc, tempering its brine with a marked sweetness. Next up was the shrimp croquette, my favorite of the trio: creamy, sweet, soft, with lovely chunks of shrimp interspersed within. Finally, we had shrimp heads, briny and sweet, with the body to be served next.

12: Amaebi

13: Sazae

14: Sanma

15: Toro

16: Awabi

17: Engawa

18: Kanpachi

19: Saba

20: Shiro Sake

21: Tamago

22: Uni, Ikura

23: Mirugai

24: Kohada

25: Aji

26: Maguro

27: Ika

28: Hamachi

29: Fish Cake
With the sushi dispensed with, it was back to the cooked dishes, starting with this lovely selection of three different types of fish cake, paired with three accompaniments: daikon/wasabi, lemon, and a spicy dipping sauce. Given that I'm a fan of fish cake in general, I quite enjoyed their subtle sweet, yet slightly varying flavors. My favorite was the one in the lower-left, with its delightful vegetal tang finished with a touch of sour lemon.

30: Kurobuta Kakuni
Following was Kurobuta pork belly, simmered in an admixture likely containing dashi, mirin, sake, soy, and sugar. As a result of the dish's long braising time, it was expectedly tender, rich, fatty, and flavorful, with a sweet yet savory smack mitigated by the lightness of the paired vegetables.

31: Ikura-Sake Chazuke
For our last savory course, we were given chazuke (or ochazuke), basically tea poured over a mix of ingredients--rice, seaweed, salmon, and salmon roe in this case. The salmon was fantastic when eaten with the seaweed, while the ikura provided a counterbalancing briny tang. Overall, a hearty, heartwarming dish that formed a fitting close to the meal.

32: Goma Pudding
Our first dessert was this sesame pudding, served with black tea syrup. Eating the pudding alone, I noted a very strong, very pure essence of sesame. Pouring on the syrup elevated the sugar factor significantly.

33: Matcha Aisu Kurimu
And now, for some green tea ice cream. This particular example was housemade, and was quite sweet on the attack, with the tinge of tea coming in only on the midpalate. Very good.

34: Mochi Aisu Kurimu
Finally, the ubiquitous mochi ice cream, here in chocolate, mango, and vanilla versions.

Overall, I came away pretty satisfied with Izayoi. It's a fun place, with competent sushi to be sure, but the real excitement comes with the diversity of fare here: traditional izakaya-inspired food with Shiode-san's unique touch. Give it a shot if you're looking for something else besides mere sushi.

Full review with photos: http://www.kevineats.com/20 09/08/izayoi-los-angeles-ca .htm

foodshethought Favorite Cuisine: Japanese,French 60 Reviews

FlavorMatch With You ? See FlavorMatch!

User Restaurant Rating 89

Izayoi in Little Tokyo 12/15/2008 Izayoi
132 S Central Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 613-9554

Visit #1

Little Tokyo has become my backyard. I eat there at least once a week, sometimes more. I go there simply to drink on a fairly regular basis as well. I have some favorites, and am nothing if not consistent in terms of where I like to eat. But after having heard rumblings about Izayoi on Chowhound, I had to give this a whirl, especially since it is reported to be fairly inexpensive.

We started with the obligatory eda mame. I love it when I can see the crunchy salt crystals.

I ordered a small plate of monkfish liver in a pool of ponzu. For the price (I think $6.50) this was an amazingly large portion. Impressive and delicious. I adore the silkiness and the mild flavor of monkfish liver.

I also ordered up the broiled sea bass. I don't know what they put on the outside of sea bass and cod before broiling that makes it sticky and slightly sweet, but this was perfect and gone in about 2 minutes.

D had his stand by, spicy tuna cut roll. He said it was great, not too spicy and without any of the creaminess one sometimes gets in a spicy tuna roll. Succeed.

We picked at bacon wrapped cherry tomatoes. The bacon was not cooked enough. It was soft and hard to chew. But the bacon flavored tomatoes were great, once they were unwrapped. This was the only fail of the evening.

Lobster tempura. D made a sprint for this dish. Served with wasabi aoili, which was nice, D love love loved this. I found the tempura process negated too much of the lobster flavor. But one cannot argue with love. It is subjective.

With apologies for the above photo, I must say that the scallop and mushroom saute was amazing. It was prepared with lots of butter, garlic and parsley, served sizzling on a hot plate. The preparation reminds me of escargot. But the flavors of the various mushrooms pop out more strongly against the butter and garlic than snail does. (And thankfully so, on the part of snail. Have you ever heard anyone say what they love about escargot is the flavor of the snail?)  This cod was served in a light broth, accessorized by snow peas, carrots and eggplant. Simple and lovely.

Even though I was full, I could not resist the miso marinated pork belly. And...zomg. Wonderful, fatty, miso-y, slightly chewy decadence.  The final dish we shared was clams steamed in sake. The broth was heavenly. Words cannot describe. I drank my broth. Drank.

Visit #2
As always, we start with the sake, unfiltered is I can get my paws on it. They carry this nice Nigori unfiltered White Cream sake, which sounds slightly naughty. It is inexpensive and delicious, two things I love about Izayoi.

They have a lovely sake selection here. I am waiting for T to come back from Africa, and hopefully we will get our foursome over to Izayoi to sample many kinds of sake. Isn't the sake wall inviting?

Wait, what? What happened here? I adore shishito peppers! However, these were so damn hot I couldn't eat them. I have a pretty forgiving palate with regard to heat. It made me wonder if a few jalapenos got mixed up in their shishito box on accident. Whooot! Steam shot out my damned ears.

Next up out of the kitchen is the albacore carpaccio. A little olive oil, some citrus, chives and red pepper pods....delicate and delicious.

D's sushi comes parading out to the table. He is a purist and likes sushi clean and simple. Ebi, maguro (look at the redness of that flesh, lovely), bintoro, and salmon skin maki. Very standard for him, and done nicely. Izayoi also has a sushi bar, but I like to order non-sushi dishes so we always take a table.

I find salmon skin doesn't look as inviting as it tastes. Salmon skin is wonderful, salty, crunchy, slightly spicy.

Bintoro is one of my favorite raw fish. I like the slightly soft flesh that melts in your mouth.  D always loves pickled veg, Japanese style. It's nice that they offer this as an entire dish and not just as garnish.

One of the tings I love about an izakaya is that they typically will have something on the menu that I have never heard of. And the small plate format makes ordering something slightly odd fairly risk-free.  The above and below are grilled squid legs in a brown miso sauce. Above is how it came out on the very hot stone plate. She told me to stir it really well.  The squid legs came between two layers of onions. Green onions on the bottom and a thin layer of red onions on top.

After stirring, everything was all mushed together in a brown sauce. I would like to say this was wonderful, but it had an odd flavor. I swear I tasted liver in there.  One lone squid sticks its gam out, alluringly. I ate it all. D didn't like it due to the gamey flavor. But once I got used to it, I kinda liked it. That's just how I roll. Recommended Dishes shishito peppers, albacore carpaccio, monkfish liver, broiled sea bass

Page 1 of 1 Prev | Next

Izayoi

User Restaurant Ratings