Dan M.
Yelp
I had just hit up Ichiza 1 a few days ago for breakfast (which was great, see my other review) so decided I wanted to check its partner location out for dinner. I chose this place as I loved the "room set ups" they had in place and the location had abundant parking. I made reservations via yelp and then made my way over on a Friday at 5 PM. We were promptly greeted and seated and I will say that the service was very friendly. This place does get busy and so it did seem to slow down a tad (Even when pressing the bell) as the night progressed but to be expected.
The menu is pretty extensive as they have rice & bowls, noodles, sashimi, rolls, appetizers, grill items, skewers, hot dishes, and then what they call "mega" dishes which I think are special dishes. The prices are all reasonable so I was stoked to try many different things. They also provided a specials menu which had a few items from the menu but also off the menu. After perusing the menu, decided to order the Uni (with homemade ponzu sauce), the negitoro bowl, the chu toro sashimi, yaki soba, the Tatsuta age, the tsukune skewer, the corn butter, the yakko, the kakuni, and the sky rock honey toast as dessert. I will say generally I was a bit disappointed in the quality of most of the smaller plates. The tsukune was extremely dry and the chicken gizzard skewer we ordered had a weird aftertaste that I couldn't put my finger on. The yakko was fine but pretty basic which I guess is fair for the price. The kakuni was good but the pork was a bit "hard" vs the tenderness I anticipated for it being simmered. The sashimi all were just OK for me. Not the greatest quality and the uni definitely tasted a bit funky but passable. The negitoro bowl however was FANTASTIC.... Wish more of them were kind of like this. The Tatsuta age was solid so it started to pick up and the corn butter was an interesting interpretation but I ended up enjoying it. The yaki soba actually was good as well so I have the feeling this place probably excels at the bigger plates which I wish I had more of after trying some of the smaller plates. The dessert was good and obviously enough to feed 4 people.
All in all, this place is interesting but a fun environment. I wasn't thrilled with a lot of their smaller plates but they did have some shining moments. Would rate this a solid OK spot that I may consider in the future but if you are looking for pure izakaya, not sure this place will exactly hit the mark.