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| - Honestly, the food here is pretty good. However, given my overall experience, I'd have to give this place around a 2.5.
We had the beef tataki, gai lan gomaae, salt and sansho pepper grilled pork cheek, corn kakiage, ika maruyaki, saba miso-ni, chicken nanban, anchovy potato salad and chips, braised pork ribs, and taro ice cream between 5 adults and 1 toddler. Something like that. We weren't particularly hungry, so we decided we'd start with that and order more if necessary.
A large part of how I determine how many stars to give a place is based on how satisfied I was upon leaving. For restaurants, this takes into account things like value (taste + portion to price ratio), service, ambiance, etc., with the bulk of it being placed on those first two. The ambiance here was fine, but I found the value and the service lacking. For the price of the dishes I listed above, I was expecting quite a bit more food. For example, the corn kakiage was $7.5 and had two flat pieces about the size of the bottom of a mug. There were no garnishes, and I didn't see any salt that it was supposed to be served with, unless they just sprinkled salt on it and decided to include it in the menu description. That's $7.50 for what is essentially two corn fritters. Corn is cheap. I was also expecting the food to come significantly more rapidly than it did. The service was friendly, but most of our dishes came one at a time, and we'd finish rather quickly because the dish was so small, and then have to wait at least a few minutes before the next one came. I don't mind that so much if we're doing a menu with multiple courses, but if I'm at an izakaya style place, I don't want to sit there for an hour waiting for my mains to come. Our toddler was the epitome of hangry. Her parents asked for the rice in one of our small teishoku meals to be given to us first so she'd have something to eat. The toddler had the entire bowl of rice, then had bites of most of our other dishes, saying she wanted more after each one and us finding that there was no more food on the table, and then finally got the miso soup and main that came with her rice.
Flavor-wise, everything was average and above. The beef tataki was tasty, but a tad chewy. The gai lan gomaae had a really delicious sauce. The pork cheek was flavorful and surprisingly crispy in a pleasant way. The corn kakiage was incredibly delicious, and one of highlights of the night. The ika maruyaki was prettily presented, but not particularly tender and a tad salty. The saba miso-ni was not bad, but not particularly noteworthy, and when they say small teishoku, they're not kidding. The saba was served on a plate approximately the size of a coaster. The chicken nanban wasn't particularly special, although I quite enjoyed the pickled veggies on the side. The anchovy potato salad was tasty, but I didn't taste the anchovies. I find that dish interesting because taro chips + potato salad = starch on starch. The pork ribs were incredibly tender, but flavor-wise, I've already forgotten about them. The mustard sauce that was on the plate was good at cutting some of the richness of the ribs though. My favorite bite of the night was the Japanese toast under the taro ice cream. The entire dish was tasty, but that toast was fried to perfection and the crispy, oily toast worked wonderfully with the ice cream.
After 15% tip, I paid almost $24 for my meal (we divided by 5). I had parts of every dish we ordered, but somewhere between a bite and two bites, for the most part, of each dish, and some bites weren't very large bites. Because of the portions and the time it took for each dish to come out, I actually left just about as hungry as I went in.
Should there be a next time, I think I'm going to order the ramen because I've heard it's good, and then just call it a day.
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