Here's the thing that is preventing me from giving Izakaya the full 5 stars: their service was extremely slow the evening we went. The thing is, there should have been no reason for it, as the place was more than half empty. but we ended up staying there for about 3 hours.
Now, I have seen some of the other reviews that didn't seem to have a problem with the service, so I am concluding that this was just some kind of fluke. I expect that when we return here things will be back to normal.
In any case, the food here is wonderful. We had two great ramen dishes here: the spicy miso ramen and the Tsukemen. Both were amazing. Followed it up with green tea ice cream and black sesame ice cream (also great). They also have a nice sake offering.
Our server was also extremely nice. Don't be afraid to leave the strip and come down here for some good Japanese dishes.