I stopped into Tan Izakaya for lunch and was heartened to hear a proper "irrashaimase!" from the owner Mike Chen.
Great location and ambiance and I sat at the bar to order and to enjoy lunch.
Overall, it was a good experience but it was uneven to be sure. I found it is newly opened so there are bound to be kinks to work out.
I ordered the miso soup, omurice and a selection of yakitori as well as kikusui saké.
The omurice was good - the filling was perfect but the topping of ketchup (which is normal) and mayonnaise and aonori (which is not) was interesting. I prefer my omurice with ketchup only and the addition of mayonnaise and aonori was not bad but I didn't care for the combo.
The yakitori I had was the quail egg and bacon, the beef and asparagus, the shishito peppers and pork and green onion. The meat (beef, pork) was cooked well except the bacon which was soggy and a bit greasy. The shishito peppers were charred but had no salt or seasoning of any kind and so were flavorless.
The tare or glaze/sauce for the meat was shiny and pretty but also lacking in flavor.
I am half-Japanese and go to Japan yearly and cook a lot of Japanese food so I am very familiar with yakitori etc., the tare or sauce for yakitori is paramount and Tan Izakaya's tare is not up to par.
The good:
Service was good, nice variety of sakés and the menu looks good with a variety of items.
The bad:
Staff loudly discussing customer issues in earshot of diners - no customer wants to hear disparaging talk about ignorant customers regardless of the validity of the issues. I agreed with what the staff were saying about ignorant customers but to hear it through 75% of my meal was not pleasant.
For a place that is newly opened, service and ambiance as well as the taste of the food is important - workplace politics should be kept behind kitchen doors.
I am sure that it will find it's stride and get better!