. "4 stars - 4 star for food, 4 stars for ambience - my ears were ringing after this meal. You walk in the windowless doors and are greeted by a loud and enthusiastic group of staff screaming in Japanese. This continues throughout the entire meal until you leave. I understand it's part of the whole izakaya dining style, but sometimes a girl just wants to eat her meal in peace and not have to scream to talk to the person beside her!\n\nThe meal was a fantastic array of various Japanese tapas-style dishes. It did take a while for the food to start arriving and was a bit of a wait in-between dishes, but it was a busy Wednesday evening.\n\nHighlights of the meal:\n- Beef carpaccio - this was so tender and well-marinated in a delicious tangy sauce that we ordered another one\n- Fried brie with mango sauce - ordered two of these too! Would be good as a dessert as well. Fried and crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside.\n- Beef tongue - very chewy, but good flavor\n- Seared tuna - not too memorable\n- Salmon tartare - too much avocado, not enough salmon, but still tasty\n- Salmon sashimi - fresh fish, light in flavor.\n- Macarel? I think? - super hot and fresh straight from the kitchen - flaky and well-seasoned\n- Agedashi tofu - I've had better agedashi tofu elsewhere, but this was acceptable and the amount they give you is quite generous\n- Takoyaki - very hot on the inside, so beware. This was pretty authentic tasting.\n- Mushroom rice bowl thing (sorry, forgot what it was called!) - this was fragrant, hot, flavorful, and just overall delicious - great to have as a starchy/carby/filler dish.\n\nThere were a boatload of dishes to choose from and the above doesn't even cover all of them. At $40/person for a ton of dishes though, we ate to our heart's content. I suggest coming here in groups of 4 or 5 so you can try a bunch of things, and most dishes come with 4-5 pieces of food (or more).\n\nGreat place for a casual dinner with friends after work. Definitely not a first date type of place."^^ . . . "3"^^ . "2"^^ . "4"^^ . "3"^^ . "2015-08-27T00:00:00"^^ .