Kan Izakaya Yuzen [Torrance]

Kan Izakaya Yuzen is like the new kid in school that messes up the curve for the rest of the class--it has now displaced Gochi's in Cupertino as my favorite izakaya.

An izakaya is the equivalent of a Japanese gastropub, which serves food side-by-side with alcohol (namely sake and beer). Dishes are meant to shared family style and the dining experience is similar to what you'd find at a Western tapas restaurant. Some izakayas such as Musha are loud and rambunctious, while others, such as Kan Yuzen have a mild temperament.

The dining room is gorgeous in its simplicity with blonde wood paneling and sleek stainless steel fixtures. The waitresses wear kimonos and the room hums with the low buzz of diners chatting.

Upon sitting down to the menus, a quizzical look fell across our faces--there was not a speck of English to be found anywhere! We quickly made the most of a potentially disastrous situation and decided that we would instead order from the photos, which accompanied each menu item. We got revved up for the excitement of trying something new, but then were brought English menus when someone realized that none of us were Japanese. Go figure.

The menu is divided into raw, appetizer, vinegared, yakitori, stewed, grilled, and fried dishes, while an additional section offers larger portions of noodles, rices, and soups. There are also huge combo meals (+$25) listed at the end of the menus, but we decided that we wouldnt wouldnt order from the only English section in our Japanese menu.

The five of us opted for six small dishes and a salad, which came in one huge wave that overwhelmed our table even more than Korean panchan would. Next time, I will order as we go along to ensure better pacing.

The Roast Duck with sweet soy sauce ($8.20) was tender with a delicate enough flavor that made the duck an appropriate starter for our meal. The crispness of the lettuce really brought out the subtleties in the dish by serving as both a flavor and textural contrast. We had hoped the Karamari Salad ($10.80) with its deep fried shrimp and calamari in mustard-mayo sauce would be like the creamy rock shrimp tempura that we so adore at Ikko and Katsu-ya. While the deep frying gave the proteins a good smoky crunch, the dressing was quite literally mustard and mayonnaise straight from the bottle. The dish as a whole was more the sum of its components than a cohesive salad.

I think I let out a sigh of protest when someone at our table wanted the Dynamite ($9.80), a dish of baked scallops, mushrooms, and cheese often found at sushi restaurants. But since no one objected, I was enlightened by a version of the dish that I actually liked! Kan Yuzen's reminded me of a perfect French onion soup, with mushrooms and scallops layered into a well-rounded broth that implored every taste bud in your mouth to perk up. The Pizza ($10.90) was the most expensive item we ordered, but also quite large. The crust was baked to a thin crisp and then layered with a light margherita base, mild cheese, and sweet shrimp.

Gindara or Miso Cod, is never bad, but is also seldom extraordinary. Kan Yuzen begs to differ with its buttery fish that is charred just enough to give it visual interest. At only $7.80, it is a great deal for the quality. I was put off by the fatty pork in our Buta Kaku ($6.20), but quickly learned why people seem to have an affinity for fat-laden foods. The miso braising infused the meat with a melt-in-your-mouth sweetness that was accompanied by firm bits of daikon radish, root vegetable, and gelatin.

Last but not least were our Satsuma-Mentai ($6.80), hor d'oeuvre sized sweet potato chips with spicy cod roe and mayo. Though the presentation was nothing short of gorgeous, the cod roe and sweet potato were lost in the overpowering mayo.

Dish after dish, our eyes would pop out of our heads and our mouths would salivate with anticipation. Every aspect of our meal was enjoyable and almost every dish, solid.

With all the food that we had, our bill came out to $17 each, including tip and tax, though we all could've polished off a few more plates. There was also a freezer that displayed today's fishes at market price that we'll have to give a go next time.

*Note: There seems to be some confusion as to the actual name of the restaurant, which appears in three different ways. The business cards advertise Kan Izakaya Yuzen, the receipts print Izakaya Yuzen-Kan, and the storefront reads Izakaya Kan Yuzen. I was told Yuzen is the name and Kan, the place. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Kan Izakaya Yuzen
2755A Pacific Coast Hwy
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 530-7888

*Look for the Smart&Final plaza, since you cannot see the restaurant while you're driving by.

Ikko Japanese Restaurant [Costa Mesa]

Though I've been for dinner a few times (1), today was my first venture into lunch. I have always been intrigued by Ikko's lunch menu, which isn't your standard bento box affair. There was no miso soup or chicken terriyaki in sight. We tried the lunch special, which was a special roll and a chicken meatball and baked mochi soup with daikon radish. The soup was a little on the salty side, but the special roll was a light and sweet combination of tamago, eel, and shrimp.

The same sushi chefs were there for lunch, though sushi specials are featured primarily in the evening. We built our meal primarily on sushi and ventured outside of our comfort zones by blindly ordering. My first encounter with pen shell was on the tasting menu at Cyrus and if that was good, the sushi was mind blowing. The pen shell belongs to the same family as scallops and is expectedly sweet. What is unexpected is the range of flavor, which your mouth explores as the pen shell slowly melts away. Don't miss it.

From left to right: Taraigai (pen shell), Aji (Spanish mackerel), Hamachi (yellowtail)

We were dazzled by the progression and freshness of our sushi, which was dressed with restraint to bring out the natural qualities of the fish. I will vouch for Ikko once more and this time designate it as a C'est Poptastique! pick.

Sushi Kappo Suzumaru [Tustin]

Many years ago, a Japanese friend took me here for dinner. It was on my mind for quite some time after the initial visit, but I didn't venture back because I had forgotten where it was located. A recent trip to the nearby Kairakutei ramen house just down the strip rekindled memories.

Suzumaru humbly seats approximately 50 patrons, and the sushi bar is sectioned off from the main dining area with a bamboo partition. The semi-low lighting, accomplished with paper lanterns, easily fashions this restaurant into a date spot.

My company and I decided to skip the entrees and just order tapas.

The boiled spinach with sesame sauce may look boring but the peanut flavor was bursting and pleasing to the palate. The fishcake and cheese dish was well-drained and served with a cup of tonkatsu sauce. The fishcake itself was light and soft, but the cheese wasn't melted nearly enough. After seeing the portions of the spinach and fishcake, I expected the remainer of our dishes to be equally large and overwhelming but the meatballs proved me wrong. For $2.80, we got three dry meatballs on a skewer; this was the least favorable dish of the night.

The "entree" was the Suzumaru Pizza, which, in actuality, has nothing to do with crust, cheese or marinara sauce. It was a small filet of salmon topped with mayonaisse, a dot of hot sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Alone, the salmon is dry, but the mayo masks that aspect.

Sushi Kappo Suzumaru
17292 McFadden Ave. #B
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 665-1300

Ikko Japanese Restaurant [Costa Mesa]

People talk about hidden gems as if anything in plain sight of an Orange County strip mall could remain hidden for long, but Ikko is truly a tucked away.

When you're driving down Baker, look for the Lotions and Lace store--it's in that Plaza. If you're driving from South Coast Plaza, you're likely to miss it. If you're coming from the other way, you cant miss the new age orange sign announcing that you've arrived at your destination.

The space oozes swank with jazz music filling the eight-tables and sushi bar at Ikko. The lights are turned down low in a beatnik jazz club kinda way and it reminds me of a place where you would frequent on your illicit love affair. There were mostly Japanese patrons on that Friday Night and the lull of their quiet whispers bathed the room. At closing on another night, the crowd was pretty rambunctious. So, f you're looking for a quiet dinner, I'd advise eating earlier, which would also give your more options since they tend to run out of the more popular items.

The food here is upscale Japanese izakaya with Western influences, but priced moderately for the type of restaurant it is. There is sashimi flown in from Japan and the daily specials are written on a menu, though they are crossed off when the kitchen runs off. We tried both the domestic and imported yellowtail and both were excellent. While we've had better in terms of quality and texture, the flavor was good.


What makes Ikko's Japanese fusion different from other restaurants is that it errs on the side of Japanese more than it does on the side of Western. There are Western preparation and ingredients such as carpaccio, asparagus, and stuffed meats, but the delicate, mellow balance of flavors that is a cornerstone to Japanese cusine is what stands out most. You can really see this in the tofu dishes especially.

We are partial to the rock shrimp tempura salad and if you're feeling adventurous, the radish pancake with uni, ikura, and dried shrimp [it's milder than you'd expect]. The pancake reminds me of the turnip cake you get at dim sum, except that it has a sticky texture similar to what you'd find in natto or mochi desserts. We've also had the chilean sea bass, asparagus spring rolls, and chicken stuffed w/brown rice, though we were more ambivalent about those dishes. For dessert, I love the black soy ice cream for a mere $3.50.

Most of the menu descriptions are fairly unassuming and humble, but dont let that fool you. Take a chance on something that sounds boring and you may be surprised.

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Updated July 10, 2007

Though I've been for dinner a few times, today was my first venture into lunch. I have always been intrigued by Ikko's lunch menu, which isn't your standard bento box affair. There was no miso soup or chicken terriyaki in sight. We tried the lunch special, which was a special roll and a chicken meatball and baked mochi soup with daikon radish. The soup was a little on the salty side, but the special roll was a light and sweet combination of tamago, eel, and shrimp.

The same sushi chefs were there for lunch, though sushi specials are featured primarily in the evening. We built our meal primarily on sushi and ventured outside of our comfort zones by blindly ordering. My first encounter with pen shell was on the tasting menu at Cyrus and if that was good, the sushi was mind blowing. The pen shell belongs to the same family as scallops and is expectedly sweet. What is unexpected is the range of flavor, which your mouth explores as the pen shell slowly melts away. Don't miss it.

From left to right: Taraigai (pen shell), Aji (Spanish mackerel), Hamachi (yellowtail)

We were dazzled by the progression and freshness of our sushi, which was dressed with restraint to bring out the natural qualities of the fish. I will vouch for Ikko once more and this time designate it as a C'est Poptastique! pick.

Ikko Japanese Restaurant
735 Baker St Ste C
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 556-7822

Musha [Torrance]

I thought Musha was inventive and I enjoyed the creative takes on the izakaya dishes, but the flavors were a little overwhelming for my palette.

The four of us came in with a last minute reservation on a Friday night and were reseated after they had a large party come in for the communal table. The atmosphere here is very convivial and true to what a Japanese pub should be like, complete with pitchers of Asahi and the like.

It took us awhile to navigate the menu, which is written lyrically in jPop English. We managed to parse out ingredients and preparations and ordered way too much food between the three of us. I remembered asking our waiter, "Do you think that's enough food?" To which, he shakes his head in disapproval and scoffs "No." We laughed about it later, but he ended up suggesting that we order the tuna carpaccio (pictured above), which also happened to be the most expensive thing on our bill. It was okay at best.

The portions were generous, but the ambitious menu items often failed to meet our expectations. There was just too much going on in the dishes. The baked scallop baguette was overwhelmed so much by the melted cheese, that we couldnt even taste the scallops. Hell, we could hardly even see them (pictured, right). The yaki udon was nothing more than a simple stir-fry dish.

And the waiter's scoff? We ended up with way too much food for the three of us. All in all, I would come back because I liked the vibe of the restaurant, the food was decent, and the menu, large enough that there was room for exploration.

* Photos courtesy of Sheepathon

Musha
1725 W Carson St Ste B
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 787-7344

Katsu-Ya [Studio City]

Katsu-ya is tiny and even after arriving 15 minutes early for our 6pm reservations, we had to wait another hour. But let me tell you what, it was worth it.

Only 45 minutes after it was open, there was already a crowd outside the door of the strip mall restaurant. We opened the door only to find another mob, which we had to carefully navigate in order to make our way to the hostess.

We were lucky enough to get a same-day reservation and saw our names scrawled on a whiteboard behind the hostess' podium. It occurred to me that it would be very easy to just take a gander at the board and claim a table that wasnt yours, but I suppose they've been at the business long enough to know that they system works.

The moment our table was ready, we were shuffled into the dining room and brought a whiteboard of specials from which we were supposed to order. I recall a table next to us asking for the dinner menu and scoffing at their selections of terriyaki and tempura when there was a myriad of more interesting specials on their daily menu.

Dont miss the creamy rock shrimp tempura and tuna on crispy rice. If you're looking for something closer to the OC, Ikko in Costa Mesa also makes an amazing rock shrimp tempura salad.

The foie gras was overcooked and lacked the buttery smoothness that one expects from the dish, while the scallops it came with were less than "jumbo". The albacore w/crispy onions looked strikingly similar to the sesame-crusted tuna with warm spinach (pictured) which also came topped with crispy onions. The flavors through both were good, though the onions added little flavor (only texture). The dishes were still perfectly good in and of themselves.

We ordered some yellowtail and found it pretty fresh and well marinated. The honey handroll was lackluster and we've had better blue crab handrolls at Sushi Wasabi in Tustin. Next time, we'll have to peruse the raw offerings some more.

The menu goes on and on and even if you run out of new things to try, the regulars will tantalize time and again. Service was particularly efficient, though not warm in any way. With that massive line that they have outside, Katsu-Ya's objective is to get you in and out as fast as they can, and they do a damn good job of it without making you feel particularly rushed. Our food came out briskly after we had decided on our order.

Overall, we found the flavors to beinteresting without being overwhelming, though the menu can be intimidating. When you eat out as much as I do, intimidating becomes code for potential to impress. I would come here once if a week if it weren't for the hour-long drive.

Katsu-ya has a few other locations around LA, but this one's the original. There's a pretty fancy outpost at Brentwood if you're looking for more of scene.

Katsu-Ya
11680 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City,CA 91604
(818) 985-6976