Saturday dinner — Japanese izakaya with sake!
Saturday night Japanese izakaya date — small plates, grilled skewers and a flight of sake. Casual but proper Japanese dinner.
Saturday night out with BB at a Japanese izakaya. Used the Chope app to grab a slot ahead — izakaya nights this size run on the small-plates-and-sake formula, and the whole experience is meant to stretch over 2 hours.
We ordered:
- Sashimi platter (salmon, hamachi, tuna)
- Yakitori — chicken, negima, pork belly
- Agedashi tofu
- Aburi salmon sushi
- Sake flight (3 cups)
The sashimi was the opener — clean cuts, properly chilled, with rice vinegar in the soy if you wanted to lean Edo-style. Fish was firm enough to bite cleanly, no slippery off-notes.
Yakitori coming hot off the binchotan is the dish that always justifies an izakaya. Chicken thigh skewers had that smoky char crust, juicy inside; negima brought sweet leek punctuation between the meat; pork belly was glazed dark with tare sauce.
Agedashi tofu — silky tofu, crispy starch shell, lightly dashi-soaked. Aburi salmon sushi torched at the edge with a mayo drizzle, indulgent and rich.
The sake flight ($25++) gave us three small cups across a dry-to-sweet range, with little tasting cards on the tray. A fun way to figure out what we actually liked beyond defaults.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Lazy, satisfying Japanese izakaya night — would absolutely repeat.
