Izakaya

Once upon a time, and very jet lagged, in Japan we sat on the raised floor of an eating and drinking establishment (about which all i can remember is that it was dark, we were sleepy from the bath house and one of us fell asleep while we waited for our food) and ate small dishes of food with beer. Some of the food was japanese and there were some korean influenced dishes too. That is what Izakaya means to me in terms of food and that is also the name of a new place up our street which opened last year. Our local is rather brighter and fancier, the food is more specifically Japanese, but the option of choosing from a range of small dishes is the same. We've been a couple of times now and are very pleased to have another evening option on our street, which has a fabulous daytime cafe scene, but has little in the way of evening eating. Both times we've stuck quite highly to the specials menu, which last time looked like this...



We ordered a couple of glasses of prosecco, miso soup with tuna, the calamari, the crab omelette and from the regular menu sticky rice coated dumplings and the silver whiting. The miso wasn't anything special and the tuna pieces in it didn't really work as they had become dry, but everything else was gorgeous. I was so excited by the dishes that I don't think that I remembered to photo any dish before we had split them in two.

The calamari was soft and smoky, with a sweetness from it's sauce.



The omelette was filled with the soft flavour of the crab and the mushrooms and sat in a puddle of a light broth.



These sticky rice coated dumplings were filled with chicken, prawn and ginger and then steamed. They came with a hot yellow mustard (not so much hotter than a fiery wasabi) and a vinegar dipping sauce.



There is no picture of the silver whiting which was rolled with shiso and salted plum and then lightly tempura battered and fried. We've had this and the omelette both times and they are brilliant dishes. It's really nice to have a japanese restaurant that serves more than the standard sushi, rice and noodle dishes and that serves it so well. There is a precision, delicacy and balance in their cooking.

Crab omelette for breakfast anyone?