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"A++ in my book. Ive tried most of the Ramen joints in the Sawtelle/Little Tokyo/Asian Corridor area, and I must say Ramenya is my favorite.…" read more »
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I love Yakitori & Izakayas! However, this place was just okay for me overall. The menu is not as extensive as other yakitori places OR izakayas. But they had some things on their yakitori list that other places don't have (like the duck..) But it tastes just as good as other places.
One large plus is that they have happy hour (I believe after 7?) where all the chicken yakitori's are 50% off and a pitcher of Kirin is also 50% off! And their yakitori's weren't too bad.
//Yakitori//
Thigh - pretty good. Kind of different from other places. I like that the chicken was juicy on the inside but crispy skin on the outside. (but it feels oily.. so if you're keen on grease.. watch out)
Hearts - Their hearts were pretty good. This one had sauce on it, but I'm used to it being salted, but it was still good. Nice and chewy. (Don't let the fact that it's hearts creep you out. It's like any other meat.. But be warned that "special hearts" might be a little weird.. because it tends to be very grainy... kind of like cooked liver but not as grainy"
Wings - Pretty good. My friend liked this one the most that she ordered 4 orders of it.
Chicken Meatball - okay so they say meatball.. but it's more like chicken stick.. it's one elongated piece of meatball which almost resembles chicken strip skewered onto sugar cane... Their Chicken meatball was very good. I normally do not like the chicken meatballs (tsukune) because it's either dry or bland. However, this one had pretty good flavors and was moist enough.
Chicken Neck - This was good also. It pretty much was like the chicken thigh.. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. If any difference, it is more tender.
Chicken Skin - This was interesting. Crispy, but a bit oily for me. I preferred the Chicken Thigh, because it had the meat to balance out the skin. This one tasted a little burnt also. For almost the same price... I'd say Chicken Thigh is way better.
Quail Eggs - um.. I don't know how to review this.. because it's just boiled quail eggs on skewers then grilled on charcoal? so it tastes the same as other places.
Duck - This was pretty different because I don't think I have seen peking duck served as yakitori anywhere else.. If you look at it from a yakitori standpoint it's great cuz it's unique.. but as an actual peking duck... it's not that great. The skin is crispy and the sauce is great, but overall it feels a little dry. It was probably the portion of the meat compared to the skin and sauce.
Bacon wrapped Okra - First of all.. when they say bacon.. they mean pork belly (same thing just not cured or seasoned). But this was really good! The okra especially was great. Other places tend to overcook it so it loses its freshness and bite. But this one was done just right so the pork belly was cooked completely but the okra still had alot of bite to it.
//Sushi//
Yellowtail (Hamachi) - Their hamachi sushi was very good. Yellow tail is my favorite sushi ever, and the one served at robataya was still fresh, and the fish was still firm and had bite to it (it wasn't mushy)
//Other//
Spicy Cod Roe Rice ball (Mentaiko Onigiri) - Although they say spicy.. mentaiko is actually not spicy at all. It's just very salty. So never try eating mentaiko by itself unless you're used to it! Once you get a liking to mentaiko.. just mentaiko and rice can be like the best meal ever. Having said that, I liked their onigiri. The ratio of the mentaiko to rice was just right. Actually, my friend thought it was too salty, but I didn't think so. So just to warn you, some people do find this dish a bit salty or fishy (although she didn't mention the fishy part).
Overall, it was a standard izakaya / yakitori restaurant. Nothing spectacular but nothing horrible. One big plus for me was the happy hour on yakitori which most places don't have, which I think makes them as equal as other places even though their menu may be way less.
I've come here twice - once for lunch and once for dinner. For lunch I had pork ramen, which was $8.50 and very tasty. My bf got a bento box with short ribs, tempura, spicy tuna roll, and shumai for $12.50. Lunch is a great deal. Only downside is that they don't have the full menu and the only skewers available are ones the kitchen might have prepared early for dinner.
When we came here the first time for dinner I thought it was ok. Good but not mind-blowing. I would give this place 3.5 stars if I could. The best was the beef tongue. The food took a while to come out and they forgot some of out skewers, but they were quick to apologize and brought us complimentary dessert. There aren't many restaurants like these in the area so I would recommend this if you are craving yakitori on Sawtelle.
Hubby and I used to LOVE this place! Until they decided to cut down their wait staff which made it near impossible to place an order.
To be fair, their food is tasty. I love skewers. In particular, they make great chicken skin seasoned with salt, chicken wings also seasoned in salt, short rib, foie gras, asparagus wrapped in bacon, very crispy and juicy chicken karage, tuna tataki salad comes in a lovely citrus dressing, hubby enjoys their buta kakuni (pork belly braised in a light soy broth that's served with half an egg) and I'm quite in love with their shitake mushrooms which are smoky and juicy.
It's a great place for a casual night with friends who enjoy sharing food. I wish they'd bring back the wait staff though.
A solid izakaya joint in the Little Osaka area. Visited for the first time last Friday for dinner. It isn't as quite good as Furaibo, which is just a couple of doors away, nor is its menu as extensive. However, everything we tried was tasty.
Here's what we had:
- Chicken salad which came as a free starter: This was okay, but not my kind of thing.
- Yellowtail teriyaki skewers: Wonderful. The teriyaki glaze was light, and beautifully enhanced the sweet, moist, perfectly cooked yellowtail. This is a must-order.
- Pork belly skewers: Fabulous. The meat and fat were well-balanced and the skewers were nicely cooked. Another must-order.
- Chicken gizzard skewers: Not bad. A bit on the chewy side.
- Chicken heart skewers: This was quite good, tender, with a rich "chickeny" flavor.
- Bacon wrapped jalapeno skewers: Sweet, salty, and spicy all at once. Good, but nothing to write home about.
- Fried oysters: Coated in a crispy batter and juicy on the inside. Very good.
- Fried chicken: Tasty, especially with the various dipping sauces which provided extra moisture. A good choice for a more interesting version of a chicken nugget.
- Clams steamed in sake broth with red pepper flakes, garlic, and butter: Mmmm, so good. Yet another must-order.
Service is good, the restaurant is clean, and unlike Furaibo, it isn't as crowded. Overall, a 3.5.
While it's not the best robata in town, nor is it the cheapest or most authentic, there are a couple of dishes here that could be inducted into the culinary hall of fame.
First and foremost is the Kakuni Tatsutage. Nuggets of braised pork belly are dusted in a five-spice mixture and deep fried. They literally melt in your mouth. There's also the cherrystone clam. Briny and buttery, with just a touch of white wine, this is one phenomenal clam. The sweet prawns are also a must.
Among the yaki dishes, the beef tongue, eel, and chicken skin, tails, and meatballs are all pretty tasty, but nothing groundbreaking. Nice and salty, with the smoky perfume of bincho. We tried a scallop dish from the specials board that was grilled in the shell with something resembling a pesto; my friend commented that it was the least Japanese dish he'd ever tasted in a Japanese restaurant, but it was interesting nonetheless.
It can get a bit pricy, but if you fill up on a rice dish like the soboro gohan (only after you've had the pork belly and clams) and avoid overpriced and ill-conceived items like the beef-wrapped foie gras or sushi, it's a very fair value. Plus, there's no corkage fee, so bring a bottle that you've been saving and pour a glass for the grill-master. I suggest a chilled Pinot Franc.
More like Robata-NAH! It was the night before Halloween and we actually wanted to go to this great little Lebanese joint. However, because it was late, we knew that we weren't going to make it. So we drove up and down Sawtelle thinking we'd pick a place and go. Bad idea. The place looked safe from the outside, but the food was HORRENDOUS. We ordered some relatively safe dishes; chicken neck, short ribs, chicken thigh, chicken meatball, and masago sushi. The neck was nothing but slimy, greasy fat, the thighs were smaller than my thumbs, the meatball resembled Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, and the masago was disgusting. Their only saving grace was that the staff was polite. However, we won't be going back. We came, we saw, we survived. Barely.
Food is standard fare, nothing to really write home about. Happy hour had some possibilities, but waiting an hour and a half to only get 5 out of our 10 orders is pretty crappy. Lucky for us, we complained of the snail paced food service and the manager comp'd our meal.
The waitress said she'd check on our order twice, but never came back to tell us what the hold up was. The best part of the service was the bus-boy. He was hauling ass cleaning off tables, getting ppl clean dishes and silverware, just being proactive and doing a mighty fine job- the only tip of the night went to him.
And the regular prices are kinda steep, as you're looking at about $3 for just one skewer.
I'd much prefer Furaibo down the street. They've been around so long, and they know what they're doing. Plus, they have a much better variety and selection than this place.
I dunno y'all... the happy hour might be a decent deal... but during normal hours, the price and quantity blows.
The quality vs. quantity ratio is definitely out of whack and I don't think I'll be coming back unless a gorgeous model drags me back kicking and screaming.
As an example, it's 2 bucks for 3 sub-2-cm thick slices of zucchini brushed with their "special" sweet glaze. 2 bucks for about 9 cubic centimeters of zucchini. That is robbery. I can buy 2 whole organic zucchini for 2 bucks!
Whenever I eat at Orris or Chabuya or just anywhere on Sawtelle, I always pass by this place and never really thought much about it. But I finally decided to try it out and I was glad that I did!
I ordered the my usual when I go to any yakitori spot (beef tongue and chicken/beef liver are my absolute favorites!). I usually get chicken heart as well, but I saw that they had chicken "special heart," so always being food curious, I had to order it. I believe it was supposed to be less fattier than normal heart, but I can't say for sure.
Here's what we ordered (thank god for my food pictures!):
-beef tongue
-veal sausage
-chicken liver with wasabi
-bacon wrapped asparagus
-chicken skin
-chicken special heart
-skirt steak
-chicken gizzard
-pork belly
-foie gras wrapped in skirt steak
-chicken meatball
-shitake mushrooms
Everything was delicious! Maybe it's because we went in with low expectations, but overall my dining experience was great. The service was topnotch as well. Our server lady was very attentive and friendly. I'm so glad we finally decided to try this place out. It has earned a spot on my regular dining out rotation!
Pros:
- Nice decor
- Considerably larger menu compared to other yakitoris
- Overall good flavor
Cons:
- Pricey
Favorite Dishes:
- Fried Pork Belly (best pork belly in the area)
- Pork Belly (still good)
Five stars for being a classy modern robata/sushi spot on Sawtelle late night...I think we got there around 11am after several failed attempts at other places which were closing. All I know is I had to help my buddy who was about to explode in to a food hunger monster and we managed to quell it for one more night. Thanks for saving me, Robata Ya.
Happy hour 5:30p-7:30p
Happy hour menu was 1/2 off the chicken skewers, 1/2 off draft Kirin pitcher and 1/2 bottled sakes.
The skewers were small but during happy hour, it was well worth it! Each skewer order was only about $1.10 each. Can't beat that.
My bf and I are very adventurous foodies so we ordered chicken gizzards, chicken hearts, chicken special hearts (bigger and with the aorta attached), chicken liver, chicken thigh, chicken skin and chicken intestine. We also tried the tongue which was the favorite of the night. The texture was undescribable and delectable. We also fell in love with the eel (unagi).
Along with the food, we ordered 2 bottled sakes (Crazy Milk) and a pitcher of Kirin.
The total of all the food and drinks was about $54.
Parking: lot and street parking.
Service: Awesome! We even bought the chef an Asahi!
If you come here, be adventurous and try the tongue!
Yes! I'm a fan of Yakatori! And this place is a good place for hanging out, getting a sake and some yakatori with friends.
Their chicken is the freshest in the area. The boss get their chicken everyday in the morning, FRESHLY killed. :) Unlike the frozen/previously frozen and refridged chicken without any taste in it, it has an "organic chicken" smell. So this might not be the one for those who like genetic/processed meat.
PLUS, they have 50% off all chicken yakatori MON-THU 5:00-7:30PM!!!!
Besides chicken, they have steak and veggie and fresh seafood. They have a tank in the kitchen. So you can basically order a shrimp and eat it raw at the spot or tell them to bbq it, so the shell is so crispy you can chew and swallow it, the head is so juicy and sweet, and the meat is so tender. They also have several fresh oysters laying around on the ice. I usually eat it raw with the sauce they put on. SO YUM!
It can be a little pricey if you ONLY get yakatori there if you're hungry. Try other stuff on the menu and enjoy a couple of your favorite yakaroti sticks on the side.
:)
:)
This place is amazing. Everything I had was cooked perfectly and tasted great. Bonus : Happy Hour : Tuesday - Friday 5:30 - 7:30. (1/2 price chicken, sake and Kirin pitchers). A meal for 2 (about 15 items) was about $40 no alcohol this time :(
Another mediocre yakitori.
I like that street food is finally being recognized as equal to haute cuisine here in the States, but the fact that what I can get for a couple of yen in Japan is costing $3 a pop here. The food at Robata-Ya is pretty tasty, certainly not the best I've had, but good. Solid. My boyfriend and I ordered the Okamase tasting for $25, which had a sampler of different things. We also had a sampler of deep-fried things for $14. The food was good, but not really filling for us (but we have big appetites, so that might not be reasonable to expect for us). The chicken hearts and unagi were our favorites.
I thought the restaurant was worth trying, but the bf and I both agree that we probably won't be regulars. If I could give it 3.5 stars, I would. We sat at the bar, and the chef personally served our food, which was pretty good. The place does have excellent service, so maybe that's what your bill is REALLY going towards.
Simple delicious food from people I can trust. I mean, isn't that what we all want?
Dennis and his family chicken and Mako and his bomb attention to detail and authenticity, my thanks to you.
My crew ordered everything, we loved it all. I, personally, am not into hearts and gizzards and crazy meat like that but my friends were devouring it like it was the magic meat with healing powers. Meats veggies and sushi, all great.
Even though I live a few blocks from Little Tokyo I will be getting a regular fix in Little Osaka @ Robata-Ya.
We stopped by after a visit to the Wine House. Love the sauce, love that bincho charcoal flavor, and I will definitely be back if I'm in the area.
The special chicken heart looks like a cave-dwelling salamander (that's been cooked and dipped in sauce, of course), but damn if it isn't delicious! From the specials board we got the skirt steak wrapped in foie gras and abalone - the former was rich and delicious and the latter was extremely fresh and delightfully crunchy.
Don't know about the gripes on price, I paid the same amount for equally delicious yakitori at Kappo Honda in OC. The two of us left stuffed for $60 per person. We eat A LOT. The most expensive item we ordered was the abalone at $18 for a plate of sashimi.
I really liked this place. Some say the food isn't flavorful, I just say it's wonderfully subtle... which is somewhat typical of traditional Japanese cuisine, imo, versus Western cuisine... Western cuisine is more "BAM"--btw I hate to use a word here popularized by Emeril... ugh I hate that guy, so annoying--and in your face... i.e. lets put as much seasoning on it as possible whereas here the flavor seems to settle on you and come over you slowly... I dunno if I'm making any sense here but yeah... love it, though a bit pricey.
I loved the cold spinach too... it was just the right temperature.
The decor and presentation is nice. We had the bacon-wrapped quail eggs, chicken skin, chicken breast with wasabi, shish??? (the thing that looked like a chili pepper but tasted like a bell pepper), onigiri, and spinach. All were pretty damn good, I must say. Will come again soon!
I came here a few weeks ago for a birthday dinner and had a great meal here. We had a party of 6 and were seated promptly. The service was great. The servers were friendly and helpful. It's true that English might not be their first language, but we came here to eat, not to have a grammar lesson, but they were cute so I didn't really care what they were saying.
Because it was my first time here and we were in a group, I didn't do the ordering but just ate whatever was placed in front of me. Pretty much everything that we had was pretty tasty. From what I can remember, it was a birthday and we had a few drinks, the items that I really enjoyed were the short rib, skirt steak, shitake mushrooms, chicken meatball and okra. There were some others that I liked, bacon wrapped asparagus and bacon wrapped jalapeno, but I might be biased because you could probably wrap a sneaker with bacon and I'd probably eat it. Topped off the meal with a rice dish (soboro) and I was pretty stuffed.
The portions weren't the largest like the other reviews state but when I am faced with this problem, I usually just order more. (This might explain why my waist is growing at an alarming rate)
Honestly, I can think of two other restaurants that you could go to in the immediate area where you can get better food in larger portions at a lower price.
Honestly, the food here is really good. It's not the best of its genre that I've had, but it definitely tastes great. Unfortunately, the portions that you receive are very small. All of the orders consist of only one skewer and the prices do not reflect this. I pay similar prices for two skewers at other restaurants.
One of the things that this restaurant excels at are things that are wrapped in bacon, such as the Okra wrapped in bacon. The flavors were immense and I was very impressed. I also loved the nasubi (eggplant) because the slices were perfectly marinated in the miso based sauce.
However, the downfall of this place is its chicken organs. They were overall lacking the flavor that is usually found in organs and I felt as though not as much detail was given to the preparation of the organs. I did, however, enjoy the pork intestine, which I haven't been able to find anywhere else.
The waitresses also messed up a few times, bringing a bottle of spirits when we asked for Agedashi Tofu (a dish involving deep-fried tofu in a broth). They also failed to bring a few of the other menu items we ordered, which seemed odd. We sat at the counter, so the chefs gave us our skewers individually.
The restaurant was also extremely noisy and I felt that it was hard to have a conversation. I've been to other such noisy restaurants of this type (including a couple in Japan) and it was not this hard to carry on a conversation with fellow bar mates (such as my parents). Oh well.
Overall, this place is good, but don't expect value. I'd eat here again with friends, but I'd definitely suggest other restaurants of the same type first.
Special Chicken Heart for the bizarre food foodies.
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
As a frequent visitor of Lollicup, I couldn't help notice the new restaurant that opened up next to it a few weeks ago. I've been on a roll lately trying out new restaurants based on Yelp reviews, so I decided to try it out this past weekend.
I've gotta say it's good, but portions were way too small. We got 8 dishes and each had about 2 bites. We ordered a bottle of sake along with dishes like chicken meatballs, skirt steak, marinated shitake, tuna ponzu ceviche, etc... and it came out to be $40+ for the two of us, It reminded me of the food we got at Nanbankan... small, savory Japanese izakaya-like dishes but too pricey for the portion. I'm not a big eater, but even I wasn't satisfied.
Next time I crave izakaya-like eateries, I'd probably just go down the street to Furaibo. Overall, both my bf and I left feeling as if we just had a few appetizers.
Due to some strange psychological sickness, I truly enjoy watching the monstrous clusterfuck that is the first day of any restaurant opening. With few exceptions, day 1 is usually a major disaster, may it be "Animal", "8 Oz", "Church & State", "Delancey", etc.
Even an experience chef/owner such as Mako Tanaka, chef of Mako: http://www.makorestaur... , chef-to-be of Luau Beverly Hills, couldn't salvage a 2.5 hour meal driven by robata (traditional indoor open flame barbecue pit) destroyed by a miscued computer printer.
We started off the evening seated outside but as the temps dropped, I clamored for a view in front of the mentally-warming bincho grills. Yet as the gracious and accommodating hostess moved us to the robata bar, my heart immediately sank since 1 of the robata was clearly fired by gas. But typical of an opening roller-coaster experience, my heart then sang as my eyes moved left and spotted the bincho powered robata. Conclusion: fish and vegetables were mostly fired by the gas robata, pork / tori items fired by bincho.
And what pork it is! Almost every porcine dish uses kurobuta, from the meatballs to the sausage, etc. The chicken was all Jidori: http://www.jidorichick... , raised free-range and whole grain fed. Certain dishes (such as the drumsticks) specifically utlizes young Jidori, the tenderest of the wholesome Jidori. By unanimous decision, the best dish of the night didn't come off the robata, but from the kitchen's deep fryer: fried braised Berkshire pork belly. It is, as I like to say: Fuck-me good.
Unfortunately, said busted computer equipment lost our ticket and we were haphazardly given skewers that 1) we didn't order 2) we ordered but first delivered to another table 3) we ordered but came unidentified by new staff 4) we ordered but never came. We also never saw the yaki-onigiri which the chickie craved Pavlovianly.
With reasonable prices, great ventilation and quality ingredients (French Dole, Kumamoto oysters, etc.), Robata-Ya became a formidable rival to Yakitoriya on its opening day. There is goodness to be found here.
Caveat Emptor: They weren't kidding about that $3 cup of green tea. No free matcha here...
Grand opening day: Sunday, 9/28/09.
Man there are some whack reviews going on about this spot. When the head chef of the place spends his evening manning the bincho-charcoal grill, you know exactly that this place is primarily meant to be a yakitori joint. As such, you guys should try the presumed specialty of the establishment instead of judging solely based on their small dishes. Cause last night I grubbed hard on the skewers and let me tell you, they were A+.
Of the many skewers and dishes we had last night, the standouts were:
-beef tongue
-chicken neck
-chicken wing
-kobe skirt steak wrapped around fois gras
-special chicken heart
-unagi
All cuts are liberally seasoned (as they should be) and with the perfect amount of slight char and smoke flavoring the meat. I should note that I also tried the most balanced teriyaki sauce I HAVE EVER TASTED. Normally I loath sauces as they end up either too salty, or all too often, sickeningly sweet. However, the sauce which basted both the unagi and special chicken heart was the perfect accompaniment to the flavor profile of these skewers. When I asked the chef his secret, apparently he makes the extra effort to import brown sugar from Okinawa. Did you know Japanese people made brown sugar? Neither did I but it MAKES BOMB-ASS SAUCE!
Prices are reasonable and mostly on par with establishments like Shinsen Gumi and Kappo Honda.
Visited Robata-Ya for dinner on a Sunday out of curiousity. BF and I have had yakitori at many other restaurants and are pretty well schooled on the basics. With that being said we ordered the usual fare: chicken ball, spicy chicken ball, skin, pork belly, garlic, chicken breast with wasabi and tofu salad. Ambience is nice, staff very attentive but food wasn't good. It lacked any real flavor. Chefs manning the grill didn't seem proficient. The tofu they used in the salad was firm, every other restaurant I've ever been to (and I'm talking about Jap places, not PF Changs) uses silken or something similar. The skin wasn't crispy, kinda gross how it was still rubbery. Chicken ball lacked any flavor, infact we didn't even taste any spice at all.
Overall, I would stick to Shinsengumi. Same price but way better food. If you're too lazy to drive, go down the street to Furaibo.
I am a fan. Instantly won over -and that can be difficult.
Decor -well-thought out. I'm a little mischievous and into lighting concepts. hee hee. The back of our seats had glass plates -and could be lit up -like a display if they wanted to. I couldn't pick the glass plates/tiles out because they had done it in a locking way. Child-proof. Smart!
We could see our food, but it wasn't blaring, and where we were seated -nothing blaring into our eyes. However, one of us was seated with our back to the food prep. This can remedied easily with mirrors. However, I sat in a great corner.
Service was great as well. Several waitstaff came to help us with every turn of the menu. They were either, funny, adorable, personable, genuine, charming, or sophisticated. Isn't it weird when I have nothing bad to say?
Oh, I know. No cute male waiters. LOL
It was either here or Orris. Oddly, 15 minutes before we got there, I thought to myself, hmmmm. LA -land of Fusion cuisine. I've never had French-Japanese before. And then we walked by Robata-Ya and Orris. OOOhhh!!! Let's go to the French Japanese place! It looks so beautiful!
Eh. We would have been seated outside with our backs turned to the sidewalk. There were no French or Japanese people working in Orris. And the crowd-it wasn't really worth mentioning. I would have stuck out like a sore thumb.
(Yes. I am a RACIST when it comes to food). I know, let's go to the Asian place with Asian people eating in it, and Asian people working there too!!!!
What did we get that was worth noting?
Sauteed Foi Gras with pineapple. That was delicious, but a little on the oily side. I suppose that's what you get w/ ANY foi gras as it is duck/goose liver that has been fattened...
Kakuni Tatsuta Age. Memorize this. It will save you from a frustrating experience of ordering something you think you are getting. There are several different types of pork belly items. Get this one. Deep-fried in miniature brick shapes. DELICIOUS and substantial compared to the other pork belly offerings. Oh, and it has a beautiful fuschia-pink and white, pickled ginger-stalk garnish.
Bacon-wrapped quail egg. These were yummy, and I've never had anything like it.
Scallop and sea-urchin. Lobster and scallop dynamite. Nicely executed.
Unagi-skewers. Heck yeah! They were even "shaped" on the skewers to look like fish.
We got about 9 other things, but those were note-worthy.
Btw, I judge Japanese places also by their UNI. And theirs wasn't bad...
All of the food was visually compelling and photo-worthy. Even the tables were cool.
I rikey. I rirry rirry rike.
Nothing gets me excited quite like a new restaurant opening on Sawtelle, and after a wave (nay, a tsunami) of Korean-run businesses that have hit the area, I was especially jazzed to hear of a new *Japanese* restuarant. On Sawtelle- imagine that. And not your usual sushi-bar or curry house, either.
"Robata" refers to charcoal grilling in Japanese, and the highlight of the menu are the grill items, ordered a la carte. There's a variety of meats of course, but the vegetable selection is surprising varied as well - your vegetarian friend won't go starving here. There's also a smattering of kitchen and sushi items as well - the breadth of the deceptively brief menu was quite impressive. Most items are quite reasonably priced, but portions are concomitantly small - meat items are priced by the stick, for example, so that $2 meatball order - yup, 1 meatball, so your final tally is really going to vary on how you order.
Still, it allows for exploration, since if you don't end up liking it, what's a couple of bucks, and hey, there's more to try anyway! The food kept coming at a decent clip, too, unlike what can happen at other similar establishments (ahem, check my review of Nanbankan for a alternative pacing) and service was quite excellent. It could be because we got there late and so missed the heavy dinner hour crush, but given it was opening week, I thought the entire staff (and it really did seem like everyone on the staff stopped by our table at some point) were really friendly and welcoming.
And cute. Hmm, maybe that's what made the food taste so good...
I'm shorting them a star for now as none of the dishes knocked my socks off, and there were some minor mix ups with our order, but I'm willing to forgive opening week jitters - I'm looking forward to going back and giving them another shot at that 5th one.
What's weird about yakitori is that its origins are from street food of leftover parts, but it's never cheap in LA. This place isn't expensive, but not really a bargain either, especially with modern appetites.
I've had probably the best chicken heart I've ever had here. All the skewers were pretty good as well as the agedashi tofu. The servers were very nice, but actual service was a bit uneven. Not a deal breaker. I'd go here again to try out the rest of the varied menu.
As a frequent Sawtelle visitor, it was inevitable that I'd end up here. But, I'm glad I came sooner than later.
For a later than usual dinner, I and my husband walked in to a restaurant that was about a third full. But as the night wore on, it just got busier and busier.
We opted for a table rather than the grill (robota) bar. But there are also cafe tables and outdoor seating, so plenty of choices. The space is right-sized, not cramped but not cavernous and the Japanese paper lamps and kites overhead, along with the anime on the flat screen in the front of the restaurant, along with the music selection give a great vibe.
But on to the most important thing -- the food! Robata-Ya has most of the traditional yakitoriya staples (like at Nanban-kan, Terried Sake House, Yakitoria, and Sakura) but offers some interesting twists on these, as well as some unique choices. There are also hot and cold choices, and some sushi options as well. For a first visit we stuck w/ the charcoal (binchon) grilled items -- though be warned, it is one skewer per order.
By far, the paper thin zucchini, ponzu flavored slices and the practically bite-sized and insanely buttered corn on the cob were the standouts, but their tsukune (chicken meatball) rivaled any we've had here. I had some of my favorites hatsu and sunagimo (hearts and gizzards), as well as quail -- which was the first 'fried' quail egg I've had. The hatsu was a stand out for the perfectly matched portions and the wonderfully sweet taste. While good, the tomato-wrapped bacon was not memorable.
For larger portions, we had soboro gohan, tomato salad and shumai (the only dish that I would recommend other diners bypass -- though not awful, not worth the diversion from the other menu items).
The soboro gohan was the third standout of the meal. Unbelievably good! It's a ground chicken over rice dish, but at Robota-Ya, they add a more traditional Japanese touch of a raw quail egg. This is by far, the best soboro don in LA! Made me think the owners could dial it back a little, as they were like helicopter parents hovering around their restaurant, worrying unnecessarily given the service and quality of the menu.
In any case, as a huge izakaya fan, I'm thrilled to have yet one more option (and such a great one at that) when I'm feeling that craving for grilled goodness...
Swung by for a beer and quick bite before some shabu-shabu action next store. Everyone was very friendly, I ordered their micro-brew Ginga Kogen unfiltered and it was excellent, from Ingka, Japan somewhere in the middle. They have all of the typical Robata items such as random chicken and pork parts, etc and they do a nice job. They also have a sushi bar but I did not partake. In all a pleasant atmosphere, very similar to Robata Bar over in Santa Monica, just as pricey.
my first time having robata and it was delish. i'm not a huge chicken fan but i'm a fan of this place's chicken...juicy with lots of flavor.
I dig this place for it's clean flavors and great location. I love that there's parking too. The sweet shrimp fresh from the tank was awesome and the ice cold beers served in the chilled glass is niiiice. The glass was so cold that my Kirin actually formed a little ice layer at the top. Try the jidori chicken parts (gizzard, neck, heart, etc.) you won't regret. Now if I can only get them to start serving lunch...
Terrible portion.......
For Japanese tapas in this neighborhood? with that price?
Not sure how many empty brained White people will be visiting this place, but definitely not enough portion.
Food quality wise.... it's not that great either.
I have to be critical of this place since I had super high expectation.
We did...get a VIP room in the back and was treated with good service, ( the only reason why I'm giving a three star instead of two)
but Seriously....this place needs some major upgrade.
Either price adjustment or increase in portion.
Because taste-wise, it's actually below Furaibo...
Service is decent, but which Japanese place isn't?
we ordered so many dishes here... but all of my friends were still so hungry that we decided to go to Furaibo instead....
omg... I think it was our first time ever to restaurant-hop...
anyhow. nice surroundings, but all the restaurants here look the same.
Not recommended for big groups, perhaps after work with supervisors or clients to impress them with tapas and sake?
it's not much of a scene at robota-ya unless you count steve gutenberg eating in one of the few booths in this very dark restaurant.
the sushi here is, of course, really good because sushi roku next door rolls it but i've had much better japanese bbq with larger portions than here. and, oddly, the server mentioned a couple times how they grill the skewers over organic charcoal and i just thought, ok, but i'm not eating the coal...
we ordered the japanese "meatballs" and some kobe beef (bacon, basically) wrapped filet mignon skewers and both were very chewy. and expensive. i had to get some sushi because no amount of organic bbq'ing was going to make their hot food taste better.
and all those tassels hanging from the ceiling look really dusty...kind of made me itch. ditto for the large pictures of harajuku girls on the walls.
in short, sushi roku is awesome and there conjoined brother is bad but just as expensive.
no arigato, mr. robota.
since the line to furaibo was over an hour wait, we opted to try this new place since it was only down the block. our party of 6 got seated outside.
the waitress was very friendly, and the items came out very slowly.
dishes:
1. tebba saki-they used a green tea salt which gave a weird flavor to the wings.. they were not that great
2.skirt steak-the pieces varied in size, but it was pretty good
3. spicy ramen--came in a kid size bowl and came out really late after we were done with all our dishes and we had to ask about them.
ironically, we were still hungry after our dinner, so we ended up eating a second dinner.
word on the street i'm a picky sob. just wasn't born with a golden spoon.
grand opening day had me in a upbeat mode. but then, confusion, miscommunication and etc then lead it all to an awkward evening. menu looked promising. skewers orginally ordered mysteriously disappeared but then made it to the other party's table. yes, i did gave them one of my nicest dirtiest look as i head for the exit. poor lucky bollocks probably wondered what they deserved. it's my sloppy seconds you're chewing.
although we did get the appetizers we ordered, and highlight was defintiely the braised pork belly, but not enough to overcome the three hours gone to waste.
sixteen bucks a head for the cup of hot tea, couple of appetizers and unwanted skewers(wrong order).
what a shame. really. maybe they've improved since then, but then i've other things to get to.
lesson learnt, being picky is genius.
So we went here a few days ago to try a new robata/yakitori/kushiyaki (I just call them "skewer") restaurant on Sawtell. Here are some comments:
-The service was extremely slow and our server barely spoke any English.
-Some of the chicken skewers were under cooked, so we had to send them back
-Portions were small and much more expensive than similar restaurants in West L.A.
-Grilled shrimp was good.
-We spent close to $100 (with only 1 beer) and I was still hungry afterwards.
I think I'll stick with Nanbankan in West L.A. or Sakura House in MDR for now.
I and my husband headed to Sawtelle for dinner as usual. Cuz it is Friday night, almost every restaurant is crowded. So we decided to try out the newly opened Robata. The specials looked good. We ordered a skewer set (including 6 skewers), a crab handroll, a scallion and lobster hot dish, a piece of yellow tail and a plate of sushi (only four pieces) and a small bottle of sparkling sake. Every dish is soooo good, we can't stop talking about the food after dinner. It seems so addictive. The service is good but a little new. The atmosphere is excellent, especially for two persons. Although the portions are too small, with plenty dishes, we ended up with full stomachs. The only thing will stop us going there frequently is the bill. Before the tips, we got the $70 bill just for a regular dinner.
For some special occasion or those who got gold in their wallet, we suggest them to try it. IT IS really good. Although for us, it will only be once a while...
This is a winner. We just tried it tonight.
It is in the complex at Sawtelle and La Grange that houses Orris, Mizu 212 (sp?), Chabuya, Taka Hair Salon, and some other places. It complements the other restaurants well because Mizu 212 is shabu shabu, Chabuya is ramen, and this is closer to yakitori, with lots of good barbecue.
It was nice to see that on a Sunday night, this place was very busy. We arrived at 6pm and were seated, the place was filled within about 15 minutes. I think on this side of town it is pretty unusual to see a restaurant filled like that before 7:30pm. I had the impression that many of the other parties had already been there several times even though it only opened a few weeks ago.
The focus here is on charcoal grill, I guess yakitori. We ordered a bunch of skewers, pretty much at random, and liked everything. Skewers we ordered included salmon, chicken gizzards, some kind of intestine but I forgot which animal, chicken meatballs, beef skirt, bacon-wrapped tomato, bacon-wrapped asparagus. We also ordered grilled mushrooms and eggplants. They were all quite nice. I would have a hard time picking a favorite. Maybe the salmon or the beef skirt. We also had edamame and the age-dashi tofu (sp?) both of which were fine. Sushi, sashimi, and other stuff was on the menu but I figured at least for the first night I would stick to what appeared to be the speciality.
The sake menu was pretty nice. We ordered 'drunken whale', I think Suigei, and it was pretty good. They had something called Crazy Milk on the sake menu which my son wanted to order but I convinced him to have a Sprite. Maybe I will try the Crazy Milk sometime.
The service was very friendly and attentive.
I think we'll be coming back here often. There were a lot of other items on the menu that looked quite interesting, and a lot of specials as well. I think this would be a great place to come in a group of 4 to 6 so you could really go crazy on the menu and order piles of stuff to try.
Given how packed this place was early on a Sunday night, I suspect reservations would be a very good idea if you want to get a table anytime later.
Whoever picked the music also had very good taste: tonight they had Thievery Corporation's new CD "Radio Retaliation" going.
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Neighborhood: West Hollywood
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Neighborhood: Santa Monica
Los Angeles, CA
Category: Japanese
Los Angeles, CA
Category: Tapas Bars
Los Angeles, CA
Category: Barbeque
Los Angeles, CA
Category: Japanese
Los Angeles, CA
Category: Japanese
