Izayoi

I cannot believe this place is closing. This is MY lunch place!! and also izakaya place. I always get their sushi, konyaku, tori nankotsu (chicken cartilage, shishamo (capelin), buta kakuni (pork belly), and kara age (fried chicken). Their staff is so great and super nice.

Make sure you try this place while it still stands. Shinsengumi is taking over! (although their ramen is really good! it kicks daikokuya's butt any day)

Izayoi was a bit disappointing. The service mediocre and the food seemed like something I could make even better. Details are as follows:

The menu items looked fantastic. The choices and the pictures. The menu sported some of my favorite dishes. The outside of the restaurant is decorated with newspaper headlines with boastful comments.

I thought I was in Izakaya Heaven! They offered various choices for the lunch specials including Angus Beef, Beef Tripe Udon Soup, Rock Cod, Kobe Beef Sizzling Plate, Soba and more!

I told Maggie C.. I "bragged" to Maggie C that I found a cool place and she agreed to come. The only thing worse than my food was seeing the disappointment of the food in Maggie's face. As such, I picked up the tab. I have to offer my sincerest apology.

~Cold Soba with Tempura
The waitress assured me the soba was delicious. I opted for an additional charge for the added Tempura.
The noodle was clingy and the texture poor. The taste was insignificant. Drowning it in an uneventful dipping sauce did little to make it appetizing.

~The Tempura
If you like frozen tempura, then this is for you. So, only one piece was frozen. That didn't matter. The tempura tasted like something I could purchase at Costco. It would not have mattered so much except the waitress assured me it was delicious. When I went to get the bill, a plate of tempura was being returned by another party because it was frozen.

So, no thanks. I have had better. I doubt I will be back.

We don't get up to LA much and when we do, we go with a big group which has its pluses. It means that when we eat out, we get to try a lot of stuff. Going to Izayoi was not any different. There were 12 of us at dinner, each of us ordering a few items and most of us tried everything. Like Lena, I don't remember every dish we had, but there were a few which stood out, a few which didn't and some which were just plain nasty.

The ones which stood out were the chilled lotus root appetizer, buta no kakuni (very tender and flavorful), mushrooms and baby scallops in a garlic butter sauce, black cod, minced sardines wrapped in shiso and deep fried. I also enjoyed the miso eggplant a lot, but then again, I love eggplant no matter how you cook it.

Then there were those items which you can't really go wrong with, such as edamame, agedashi tofu and ankimo. Zaru soba was also not too bad, although it was a bit doughy and nothing like what you get at Fukada.

Garlic stem with bacon sounded great but they over cooked the garlic stem and the maple flavor of the bacon just didn't register "Japanese" to me. Another mushroom dish was ordered, I think, simmered in soy and mirin, but that did not impress. Neither did the grilled duck slices (too chewy) nor the spicy chicken (which tasted like orange chicken) create a stir.

Some sushi rolls were ordered - I enjoyed those but again, they weren't stellar. The grossest thing which I tasted that evening was the duck slices with egg cooked in a pot. When it finally arrived, it looked like it should've been part of a donburi. It was pretty nasty and sadly, it was something I had ordered.

We had a great time, but I wouldn't return again especially since this is located in J-town and there are just too many other places to eat at. Atmosphere was nice, but I can't eat my surroundings. And oh, even though this calls itself an izakaya, it really isn't in the traditional sense.

I went to lunch and I was disappointed.  

Nick H told me about this place and I came for lunch.  I couldn't eat the food.  Rice bowl with chicken and egg on top.  The sauce wasn't bad but it was super dry.

It's not his fault because the menu looked pretty good.  He apologized and picked up the tab.  Parking is crazy at this Office Depot complex.  Too crowded and too small.  

I probably will not eat here anymore.

2 stars!!

Izayoi is not yummylicious!!

When you look up "mediocre" in the dictionary, you should see a picture of Izayoi.  There's nothing "wrong" with it but there's nothing "right" about it either.  The food is overpriced (except for the Kirin draft during happy hour), the flavors are average, and the restaurant lacks ambiance.

We gave the beef tongue a try and for $6, we got 6 tiny pieces.  The pieces were hard and chewy and not enjoyable at all.  We also ordered the seaweed salad and it was basically iceberg lettuce and seaweed and some dressing.  Way to be creative...

The only thing that I truly liked was the chicken gizzard and that was only because it was coated with some miso-based sauce.  Again $6 bought us a tiny plate of gizzard.

It's not even the prices that bother me.  It's just the consistent mediocrity. There are a handful of other izakayas in the area. I would recommend any of them over Izayoi.

I didn't know what to expect when I came here on a whim last week. Sushi-Gen was full and I didn't want to find parking so the idea of parking in a lot for FREE was enticing.

Overall the experience was delicious. The miso marinated pork belly was sooo good, it was like eating chunks of sweetly glazed bacon. We also had the homemade cold tofu which was texturally perfect and very fresh, I could see how one could think it was bland, but I thoroughly enjoyed how refreshing it was. but you have to be a tofu lover  The seared duck breast was also a favorite and seasoned perfectly. We also got a few rolls, spicy tuna, eel, and a rainbow roll stick out in my mind, fish was exceptional and of high quality. None of that slimey-ness that accompanies sub-par fish.

The only let down of the night was the fried lotus root was not the way I usually have it, it was fried in one big piece then sliced in a very heavy panko  batter, I've had better. The portions are small, be forewarned and service was adequate but could have been better.

Tab came out to be just under $30 with tip a person which isn't too bad for the amount of food we ordered. But we didn't order anything seasonal.

I would stop by again though, free and easy parking around dinner time is hard to beat.

Briefly: Expensive, small portions, feels more like Sushi + Fusion than Izakaya, good service, and nice decor.

I think I came here with the wrong attitude. I was expecting a menu more along the lines of Haru Ulala or Furaibo. But this place just seemed more like a Sushi spot mixed in with a Fusion menu. To call this place an Izakaya seems wrong.

What really ruined my dining experience was the two cuties sitting next to me. They had a inane conversation in Minnie Mouse voices all night (my friend says it's a turn on for him, not so for me) And then the hostile one went off on the waitress because she was unimpressed by the Fondue. Sweetie, here's a suggestion: don't order fondue at a Japanese restaurant. The rest of the crowd seemed on the baller-ish or yuppy side of the world. If you're laying out $50+ for casual dining I guess that counts.

Also they got a county rating of  'B'. Yah I ain't coming back here. Food wasn't bad, but for the $$$ I expect a lot more gastro happiness.

As its name suggests, Izayoi in Little Tokyo is an izakaya. So I thought it was not a sushiya in the traditional Japanese sense and was surprised to see an extensive selection of sushi/sashimi on their menu. And I kind of expected less when I ordered some of their sushi and boy was I wrong. It blew me away!!

First off, visually their sushi looked perfect. Each one of sushi was grabbed/cut so precisely that you'll see that the heights of maki are the exact same with each other. This skill requires Swiss clockwork precision and is a quick measure of one's skill with yanagi bocho (sashimi knife). Anyway, their sushi looked great and I gave much respect to the chef before I started eating.

And it tasted very good. Sushi neta was fresh enough and its portion was generous and well proportioned with the sheri size. Their sushi combo delivers the most bang for the buck among sushiyas in Little Tokyo. It got more expensive items than the ones in any other places. It comes with 10 pieces of sushi and 6 makis and all of them are top notch. I liked their ika sushi. Usually ika sushi doesn't melt in your mouth. But boy they got one of a kind. It literally melted in my mouth just like mochi. Amazing!

Izayoi offers solid sushi and has instantly become one of my favorite sushi joints in Little Tokyo. I can't wait to go back!

Solid!  Everything we ordered here was yummy.  I especially liked the whole grilled squid and the tekka don (tuna over rice).  The albacore salad and monkfish liver were also good.  

The service was pretty quick, very friendly.  Glad I found this spot in Little Tokyo! :)

Parking is free--in the Office Depot lot (shared with Starbucks and Yogurtland).

What do you think when you hear Nobu Matsuhisa?

Nobu's signature miso marinated black cod!

To be honest, miso marinated anything is delicious (especially seabass!) and the black cod at Izayoi was no exception. The dish was delicate, sweet, hot, just all around mouthgasm. Found the recipe from the "Nobu Cookbook" and hoping to recreate this dish at home. *cross your fingers*

We also had the yellowtail sashimi. My favorite type of sashimi along with salmon (yes. i'm pedestrian. sue me) OMG. Generous, fresh, thick pieces. I would come here just to eat yellowtail all night long.

The mushroom medley and ginko root appetizer was amazing also. the portions are generous. The hot sake pairs well with everything.

Another wonderful neighborhood spot that's not in my neighborhood. *sigh*.