Ever noticed that sometimes you go to a Japanese restaurant, you found out that the restaurant is run by someone not Japanese?
This one we went to tonight is pretty authentic. It's run by a Japanese man, with two Japanese staff (fluent in the Japanese language). And you see many Japanese patrons, so it is a good indicator that the Japanese food in this restaurant should be pretty good. I am talking about the Izaka-Ya restaurant in San Jose, CA. Their menu does not have your usual bento boxes. It actually has a lot of Japanese "tapa" style food listed. One time Joe and I tried their tofu in hot broth and it was very good. The other time we order the okonomiyaki (Japanese style pancake) and it was very good too.
Tonight I ordered the seafood porridge and fish roe rice balls; whereas Joe ordered the beef skewers dinner set, served with miso soup, steamed rice and salad.
Porridge = "rice cooked in soup". In Cantonese, we called it "jook". This seafood porridge was served in an iron bowl. Inside, there were fish, scallops, shrimp, and fish cakes. The portion was big so Joe and I shared it.
The rice balls come in different things inside. I ordered the fish roe kind. One time I ordered the plum sauce rice balls and those were not too good.
Joe's beef skewers were fine too. The beef was cooked medium, not well done, which was a good thing. It tasted pretty good with the teriyaki sauce.
I would recommend this restaurant but you will have to be willing to try the different "tapa" style items on the menu. Sometimes, you will hit a jackpot and get something really good. Sometimes, you will not like what you ordered. Being the fact that we are not Japanese and the menu is extensive, we will just have to keep trying new things every time.
Special note, this restaurant's entrance door is shared with another Japanese restaurant called "Genji". Genji serves teppanyaki style Japanese food. Be sure not to go into the wrong one.
Hello nice to meet you.
KO-N-NI-CHI-WA (^_^)v
I am Japanese.
I saw your wonderful site.
Please link to this site !
【Website】http://food-of-japan.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Yasuyuki Maeda | May 06, 2008 at 02:27 PM