This past thursday’s dinner out with the boys was just Derek and me. Our initial phone conversations were indecisive on where we wanted to eat. After tossing some ideas around, it came down to thai or that “inexpensive izakaya place you went to before Derek.” Not having been there myself, I suggested I pick up D from UH and we could decide from there, with the izakaya as first choice. We found decent parking on street, just a short walk. Walking is good for you! Go to Japan, it’s the way to go there. People here are so lazy! Like how all the fitness buff canoe paddlers parked their cars along the road in the beach park when there was a virtually empty parking lot that the road leads to. Anyway, it’s early so we walk to newly opened Ninja Market (Nijiya Market) to check it out, we’ll blog about it sometime.
After our little diversion, we hop on over to Kohnotori. It’s located between Puck’s Alley and the 7-11, in the shadows of the more well known Imanas Tei. Kind of amazing that two Japanese restaurants both doing izakaya can exist right next to each other. I haven’t been to Imanas yet, but I understand its a little more upscale. Kohnotori’s focus is as a yakitori-ya, tasty bits grilled over coals to go with your favorite beverage. The space is pretty small and so you’ll end up pretty intimate with your neighbors. No sweat, it lends to the vibe of casual eating and drinks. I actually feel less claustrophobic here than our recently reviewed and visited Tokkuri Tei. The interior decoration is less cluttered, feels more open, and the a/c was working well.
It’s pretty packed when we arrive, but seats just opened up at the counter. A few minutes wait and we get front “bolohead” row seats for the action, right in front of the charcoal grill. Derek seems a little bothered by all the CMU blocks that seem to hold the grill up. Eh, mo autentic grill akshon!
Crack open the menu, surprisingly the beer selection is pretty small. Sake and shouchu looks fairly extensive. But the Kirin on draft is ice cold and tastes fresh. Kirin in bottles is not my favorite, but on draft its pretty tasty. Certainly no complaints here.
Arabiki
- Shiitake
So now we hit the food menu. There’s a nice array to select from, what to start with? Gyutan (beef tongue) and arabiki sausage are our no brainer favorites. The shiitake sounds intriguing and we order that as well. It’s a fast grill item and arrives first, topped with daikoroshi (grated diakon) with shoyu and katsubushi (bonito flakes). Tasty! The arabiki is next, and it’s hard to wrong with that.
Negima
Bacon asaparagus
We forgot to order this at Tokkuri, so we go for it in our first round here, negima. No otaku boys, not some lame Ken Akamatsu cash cow manga, this here’s much more palatable skewer of chicken and thick negi (green onion) slabs. To finish off round one, we get another surefire hit, the bacon wrapped asapargus. There just is no way to go wrong with that one!
Oh, and the gyutan arrives and is muchly enjoyed! We like gyutan!
Gyutan
Watercress salad
Having finished our round one, it was a good spot to take a breather and we ordered the watercress salad. A generous helping of fresh crisp watercress topped with a tasty miso based dressing. A nice size to split between two. On to round two!
We ask about kawa (skin), must be good, but they’re all out. Denied! What is it about skin, before it was the salmon skin roll, now this. Oh well, next time.
Tsukune, shiso ponzu and wasabi
Bacon enoki
So instead decide on more bacon, this time wrapped around enoki mushrooms. Of course, bacon is failsafe. The enoki gives it a neat texture, but doesn’t really give any flavor. Though good, the asparagus wins. We look at the specials posted on the wall, in english written as meatballs with either shiso ponzu, wasabi or a third flavor I forget. I learn later that the japanese tsukune indicates that it was minced/ground chicken. We decide to get one ponzu and one wasabi to sample. The tsukune is yummy, the ground chicken is spiced with green onions and other flavors so in of itself is tasty. Shoyu ponzu is great, and the wasabi is simpler as it’s simply the tsukune with a noodle of wasabi which allows you to taste the tsukune.
Yakionigiri - shoyu flavor
Fried renkon and meat
The urge for carbs (other than beer) kicks in and we order yakioinigiri, shoyu flavor. One of these days we’ll figure out how to do yakionigiri without it falling apart on the grill. We still have room and this item on the menu caught my eye. English was fried root and meat. The root here is renkon, lotus root. Not having any idea at all what to expect, it was interesting to see what arrived. Slabs of half moon renkon sandwitching ground meat, lightly eggwashed, salted and deep fried. It was quite good with the renkon’s crunch and flavor with the spiced meat. Don’t know what kind, but it was all good.
After all this we are satiated. Could even fit ice cream. We are a bit apprehensive on what our total bill will be, the dangers of this style izakaya eating is what seems cheap per order quickly adds up without realizing the total bill. We are pleasantly surprised to find our bill comes out to $30 per person, including the two draft beers we each had!
Pretty good value, tasty. Service you might have to speak up and flag someone down for your order, but that’s not out of line for this style of eatery. Open late, till midnight. Small parking fronting the store shared with Imanas, don’t count on finding a stall. Oh, and be advised that your clothes will smell after. The smoke seems to vent out and doesn’t get into your clothes, but the Japanese tempura restautant smell will. Four out of five happy monkeys.
Mesmerized by the glowing yakitori orb
The third tsukune item is visible in the grill picture. “with plum sauce”.