Izayoi, Again

Izayoi
132 S Central Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 613-9554

As always, we start with the sake, unfiltered is I can get my paws on it. They carry this nice Nigori unfiltered White Cream sake, which sounds slightly naughty. It is inexpensive and delicious, two things I love about Izayoi.

They have a lovely sake selection here. I am waiting for T to come back from Africa, and hopefully we will get our foursome over to Izayoi to sample many kinds of sake. Isn't the sake wall inviting?


Wait, what? What happened here? I adore shishito peppers! However, these were so damn hot I couldn't eat them. I have a pretty forgiving palate with regard to heat. It made me wonder if a few jalapenos got mixed up in their shishito box on accident. Whooot! Steam shot out my damned ears.

Next up out of the kitchen is the albacore carpaccio. A little olive oil, some citrus, chives and red pepper pods....delicate and delicious.

D's sushi comes parading out to the table. He is a purist and likes sushi clean and simple. Ebi, maguro (look at the redness of that flesh, lovely), bintoro, and salmon skin maki. Very standard for him, and done nicely. Izayoi also has a sushi bar, but I like to order non-sushi dishes so we always take a table.


The lighting at Izayoi makes for good photo ops.


I find salmon skin doesn't look as inviting as it tastes. Salmon skin is wonderful, salty, crunchy, slightly spicy.


Bintoro is one of my favorite raw fish. I like the slightly soft flesh that melts in your mouth.


D always loves pickled veg, Japanese style. It's nice that they offer this as an entire dish and not just as garnish.


One of the tings I love about an izakaya is that they typically will have something on the menu that I have never heard of. And the small plate format makes ordering something slightly odd fairly risk-free.


The above and below are grilled squid legs in a brown miso sauce. Above is how it came out on the very hot stone plate. She told me to stir it really well.

The squid legs came between two layers of onions. Green onions on the bottom and a thin layer of red onions on top.

After stirring, everything was all mushed together in a brown sauce. I would like to say this was wonderful, but it had an odd flavor. I swear I tasted liver in there.


One lone squid sticks its gam out, alluringly. I ate it all. D didn't like it due to the gamey flavor. But once I got used to it, I kinda liked it. That's just how I roll.