5 Best Izakayas in East Bay

A truly Japanese experience, now local

Izakayas are casual bars that serve food, kind of like a tavern or a saloon. In Japan you can find two on every street corner, and five in every alley. Instead of the sushi rolls, bento-boxes, and big plates you find in a standard Japanese restaurant in America, izakayas prioritize small share plates that go well with sake. Think agedashi tofu, pickles, skewers, and sashimi. When I visited Japan I fell in love with the easy-going vibes and the delicious food. They’re very welcoming: the word izakaya itself is a Japanese portmanteau of iru ("to stay") and sakaya ("sake shop").

In East Bay, chefs from Japan are recreating an essential Japanese experience on Californian soil. They’re great places to go for a casual drink, but they also serve some incredible food.

Eating at Kiraku feels the most like the restaurants I went to when I visited Japan. Everything, from the kanji art on the walls, to the hot towels, to the charming straw mat full of mismatched sake cups they bring out if you order a carafe, feels very Japanese. The menu is broken up by the food’s relation to sake — the food you eat with, and the food you eat after. The after-sake menu is full of bigger entree-style dishes that can be decadent and filling, like the yuzu chicken udon, or light and refreshing, like the chazuke (rice and toppings in dashi). The rest of the menu is in categories like “grilled” and “fried” and “salad.” A tapas restaurant in format, you’re encouraged to try a little from each menu and share with your table. I recommend ordering three small plates, and one “after-sake” entree per person. 

The food is fantastic and incredibly imaginative. The French-trained head chef Daiki Saito serves house-smoked cod with creme fraiche and crackers alongside japanese classics like okonomiyaki, oyako-don, and grilled skewers. The constantly changing daily menu means you can, as I have done, go every week for two months straight and still eat new, delicious things.

With a drink menu as long as its food menu, Fish and Bird is the best place to go if you want to eat delicious Japanese food, and get your drink on while you’re doing it. Alongside the sake and shochu you’d expect from a typical Japanese restaurant, Fish and Bird also has a slew of inventive cocktails and a generous wine list. 

The restaurant sources local, seasonal ingredients, and pairs them alongside high-quality Japanese fish. In this way, Fish and Bird feels very quintessentially Califonian, while also remaining authentically Japanese. I love their chicken katsu curry on rice. The chicken is crispy, but juicy, and the sauce is rich and complex. If it was economically feasible, I would fill a bathtub with it and drink it with a boba straw.

Soba Ichi focuses on one thing: soba. You can get soba in hot broth or with cold dipping sauce, and alongside tempura or duck. In terms of entree, that’s basically it. The noodles are made completely from scratch. Even the buckwheat is ground by hand, with a stone grain mill chef Koichi Ishii shipped over from japan. They are chewy, nutty, and so, so good. 

Outside of soba, you can also get a few small shareable plates. Even if they’re not the star of the menu, they’re very good. I got tempura, which was crisp and light and came with matcha salt, and the pressed sushi, which was simply delicious. For dessert you can get buckwheat tea gelato, or a rotating dessert they call Kosuke’s Special, because it’s whatever their friend Kosuke wants to make that week. I think this is very adorable.

Stepping into Ippuku feels like a quick sojourn to Tokyo. The low tables, intricate woodwork, and standing tables (tachi-nomi style) feel very authentically Japanese. 
Ippuku specializes in yakitori: chicken skewers grilled on charcoal. They take this very seriously. They source heritage-breed chickens from Manteca, and binchotan charcoal from Japan. You can get smoky chicken thighs, hearts, and meatballs. The vegetarian options, mushrooms, eggplant, and shishito peppers, are also delicious. If you prefer your chicken fried, not grilled, the karaage is excellent. Actually, I’d say everything on this menu is pretty great. I’d go with friends and order as many different types of skewers as possible. Yum.

At Izza, it doesn’t matter what you’re craving: if it’s Japanese, they probably have it. They serve grilled skewers, bowls of ramen, sandos, curry, sashimi, and rice bowls. The only thing they don’t seem to have is sushi (but you can just eat chirashi instead). But don’t think a large menu implies a thoughtless one: the food is fresh, the portions are generous, and the flavours are tasty.