I didn’t get a close up shot, but this is the trio sampler of bites meant to be washed down with beer, shochu, or sake (sake for me, is the best). You can order them individually of which the portions may be larger.
From left to right: Marinated firefly squid (hotaru ika okizuke), tuna guts (“maguro shuto”) on top of cream cheese, and squid marinated in its own bile and squid ink (shiokara).
The food is very savory, lots of texture, but the highlight was the pairing of the super salty fermented tuna guts with soft cream cheese (almost like a brie, but I didn’t ask what it was). Typical classic izakaya fare to kick off the meal, and to start drawing out the powers of the sake you drink with.
On my trip, I did not visit any other LA izakayas, only Kinjiro and Aburiya Raku where their offerings/styles are different. Aburiya Raku does not have something like this. I will say that for LA this is very good, and the cream cheese/maguro shuto took me by surprise. Usually this trio only exists as individual portions, so kudos to Kinjiro for offering a trio/sampler. Add the marinated wasabi octopus (takowasa) which is a standalone, and it’s all good.
Feeling very inspired from reading this post, I made a very early post-work reso for one yesterday. Next time, I won’t go alone. Too many inticing things on the menu to try. Marrow and uni risotto are clearly two of the most delicious things I’ve had in a while. Tongue was “OK” and the hojicha panna cotta was a nice way to end the meal. Place started to fill up rather quickly despite the early hour on a weeknight. I’ll be back.
Well, a small part of me had been wondering if Kinjiro could live up to the hype but after just a couple of dishes I was like Lili von Shtupp, going “It’s twue, it’s twue!”
There were four of us; we got a lot of stuff and closed the place down. At the end it was just us and a friend of the house, a cool, older Japanese dude and we chatted with Jun (the owner) for a long time about the restaurant, about sushi in town (he seems to know all the chefs; he told us Chef Yoshi from Mori is now at Kiriko), a friend of his who has a ramen place in the Twin Cities etc. etc.
What did we eat?
The fresh oysters in ponzu.
The uni/scallop/blue crab in ponzu.
The chilled, battered smelt.
The soy-marinated firefly squid.
The wagyu carpaccio.
The thick cut beef tongue with sea salt.
The agedashi tofu.
The chicken maki-age.
The bone marrow dengaku.
The black cod with miso.
The uni risotto.
The grilled onigiri riceballs.
Perhaps the only thing we didn’t love was the riceballs. Everything else was a hit, but I’ll single out the tongue, the bone marrow, the smelt, the agedashi tofu (shit, I’ve already “singled out” four things, but I’ll keep going), the oysters in ponzu, the uni-scallop-blue crab and the uni risotto.
Just great stuff and such a pleasant atmosphere. And a crazy deal for what it is. All of the above plus two small bottles of sake (Hakkaisan, Dassai 50), one large bottle of sake (Cowboy Yamahai) and a number of beers came to about $320 before tip. I cannot imagine that we will not return on every trip.
We live a bit south of the Twin Cities. We visit L.A a couple of times year as it’s where my wife’s extended family live (plus I lived here from 1993-2003 and have a lot of friends here still). Going forward it’s probably going to be just one trip a year though as we’re taking my mother-in-law back to Minnesota to live with us at the end of the week.
Wow, your Mother-in-Law agreed to move to Twin Cities? She must not have lived through a winter, LOL.
I lived in the Twin Cities (Burnsville) back in the mid 80’s. I left in the deep of Winter and was so happy to be in Southern California. Have been since then.
Glad you enjoyed it, next time try the wagyu skirt steak over rice, kanpachi kama, foie gras, any of their sashimi, green tea soba, and foie gras custard.
Well, the first year is the trial period. If she can hack the winter and also not being around a large Korean community she’ll stay–being with her grandkids will be some compensation. Looking forward to the home-made kimchi!
It’s amazing what the human body can get habituated to. It helps that we spent our first four years after leaving L.A in Boulder but even then I would not have believed you if you’d told me that I’d be taking the dogs to the dog park when it was -4 out…I mean, I grew up in India.
Of course, we’d come back to Southern California in a heartbeat if we could. Alas, in our profession mobility is limited and now we’re both “made” and so probably there for life.
Will do. Since we’re at Mori for dinner very soon we steered clear of the raw fish last night. The foie gras custard was on our list but the uni risotto pushed us over the top. They’d recommended 8 dishes for four people–we were at 13 (we got 2x of the uni-scallop-blue crab in ponzu jelly).
We were at Szechuan Impression, Gjusta and Elite (for dim sum) earlier; will probably return to Luv2Eat for lunch today or tomorrow. Other than that I think it’s probably going to be family stuff. A lot of people want to say goodbye to my mother-in-law.
