Iroriya - Santa Clara

[PorkyBelly]

Solid izakaya in the south bay right next to my favorite ramen in the bay area, Orenchi, making for a convenient bang bang. Thanks for the rec @beefnoguy

sashimi moriawase - hamachi, tai, saba

karaage
Juicy, crispy, delicious.

aka ebi - red shrimp
Nicely seasoned and grilled making the shell crispy and edible

hamaguri - hard clams
Chewy, meaty, briny

himono - sun-dried charcoal grilled butterfish
Slightly chewy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside

Kamameshi - scallop, salted mullet roe
The scallops were slightly overcooked but the karasumi gave the rice a nice umami flavor.

karatsuki hotate - big shelled scallop

Mochi isobe-yaki

Fresh unagi
Really good, this was slightly charred and crisped on the outside from the grill.

yaki onigiri - grilled rice ball
Crispy, chewy, umami

inaniwa cold udon

toto

[Chowseeker1999]

Hi @PorkyBelly,

Nice! thanks for the report. This looks fantastic. Was the udon handmade?

[PorkyBelly]

Thanks @Chowseeker1999, Inaniwa udon is a handmade dried udon from Japan.

The refined taste of 350 years of tradition

[beefnoguy]

Glad you liked this place!

Several months ago, they removed a number of items on the regular menu. Now the variety looks quite a bit smaller. But you ordered nicely.

This place is the Northern California version of Aburiya Raku, also in terms of satisfaction level, but quite different.

Fresh unagi is awesome, I’m guessing those are sansho berries next to the wasabi. Good stuff.

Their yaki onigiri is probably the best in all of SF Bay Area. They properly season their rice before grilling (and it’s not all regular cooked rice either). It’s perfect with an order of pickles, or some of the other grilled items.

No dessert?

[robert]

That’s going to the top of my list for dinner next time I’m down there overnight.

[PorkyBelly]

@beefnoguy

Fresh unagi is awesome, I’m guessing those are sansho berries next to the wasabi. Good stuff.

Yes those were sansho berries, that and the wasabi was great with the fresh unagi.

@beefnoguy

Their yaki onigiri is probably the best in all of SF Bay Area. They properly season their rice before grilling (and it’s not all regular cooked rice either). It’s perfect with an order of pickles, or some of the other grilled items.

Yeah, it was probably the best yaki onigiri I’ve had. The sauce was salty and sweet and the shiso in the rice gave it a great punch of flavor.

@beefnoguy

No dessert?

Nothing really stood out to me, what are your favorites?

[beefnoguy]

Maybe nothing interesting on offer for dessert that night?

Some of what I’ve enjoyed in the past (availability subject to season/specials)

Roasted tea ice cream (houjicha), roasted (charcoal grilled) eggplant brulee, soba yu pudding or panna cotta, sake lees pudding/panna cotta, soba cha pudding or panna cotta, sakura ice cream, hatcho miso ice cream, mochi with corn sauce, brown rice (genmai) pudding, their house made plum wine/umeshu, black pepper panna cotta,

[PorkyBelly]

Closed. Now sumika