Once again looking for birthday dinner recs - upscale izakaya or kaiseki

[PorkyBelly]

shibumi

Shibumi DTLA

I’m always conflicted when i come here. my brain has a hard time reconciling all the incongruous signals it’s receiving: i smell incense, i see white servers and chefs, i hear loud krautrock playing on the speakers, i feel the 400-year old cypress counter, and i taste delicious traditional japanese food. this has to be the most non-japanese japanese restaurant i’ve ever been to. the whole sakura-mochi-gate was a fucking dick move and hopefully he can learn from it, but i can’t deny the food o…