Syun Izakaya — Restaurant in Hillsboro

Irasshaimase!

This restaurant is gorgeous, inside and out, and presented us with the challenge of choosing between the two: we opted for the patio, as it was a warm and sunny June evening. Our next challenge followed swiftly on the heels of the first: the menu is not only extensive, but packed with enticing entrées and alluring appetizers.

While we poured over the available options, we munched on some complimentary edamame, and eventually settled on a bowl of miso soup each (one asari and one nameko), okonomiyaki with beef, yakiudon, and the Rock'n Roll (eel, avocado & smoked salmon). Itadakimasu! We went a little overboard; neither of us realized how large the portions would be, and a sizeable amount of our meal came back home with us (oh no! Heaven forbid!), meaning we were well-fed and content twice in 24 hours!

Each of the miso soups were just a tinge too weak for my personal taste, but as my wife disagrees on that particular point, I know that I'm in the wrong on this one. Everything else, however, was absolutely incredible: the perfectly prepared, chewy gooey okonomiyaki with Japanese mayo, ginger, tobiko and beef marinated in a savory sauce was an instant hit on both sides of the table. The yakiudon was a hearty bowl full of lightly-fried noodles, tasty cuts of beef (ostensibly prepared the same way as it was for the okonomiyaki), cabbage and carrot, and somehow not as heavy of a meal as you might think. Lastly, the Rock'n Roll was equal parts buttery (as good eel tends to be), sweet and savory, unified by the avocado and my wife's custom modification of adding some cream cheese.

Our servers were competent, and friendly enough, although slightly awkward at times, but everything was executed swiftly and attentively, from start to finish. And as mentioned before, the interior of the restaurant is cozy and inviting, and I long for a return here simply to bask in its atmosphere: it truly feels like the kind of family-run izakaya you'd find inside a converted house at the end of a bamboo-lined side street in Kyoto, and I'm all about that.

We've been mourning the spirit-death of our last favorite Japanese restaurant, that sadly ruined their own reputation of excellence with a disastrous menu reconfiguration, and some truly baffling table management practices. Hopefully, Syun Izakaya will not follow in their footsteps, because I think we've found our new favorite Japanese restaurant in the Portland metro area, and I don't think I could deal with the grief of losing...

A bit pricey for lunch, but the quality of the food makes it worthwhile, as does the extensive lunch menu. The woman who showed me to my table seemed unenthused about her job, but the hostess and the server were pleasant and efficient. Will go back there to try more.

Jul 2019 Edit: downgrading my rating based on my recent experience: several mistakes by the server (she was very nice, but only half the order arrived at first, and tea wasn't offered when water was brought). Another server swiped our soy sauce in the middle of our meal (to "clean the container and fill with fresh the soy sauce" we found out later) -- she just reached over and swiped the bottle without saying a word while we were eating. She never told the other server who was in charge of putting them back, so the latter proceeded to put them on empty tables, and it took about 10 minutes before we the soy sauce after we got her attention. Meanwhile the server who grabbed ours returned 15 mins later and replaced the one that had just received -- she didn't believe us that it had already been taken care of.

Now to the food, the content of the rolls we ordered was great as usual, but the way it was served (twice) had the pieces of one of the rolls we ordered stuck to neighboring ones, and they kept breaking apart when trying to separate them. Maybe an off day for them, but a disappointing experience for us - a bunch of mistakes that that left us dissatisfied, but which could have easily been avoided.

We'll be back, hoping for more good food, but a better overall...

If you're avoiding gluten, do not eat here. We tried 3x. Each time, we told the server that our kids have celiac. The first time, we got sick because they used soy sauce instead of tamari like they promised. My little girl had an inflamed rash all over for and constant nosebleeds for weeks (a sign of liver distress). Most people don't realize that gluten lasts in the body for 2 months. The 2nd time, our server promised that they'd switched to tamari in all their dishes. She was wrong. After my kids got extremely sick, we were told that they hadn't really switched to tamari in their recipes. How does this happen?? The last time (I know, we were stupid to try again, but my in-laws wanted to go here.), we were super specific and only ordered sushi. The server promised the manager would ensure no gluten was in our food. My son was then served his sushi with fried wheat crumbles all over it. They did re-make my son's sushi, but charged us for the one he didn't eat - even though they took it away! I only got an avocado roll and asked for tamari with it, they got very ill that night. I suspect their tamari containers really carry what-based soy sauce. The lower quality of the fish + use of cheap what-based soy sauce tells me they're cutting quality. We have gone to Syun for over 10 years. The fish used to be fabulous, but now it is mediocre. We will never go...