Izakaya BIZAN — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I have mostly good things to say about this place.

Great value, both drinks and food are priced reasonably.

I have been to many other izakaya places where only kitchen food (hot food) is good but sushi is very mediocre or the other way around, but this place is good with both sushi and yakitori.

Must try food items: Chicken liver $3.5/ skewer - for someone who usually doesn't eat liver because of the bitter taste, i can say that Bizan did very well in making it tasty and I can actually enjoy it! Beef tongue $6/ skewer - so tender, so tasty! Premium beef $7/ skewer - pricy but worth the money! Uni Chawanmushi $13 - large piece of uni and lots of fixings inside. Worth the money, and feels food when you enjoy it as last item of your meal, just warm your body and soul! Kamasu sushi - $10 for 2 pcs. Looks like white fish but with high fatty content, they torched it a bit so the whole piece just melts in your mouth.

Sake is priced reasonable too. They actually serve Daishichi Kimoto Honjozo as house cold sake. $9 only, good value and so versatile and pairs well with all kinds of yakitori.

Great service, we requested to switch table when the booth became available. Our serve help us to swtich without hesitation.

The only area for improvement would be the atmosphere! I have never been to an izakaya so quiet......Usually izakaya is a little bit noisy (with people drinking, chatting) with uplifting music. Perhaps it's located in a mall (3rd floor) and the customer base are mostly older people.

I'd definitely revisit if I am...

I spent about $500 on a meal at this restaurant today, and I’d like to speak specifically about the food.

Although this place claims to serve Japanese cuisine, it doesn’t feel like an authentic Japanese restaurant at all. The food was overwhelmingly salty—clearly adjusted to suit American tastes rather than preserving true Japanese flavor. Almost every dish was so heavily salted that it was difficult to eat.

One of the most shocking things was that already salty sausages were sprinkled with even more salt, making them inedible. All the skewers were excessively salty, and while I wanted to leave, I stayed only because I was with other guests. Eventually, even they couldn’t continue eating due to how salty everything was, and we left.

We also ordered yellowtail and tuna sashimi, which the staff recommended. However, it smelled strongly fishy, as if it had started to spoil. It honestly felt like they were pushing that dish because it needed to be sold before going bad.

We tried a variety of items, and with tip, the total came out to around $500. As someone who has lived in Osaka for 4 years and Tokyo for 2, I can confidently say this was a deeply disappointing experience. The food lacked authenticity, care, and quality.

I genuinely regret spending that amount of money, and I’m seriously considering disputing the charge with my credit card company. It makes me wonder if anyone at this restaurant actually checks the taste of the food...

I didn't understand the bad yelp reviews until I got served here myself. I went with a party of people.

Before we ordered food, we asked if we could have our checks split. The waitress said yes.

When we got our orders, two of them were wrong. The waiter who brought out our food was an ass. His voice was abrasive, eyes aversive and very aggressive looking. He just shook his head at us when we told him the order was partially wrong, and walked away without saying anything.

He came back with our orders right. That was good. But then, by the time we finished our food and asked to get the checks split, we were told we had to calculate the separate costs and taxes of the entire check out ourselves. This was a different waiter who brought us our check.

When we finally got it all figured out and we explained everything to the waiter, everything was going to be fine, I thought. Gratuity was tacked on top of the bill without our knowledge so I said here's a $10 for the gratuity. The gratuity was $8.41. She charged gratuity to each of us individually anyway when we got our separate checks back.

We had a hard time communicating with them. They spoke little English so it was difficult the whole time. That's fine, but when you're in a customer service business, you'd think you'd be a lot better.

I'll never eat...