IZAKAYA Taberu Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Los Angeles

We have been to Japan many times and absolutely love Japan and its cuisine, so when Taberu opened in the Arts District, we were excited. Japanese street food? Heck yeah! And we really wanted to like it here. Unfortunately, there were many things on their menu they need to do better.

First off, nearly all their cocktails contain soda. We're not huge fans of carbonated bevs, and whenever cocktails have soda, that screams laziness to me, a lack of creative innovation.

We were told the Yuzu High and Mango Tango High were hits. Well, I can tell you they were mostly Yuzu Low and Mango Tango Low as both lacked the 'zing' cocktails should have. The mango beverage tasted like mango soda and the yuzu cocktail lacked yuzu flavor all together. I had to ask 3X for more yuzu as I had explained my drink had ZERO yuzu flavor. In fact, my drink tasted watered down, maybe club soda at best. As a solution, I was given a dollop of yuzu sorbet. Yes, a SORBET to add to my drink. It did absolutely nothing. What this drink needed was yuzu liqueur. -__-

Also, both cocktails were served in water glasses. What the cocktails needed was better execution and a catchier presentation. Serve them in a collins or highball, not a glass you'd typically drink water from. The drinks also needed garnish for a contrast in color. How about some mint? We all eat/drink with our eyes first. Presentation is key.

We dined on the spicy tuna roll (nothing special), yellow carpaccio (good but very small portion), truffle fries (UNDERWHELMING), and the "Wow" Gyu Uni Donabe, which was Wagyu beef with 3 strips of uni (sea urchin) topped with ikura (red caviar) cooked with garlic rice in a clay pot. Sounds exciting, right? For $48, it was good but definitely not "Wow."

We are puzzled as to why Wagyu was used in this dish as opposed to sirloin. Wagyu chopped up in small pieces and mixed in with rice is such a wasted way to enjoy this special Japanese cattle of beef. Also, we hardly tasted the sea urchin as there were only 3 strips and once all was mixed in, the sea urchin virtually disappeared. What a shame. The ikura was good, and was really the only thing that gave the dish any flavor.

Service was good, friendly. No complaints here.

Ambiance: industrial chic with lots of yellow. Cute. Modern. Comfy booth seating.

The highlight of the place? The housemade curry powder, which we loved and added to everything. This was a life saver of our foods tonight!

Some of the food and drinks definitely need some tweaking. With so much competition in the area, one would have to convince me real hard to...

I came here twice recently. The first time, it didn’t feel like my server understood the menu well. I asked about the beer garden and other things like the sake bomb and his answers were confusing.

Regardless of all that, the vibe of the restaurant was great. We got the seafood tartar, potato salad, ribs and the wow gyu uni donabe. We also got some pretty drinks but frankly they were a bit too sweet. The food flavors made up for it BUT we did get a seafood tartar with dirt still in the roots of the micro greens. I sent it back and they redid it but honestly I felt they should have comp’d it. Having been in the service industry for years, it honestly was a major quality check issue but they brushed it off like it was nothing but an apology. We still paid for the dish. The flavors of the food made up for it. The items we had were decent enough for us to be willing to come back.

We had friend coming into town that loves izakaya type restaurants so we took a risk to come back to try the beer garden and this time the experience was much better! Ken, our server was on point; the pace of the beer garden dishes were great, and you can’t beat all you can drink for 1.5 hours. All the food for the beer garden experience was great too! Thanks Ken for making our second experience much better!

Recs: The sauce they had on the edamame was delicious! The karage breading was bomb. Definitely recommend the skewers. Potato salad was good with the potato chip textures. I wouldn’t go out of my way for the wow donabe or seafood tartar. The cocktails are a bit on the...

We decided to come back to Izakaya Taberu after having fond memories of dining here about a year ago. Back then, I would have given the place a solid 4/5. Unfortunately, this recent visit was a major disappointment.

Ambiance (3/5) Seating was quick, but they’ve switched over to iPad menus, which felt impersonal and frustrating. If the goal was to free up servers to be more attentive, that didn’t translate into the experience.

Food (1/5) We started with the truffle fries, hoping for something comforting after walking around town. Instead, they were thin, bland, and nearly flavorless—honestly, any fast food chain fries would have been better. We ordered a mix of skewers, but only the chicken and tomato skewers were decent. The tempura set (onion, okra, shrimp, eggplant, asparagus) was poorly executed: the onion slice was too thick and undercooked, the asparagus still had tough ends, and the okra was overly slimy. The volcano roll was another miss—because the menu gave no description, we were surprised to find more French fries inside the roll, which just didn’t work.

Service (1/5) We constantly had to wave down the waiter for refills or any assistance. The lack of engagement really stood out, especially with the shift to iPad menus.

Overall, Izakaya Taberu has unfortunately taken a big step back. What was once a place I’d recommend has become one I can’t see myself returning to until they make some...