I am so glad I found this place via Google Search for "Izakaya"! This being our fiest visit to MSP (Minnesota in general), this place made the trip worth it by itself! The friendly staff, the amazing food, the good drinks, the great atmosphere made the a 10 out of 10 spot! My wife and I started out our food adventure with the Age Gyoza and Takoyaki (minus bonito). The gyoza was amazingly crispy on the outside and warm/hot on the inside and served with an amazing sauce that hit the pallete with such a great flavor. The takoyaki (minus bonito, per request) was to die for! I am not a seafood lover, but every Japanese Style eatery that offers it, I try it. This was definitely in my top 3. The warmth, the dicing on the octopus, the fact that they were cooked all the way through and didn't have a "watery" type texture in the middle, was a treat for the taste buds. We then moved on to our main courses, which I had the Spicy Karaage Sando and my wife the Japanese Karaage Curry. We paired them with a Calpico Chu-Mai (me) and a Koibito (wife). The Sando was AMAZING! I am not much for cabbage and pickled anything, but this sandwich had the right flavor to satisfy my picky eater pallette. My wife thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese Karaage Curry. We being heat fiends found it to not be spicy enough for us, but understand why it was mild. The flavors are different from Indian style curry, where this one had a certain balance to it since it wasn't being driven by masala, clove and other spices. It was fantastic and the karaage was so well cooked! Beware of the Calpico Chu-Mai. You can barely even taste the alcohol and it is soooooo good! The Koibito was a very refreshing drink. My wife says if you like Cosmos, you will like this. It's not dry, not overly sweet, just very refreshing, almost bright and citrusy, because of the yuzu, but no so much that you would compare it to say a lemonade. Lastly, we topped off with MOCHI! We had a piece of the Black Sesame and Strawberry mochis. I was thoroughly surprised by the black sesame mochi flavor. It was almost like a vanilla bean with toasted nut flavor. It was sooo good! The softness you get from mochi with the stiff you get from something akin to ice cream straight from the freezer. Amazing. The strawberry flavored one had a bit of a strawberries and cream type flavor, so don't expect to have the flavor of a fresh ripe strawberry. Overall, this place made our trip worth the 9 hour drive all by itself! I will definitely be coming back to MSP for Zen Box! Thank you Zen Box for the amazing food adventure!