Yanaga Kappo Izakaya — Restaurant in Philadelphia

This bar has an identity crisis - the sign outside says The Abbaye, so you'd think it's an Irish bar, when you walk in the bar is gastropubish with Asian art and anime cartoons on the walls, then you get the menu and it's Japanese/Asian.

The waitress made excuses about the bar's identity crisis and couldn't offer any liquor drinks that weren't Asian in origin. What I ordered was foul tasting and expensive, some sort of Asian beer.

The decor is juvenile and weird. It's as of a middle schooler was asked to be the interior designer, animal and comic book images abound and Asian-inspired art fills gaps.

The restroom was weirder - the walls and ceiling are covered, without gaps, with anime and comic book images on black backgrounds. The restroom felt dirty, middle school juvenile, and it was weird having hundreds of anime faces staring at you while using the toilet.

I can't begin to imagine what demographic this bar is trying to reach, as a middle-aged man it felt immature, childish, and creepy like they intend to target 13 year olds and not adults.

I didn't sample the food, I have no opinion about...

My first experience here was okay. I felt that the menu was overpriced. I got a salmon poke bowl for $16 dollars and it was half the size of a normal poke bowl. The sushi my date had was the same quality you'd get at just about any sushi place, just okay.

The sake we had was good and I appreciated the bartenders solid recommendation! But the sake menu lacked affordable options. You can get a good bottle of sake at other restaurants in the city for $40 bucks, but here can only get you a carafe.

And they had college football on. Don't get me wrong, I love penn state but it kind of upset the whole vibe of the place and I felt my eye unwillingly drawn to the tv instead of the atmosphere.

Enjoyed the Ichiban on draft and the Studio Ghibli films streaming on the in other TV.

I'd still like to go back some time but just wanted to leave honest feedback, I hope it helps in some way and wish this...

This may be a bit biased, since I worked with Chef Yanaga previously at Zama. I have always known that he was an incredible chef, so it was such a wonderful experience to be able to eat his food again. I ordered two spicy tuna rolls, salmon avocado roll and a tuna jalapeno roll. Sushi is a difficult cuisine to master. There aren't a lot of ingredients that go into making it, so it is hard to mask imperfections. Chef Yanaga and his team exceeded my expectations. The perfect amount of sushi rice was wonderfully seasoned. The slight hint of vinegar complemented the mild flavor of fish I chose. You can tell from the salmon and the preserved fat lines that Yanaga takes great care and time preparing and preserving the fish. Even the Wasabi is fresh and not from powder. 10/10. I can not wait to go and try his omakase. If it is anything like what he would do at Zama, I'm sure it will be an experience...