The Izakaya — Restaurant in Sacramento

It started out great with the miso and pocket roll, then it's downhill from there 😔📉

🍵 Miso 10/10 - Gentle miso smell, with a strong savoury miso flavor, light saltiness in the background. Soft pieces of tofu scattered through the bottom. It's very good.

🍣 Pocket roll 9/10 - Introducing flavor is the soy from the unagi drizzle with the tempura flavor coming into the middle of the chew. A very gentle creamy finish of the crab. Good ratio of rice to filing. This was good, I think the flavor of the crab filling could be a little stronger to make this amazing.

🐤🍗 Chicken Katsu 5/10 - Crispy, the sauce has a sour-tangy profile. It tastes closer to a curry than katsu sauce to me. It's okay, The last time I was here, 3 years ago, the katsu tasted really good. I remember liking how the sauce melts into the crispy dough cover. It was a rich sauce that tasted closer to a deep tangy teriyaki, but now it's not the same flavor at all.

🐟 Salmon Teriyaki 5/10 - Light teriyaki, the grilled fish flavor is the prominate flavor. Ends with the aftertaste of the grills char. It's ok, I think the sauce needs to be thicker. Due to it being low viscosity, the sauce runs off the fish rather than having a sticky coating on it.

🍣 California roll 4/10 - Doesn't really taste like anything but light avacado.

🐠 Saba Shioyaki 3/10 - Strong fishy introduction with the smokiness of the grill left behind at the end. I'm not sure what would save this fish, maybe better quality fish? Or change the way it's stored? Maybe it's the way it's cooked? It's difficult to pinpoint what went wrong with this fish as I didn't cook it.

🐤🍗 Sesame chicken 2/10 - Crispy, but the batter holds onto the oil, so you taste that rather than the batter. I tasted the seasme for only a brief moment as the oil overpowered any flavor. This didn't taste like it was made w/ love.

🍚 Rice - standard, normal.

🏠 - The blinds can't close fully, so the sun shines right into your face as you eat. I didn't think it was annoying at first, but towards the end of my meal it was...

My first experience was amazing here and loved the food. Kitchen was accommodating with making adjustments as I was allergic to a few ingredients. Great service and atmosphere. This was when they first opened.

Second time around, not sure if kitchens fault or waitress fault but on two rolls we ordered without avocado due to allergy reason but they served it to us with avocado. We're not ones to complain much so we were able to push out the avocado on our California roll easily then ate it. The deep fry sushi roll, not so much, impossible and it spread around.

This is where it gets interesting. I tried complaining to our waiter that the sushi roll had avocado in it and if we could get a replacement and without looking at the sushi roll, she looks straight at me and says "no it doesn't" then marched off. It was little busy there that day during lunch and again, we weren't ones to continuously complain at a restaurant, so we put the dish to the side and did not eat it.

Of course, when the check came around, we did not pay for that exact sushi roll and when trying to explain to the waitress that we will not be paying for something we did not eat including not being able to eat it due to allergy reasons (reason for the request to not put it into there) she still insisted that it didn't have avocado in it even though we just tore it apart in front of her and she claimed it was a cucumber. Two different textures and looks, we were not dumb.

Then she had the audacity to chase me and my family out the restaurant claiming that we needed to pay for the rest of the food or she was calling the cops. I let her do her thing and I'm not too sure if cops were called but I left a few dollars on the ground in the parking lot for her time while what looked like the manager followed behind her.

Never been back since but the deep fried sushi rolls the first time around were hella...

HH is life here! . Spicy house Ramen - spicy? nah not really. I would say it is more mild and flavor wise than spicy in my opinion. There is a half egg in the ramen! can i get a yasss! Corn and spinach and beansprouts - talk about a generous portion of veggies in a hh bowl of ramen Slices of pork chashu - hmmm sometimes 2 to 3 pcs depending on the chef mood. Broth - light on the salt and not much msg is what i can taste. Is it rich in flavor? nah not really. Is it bad? no, but its medium and ok. I think they use a tonkutsu broth in it, or maybe even chicken broth. The best news about this dish is it is only $5. So yea can't beat that. . . Iz roll This is a sushi roll and it is my favorite from the whole hh menu sushi they offer. . Whats in it? Spicy tuna, tempura shrimp, with avocado on top and masago, with secret sauces. . i alter mines to no shrimp and put more spicy tuna in it. Overall this roll is scrumptious and presentation is colorful! Definitely a must get in my book. . . cold beer sopporo is my to go to when it comes to draft sometimes they offer kirin as well Beer is served cold in a much for $2.75 which is a plus plus... 3 please! . Overall this is my to go to spot for hh! Unbeatable price for a hefty meal. It does get busy and pack so yea get here early. HH starts at 2:30pm to 5:30pm. Service is always great here. They do tend to be overwhelmed during hh, but i get most things on a quick service. Thanks for reading and lets...