Takuma IZAKAYA JAPANESE — Restaurant in Santa Monica

We finally stopped in to try this Japanese restaurant! This is an Izakaya restaurant. Their menu has a variety of options, snacks,(sozai), Japanese Salads, sashimi, along with hot dishes, dishes and delicious desserts!

We started with the Kabocha Salad, Japanese pumpkin. The pumpkin arrived in a generous scoop,mousse texture with crackers and lettuce. It was a bit bland but I enjoyed it. $6.80

Our favorite dish was the Kara Age!! It arrived piping hot! We asked for ponzu sauce to dip, although the chicken was tasty in its own. $14.60

Next came the Brown Rice Scallop Risotto made with a lobster broth. This arrived in sizzling, (see video). The scallops were a bit chewy. It was very rich but tasty. $18

We also shared the Buckwheat Chicken Noodle Soup which was tasty but slightly bland, however it was beautifully presented. $15.60

Finally dessert! We shared the tiramisu $10, and creme Brule $12. Both desserts were really very good!

The interior space was nice and contemporary and sleek. The bathrooms were clean, single rooms, one for women and the other, for men.

The Japanese staff were all attentive and kind!

Metered parking on Wilshire or the...

I don't really understand all the great reviews. Very expensive for the amount of food you get considering the quality... I expected a $16 plate to have incredibly tender melt in your mouth meat if it's only 3 thing slices, and it cooks at your table. Best thing we had were the little chicken meatballs (6 quarter size meatballs sets you back $10). It was tasty yes, but overpriced for the quality of the cook on the 3 plates we had.

Maybe we were just there at a bad time? Perhaps the cook is usually fantastic and the meat is melt in your mouth. Others say the servers and owner are super friendly and make you feel right at home but we didn't not experience that (the owner was not in evidence, probably home enjoying his evening!), The service was good but not terribly friendly and we felt a...

Can we have the food please ? 1h since we ordered I hope it is worthy (Jeremy, currently in the restaurant) Update 20mn later: 3 dishes served out of 4, not bad (but still without any smile from waitresses) Update 40mn later: food was good honestly, but not enough, will have to find a burger asap Update 45mn later: our 4th friend is served !!!! Yeeaaaahhhhh Update 1hr later: they offered a bottle of sake for both the event and the waiting time. Fair enough but I am still hungry and they are lucky no one wants to order a big mac with me right now, otherwise ... Update when leaving: still no smile from the waitress, still hungry, for a 15 people table that’s bad, So I won’t recommand this place and come on to the macdo! Hope you enjoyed this review it was...