Izayoi Restaurant Sushi Review
Izayoi Restaurant is located on the side of the Office Depot in Little Tokyo. You can park for free at the Office Depot parking lot. Although the building and styling is brand new, the food here is old school Japanese style, with none of the Asian fusion type plates.
I’ve seen this restaurant described as a izakaya style restaurant but I don’t really agree with that. Yes, they do have plenty of izakaya type dishes, but the ambiance here is too clean, and modern and more of a traditional Japanese restaurant with great sushi. Izakaya places are usually older, dark, and more drinking oriented in my opinion. No real izakaya restaurant would close at 10:30pm. Right? You have to be open until 2am to be an official izakaya restaurant. Ah, but what do I know.
The sushi bar (which seats eight) fronts an open kitchen where there are 6 Japanese cooks. 2 of them are for the sushi bar (4 customers per chef), which is a pretty good ratio. The reson why I say the cooks are Japanese is because that indicates to me that the food is the real deal.
On this trip, I ordered the mix sushi (see picture above) which comes with a great assortment that will satisfy any sushi lover, and it was delish. As per “real” Japanese restaurants, the miso soup and hot green tea comes with the meal.
There are tons of other izakaya great dishes here, including tako-su (one of my favorites) so I’ll review more plates in the future.
Izayoi
132 S. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 613-0554
Lunch: 11:30am-2pm (Monday-Friday)
Dinner: 5:30pm-10:30pm (Monday-Saturday)
Map
Update:
Unfortunately, this place is closed. Very sad.
How much was the meal you show in the picture?
$24.50. Not bad for what you get.