I visited my daughter Catherine in the afternoon so we could go to dinner at the Japanese place we liked from a few weeks ago.
I left early as I was worried about traffic and wanted to make sure I was there early so I could get on the waiting list at the restaurant.
The drive was easy and there wasn’t traffic. On the other hand I got there a couple hours early. Eventually got on the waitlist and went and visited with Catherine. Then we walked over.
Here current apartment is 3 blocks from Telegraph Ave and this restaurant and the French cafe we also like.
And so we returned to dinner at Kiraku with more knowledge and a higher budget. The menu was really hard to choose from knowing what I now know about the place. Everything looked interesting. And I am willing to go farther than Catherine in that direction. Because even though I wouldn’t normally want to order the beef intestine skewer or deep fried chicken cartilage, I bet they are delicious…
However, we stuck with things we could both agree on and had the following.
The 5 piece chef select sashimi plate. You have to order a minimum of 2 pieces of each fish so 5 pairs of slices of raw fish came out. Maybe 1 1/2 inch rectangles. $32 for 10 pieces of small fish. And it was amazing. This is why people eat raw fish. It isn’t cheap. You need good quality. And Catherine thought the ahi was too rich so she gave me half of hers. Good daughter.
Then the grilled tuna cheek steak. I don’t know what they did but the pieces of that melted in your mouth and were amazing.
Then the Canadian black pork with soft boiled egg. Somehow these small squares of pork also would melt in your mouth and were amazing.
Catherine requested we return to the omelet salad which is thin layers of egg over white vegetable sprouts? and pork belly with a delicious pair of sauces on top and bonito flakes.
There were also duck gyoza (Japanese pan fried dumplings) that were delicious.
Then we ordered more. And acknowledged that first batch was a LOT of protein.
Here we made a couple of mistakes.
We had the corn tempura which they are known for. I saw them last time and they looked like rice krispy treats. What they are is sweet corn that is cooked and then battered, molded into a rustic patty and deep fried. They finish it with a green peppercorn powder. They are amazing. Crispy, peppery, and sweet.
Then we tried to order a dish I had seen last time but we guessed wrong. What we got was fried rice with cooked salmon pieces and salmon roe mixed in. It was delicious. Need to ask more questions next time though.
We got what was basically a chicken noodle soup that was good. And pretty large.
Catherine wanted to try the rice balls. I think we both figured it would be like Chinese rice balls but really good. We were right on the really really good part. But because the Chinese ones are small we figured we should get two. And what came out were large rice rectangles (fist sized) with a spicy miso and Yuzu shavings on the outside . They were delicious but large.
We didn’t have room for dessert.
Everything was delicious. Lots of flavor combinations I had never had before. I would happily go back. We have not tried everything yet. Plus they have one page of daily specials that seems different each time. About 15 different things on that sheet.