A good friend of mine in Guangzhou, during my January 2019 food expedition, brought me, with another acquaintance, in his favorite Japanese-style izakaya.
We went in a residential area and the izakaya, in the best of the Japanese tradition, was in the ground floor of a non-descript apartment building.
The staff was very happy to see my friend.
The visit
The dishes started to quickly flood the table.
First dish was a shirako sashimi (it was the season). This is a Japanese delicacy very difficult to find outside Japan.
Then we got the first part of an Hokkaido’s king crab. The claws were rich of pulp to pike.
Then a typical izakaya dish was served: grilled squid with cheese. We ordered two.
A very tasty boiled abalone.
Then the rest of the crab came grilled with cheese.
Then we went from sea to land with a piece of wagyu steak.
One of the highlights of the dinner was a grilled Japanese kinki fish chosen from the available fresh fish of the day. The kinki is regarded more and more as a luxury as only limited quantities are available every year. The perfect white pulp was consistently delicious and it lived up to its reputation.
By now you would say that we were done… but some of the best dishes were yet to come. The next dish was cooked at the table and was an original sea urchin dumpling in a kimchi soup.
I can only say that I would be glad to eat this kind of dumplings every day! I found it an excellent fusion dish, including the kimchi soup that I gladly drank to the last drop.
We also sampled some yakitori. The chicken skin was perfect.
Now toward the end of the dinner, we were served Chinese pastries filled with cream cheese both sweet and savory.
Also a salad was served.
The dessert included a trio of sorbets (I had the apricot one),
And at the very end we got a panna cotta.
The check
The dinner was offered by my friend and he insisted that I took a picture of the check as he knows that I run this blog where I always publish the final check. The check was substantial and had two big ticket items (the crab and the kinki fish), with many of the other dishes very reasonably priced.
If you are craving for izakaya food in Guangzhou, this restaurant does a fantastic job. I would be back just for the sea urchin dumplings. They only have a Chinese menu.
Where in Guangzhou:
61 Jiaochang East Road (a couple of blocks south of Martyr’s Park station of metro line 1, exit A)