Izakaya Wasa - Irvine

Last night for dinner Cayla and I met my parents for dinner at Izakaya Wasa  located at the Irvine Spectrum Center.  I am a long time customer here and usually sit at the sushi bar in front of Hiroshi, my favorite sushi chef.  He is awesome, and in fact I usually call ahead to make sure he is working and won't go unless he is.  If you go ask to sit on his side of the bar and tell Hiroshi, Chad sent you.  With that being said, we sat at a table last night since there were four of us and it would be hard for us all to talk to each other seated at the bar. 

To drink I went with my "usual" here, Kirin Light and Hakutsuru Junmai Gingo sake.  Hakatsuru Junmai Gingo sake is my FAVORITE sake, I even stock it at my house :) 

To start I went with the Maguro (Tuna) sashimi.  This is one of the things I love most about Izakaya.  It is consistently fresh, dark red in color (I hate when tuna sashimi is pink!!!), and has such a tender texture that you barely even need to chew it!  My mom went with Maguro sushi, and she agreed that the Maguro was excellent. 

Next up I went with the Masago (Smelt eggs) and quail egg (on the left of the photo).  It was very good.  The texture is one of the things I love most about it, it barely requires any chewing, and it tastes great!  My dad went with Topeka (flying fish eggs, in the center of the photo) and Hamachi (Yellowtail, on the right of the photo).  My dad said both were fresh and tasted great!

Next on the list for me was Sweet Shrimp.  Sweet Shrimp is prepared using a Spot Prawn.  Two come in an order.  The shrimp is cut in half where the tail meets the body.  The shell is removed from the tail and served raw on rice. You then have the option to have the head tempera fried or turned into a soup.  I always get them fried.  It is AMAZING!!!  The shrimp tail is, like the name suggests, just a little bit sweet naturally.  The fried head is THE BEST PART!  It tastes almost like an amazing fried chicken, but even better!!!  I highly suggest it!

One of the things Cayla got was a Sky Dragon Roll.  It's a California Roll with Ebi (cooked shrimp),spicy tuna, and avocado on top.  She said it was good, which is a compliment from her since she's not what I would call a "Sushi Person" LOL!

My mom decided to try the sesame chicken in addition to sushi.  It also came with a California Roll.  She said there was too much sauce on the chicken, which was sweet,  and they wound up making her another order of chicken with the sauce on the side.  However I must say, she's often like Meg Ryan's character in When Harry Met Sally, meaning she usually orders and likes everything ON THE SIDE, so take that into consideration when reading this ;)

To end the meal I went with an order or Tako (octopus) sushi, and Ohyou (halibut) sashimi.  Both were very good and tasted fresh.  The Ohyou had lemon on top and came with a ponzu sauce on the side for dipping.  Very good combination!

To some things up, you CAN'T go wrong with Izakaya for sushi.  In my opinion it is the best sushi I've tried in OC and I've tried a lot, including a few in Laguna which people rave about.  Those are very good, but I think Izakaya is even better!  Also, if you go with someone who doesn't like sushi, they have a very large menu of Japanese food to choose from.  This place is very consistent and I can not recommend it enough!

How about you?  Have you been to Izakaya before?  Do you know of another place that is amazing for sushi in OC???