Gaku Izakaya and Yogurtland
Took a friend out for their birthday yesterday and went to have dinner at Gaku Izakaya on King Street (across from Cafe Sistina). I've met my buddies there numerous times but always just for a beer after dinner so I never had the pleasure of a full meal there and was always curious since they've raved about how good the food is. So finally went to check it out last night.
Got there around 7:30pm and was told there was a 40 minute wait. The place is kind of small with just about 8-9 tables and a sushi bar. Decided to wait and it only ended up being about 20 minutes so that was good.
This is what we ordered...
I think this was called Clam and Jumbo Shrimp Salsa (a daily special). We saw the table next to us order it and it looked good so decided to get one ourselves. It was interesting, but not something I'd order again. But the ingredients were all very fresh and tasty. It just didn't have a "Japanese" feel to it.
Orders of hamachi and unagi nigiri. (sorry for the blurry pic, still trying to figure out my camera) I think sushi orders are $4 so it's a really good deal. The size of the sushi is a tad bit smaller than you'd find at other sushi places, but the quality is still good, especially for that price!
The garlic ribeye. Mmm...love the mixture of garlic and fatty ribeye. Was oishi!
The TNT, their version of seafood dynamite (again, sorry for the bluriness). This was the bomb, yo! Get it? "TNT", "dynamite", "bomb"? See what I did there? Never mind...But yeah, this tasted really really good. Nice big chunks of various seafood mixed in with the delicious dynamite sauce. I'm not normally a fan of dynamite (too thick and creamy for me) but I really enjoyed this dish.
Gotta have chicken karaage! This was done really well also. Nice and crispy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside. Splash a little lemon juice on there and then I even dipped it in the leftover garlic sauce from the ribeye for da extra flava. Winnahs!
Top all of that food off with a jumbo bottle of Asahi beer, and I was very satisfied! Both of us loved the food and I will definitely go back. Service is also excellent as all the wait staff are very friendly and if you ever sit at the sushi bar, the 3 guys working there are really cool too.
I was stuffed after dinner but gotta get dessert! So we went to Yogurtland on University Avenue. Yogurtland is following the Southern California trend of building your own yogurt with fresh toppings at places like Pinkberry and Red Mango (was thinking about franchising one of them here but ho da expensive!). Got to Yogurtland at around 9:30pm and had a long line streaming out the door.
The system here is that you first fill your cup with whatever flavor of yogurt you like and then you hit the toppings bar where you can drown your yogurt in whatever you please. You then pay by the ounce. The heavier your yogurt, the more you pay. I believe it was 39 cents per ounce.
The flavors of yogurt available were vanilla, chocolate, mango, peanut butter, cookies and cream, strawberry, NY cheesecake, green tea, green apple, and a few others I forget. Of course, they let you sample too! ^^
The toppings offered were a variety of fruits, cereals, bits and pieces of candy and cookies, and my favorite.....mochi balls! Yes!
Here's a photo of our yogurts.
My creation on the left consisted of strawberry and cheesecake yogurt, topped with strawberries, brownie bits, almonds, and mochi balls!
I gotta say...this yogurt was sooo good. The toppings were amazing. I really loved the combination of the crunchiness of the almonds, the sweetness of the brownie bits, the juices of the strawberries, and best of all the chewiness of the mochi balls! I scarfed my creation down in less than 10 minutes, it was so good.
The 2 yogurts combined cost around $10 so about $5 each and I think that's a really good deal for the quantity and quality you get. I can understand how there's lines here every night.
Yep...better hit the gym hard this week!
Got there around 7:30pm and was told there was a 40 minute wait. The place is kind of small with just about 8-9 tables and a sushi bar. Decided to wait and it only ended up being about 20 minutes so that was good.
This is what we ordered...
I think this was called Clam and Jumbo Shrimp Salsa (a daily special). We saw the table next to us order it and it looked good so decided to get one ourselves. It was interesting, but not something I'd order again. But the ingredients were all very fresh and tasty. It just didn't have a "Japanese" feel to it.
Orders of hamachi and unagi nigiri. (sorry for the blurry pic, still trying to figure out my camera) I think sushi orders are $4 so it's a really good deal. The size of the sushi is a tad bit smaller than you'd find at other sushi places, but the quality is still good, especially for that price!
The garlic ribeye. Mmm...love the mixture of garlic and fatty ribeye. Was oishi!
The TNT, their version of seafood dynamite (again, sorry for the bluriness). This was the bomb, yo! Get it? "TNT", "dynamite", "bomb"? See what I did there? Never mind...But yeah, this tasted really really good. Nice big chunks of various seafood mixed in with the delicious dynamite sauce. I'm not normally a fan of dynamite (too thick and creamy for me) but I really enjoyed this dish.
Gotta have chicken karaage! This was done really well also. Nice and crispy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside. Splash a little lemon juice on there and then I even dipped it in the leftover garlic sauce from the ribeye for da extra flava. Winnahs!
Top all of that food off with a jumbo bottle of Asahi beer, and I was very satisfied! Both of us loved the food and I will definitely go back. Service is also excellent as all the wait staff are very friendly and if you ever sit at the sushi bar, the 3 guys working there are really cool too.
I was stuffed after dinner but gotta get dessert! So we went to Yogurtland on University Avenue. Yogurtland is following the Southern California trend of building your own yogurt with fresh toppings at places like Pinkberry and Red Mango (was thinking about franchising one of them here but ho da expensive!). Got to Yogurtland at around 9:30pm and had a long line streaming out the door.
The system here is that you first fill your cup with whatever flavor of yogurt you like and then you hit the toppings bar where you can drown your yogurt in whatever you please. You then pay by the ounce. The heavier your yogurt, the more you pay. I believe it was 39 cents per ounce.
The flavors of yogurt available were vanilla, chocolate, mango, peanut butter, cookies and cream, strawberry, NY cheesecake, green tea, green apple, and a few others I forget. Of course, they let you sample too! ^^
The toppings offered were a variety of fruits, cereals, bits and pieces of candy and cookies, and my favorite.....mochi balls! Yes!
Here's a photo of our yogurts.
My creation on the left consisted of strawberry and cheesecake yogurt, topped with strawberries, brownie bits, almonds, and mochi balls!
I gotta say...this yogurt was sooo good. The toppings were amazing. I really loved the combination of the crunchiness of the almonds, the sweetness of the brownie bits, the juices of the strawberries, and best of all the chewiness of the mochi balls! I scarfed my creation down in less than 10 minutes, it was so good.
The 2 yogurts combined cost around $10 so about $5 each and I think that's a really good deal for the quantity and quality you get. I can understand how there's lines here every night.
Yep...better hit the gym hard this week!
posted by Myong Choi at 8:12 AM
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