An “izakaya” is a Japanese restaurant that serves small plate appetizers akin to tapas accompanied with alcohol. They promote the relatively unknown distilled liquor “shochu” akin to vodka but is made from barley, rice, & sweet potato that outsells sake in Japan. Although there is a full bar, this is a family restaurant.

HUGE reasonably priced portions (try mega-don buri or steak dinner) & large bentos. They sell the most saba (mackerel) in the Nihonmachi (Japantown) part of the International District. Try the ramen, pork-leg broth is slow cooked for up to 8 hours-no chicken broth in a can used here. If you like french fries, try the garlic gobo fry (deep-fried burdock root). The kaki fry (deep-fried oysters) is yummy!

You wouldn’t know it from the outside but the interior was designed by the brother-in-law, an interior designer, in Kyushu & was handsomely hand-built by the owner, Todd Kuniyuki, with lots of wood to resemble the inside of a traditional Japanese home.

Happy Hour is 5-6:30 with appetizer & drink specials. Great place for large parties-I had my 40th birthday party here. Reservations not necessary except maybe for large groups over 6.

This is the replacement restaurant for the now closed-down, but dearly beloved (by me at least) Takohachi restaurant in International District.

Kaname is much more upscale than Takohachi, the interior and decor is a combination of both traditional and modern. The place is a lot more open, and the second part of the restaurant (which was always closed off in the Takohachi days) are now open with additional seating and a bar.

We ordered the chicken karaage and gyozas for appetizers, and flipping through the menu I saw a Donburi item named ‘Kaname Special Donburi – for BIG EATERS!’ and so I decided to order that to test out their claim :) The chicken karaage is tasty and is served with some noodles and a slice of orange, and gyozas were pretty plain.

The Kaname special donburi, was, well, not quite the big eater’s feast I was expecting. A friend of mine ordered a Katsu don, and I think the Kaname special is probably about 15% larger portion-wise than the Katsu don. It came with a good assortment of different items inside though (basically a combination of all different types of Donburi meats are present in here – Katsu, tempura, thinly sliced beef stirred fried with onions etc). It’s quite tasty – I liked it in general other than the fact that they claimed it’s for big eaters whereas it clearly is not :)

The service is pretty slow. But for a new restaurant I guess they still have things to iron out. Overall, it’s not too bad. I will come back and try the ramen next time.