14 replies to this topic

[Bob Loblaw]

Opening late June in the old Bob's Shabu Shabu space: http://azumaizakaya.com/

[Koozebanian Fazoob]

Website has been updated, and they've announced that their soft opening date is the 6th of July. Menu looks really promising, they even have Ramen. I'll probably stop in the week after to check it out.

[JPW]

I see a long overdue meeting of the RPLC (Rockville Pike Lunch Club) happening soon.

[DanielK]

I see a long overdue meeting of the RPLC (Rockville Pike Lunch Club) happening soon.

I second the motion. All in favor?

[rkduggins]

I could be persuaded...

[deangold]

Yes

[Ericandblueboy]

Someone tell me, is this really a Izakaya? They serve shabu shabu, ramen and bimbimbap? I'll let someone else take one for the team.

[Bob Loblaw]

Someone tell me, is this really a Izakaya? They serve shabu shabu, ramen and bimbimbap? I'll let someone else take one for the team.

Technically, I wouldn't consider this an izakaya, because as you pointed out, the menu is kind of all over the place. I don't think you would ever see all these different items served in one place in Japan. I look forward to this place opening, but I wish the menu was a little more focused. If it turns out they can do all these things well, then I definitely won't be complaining...

[Xochitl10]

Someone tell me, is this really a Izakaya? They serve shabu shabu, ramen and bimbimbap? I'll let someone else take one for the team.

Izakaya literally means "sake shop," and is therefore a name for establishments where the focus is drinking. Izakaya serve small plates. Shabu-shabu, donburi, and tonkatsu seem more like regular restaurant food to me. Kushi seems to be a better example of an izakaya, which I say based on having lived in Japan and gone to my fair share of izakaya, having been to Kushi, and only read Azuma's menu online.

I don't consider the menu weird for an izakaya per se, but I do consider it odd for a Japanese restaurant. They don't usually serve such a disparate selection of dishes. As Bob Loblaw notes, you don't usually see shabu-shabu and ramen and bibimbap in the same restaurant. In Iwate, you'd see noodles (often reimen, which is adapted from a Korean noodle soup) and bibimbap at yakiniku restaurants. Yakiniku is the Japanese equivalent of Korean bbq, so it makes sense to me that other Korean dishes would be served there. It would be weird to have tonkatsu at a yakiniku restaurant, though.

Azuma's site states that their whole concept is to take advantage of the wide availability of ingredients used in different countries' cuisines, allowing their chefs to combine ingredients and techniques into an international menu. So, they're specifically not going for what I would think of as a traditional Japanese dining or izakaya experience (as evidenced by the fact that I can find nothing about their booze other than the beautiful photos of sake bottles on the site).

[DonRocks]

Azuma's site states that their whole concept is to take advantage of the wide availability of ingredients used in different countries' cuisines, allowing their chefs to combine ingredients and techniques into an international menu. So, they're specifically not going for what I would think of as a traditional Japanese dining or izakaya experience (as evidenced by the fact that I can find nothing about their booze other than the beautiful photos of sake bottles on the site).

Knowing nothing about this, the fact that they're serving bibimbap might be a clue that the ownership is Korean. There are plenty of Korean-owned restaurants of different ethnicity in the area, from Tysons Corner Bagel Market to MoMo Sushi in Alexandria. This has been going on for a hundred years, and whenever I'm in a late-night "Italian-American diner," with all the Food Managers listed on the wall named "Spiropoulos," I'm going straight for the moussaka.

[deangold]

The last time I look into Bob's space, the shabu shabu cookers were still in there, so that may have been in insiration. Those suckers are expensive, there is a lot of expense in wiring them and having that much ventilation and electricity {1800 watt each one, that is one huge electrical panel}

[DanielK]

New menu is up on Facebook: front and back.

Time for a RPLC or $20 Tuesday?

[Xochitl10]

Azami and I finally made it here with a couple of other friends last night. Three of us lived in Japan for a couple of years -- us in Iwate; our friend in Osaka and Niigata -- and decided it made the most sense to tackle the menu izakaya-style by focusing on the skewers and shared dishes, rather than having entrees or shabu-shabu. We were really pleased with that decision.

The menu has changed a little from the online version. In addition to edamame, chicken karaage, braised beef tapas, ebi mayo, and agedashi tofu, we ordered takoyaki, which is not on the online menu. Wow. All of these dishes were great. The karaage and ebi mayo were both fried perfectly and not at all greasy. The karaage is the best I've had in the area: chicken well seasoned with soy sauce and a bit of ginger and carrying a thin, crisp, deep brown coating. It was served with okonomiyaki/takoyaki sauce; I'm used to getting it with Kewpie mayo. The shrimp in the ebi mayo had a thicker batter, more like beer batter than tempura or karaage coating. The mayo itself was quite spicy. Agedashi tofu came in a mushroom based sauce; the tofu also was perfectly fried (and delicious in and of itself) and the sauce was a little richer than I would've expected. It complemented the tofu nicely. Finally, the takoyaki -- yum! It was served traditionally in takoyaki/okonomiyaki sauce, a drizzle of mayo, and bonito flakes. The takoyaki themselves had distinct bits of squid in them and were a bit squidgy on the inside, crisp on the outside. We all thought they were really good, but they got a special nod from our friend who lived in Osaka, where takoyaki are from.

For the second round, we ordered the tofu salad with tomatoes and yuzu dressing, seaweed salad, beef cubes, another order of the ebi mayo, and shrimp kushiage (deep-fried skewers). The tofu salad was delicious and fresh, with a soy sauce-based dressing (and I would eat just about anything that involves yuzu, so take that as you will). The seaweed salad was nicely vinegared and came with a pico de gallo-like hash of tomatoes and onions. My friends raved about the beef cubes, saying they were "buttery" and had a nice beefy flavor. The one bit I got seemed to be mostly fat, was chewy, and didn't have a ton of flavor -- perhaps I got the off bit. I didn't try the shrimp kushiage, but it appeared to be perfectly fried.

Azami finished with a small shoyu ramen, and another friend ordered calamari skewers. Azami really enjoyed his ramen, which came topped with a seasoned hard-boiled egg, a couple of pieces of char siu, and green onions. The calamari was the least enjoyable dish of the evening. It was grilled with a smear of sauce, but there was something a bit off about the flavor to me. I'm not sure if it was the bit of char on the flesh or what. The calamari wasn't off, and the texture was right, it was just meh.

We accompanied our dinner with a bottle of Kuromatsu-Hakushika Snow Beauty nigori (unfiltered) sake. Nigori is good for cold nights and spicy food. This one was quite sweet and had a lovely milky/ricey flavor. The rest of the bottle came home with Azami and me, where it will not go neglected.

The bill came to $115 after a 10% discount (from mentioning the ad in the Capitol); $81 for food, $46 for the bottle of sake. We still get a little sticker shock from eating similar things here to what we would eat in Japan, but we didn't think Azuma was unreasonably priced, especially for the quality of the food. I would happily go back to drink an Orion Beer and eat some more karaage.

[SVT]

Thanks for the review--we've been thinking about trying this place and haven't made it yet, and now it's definitely on our 'to go' list.

[deangold]

Sounds very different than my first experience... maybe its time to go back.