Review of Honda-Ya in Fullerton: Yakitori!

Honda-Ya opened a new restaurant in Fullerton! They are already very well known the Southern California area for great Japanese food! But they are even better known for their yakitori! Yakitori is basically just food that is skewered and cooked on a grill!

They have regular table dining as well as bar dining. But my friend and I chose the traditional tatami mat floor seating!

She and I started with a few skewers! Going left to right, we have chicken meatballs, spicy shrimp and chicken hearts! The chicken meatballs were soft and moist and full of flavor! I would order this again! The spicy shrimp was only ok in my opinion. It didn't have that much flavor other than the flavor of the shrimp! The one you probably really want to know about is the chicken hearts! It was my first time eating chicken hearts and they were delicious! They were slightly rubbery but tasted like a cross between pork and beef! A real winner!

Next up was an order of Japanese beef! Real moist and tender! The fresh onions and tomatoes on top send this over the edge! Just perfect!

The one on the left is the lamp chop! Perfectly seasoned with some garlic salt and a bit of pepper! Just like how I would have seasoned it at home! The one on the right is already one of my favorites at Disneyland from the Bengal BBQ in Adventureland! Bacon wrapped aspragus! A fresh squeeze of lemon and the price was so much better than an old Disneyland favorite!

Fries? Yeah my friend had a craving for fries! I told that she can no logner go with me on my food adventures! Haha! Sasaki Time is looking for a new partner in crime to go on food adventures with!

Up next was the salmon cheek! I think we should have ordered one for each of us! This was so good! The salmon was light and flaky! It was lightly salted and went perfect with a hot bowl of rice!

We also ordered some crab shumai. These were only ok as well. They were good but nothing special.

The next round of skewers have arrived! Starting once again from the left, duck, chicken skin and bacon wrapped baby scallops! The duck was cooked perfectly and the combination with the grilled green onions was just perfect! The chicken skin was crispy and full of flavor! I already love bacon and scallops so the two combined was pure heaven!

The last skewer of the night was the fatty chicken hearts! This one was slightly more rubbery than just the regular chicken hearts but still full of the same great flavor that I had experienced earlier! Another winner!

I forgot to take a picture of my Kirin but I took one of my white peach shuju! They sell them in singles and doubles! This is a single! So delicious! Maybe if I'm not so full I'll get another one next time!

Taking a look at the grill where all of our amazing yakitori came from tonight!

My new favorite Japanese restaurant! It was such a great experience and the serving staff is awesome as well!
I had such a great time that I went back the next night to try their regular menu! I'll be posting that review soon!

They are only open for dinner but they are also open very late! So this works out great when there is that late night Japanese food craving!

Honda-ya

2980 Yorba Linda Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92831

(714) 577-0401
 

http://izakayahondaya.com/

Hours:

Mon-Sun 5:30 pm - 1 am

Wendy's in Japan Serves Hamburgers With Foie Gras?

Sixteen dollar foie gras hamburgers. You read that right: the above fast food hamburger, which comes with a big old slab of foie, costs ¥1,280, or about US$16.43. That is certainly very different from the American stores; everyone knows Americans are too poor to spend more than $2 on lunch.

Review of Tokyo Lobby

Tokyo Lobby is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants. I took a friend of mine there last night and had a great time. The service is always friendly and no matter how busy the place is , it is always a nice, quiet place. I either order a boat with a friend or a combination dinner. I went with the combination dinner. I chose the three item option with New York steak teriyaki, chicken katsu and California rolls. You get edamame and miso soup to start. I love edamame, salted soybeans that I like to call Japanese peanuts. The miso soup is piping hot like it should it. The katsu is one of the best I have ever had and the New York steak teriyaki is always moist and tender. I always leave full and love coming back again and again.

Dinner combination at Tokyo Lobby

Sasaki Food Time - Shin Sen Gumi

Review of Geisha House

The last day of OC Restaurant Week was amazing! My friend Rachelle and I went to Geisha House in Santa Ana, located across the street from the Main Place Mall.

This was well worth the price and especially after reading all of the negative reviews on YELP! It makes me think to not trust YELP! so much. But anyways off to the review.

We both decided to do the six course $30 menu.

The first course we both had the miso soup. Now miso soup is like comfort food to me. It was served nice and hot just the way it should be.

The next course we both went for the mixed greens with the soy ginger dressing. Soy ginger dressing is already one of my favorites as my mom made it and this one was close to my mom's recipe - I think they actually took it from her.

For the third course I went with the albacore carpaccio which was impressive. The slices of albacore were matched perfectly with the balsamic jalepeno sauce. Rachelle went with the kanpachi serrano a lovely blend of amberjack with a light lemon ponzo sauce. The citric acid went perfectly with the amberjack.

Next up was the white samurai roll. This was just a wonderful blend of spicy tuna and spicy crab with more albacore. Rachelle went with the surf and turf roll and lovely blend of lobster with thinly sliced melt in your mouth filet mignon.

For our main entree with both choose the grilled filet mignon in a soy, garlic and sesame sauce which was to die for. The filet mignon melted in your mouth and the suce was just savory. The side of asparagus was perfect with a nice crunch and more of that delicious sauce that was marinated with the filte mignon.

Fro dessert I went with the coconut creme brulee which was just perfect though I wish the serving size was a bit larger. It was rich and creamy and not very overpowering on coconut flavor. Rachelle went with the crisp fruit wontons which were hot and delicious.

Speaking for the two of us, we will be back to Geisha House! totally worth the prix fixe menu deal and please do not believe the reviews in YELP!

Review of RA Sushi in HB

As my first tour on the OC Restuarant Week I went with my friend Kevin to RA Sushi to try their prix fixe $20 four course dinner. I was afraid that I wouldn't be full on only four courses but I was happily proven wrong! There are about three or four different options for each course.

The first course I choose your basic edamame but with garlic and rock salt. The portion size was much larger than I expected!

The next course I choose the spicy crispy treats. They were these really tasty rice paper hand rolls stuffed with crispy rice and spicy tuna, mixed with cucumber, lettuce and avacado. They also came with a nice and spicy soy chili sauce.

For my third course I decided to go with the Viva Las Vegas roll. Perhaps too much Vegas on my mind! But this roll was unique and amazingly tasty! It's a realyl ncie blend of crab and cream cheese that is tempura fried
 with spicy tuna on top.The sauce is a nice sweet eel sauce.

And for the finally both Kevin and I ordered the cinammom temupra ice cream. Our waitress warned us both about how massive this dessert was and I scoffed at first. Then this massive plate of fried goodliness came out. Just amazing!

So come and check out RA or revisit it! A great and friendly staff. Not really kid friendly since the atmosphere is very club like. I'll be back for more RA Sushi! I'll be back!

Jason at the Mitsuwa Food Court