Fukada - Interrupt

Date of Dining: 11/23/2011
Price: ~$15-18 per person with combo and appetizer
Location: 8683 Irvine Center Dr, Irvine, CA 92618
website


The Quick Bit:
+ hand made udon and soba
+ nice selection of side dishes for izakaya-style dining
+ organic ingredients and brown rice substitutions are possible for healthier dining
Δ service can be inattentive
Δ possible long wait times as no reservations are taken

Fukada is one of those neighborhood hole-in-the-wall places that has outgrown the hole-in-the-wall moniker into something much larger. Situated across the 405 freeway from the prominent Irvine Spectrum, Fukada is one of Irvine's few non-chain restaurants (well I guess technically that is not true since there is Fukada2Go) and serves elevated traditional Japanese everyday food. 

Fukada does two things different from other Japanese restaurants. First, they use higher quality organic ingredients for some dishes, and second, they hand-make their udon and soba. The combination of these two factors means that the food at Fukada has a purer quality to it, which elevates the taste above other similar restaurants. 

On a trip to the restroom, it is possible to see the windowed room where all the noodles are hand-made daily on the premises. 

Growing up in OC, Fukada was one of my favorite destinations for a high quality taste of Japanese cuisine. While the food doesn't quite measure up to the same food in Japan, the bar doesn't fall too far below that mark. When I visit the OC, I still visit Fukada quite frequently as I have yet to find anything quite the same in San Diego.

I went to Fukada with one of my college classmates, who is a self-professed ram-maniac. We ordered a bit skewed off what I normally order in order to accommodate.

Appetizers:

gyoza

A staple side of many Japanese restaurants, the gyoza is usually a good representative of the other food offered at the establishment. However, using the gyoza to judge Fukada would be a mistake as the average gyoza don't compare to the rest of the high-quality food offered.

fried chicken wings

One of the signature appetizers, the fried chicken wings are a perfect bit of savory fried goodness. Sometimes doing something simple correctly goes very far and these fried wings with ponzu-dashi sauce had just the right combination of salty savory chicken to acidic umami. These were a great complement to the other dishes we had on the table.

In addition to these appetizers, Fukada offers a selection of broiled fish; I highly recommend the broiled yellowtail collar if it is available. They also offer a high quality selection of sashimi (although it's not anywhere near the level of Kaito, it is still above many entry-level sushi places) - perhaps one of their best dishes is the sashimi salad which mixes some tataki-style grilled sashimi on a bed of organic mixed lettuce.

Entrees:

Fukada's claim to fame is the noodle combinations. For lunch, there is usually a special of a noodle with California roll or crunchy roll. However, there is also the combination of noodle with donburri available throughout the day.

When ordering noodles, one specifies hot (in a dashi broth) or cold (with dipping sauce) - if the hot option is selected, then a choice of tanuki (tempura batter) or sansai (mountain vegetables) is available.

hot soba sansai

ten-don

As my noodle of choice is the soba, I usually swap between the cold and hot soba, but when I select the soba I always go sansai. The soba flavor is really allowed to come through with the high quality dashi stock that the noodles are served in. The mountain vegetables offer a variety of healthy flavors and textures to complement the noodles.

The ten-don is a standard donburi that contains two shrimp tempura cooked into an omelette form topped in a rice bowl. While this is a pretty standard Japanese preparation, the use of higher quality ingredients really highlights the flavors.

hot udon tanuki

spicy tuna-don

My dinner mate elected to go with udon and the spicy tuna don. While I didn't actually sample his meal, I'll work off my memory of many meals at the restaurant for the udon - I've never tasted the spicy tuna don.

The hand-made udon really makes a difference in the flavor of the noodle as the udon has a much more supple texture that creates a different mouth-feel from the mushier frozen variety. There is also just the right amount of resistance in the dough to give the correct chew experience. The draw of the tanuki ramen is the contrasting textures both in the beginning and as the bowl goes on; the tempura bits start crunchy at first and then morph into sponges full of the dashi flavor.

In addition to the noodle combos, there are some other noodle dishes available as well. Of particular note, the nabeyaki udon is impressive as it contains a variety of ingredients to build a great sampling of many flavors.

Conclusion:

Sometimes the preparation of ingredients simply to highlight the flavors is the best way to go. Fukada is a great example of this practice. I consider the restaurant as comfort food, but unlike the extremely unhealthy kill your arteries comfort food, Fukada is comfort food at healthy levels. When anyone asks me for an everyday restaurant recommendation in Orange County, Fukada is my go to recommendation. While it's no longer really a secret place anymore and the lines can be long, the food is worth the wait.

As one of my favorite stops in OC, Fukada gets the kilobit award.

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Robata-ya Oton

Date of Dining: 7/29/2011
Price: $5-10 for each tapas dish
Location: 5447 Kearny Villa Rd #D, San Diego, CA 92123


The Quick Bit:
+ Good traditional Japanese ambiance with authentic seating
+ Wide variety of authentic Japanese dishes
+ Great friendly service even though you are isolated in a booth
+ Good selection on seasonal menu of specials
Δ Amount of reservations taken seems high
Δ Could be expensive to get full


In contrast to last week, this week I look at one of the ethnic cuisines that San Diego does well - Japanese. From fresh sushi to ramen to bento boxes, San Diego has some good to decent selections for all of these choices.


Robata-ya Oton is an Izakaya that specializes in some grilled dishes. The Robataya in the name is derived from the japanese word robatayaki which means that fresh food is grilled and served in front of you. However, I would say the experience at Robataya Oton is more just an Izakaya. There is a bar where you can see the fresh ingredients on display, but the main focus of the restaurant seems to be the 4-6 booths situated along the wall where once removes their shoes and goes to sit inside the booths. There is even a curtain to eat booth to provide privacy. We showed up right as the restaurant opened for dinner service at 5:30, and I was surprised that they had already had reservations for all the booths booked out. Luckily after speaking with the manager, I assured him that we would finish before the 7:00 reservation on one of the booths and we were quickly ushered into a booth.


Digression: I purposefully bought a tiny point and shoot camera for for casual dining where I want to try to hide that I am taking photos of the food, but at 5:30 the service was almost too attentive at the restaurant. There was no way I would have been able to take photos of the seating and bar without being noticed, so I unfortunately don't have any photos. However, if you do a quick google search on one of the San Diego blogs I have linked, the photos cover the inside of the restaurant rather well.


Additionally, Robata-ya Oton is owned by the same group that owns Wa Dining Okan. If I had to differentiate between the two, I would say that Robata-ya Oton is slightly higher end and has a large focus on grilled dishes while Wa Dining Okan focuses a little more on home-style cooking. I would still say each is more of an Izakaya, but each is just focused slightly differently.

Tamago with Umeboshi and Shiso

This dish was actually listed as "Japanese Style Egg Omelet" and I would probably never order this myself, but the person I was with absolutely loves tamago. The tamago here was good, but not spectacular; it was cooked well but the flavor of it was boring (I guess they used a cheap mirin?). The less than wow factor of the tamago was mitigated by the umeboshi dipping sauce and the shiso, which added some extra flavors. I felt that there could have been more umeboshi because it paired really well with the tamago. However, as a starter, this dish worked well as it left me hungry for more.

Karage - deep fried chicken

This was supposed to be fried chicken skin crackers, but the order was messed up and we received karage. Even though we said it was the wrong order, the restaurant gave us the dish for free since they had already cooked it. The chicken was fried and seasoned well the Japanese style karage. The fact that the chicken was free range chicken didn't really come through in the flavor though.

Shio Ankimo - Steamed Monkfish Liver (salt style)

This dish was offered as a shio or ponzu style and I chose the shio as I figured it wouldn't allow anything to be hidden. This monkfish liver was a little on the fishy side, but it was still enjoyable for the rich flavor that makes it known as the foie gras of the sea. However, had I known that it would be so fishy, I would have gone with the ponzu preparation. I wouldn't say that the ankimo was bad, but it definitely needed to be steamed to serve and it was probably close to being over.

Amaebi Sashimi

As spot prawns are in season, when I saw the Amaebi on the menu I knew I had to order it. This amaebi was at the peak of freshness and the flesh of the prawn was sweet, succulent, and had a nice texture. To top it off, my dining companion allowed me to have the head of the prawn. Thank you!

Chilled Tofu with Uni

This dish was another hit. The uni was extremely fresh and flavorful, and the tofu provided a medium to extend the flavor of the uni longer. I'm not sure what the sauce was, but it also assisted in keeping the flavor of the uni extended.

Braised Kurobuta Pork

This was another great dish. The kurobuta pork belly was cooked so that it was soft and tender, and the braising liquid was extremely flavorful. When eaten all together in one bite, the broth complimented the flavor of the pork. The mustard was a nice touch to add some variety, but it was not strictly necessary to enjoy the dish. I really enjoyed the mustard because it still retained some of the texture of the seeds of the mustard. It was also more concentrated in flavor to be more similar to wasabi.

Grilled Beef Tongue

Beef tongue is one of those well kept secret cuts of beef that is awesome when prepared well. The Japanese have nailed down that preparation of beef tongue when it is cooked over a yakitori grill, which it appeared that these were. I really enjoyed these skewers and almost felt the need to order more.

Deep Fried Chicken Skin Crackers

Since the order was messed up, this dish came out last. Unfortunately if I had known this was what the dish would be ahead of time, I never would have ordered it (I can see why the waitress brought out karage instead). The make matters worse, it appeared that this was a rush job in preparation of the dish, so not all of the chicken skin was fried properly and some of the middle pieces were still un-fried. This was easily the worst dish of the night.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

This was just your standard ice cream (even though it was an unfamiliar flavor), but it was still a great way to finish off the meal.


Overall, the experience at Oton was very good (aside from the chicken skin). Looking at the menu now, I still see a wide variety of different dishes that I would order next time. Furthermore, even though we ordered a lot of food, the bill came out lower than I expected. The food at Oton was an authentic Japanese experience, a great variety, and a healthy dose of umami to satiate my umami craving.


Despite the miss of the chicken skin, my experience at Oton was enough to award it the bit award! The great service and the string of four great dishes made up for the one bad dish. If you visit, I would suggest ordering more dishes from the seasonal specials and the grilled dishes since those seemed to be the best.

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