It goes to show, you never can tell: Revisits to Okan and Kayaba

We all have our rotation of restaurants that we hit. Not all of them are stellar, but  whether it's convenience, price, service, or something else, it ends up on our rotation. And no matter where it is, chances are, unless the place makes just one thing (something that perhaps more places should do), you'll run into a clunker as you work down the menu. The Missus and I always joke about Lotus of Siam which is one of our favorite restaurants. The one funny thing being, that on every visit, we've into one real clunker of a dish. LOS isn't alone in that aspect, as here are a couple of places I really enjoy and have posted on before.....but recently have encountered 1 dish that just didn't sit well.......

Wa Dining Okan:

We've done a number of posts on Okan over the years. Perhaps not as many as Dennis's multi-part offerings, but quite a few..... There are quite a few things that Okan does well, simmered items, some fried items like the chicken gizzards.....

The gobo salad, even the daikon salad......

But once I had to go and order the Salmon Belly Carpaccio......carpaccio?

 

Granted, I do a maguro carpaccio, but I'd never think of taking a fatty piece of high oil fish and taking a blowtorch to it making it seem slimy and greasy, combined with a sauce that made it seem even more fishy......then throwing capers on it. This was just a bit too much for me.

There is alot to like here.......but that dish didn't do it for me...it more like did it to me...

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Kayaba:

I usually enjoy my meals at Kayaba, which usually consists of Tonkatsu.

It's priced, at least for me, quite reasonably. I was itching for some tonkatsu recently....the Missus was depressed since Sakura was still closed for renovations and She couldn't get Her weekly Ten-don fix. I told the Missus that I thought Kayaba made Ten-don........I should have kept my mouth shut.....

 

First off, the tempura were barely room temp and overcooked. It had apparently been left around since we were both surprised that my dish took a good fifteen minutes and the Missus' was up in less than three! The rice was hard and the Donburi tsuyu was really dark and salty....as if they took bottled tsuyu and forgot to dilute it with water.

Man, I'm still feeling the repercussions from this one.....

Kayaba
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd Ste 119 - In the Mitsuwa Marketplace
San Diego, CA 92111

I guess like the song goes: "C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell..... I know it's a Chuck Berry tune, but this is my favorite version...maybe because it has Albert Lee on guitar.

 

Of course you might be more familiar with this scene.....

Comments

[kat]

that carpaccio looks bad! and that tempura reminds me of the one we had in Kaga :(

[Dennis]

Hi Kirk, I'm guessing the carpaccio at Okan was a special? I always gave kudos for the fact that they at least experiment a lot. Though as you experienced they're not all wins.
Yeah, I noticed Kayaba doing that a lot. Making fried items ahead of time, especially during the lunch rush. I had better luck in the slow evenings, but sometimes go as far as specifying that I wanted a freshly fried katsu on my curry. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, haha. Take care

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - It was pretty bad....

Hi Dennis - It was on their "Limited Time Early Bird Menu" for about three months....in fact I saw it on there the last time I went. I notice that most times they don't do very well when they start getting a bit too off the path, the carpaccio wasn't the only thing. Paying for being the subject of an "experiment" ain't high on my list either. They need to have better,honest, taste testers. We actually were just about the only folks eating at the Mitsuwa food court on that early evening......so it was pretty pathetic. You don't gotta do that on a slow night......

[Dennis]

Hmm, yes that's not good.

[Jason]

You know what, I've never had good luck with Kayaba. It's to the point where I look at Santouka next door, do a quick comparison of the potential meals I'd get at both, and then head to the left to the Santouka line. Which is weird, since whenever I'm there about half the folks are eating Kayaba food, so apparently they do food well enough for a lot of folks. Maybe there's a secret word I need to mention to get the "good" food there.

[Faye]

I had the Okan salmon carpaccio awhile back and didn't like it either. The only thing I really ever enjoyed there was their gobo salad (thanks to your post all that time ago!). I haven't been back there in ages - is their gobo salad still the same?

[nhbilly]

Getting tongue lashing from the Wife never goes down easily... Been there done that.

[Kirk]

Hi Jason - The only thing I've had that was worth it was the Tonkatsu, though the Katsu Curry was ok...... So I dunno.....

Hi Faye - First off, Happy New Year! There are many dishes that really mean something to me there...many of the nimono type dishes and I thought those gizzards were quite good. The gobo salad was still the same the last time I had, though I make it at home most times nowadays.

You don't want to have that happen too often Billy! Happy New Year, man!