Dinners at EE Nami

Recently, the Missus and I restarted our "date nights". It seems that the combination of gas and food prices, Covid, and our travels kind of waylaid something that we'd always enjoyed. After returning from our trip "home", we decided to go ahead and slowly start dining out. Of course, the question arose...."where"? I was missing Japanese food, but for some reason, just did not feel like Yakitori or hanging at a sushi bar. After all my takeout meals from EE Nami over the last couple of years, I really wanted a shot at their dinner Izakaya menu. But first, I had to convince the Missus. You see the Missus usually hates Tonkatsu on the mainland, She will get Chicken Katsu, but Her experiences with pork have not been good, too tough, too dry, lacking in flavor. I'd been telling Her about my takeout meals from EE Nami but She just wouldn't try it. Finally, after showing Her the Dinner menu online, I managed to talk Her into visiting for dinner. And guess what? We've now been several times! Over the last couple of weeks!

I usually will make reservations; heck, I didn't even know EE Nami took reservations, for the 530 time slot, we'd eat early and get the heck out of dodge. The service has always been nice and friendly; there are touches that make us miss Japan.

Since we've made several visits and have pretty much reordered our favorite dishes over and over, I think I'll just do a listing of our picks and pans.

One thing to always take note of is the Specials menu.

And this menu has our favorite item on it; the Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Nigiri.

We ordered it on our initial visit and it was love at first bite; the unctuous, melt in your mouth tenderness of the beef, the rice cooked perfectly, the nice amount of pungency of the fresh grated wasabi. We ended up getting a second order! Since that time we always place two orders immediately. It will be a sad day when this isn't on the menu any longer!

Other Favorites:

Of course, the Missus ended up loving the Tonkatsu. And I noticed that the Fillet is much better dining in than doing takeout.

   It's very tender, moist, with a pleasant porkiness, the panko breading crisp and perfect. To us, the fillet is better than the loin when dining in. We usually don't order any rice or soup with this. As we want to keep on going!

The Missus really enjoys a good Agedashi Tofu and She loves this version.

This dish retains its light crispness for a good amount of time; the Missus enjoys the pretty strong dashi it's served in and also the addition of nori in the coating of the tofu. We noticed that many of the Izakaya dishes here have a larger portion size than what we're used to in Japan.

A favorite of mine is another item from the specials menu, the Ankimo with Smoked Takuan....actually, it's monk fish liver with smoked pickles on the menu. 

  I don't know who thought of this one, but to me it's a winnah! Love the creamy, rich, and mild liveriness of the Ankimo paired with the crunchy, smoky, pickled-sour daikon. And adding a bit of the shiso brought out even more complexity. As with the Wagyu Nigiri; I'll be sad when this is no longer on the specials menu.

Good Dishes:

The Gyu Tataki was pretty good.

While a bit on the chewy side, this had a nice beefiness which went well with the ponzu sauce and onions. Overall, a fairly refreshing dish.

The Tori Nanban was pretty large and unwieldy, especially with the tartar sauce dripping about.

This was another one of those dishes that we thought was kind of American-sized. The Missus, who is not usually a fan of Tori Nanban, thought this was pretty good. I on the other hand like tori nanban and though the batter was crisp, the pieces of chicken were too large with the biggest piece a bit on the dry side. The batter did stay crisp during the whole meal though and the chicken was well seasoned.

Plus/Minus:

The Buta Kakuni was a bit of an enigma.

The sauce was very tasty, though perhaps on the sweet side. The tamago was nicely cooked, with a lovely orb of an orange yolk. The daikon was tender and perfectly cooked, having absorbed the flavor from the sauce. The problem was the pork, which was really tough and stringy, and for some reason had really not absorbed enough of the flavor from the sauce.

Pans:

I'm not sure if it was an off day or what, but the Roasted Beef Tongue was not to our liking.

The tongue had a metallic flavor to it; the sauce was a strangely bland "onion sauce" when we think ponzu might have been a better match.

The worst dish we had was on our first visit. The Missus loves eggplant, so the Niku Miso Eggplant would seem like a good pick. It wasn't however.

The ground pork was gritty and dry, with no flavor. The eggplant was undercooked and also lacked flavor. There was supposed to be some kind of chili sauce on this? But it was MIA. Even with a sauce, the textures, and cooking techniques used here would have not been to our liking.

With that said, the dishes we enjoy here, we thoroughly enjoy. There's something about the vibe and our favorites here which allow us to travel with our tastebuds. At least on the slower nights we pick for our dinners.

Some good food, a nice vibe, all enjoyed with some craft, small production sake.......

And life is good! It seems we found a keeper for a casual date night spot.

EE Nami
4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours
Wed - Sun 1130am - 2pm, 530pm - 10pm 

Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[Junichi]

Yea that eggplant dish is definitely missing the sauce. Last time I tried ordering the seafood hotpot but you need to make reservations a day in advance now. The tonkatsu is good there.

[Sandy]

I've only been here for lunch, and dined in instead of take out a couple of months ago. Tonkatsu (or anything fried) really tastes better fresh. If done well in the first place, of course.

[Som Tommy]

Wow!

[kat]

nice!

[Kirk]

Nice tip on the seafood hotpot Junichi!

It made a big difference with the fillet Sandy; not so much with the loin.

It's a favorite of ours right now ST.

We enjoyed our meals Kat!

[Denver]

One of the many fine places I found thanks to this blog. Although I miss Ramen Yamadaya, I'm glad EE is there and survived the pandemic (being that it opened during the start of it). The Tokantsu is as good as what I've had in Japan. I've yet to have their dinner items so gotta check it out

[Kirk]

We really enjoyed our dinners there Denver! Thanks so much for the kind words!

[Mar]

I am very late to the party with EE Nami. Finally went for the first time (dine-in) a few weeks ago at lunch, and was impressed with the tonkatsu and housemade curry. For years I struggled to find a place in San Diego that made craveable katsu, and am so happy they are open and that business seems to be doing well--it was packed the day I went for lunch! Thanks for this helpful roundup of their dinner menu!

[Kirk]

Hi Mar - Glad you enjoyed EE Nami! And also happy that they are doing well business wise! Thanks for taking the time out to comment!