My girlfriend and I haven’t had catch up time in ages. She hadn’t been to Binchoyaki Izakaya Dining and so we decided to meet there. I was hoping to finally try the infamous duck ramen but it wasn’t available for lunch and so I went for the cold kimchi ramen. We ordered a couple of lunch sets to share along with the noodles. I was interested in her take of the restaurant since she is a born and bred Tokyoite with a very sophisticated palate and she spends a lot of time in Los Angeles where there are a plethora of delicious Japanese restaurants.
It is a yakitori joint so it’s a given that we had to order some sticks. I highly recommend the seafood set (it’s not listed but if you ask nicely they will prepare one for you with an additional charge). The grilled salmon with ikura on top is pure heaven and the grilled prawns with the head easily separated should you want to eat it (my mom would) has an out of this world buttery taste. Just salt, prawn and the binchoyaki charcoal giving it the delicious flavor. My friend ordered the chicken set and I told her to skip the breast meat stick and to ask for the ground chicken/duck sticks instead which are yummy. With breast meat there is a 50/50 chance that it will be dry although I’ve discovered that a 30 minute salt brine to chicken breasts when I make tenders for ramen boy always results in a super moist and juicy tender. My girlfriend liked the yakitori but did mention that it would be nice to have an option of a 5 or 10 stick lunch set where you could pick and choose what you wanted. I have to agree since we are a picky lot.
The cold kimchi ramen was one of specials for the day listed on the chalkboard. The noodles were perfectly springy hiding underneath a lot of fresh goodness including corn, cherry tomatoes, seaweed, scallions, micro greens and of course the ubiquitous kimchi. I should have taken a more careful look at what was inside but we had quickly slurped it up. Thumbs up for the tangy yuzu sauce that was used was a perfect match.
Chef Craig surprised us with some complimentary desserts and the plum granita with fresh raspberries, homemade marmalade (sweet goodness) and cream seemed like an odd combination but it went so well together. My favorite dessert in a long time.
My friend and I lingered for a while after eating. She had just shown me a silly Japanese app called Egg that I quickly downloaded on my phone for some selfie fun while we were in the restaurant. We were laughing up a storm but the servers at Binchoyaki didn’t care and let us have our good time. Ramen boy later informed me that I am so last year and that the app is like Snapchat. Oh well.
