From the chef who brought the first Izakaya to Washington DC, comes an intimate vision of Japanese street food by Darren Norris & his wife, Candice Wise-Norris.
Chef Darren offers you skewers of tasty bites grilled over binchotan charcoal accompanied with bowls of fresh noodles and flavorful broths to nourish the soul.
HOURS:
Dining room open until 10pm on weekdays and 12am on weekends. Bar serves full menu and to go until 12am nightly.
Based on 114 reviews, the restaurant has received a rating of 3.8 stars. Price $$
✔️ Dine-in ✔️ Takeout ✔️ No-contact delivery
Address:
2321 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 450-2151
Social Profile: 
Hours
| Monday
(Labor Day)
|
Closed |
| Tuesday | 5 PM–12 AM |
| Wednesday | 5 PM–12 AM |
| Thursday | 12 PM–12 AM |
| Friday | 12 PM–12 AM |
| Saturday | 12 PM–12 AM |
| Sunday | 12 PM–12 AM |
Menu
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Photo Gallery
Reviews
Kim Nguyen
Gave it a try despite the ratings. Mistake! If you do go do not order the Dan Dan — I love spicy but the spicy level destroys everything (I even removed an additional gob of chili). I don’t get how they think this is serviceable. Reduce the spice by 90-95% to improve. Sushi and the mushroom dish were average ish I guess. Service was good. Nice ambience down stairs. Overall overpriced. This would maybe be 3 star simply by removing their worse dishes.
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Sabrina H
Very mediocre. Sushi rolls have too much rice and the mushrooms were ok, but not “exotic”. The worst thing was the dan dan noodles which was way too spicy and lacked the classic dan dan flavours (or just any flavour, besides spice).
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Isabelle Ku
Oct 2021
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Saminda Wijegunawardena
Really solid spot overall. Excellent cocktails (the Spanish Magic was perfectly balanced), finger-licking good skewers (sampled both the chicken thighs and the pork and they were dusted perfectly with the rub), tender and well grilled and seasoned eggplant, and competent sashimi. I would say the sashimi was the only thing that could use some improvement, it just wasn’t as fresh as what you would expect for a $52 12-piece. I think you’re better off getting a few small plates and a couple of maki rolls here.
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Karen Ethier
A friend and I had reservations for lunch at the counter. The nigiri hamachi yellowtail was delicious; nigiri blue fin tuna (medium fatty belly) was…OK; miso soup was tasty; and the Spider roll was amazing. Service was prompt and not intrusive. Will return the next time I’m in DC. Dec 3/22
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Christopher Lee
I cannot explain well enough how impeccable the food, cocktails, and vibe are at this place, so hopefully my photos convince you. Ordered one of everything on the izakaya side, some of the veggies, an onigiri and some seconds on the skewers, four drinks, shared with a mate. The sous vide beef shortrib was fall apart tender and crusted perfectly, and everything was some of the best I’ve had. Another great standout was the charred leeks with some crazy umeboshi emulsion with the bright tartness contrasting with the earthy ashiness of the leeks. World class.
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Yarden Mach
First and foremost, the food was excellent. Our waitress was nice, but at one point we were waiting for about 20 minutes for more rice and meat. It was overall a nice experience, however.
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Dita Niraula
3 storyed. Nice ambience. Ramen was okay. Sushi were relatively small portion.
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Luke
12 percent packaging fee on our take out order! V expensive 8 dollar paper bag and to go containers. Had to run back to ask for chopsticks cuz they weren’t in the bag. They did accommodate a modification to my order though which was nice.
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David Waters
The food was good, and the service and atmosphere were fine, but the maitre’d was insistent that we only had until 7pm because they needed our table. The restaurant was empty and they placed us there. That kind of inhospitable behavior only added an anxious element for our party and left us feeling disappointed. We (party of 5) left just after 7 as the restaurant sat empty still.
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