Yataimura Maru is a Japanese Izakaya in SE Portland. "We make as much of our food from scratch as possible; house-made ramen noodles, stocks and broths that are simmered all day, and sashimi sliced from whole fish. We serve the food we love to eat with the beverages we love to drink, including beer, wine, sake, and cocktails."
On our quest to experience new dishes and flavors from Japan, I found a description, and excellent reviews of a type of restaurant called
We skipped going out last week because we were under the weather, but Saturday was both a glorious day and the perfect day for a good meal. Though we were not disappointed with our meal, neither were we especially impressed.
The place is designed to have the welcoming feel and style of a traditional izakaya with paper lanterns and banners and a large bar area. We were in time for happy hour, which gave us the opportunity to try a number of dishes. Our very charming server was happy to explain all the dishes and pointed out the noodles and dumplings are hand made in house. We started with sake, then pork gyoza in a vibrant sauce. They turned out to be the standout dish. Next tako yaki - a fried ball with octopus. Good. The noodles in the dry ramen were plentiful and tasty but lacked lots of toppings. Chicken katsu curry was served with rice, but I still don't like curry. H ordered a side of tempura shrimp - good. Since all the dishes were small, (and we ate everything), we had room for dessert - tempura banana with vanilla ice cream. The bananas were over battered and had no sweetness. Ice cream was a good finisher.
All in all, we scarfed down the meal, but it felt like an ordinary meal. Bar food, great snack food, but no opportunity to try new tastes and dishes.
total $80 = 16 = $96
7 for food, 10 for service
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