Since I went ahead and posted on the somewhat "old school" Izakaya Sakura (which we've crazily posted on 40 times over the years!), I thought I should do a post on a newer and more hip location; Hatsuzakura. A couple of months back, the Missus and I were in the area at around 430, right at opening time. The restaurant is run by the daughter and the namesake of Michelin starred Soichi Sushi next door. While, from I had heard, the place is a favorite for desserts, and while I wouldn't quite call it a Kissaten, nor a Shokudo, it was quite interesting.
We were warmly greeted and led to a two top, in this very anime pink, Instagram ready restaurant.
The Missus and I cracked up as we sat. This was quite interesting. The entree menu was a single page; with so many Yoshoku dishes, which we should have anticipated in a place like this, right?
The staff was really welcoming and we looked over the menu.
We decided on three dishes. As we waited two young ladies, dressed in Barbie pink walked in and were seated at the bar. A few minutes later, two working stiffs who looked like they had just finished a job walked in, quickly took in the restaurant, looked at each other, did an about face and bailed! It was quite funny.
It was a bit of time but our first dish, the Chicken Karaage ($13). This was a very unique looking karaage, apparently it is the recipe of Chef Soichi.
It was very lightly colored and seemed to have been coated with katakuriko? The chicken was sliced thinly, giving it a nice, light, almost ethereal crispness. We're glad it was dark meat chicken as the seasoning was quite mild, though the chicken was tender and quite positive in the "fowlness" category. It did need both the lemon and Kewpie mayo.
Next up was the Tamago Sando ($10). As soon as the sando arrived, the Missus said; "what's going on the crust is still on the sandwich?" Too many trips to Lawson I guess. Though I did agree that having that crust on made it seem "un-sandoed"…..
The egg was chopped too coarse for us, the filling wasn't evenly spread thru the sando. The bread was very dry and lacked the fluffy qualities of a decent shokupan. The filling was nicely seasoned, but just seemed to be missing something.
The last item up was the Omurice ($17).
Egads! This was a bit too much for the both of us. The egg was slightly overcooked, which isn't too bad. But so was the rice. But the thing that really got us was how overly sour; almost puckery, and sweet this was. Also, the menu said it was filled with chicken fried rice, but other than a few tiny pieces, it seems that the bird had flown the coop?
Still, the service was wonderful and that chicken karaage was interesting. Plus, I saw those "Animae Girls" eating something that I just needed to try. And yet, it took me several months to finally return.
When I did it was for lunch service. Same nice folks greeted me and I had a seat at the bar.
On the previous visit; I saw the two young ladies each have two Bakudan Onigiri; one with kombu and the other with something else. They each put away their two onigiri and also shared a doria…..sheesh even more rice. So, I went ahead and ordered the onigiri ($7).
Let me just say, if anything fits the definition of Bakudan ("bomb") Onigiri; it's this. It's like 2 1/2 scoops of rice made into an onigiri.
Take a look at the size of this beast! It uses like half a sheet of nori to wrap it. The rice was nicely cooked, but man, about halfway thru it became quite a task to try and finish this. There just wasn't enough kombu in this. I don't know how those two young ladies put away two of these? If I did that a couple of times, I'd probably be trying out for a Sumo league somewhere!
Of course I also got the karaage this time as well. But it was slightly different this time.
It wasn't fried quite as well, though it was more highly seasoned this time. I swear they put some togarashi on this which I liked. One the negative side, the cut this time around was thicker, with some fairly large pieces. The thicker pieces were dry and only the thin slices made it thru the meal maintaining some crispness. I'm glad they gave me two slices of lemon as I needed them both. Not as good as what we'd had on the previous visit.
In the end, the service was very nice; but I guess the limited menu and style of Japanese food offered is just not our thing. I was glad to have tried it though.
Hatsuzakura
2123 Adams Ave.
San Diego, CA 92116
Current Hours:
Tues – Sat 11am – 3pm, 430pm – 9pm
Sunday 11am – 2pm, 330pm – 6pm
Closed on Mondays
My zaru soba arrived looking pretty much the same as always. The tsukemono, mildly pickled, crunchy, which I enjoy with a touch of shoyu seemed so familiar.
As I will usually do when having zaru soba, I have a taste of the tsuyu straight up. And man, this was potent! Very strong dashi, nice soy sauce tones, quite savory. I'd only be doing a one-third "dunk" of my noodles in this! I added all the fresh wasabi and scallions, and a bit of ginger which really added a pleasurable pungency and palate cleansing layer to things.
As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 
The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 
The fries were nice and crisp, the type that was dusted to add to the texture. It was decently seasoned.
There were four shrimp which used the same batter, quite crisp. The rather larger shrimp were on the tougher side; like it had been cooked too long. The flavor was quite assertive, not overly sweet, but savory, I believe this was farmed shrimp as it lacked the oceany sweetness. Still, pretty big shrimp if you're into these things.
Which meant that when I bit into it, flakey croissant shrapnel flew everywhere! Also, the ham had attained almost a bacon like texture during the heating process. The ham gave the croissant a good bit of saltness; though I would have enjoyed a straonger butter flavor. The interior was light and not overly doughy. This was not bad.
The dan bing, the pancakes to wrap the duck in was really good, great texture, nice and warm.
