Harajuku Izakaya (Whistler 2018): Japanese Tapas

We were looking for some small appies/tapas for dinner and decided to head on over to Harajuku Iazakaya which is located next to the Fuji Market behind the Whistler Conference Centre.

Zakkushi Dining on Main: Best Izakaya in Vancouver

After returning from our trip to Japan, I was starting to wonder if I would find an izakaya in Vancouver that I really enjoyed (not a big fan of Hapa Izakaya). I decided it was about time we visited Zakkushi as I had heard some pretty good things about them.

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Kaikaya By The Sea: Tokyo 2017

One of our best meals during our last visit to Tokyo was at an izakaya (a restaurant that serves up Japanese tapas) located in Shibuya. We heard that this place was popular so we made an effort to show up early for their dinner seating. It’s about a 10 minute walk west of the Hachikō statue but it’s on a small little side street that we probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

Julian Serrano (Las Vegas – Aria)

It’s Vegas Baby!  It seems like ages since the last time we visited Las Vegas so we jumped at the chance to come here in early December (especially since the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012).  This is the first in a string of posts based in Sin City – mainly to help me remember where we ate and to plan for our next visit 🙂

Hapa Izakaya (Cordova)

Hapa Izakaya first opened in 2003 and has since expanded to a number of outlets that serve Japanese-inspired tapas.  Hapa, which apparently means “leaf” in Japanese according to the owner, also means “half” or “mixed” in Hawaiian.  This latter translation properly holds more meaning as this restaurant is a bit of a twist on the original izakaya drinking establishments in Japan.

Indochine Kitchen + Bar = Garlic Butter Chicken Wings

Despite the similarities between the food at Indochine and Phnom Penh, there are obvious differences between the two restaurants.  First off, the atmosphere is completely different… inside Indochine, you’ll find clean lines, dark furniture, and multiple large screen tvs.

Chambar – A Tale of Two Restaurants Part 2

For this story to make any sense while you’re reading it, you have to read Part 1 where we started the night out at nearby Wild Rice.  It’s not that we initially meant to go to two restaurants in one night… it’s just that Wild Rice was “the worst of times” as Dickens would have put it if he was writing about restaurants instead of French Revolution-era human nature, and we were anxious to move onto “the best of times”.

Wild Rice – A Tale of Two Restaurants Part 1

As Dickens once wrote… “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us”.  Now, you may be wondering why I’m quoting one of the most iconic opening lines in written history but I feel that the common theme of juxtaposition between two differing ideas to be very appropriate.