Kitchen Kura

Okonomiyaki with Kobe beef was ok. Ordered golden trio. Hamburger steak was tasty, potato croquette was good, and curry was tasty. When we were asked how spicy for the curry we said spicy, I wish it was more spicy as it was kinda mild for me. The nanban chicken was kinda bland without the sauce, and that definitely wasn't spicy. However it was good portion for the price with appetizer, salad, and mins soup includes with the meal.

Kitchen Kura has officially become my favorite neighborhood spot. It's only a block away from my apartment and serves up the best homey Japanese food I've had in a long time. Plus the service is super friendly and the prices are reasonable. You have a few choices here. You can go for the combo dinner set, which gives you a small appetizer, soup, salad, 2 choices of main dishes, and rice. There's a good variety of options. I highly recommend the hamburger steak with demi-glace sauce. This is something only Japanese people do (as far I know) - only serve the burger (w/o bun, lettuce and the like) but with a hearty savory sauce. It'd delicious! You can also go for one of the rice bowls. My favorite is the sukiyaki-don. It's savory yet a little sweet. And I love love love the tofu with the meat. YUM! They also have a few okonomiyaki combinations. Since I make my own at home, I haven't tried it here. But they look more decent than most other places I've seen. But still doesn't look like what they serve up in Osaka. If you're looking for a simple meal with authentic flavors, definitely check out Kitchen Kura!

Food: Great. It's a pretty small selection compared to other Japanese restaurants. No sushi here sorry. But you can tell all the food had a lot of effort put into it. The dinner special is great. Green Tea, miso soup, steamed rice, an appetizer and two entrees for $10.50. Great deal. I had the Nanban chicken & fried tofu. The chicken was great, way better than Kitaro/Kiki's chicken. The fried tofu was two huge pieces. I would of liked them in small portions then fried but good either way. Atmosphere: At first glance you might not want to go in, but please do. It's very homey. Although small it's a great place to eat. Service: The waiter we had was really nice. He put up with our unusual conversation at 8-9 at night. Everything came at a good time. He refilled out green tea with hot water. Everything was great.

Four for the okonomiyaki. But wasn't a fan of anything else to be quite honest (but we only got the appetizer, miso, salad, and edamame because technically this was dinner #2) so that is not saying much. The California (pork + avocado) Okonomiyaki came on a skillet and was definitely on the thick and creamy side. If Okonomiyaki is considered the Japanese equivalent of a pizza, then this is more of a Chicago deep dish style instead of a New York Pizza type. It had a healthy dose of mayo and the pork was nice and crispy on top. Our miso came out only slightly warm (as if it had been sitting out for a while - but we did show up near closing time). It was gross. Appetizer special of the day was a fried chip with a seafood mash that tasted like fishy mashed potatoes. We ended up eating a few bites and leaving it. Edamame was extremely garlicy. There were giant chunks of fried garlic that I ended up putting on top of my rice and to add more punches of flavor to the okonomiyaki. Wish they had sriracha or some other flavoring to add spice to my okonomiyaki but that's just my American side talking.

This business is definitely out to get your money. Parking here is hard to find so you may have to circle a couple blocks around and around. It was strange to come here on a Sunday and have this restaurant open from 6pm-9pm. The restaurant is tiny - maximum capacity would probably be around 15. We were seated immediately, thank goodness. We were given our menus and decided to get the two entrees for $15. My friend and I decided to get the Nanban Chicken and the Garlic Pork. With the combo, you also get a side of rice and miso ground chicken (which was amazing!) Unfortunately, we had to buy a little more because there's a $8 minimum PER PERSON. What the actual fuuu? I've never heard of that before, so my friend bought a can of soda with it. The Nanban Chicken was 7/10. The only problem I had with it was the breading kept coming off. It comes with a special sauce and it tasted better. The garlic chicken was 6/10. It had the right mixture of sauce and the texture was all right. However, I don't think I'll be back here just because it's very limited and the service was slow. Oh, there's a $15 credit card minimum here.