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Blah blah blah, Kobachi, blah blah, small plates, uber yummy. The usual! I’ve posted so many photos of the same delicious foods at Kobachi that I didn’t really bother on this visit. Except!…
Something from the kitchen. Tempura battered roasted pumpkin. Kobachi Izakaya Dining This dinner was to introduce Olivia to the yumminess that is Kobachi. She had a good time.
Hot sake for Olivia, and cold shochu with oolong for me. The food starts with a green seaweed salad.
Near the end we ordered nasu dengaku – broiled eggplant, and a round of ama ebi shrimp which first come has raw bodies, and the second course is their heads, tempura battered and fried.
Delicious, as usual. Olivia, being vegetarian + pescadarian, had so many good things to choose from. Kobachi Izakaya Dining Another yummy dinner at Kobachi!
Top row: Bottom row: We’d joined Vo after he’s already started eating, so we shared a few more items, then ordered for ourselves. We weren’t expecting to have much sushi, but the fish seemed very fresh tonight, and we treated ourselves to some fine albacore nigiri as our last dish.
Kobachi Izakaya Dining Like last year, the first thing we did upon returning to Santa Barbara is get dinner at Kobachi. A birthday dinner, in fact, for Pauline. We got a lot of the old favorites, but tried a couple new things.
Top: cold sake, mame aju nanban, chicken tsukune.
Above: Gobo chips, salmon roe nigiri, and raw oysters. Now for the cool new stuff. An item I’ve had a couple times before, but never had a good photo is the crispy shima ebi. It’s a big bowl of little shrimps, battered and fried, and lightly dusted with curry powder. This is not a snack for one person, but a hefty portion to be shared with several people. Amazingly, it only costs about $6.
Also new to the standard menu is a beef dish, recommended by Yoko. It’s seared beef that’s served cold with a fruit sauce. There was not enough to go around.
When Ken-san heard there was a birthday girl in the midst, he prepared a few custom dishes which we were not expecting at all, and they were lovely. One was a selection of sushi rolls, but rather than using nori, these were wrapped in grape leaves. In the rolls was snapper sashimi and it was topped with cheese, apricots, pecans and lime slices. Like nothing I’ve ever had before.
The second custom creation from the chef was also great. It was salmon sashimi with dried apricot, fresh figs, salmon roe and a curry cream sauce. A great reminder that figs were in season and to get down to the market to buy loads.
Finally, a little strawberry ice cream and fresh fig. It’s a small picture because it’s a very small serving! We couldn’t eat more anyway, we were utterly stuffed by this feast. Abel still managed to lick a plate or two!
Kobachi Izakaya Dining I think I can squeeze one more trip to Kobachi before going on vacation. This dinner was for a visiting Belgian woman, who was staying with my parents while researching another Belgian that my mother dated many many years ago. It’s a long story.
Top: octopus and scallops, pork belly skewers with red miso glaze, oshinko mori – assorted pickles. This was the first time my parents tried the pork belly skewers and the chicken meatballs, they loved those. The hanpan before was “katsu” with fried breading and this wasn’t breaded. I was underwhelmed, as the fish cake now tasted dry and puffy. Nobody complained, though, so it was fine.
Finally, an eel roll. Sated! Kobachi Izakaya Dining Kobachi again, so soon? Well, yes, it’s still August and their 2nd anniversary special are running. And we’re also about to go out of town for a week and a half.
$1 edamame, $2 large hot sake, $3 Asahi draft beer.
$4 salmon poki, and four pieces of shiitake nigiri. No complaints. The food’s fabulous as always and all the August special add up to just $15. Kobachi Izakaya Dining Kobachi is celebrating its 2nd anniversary with izakaya specials! For the month of August, the following deals were available. $1 edamame Of the specials available, we got the edamame, the salmon poki and the shrimp and vegetable tempura.
Kobachi Izakaya Dining
It should be fairly obvious by now that my most frequented restaurant in town is Kobachi. And why not. I live close by, the food is good, there’s so much to choose from on the menu, and the small portions mean I can dabble and order lots of little plates. I came here for my birthday dinner, as I did the year before. Except this year I thought it would be a good idea to make a reservation for it and speak with the chef beforehand on a set menu to eliminate confusion over orders and prices for those who need to watch their dollars. I knew there would be a couple vegetarians – or pescatarians – attending, plus vegetables make the meal healthier and a little less expensive, so I requested Ken-san focus on vegetables and fish, with just a little beef, pork and chicken. It worked out splendidly, and everyone at Kobachi put forth a wonderful meal that was stress-free for all attending. My friends also did me proud by 1. rsvp-ing and actually showing up. And 2. Showing up *on time*! Really, this is Santa Barbara, and when everyone on the rsvp list shows up, on time, it’s a minor miracle. I’m really blessed to have good and cool friends. There were 20 of us, taking over the new expanded space with the murals. The Kobachi staff decorated the space with long tables, birthday table cloths and plates, and sprinkled everything with confetti. FUN! They also provided a gift of a few snacks, a bottle of shochu and oolong tea. It is my favorite drink there and now I could share it with all my friends. Upon arrival, a buffet table had been laid out, with empty bowls containing a slip of paper with the name of the dish written on it. It felt like Christmas, knowing there would be a lot of presents to open shortly, and everyone was excited. I wasn’t able to take photos of everything, being distracted by talking to friends, but Ted Mills got most of the dishes, even if he had to get a photo of a small portion off his own plate. Generally, the portions were approximately like receiving a double order, but there were a few when there was one item per person, such as sushi rolls or oysters. Want to see the feast? Here goes!
First, are some salads. Seaweed salad, a mixed salad of cucumber, tomato and seaweed, and hjjiki – warm black seaweed salad.
Cold fish dishes included a plaste of salmon sashimi with a tangy carpaccio sauce, and tuna in a dark smokey sesame oil sauce. Also, slow cooked vegetables and mushrooms served warm.
Four fillets of aburi saba then made an entrance, and all the fine slices were quickly scooped up and consumed…a lot by me!
Rolls included a seared salmon with avocado and asparagus, a smelt roe roll, and some other roll that I did not eat, or get photos of. There was one grilled beef dish that delighted a few meat eaters, but it was also very filling! We also had grilled eggplant nigiri.
There was one fat oyster for every person attending, and platter of sauteed vegetables. One dish I never quite identified (lower left) was piled with cooked marinated vegetables and I believe it was a sweet-sour chicken. If only I could remember the name, but I’m fairly certain I did not have the opportunity to eat it, or I’d remember more details. There was also a big tofu dish, but this plate was massacred by hungry friends before we could get a photo of it. Oops.
Now, we are happy and drunk. No chance getting a photo of the aji miso yaki. The picture on the plate is rather unappetizing looking, but trust me, it was yummy. These were snapped up in a hurry, I’m not sure I tried any myself!
One more round of sushi, with a piece of shiitake nigiri for everyone and it was time for dessert. My parents showed up partway through the meal with two homemade cakes, and a few more chairs (the restaurant had completely run out!). Their cakes were an almond cake, and an eggwhite pavlova. Yoko, my favorite waitress there, brought a cheesecake! Thank you, Yoko!
After blowing out the candles, we feasted on cake, chattered more, and then it was time to settle up the bill. I’m happy to say the folks at Kobachi got a nice tip. It was a great birthday dinner! Kobachi Izakaya Dining At this point, are words even necessary?
Okay, maybe a few descriptions. Row 1: Natto and Quail Egg, still not warmed up to natto. Vegetable tempura and pork gyoza. Kobachi Izakaya Dining So much for trying to eat at Edomasa this evening. I even had some notes of friends recommendations. Soon, I hope. Soon! Instead, it was a Kobachi evening.
Top row, left: iced green tea, ordered by both Drew and Laura. I had hot green tea. Middle row, left: a plate of BBQ beef ribs. Very tasty, but I was the only person at the table that would eat the gristle and pick the bones clean. It even threw off the waiter, who initially hesitated on clearing the plate as he thought we weren’t finished. Then he saw the gnaw marks. Wasteful Americans! Bottom row, left: Pork kaku-ni, the tender cooked pork belly. Delicious and fatty, we couldn’t finish it and took a piece home.
The surprise of the night was dessert, it came to the table after we’d settled up the bill. Normally it’s a little mochi ice cream, or a little black sesame flan, but today we got some yummy jelly roll and a melt-it-in-your-mouth dessert I can only describe as a chocolate mousse yorkshire pudding. Want more, please! Side note: a recent visitor of Japanese descent translated “kobachi.” It means “small dish.” Makes sense. Past posts: Kobachi Izakaya Dining |
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