Berkeley: Ippuku

Thursday night, my old college roomie whisked me away to Berkeley for a food-filled weekend. Despite having pho together for dinner back in San Jose, we grabbed my other old college roomie and headed to the newly opened Ippuku for a late night "snack":

Love the design of Ippuku:

It's very intimate and perfect for some late night bonding with friends over some Japanese beer (which is on tap...and according to our server, is quite rare to find on tap in the States) or some yakitori or both.

We started with the jidori gyoza:

The chicken filling was very fine and the skin was quite delicate.

We also got the grilled squid:

The combination of squid, mayo, and ginger was just amazing.

Then came the grilled chicken gizzard:

Great texture, great flavor...yum yum yum.

One of my friends ordered the grapefruit chu-hai cocktail:

I think I had more fun watching her squeeze the grapefruit than she had squeezing it.

My other friend ordered the umeboshi plum chu-hai cocktail:

I took a sip and I actually was okay with it. Couldn't taste the alcohol in it. Nice.

We were informed that the kitchen was closing, so we sent in a last-minute order for a matcha sundae:

There were little bits of crunchy green stuff that we tried to figure out and failed. These was also a very faint alcohol flavor that we were trying to trace. (I think it was in the syrup.) The anko was great, but I wasn't a fan of the jelly cubes.

I would definitely come back to Ippuku because there's so much on the menu that I want to try. Beware though, portions are small but prices don't reflect that.

Ippuku

2130 Center St

Berkeley, CA 94074

(510) 665-1969

http://ippukuberkeley.com/