Izaka-Ya

The culturally inaccurate description on the menu already gave me the desire to leave. On the menu, "Kimuchi," which is a Japanese way of pronouncing the Korean dish "Kimchi," was described as "Chinese cabbage dish." Kimchi is Korean, not Chinese.

Le menu est culturellement imprécis. Ils ont décrit "Kimuchi," qui est la façon japonaise pour écrire le plat Coréen "Kimchi," comme "chou chinois salé piquant." Kimchi est Coréen, pas Chinois.

I tried this restaurant because i just moved to this area recently.
This restaurant is a little weird. I ordered yaki gyoza as a starter, and Buta Kimuchi with rice, and tea. I was surprised when they brought me the Buta Kimuchi with rice first, and yaki gyoza 5 minutes later???!!! About the tea, except the green color, i could not taste or smell "a green tea". The food was not bad, but surely it is not in my recommended list.
But one thing made me very curious was the name of the restaurant written on the bill as "Yamayu Santatsu" which is my favorite sushi restaurant in Ixelles, Brussels. I was wondering if it was from the same owner, but I DO NOT think so.

Excellent, authentic Japanese food in a charming atmosphere. The only major complaint was that my octopus skewer had three tiny morsels of octopus, making it quite a rip-off. Everything else we ordered (sashimi dorade, pork and chicken yakitori, cold soba, fried smelts) was fantastic and reasonably priced.

I've to say that this place is slightly strange:
Very simple and minimalistic Japanese decoration, but somehow all the waiters were from others countries and only speaking dutch or english ..quite weird as this place is not in the city center where you could at least find this normal .. (kinda the opposite!)
anyhow, you come for the food so you focus on that - each menu folder has a different picture so you can not manage to agree with your friend saying "yes it is the same but your menu looks different" ha.. ha..
finally we agreed on taking the Lamen menu - somehow the famous japanese Ramen soup was introduced as : chinese noodle soup.. OOPS?
This menu had 5 Gyoza - super yummy and the noodle soup with a bowl of rice next to it ... (like having bread with you bolognese)..
soup was good, can not say it was the best, but it defended itself. However i'm not sure if it appealed me enough to return that soon.

This was an old lunch spot when I lived and worked round the corner. One of the original Japanese restaurants in Brussels before the sushi craze of the 2000s. Their bento lunch boxes are excellent, as are the ramen bowls. The katsu pork is off the charts. Always treated great and the quality of the food is excellent.

Food (yakitori)-1/5
Ambiance-3/5
Service-0/5

TL;DR- food was crap, server yelled at my husband and forced us to pay for food that was delivered after the bill.

Went here last night for my husband's birthday. We ordered exclusively yakitori since this appears to be the only place in our vicinity that offers it, and it has become a tradition to celebrate occasions with yakitori. The review will be split into three sections, from the best to worst parts about his birthday dinner.

The ambiance in this place is actually fine. Never been to Japan but being from California, this place reminds me of many of the local places we loved to frequent, with yakitori displayed behind the counter and the chefs visibly working and chatting with patrons. The ambiance promised a much better time than what was delivered.

Yakitori-worst we've had in a long time. I can understand how this would be amazing or at least a cute novel idea if you've never had yakitori before in your life. However, as yakitori is one of our favorite foods and we have had a ton of experience trying different places in a wide rangee of prices, I can say from an abundance of experience that this place sucks. The price to quality ratio is incredibly high, and that's if they even have the items you want to order (last night, they didn't have a couple of items on their already small yakitori menu). The chicken is dry and severely underseasoned, the pieces cut in different sizes so that they don't cook evenly even on the same skewers. We were told to order an appetizer because the wait for yakitori may take a while, so we ordered an eggplant appetizer--also underwhelming.

The worst part of the night was the service. From being ignored for the better part of the first fifteen minutes after being seated, to waiters being very curt, to outright arguing with my husband, one server managed to deliver the worst service either of us have ever experienced in our lives. Skipping over the buildup part, let's get to my favorite portion of the evening. We had finished all our food. Waited for someone to flag to get our check. And waited. And waited. Twenty minutes after we were done with the food, we finally found someone and they brought our check. Looking over the check briefly revealed that they charged us for skewers that were never delivered. We brought this to the attention of the server who went to take care of it, or so we thought. He came back, told us that they were on their way (half an hour after the last skewers were delivered and after delivery of the bill) and we still had to pay for them. This was when the argument started. Listening to no reason, he basically yelled at my husband in the restaurant-on his birthday-that we had to pay for food that was going to be delivered after he had already brought us the check. Even better, my husband the trooper tried to make the best of the situation and ate a wing, which was still bloody inside and potentially is the reason he had an upset stomach later in the evening.

French version (courtesy of Google translate, apologies for bad translation):

Yakitori - le pire que nous ayons eu depuis longtemps. Je peux comprendre comment ce serait étonnant ou au moins une idée mignonne de roman si vous n'avez jamais eu yakitori avant dans votre vie. Cependant, comme yakitori est l'un de nos plats préférés et nous avons eu une tonne d'expérience en essayant différents endroits dans un large rangee de prix, je peux dire d'une abondance d'expérience que cet endroit est nul. Le rapport qualité-prix est élevé, et c'est si elles ont même les articles que vous souhaitez commander. Le poulet est sec et sévèrement sous-assaisonné, les morceaux coupés en différentes tailles afin qu'ils ne cuisent pas uniformément même sur les mêmes brochettes.

Le pire de la nuit était le service.

Nous avions fini toute notre nourriture. Nous espérons néanmoins que cela vous aidera dans vos recherches. Et attendu. Vingt minutes après nous avons fini avec la nourriture, nous avons finalement trouvé quelqu'un et ils ont apporté notre chèque. En regardant au-dessus de la vérification brièvement révélé qu'ils nous ont chargé pour des brochettes qui n'ont jamais été livrés. Le serveur est revenu, nous a dit qu'ils étaient sur leur chemin (une demi-heure après les dernières brochettes ont été livrés et après la livraison de la facture) et nous avions encore à payer pour eux. C'est à ce moment que l'argument a commencé. Le serveur a finalement fini par crier à mon mari - à son anniversaire - que nous avons dû payer pour la nourriture qui allait être livré après qu'il avait déjà nous a apporté le chèque. Mieux encore, mon mari le soldat a essayé de tirer le meilleur de la situation et a mangé une aile, qui était encore sanglante à l'intérieur et est potentiellement la raison pour laquelle il avait un estomac dérangé plus tard dans la soirée.

En gros, nous ne retournerons jamais dans ce restaurant.

You gotta love that "irasshaimaseeeeeeeen" the head waiter yells at you when entering the place! It makes you feel like you're somewhere in Tokyo and you know you're gonna get yourself a culinary treat (plus all the Japanese customers).

We have tested about 80% of the menu already and didn't find one single dish we didn't like - only the natto didn't get 100% approval from the table, but then again, natto ARE a little weird.
It's one of the rare places that has wakasagi and okonomiyaki and you should definitely give them a try.
They also have a nice selection of Yakitori and small tapa style dishes and their sushi is really good.

Let's put it this way: if I lived in the area, I would probably eat there 4 times a week...

I was recommended by a friend to try out this place and was not disappointed - at all! I have never been to Japan by this is how I imagined my culinary experience would be!
Food was great and beer tasty.
My recommendation: take a couple of small plates to share and one big bowl of Udon. We tried the following:
- Kushimoli (assortment of skewers - nice if you want to try a couple of different things)
- Tempura (Gambas & vegetables)
- Takoyaki (you HAVE to try them out, they are fabulous)
- Edamame (a classic to share
- Tempura Udon

Go there if you want to enjoy some good food, make some culinary discoveries in a casual atmosphere

Appearances can be deceiving. Don't let the decor fool you, because Izaka-ya is a proper japanese restaurant.

It does not pervert its cooking for the likes of european flavor or taste. There are quality ingredients and the fish is as fresh as it can get.

Quality/Price is dead honest.

Be prepared to be kicked out if you didn't make a dinner reservation. This excellent Japanese restaurant is always full and, for what I have seen, is very popular among Japanese people living in Brussels, which is one more sign of authenticity.
I don't think I have ever tried such a good salmon sashimi and I couldn't enjoy more their udon and soba soups.
It's just great to have a place like this in the city you live in.
It could be tough to spend less than 30 euros per person for dinner, though.