Oku Izakaya is a go-to for servers, chefs, cooks, managers and bartenders after a busy night.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Oku Izakaya
Recommended Videos
Where: 2 Water St., Vancouver
When: Dinner and late night, Wednesday to Sunday.
Coming off an adrenaline loaded shift, restaurant workers can be tired but wired. A late-night spot with good food and a convivial feel is just what’s needed to decompress, but there’s not a lot of such places.
Oku Izakaya is one — a go-to for servers, chefs, cooks, managers and bartenders after a busy night. The owner-chef, Takeshi Hasegawa, an industry veteran himself, saw the need and he remedied it.
His Izakaya is in the oldie-but-goodie Byrnes Block, one of the city’s oldest buildings, and former home of John (Gassy Jack) Deighton’s saloon, the beginning heartbeat of Gastown. In recent years, the space housed Peckinpah’s Carolina style barbecue joint for 10 years and then, Roosh, a Swiss concept, before Oku took it over just over a year ago.
After 11 p.m., staff from the better restaurants in town drift in. Suyo’s head bartender, Max Curzon-Price, hesitated before divulging the late-night favourite.
“It’s hard to get a table,” he said. He’d been looking for something like it since he left England. “It does great food, the service is warm and it’s somewhere to take a load off.” (Sorry, Max. May you always find a seat.)
“It’s busy, busy, busy,” says Hasegawa. “Everybody knows we are open late” — to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The service is notably warm and friendly. A server overheard me wondering about a dish on the menu and came over and cheerfully went through the whole menu. And Hasegawa is usually behind the counter, cooking, and having a blast with guests.
He understands hospitality. Before Oku Izakaya, he was with the Guu Izakaya group (four locations in Vancouver and one in Toronto), working his way up from chef, then general manager, to vice-president.
He’s been cooking since he was eight. His mother was a cooking instructor and he loved eating.
“My mother taught me a lot. My sisters were not interested,” he says. At 15, he started working in Nagoya, cooking at Japanese and Chinese restaurants.
In Japan, izakayas unleash the flip side to the Japanese calm and quiet; it’s their pressure valve and their tapas bar with casual food, usually sake or beer, and say what? Loud, laughing Japanese.
“Some people go to be alone, think about life with no stress or obligation to talk. It’s a versatile place,” says Hasegawa. In Vancouver, it’s a place to gather and socialize over bites and drinks.
While the Guu izakayas are aimed at a young crowd, students in their 20s, Oku Izakaya elevates the experience for 30-plus customers. “We have high quality food, it’s more cosy, we play jazz,” says Hasegawa.
When I reach him by phone, he’s stressed. His wife broke her leg skiing, is on crutches, and he was juggling two kids and restaurant responsibilities, but still happy to talk about Oku. The name means to go deepe.
“I aim to make Japanese dishes more … authentic,” he says, “and try to make things more deeply, deeply Japanese.” And he does it at Before Times price points.
Not all dishes comply with tradition — the best sellers, the handroll sushi and nigiri, do their own thing. The hand rolls are U-shaped, in wooden holders, loosely packed with filling. The filling for my veggie roll ($4.99) was a mix of cucumber, ginger, green onion, tenkasu (bits of deep-fried batter), radish sprouts, kelp, and tsukudani (Japanese condiment), a nice blend of textures and flavours. And modern. Another had a shrimp tempura, eel, avocado, and cucumber as a filling ($6.90). Both popped with flavour.
Getting to that deeper Japanese place, tuna, yellowtail, and prawn on our nigiri orders ($5 to $6.50) were fresh and clean tasting although not at the level of finer Japanese restaurants. For sashimi, there’s an option of a premium platter (12 pieces for $46.90) or super premium (18 pieces for $61.90).
As for cooked dishes, the mashed potatoes with nori ($8.90) were bejewelled with a crown of ikura — more like a potato salad, a comfort dish with dazzle.
Deep-fried taro ball with takoyaki sauce ($6.90), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and aonori (dried seaweed flakes) is homestyle Japanese food, as is the Nagoya-style spiced chicken karaage ($16.90) with amadare glaze, yamitsuki spice, ponzu, onion and sesame — one of the regional takes on karaage, popular throughout the country. In Nagoya, it’s sprinkled with sesame seeds and served with a mild spicy soy-based sauce thickened with a starch from kudzu roots.
A six-ounce smoked black cod ($28.90) takes a detour to an artisanal fish smoker in North Vancouver (Masa’s Salmon Smokehouse).
“He’s a Japanese technician,” says Hasegawa. It’s not the prettiest dish but it is beautifully tender, moist, and lightly smoked. Japanese pickles add a nice acid contrast.
Hasegawa says the pork belly dish is cured with salt and sugar for a week, then stewed at low heat for six hours. It’s then cut in thick slices, baked to crispness and served with Nagoyan red miso sauce.
Diners aren’t intimidated by dishes like teriyaki beef tongue, which sells well, as does the whelk and canola flower gomae. The whelk is boiled, marinated in soy, ponzu, sesame and lots of spices. Hasegawa also makes a vegan agedashi that subs a plant-based broth for a fish-based one.
There’s a fun selection of izakaya-friendly drinks, from draft and bottled beers, Japanese whiskies and gins, to premium sake by the bottle and glass. Cocktails are cheeky twists on the classics and incorporate Japanese ingredients, like the Sake-tini, Wasabi Caesar and Onigri Margarita.
This year, Hasegawa has plans to bring more of Japan to Gastown, collaborating with producers in Hokkaido, which is rich in agricultural products and great seafood. “Maybe a Hokkaido festival in Gastown,” he says. “We’re just talking.” He’s also eyeing Tottori prefecture with its exceptional produce, including extra sweet watermelons, persimmons and pears.
x.com/miastainsby
instagram.com/miastainsby
vancouversun.com/tag/word-of-mouth-blog