At Spark, Shori served up a range of small plates, snacks and larger dishes whose complexity betrayed the ambition to open a restaurant. After a detour to run a kitchen in another premises, that ambition has been fulfilled with the opening on Grape Lane by the junction with Coffee Yard. Chef Danny Victory has gone into partnership here with a fellow Spark business owner who can broaden the skill base on which this new venture is built. I can’t remember the last time I visited these premises’ previous occupant but upon entry there’s precious little evidence of the past in the smartly decorated bar and dining spaces, which are minimalist without undue austerity. In fact the interior was rather more well resolved than I had expected in all honesty with it being a new opening; I can’t count how many restaurant launches I’ve been to that smelled of wet paint! I particularly liked the view out of the expansive glass in the dining area which revealed some delightful curved brickwork that I’d not seen before. A striking blackened wooden arch separates the dining and bar area effectively, also acting as a visual centrepiece for Izakaya.

We were served a set menu on the evening I attended which aimed to cover most bases and consisted of a series of small plates representing different areas of the menu. First up were charred peppers dusted in a bitter, dark crumb that demanded a cold Asahi to counter before some Yakitori and Bao buns arrived along with a dipping sauce with an egg yolk floating in the centre. After puncturing with chopsticks to mix together, this formed an unctuous dip for the chicken skewers which were perfectly tender and given a touch of charring to make things that bit more interesting. The bao buns had been bisected rather than folded around the filling as one would usually expect but that had no impact on how perfectly they were executed, the dough having just the right bounce under slight pressure and the lamb filling both characterful and indulgent. A portion of cauliflower had just the right amount of bite left as well as a generous hit of spice to accompany a luxurious beef tataki and a satisfyingly bold green curry. Both these dishes continued to show confident execution and bags of personality while sesame dressed noodles and refreshing cucumber rounded out the meal neatly, the noodles in particular being particularly intriguing with much more complexity from the dressing than typical. I’d not intended dessert after that lot but with a bit of encouragement I caved and ordered a pandan tiramisu that turned out to be a well judged twist on such a well trodden dish.

The leap from a street food or a pop up to permanent premises can be a daunting one and I was prepared to be making allowances for that but Izakaya felt like an impressively complete offering at the early stage of my visit. It’s easy to see this becoming a winning combination of ambience, quality food and drink offering and sense of occasion. There’re some great restaurants around Grape Lane such as Los Moros and Sotano, Izakaya only makes this an even more delicious corner of York.

(Disclaimer – press meal)

The post Izakaya appeared first on York on a Fork.

Ippuku is a resident of Blake Street, which I gather is to see a mini resurgence in coming months as a few others join the street. It offers a calm refuge from the masses rotating their way through McDonalds, which is geographically close if ideologically distant. Ippuku has been slowly forging its reputation for consistent and fairly priced Japanese over a few years but has been infrequently visited by myself, though occasionally enjoyed by delivery.

There was a decent buzz around the place when we arrived on a cold Tuesday evening, with enough tables occupied to make me feel relieved to have booked. Service was friendly and efficient while maintaining the balance between speed and giving space to relax into the experience.

Thankfully my friend and I were in agreement about our approach to sharing dishes, so it didn’t take long to reel off an order that touched all the parts of the menu we were interested in, though agreeing to skip meat for the evening. We went with ‘Shougayaki’ from the set dish selection and coupled it with a selection of small dishes.

We ordered the Shougayaki with tofu rather than pork and didn’t feel like the lack of meat was any kind of deprivation when it arrived. Instead, the tofu was given full licence to show off the dish’s balance of ginger, soy and mirin. The dish was completed by steamed rice, pickles, miso soup and the day’s vegetable side – kohlrabi in this case. All of this amounted to what would have been a hearty spread for one person, which would only set you back £13, a more than fair price for such well developed dishes and flavours.

As far as smaller plates, we chose mushroom yuzu stir fry, another presentation of kohlrabi, chickpea teriyaki and vegetable gyoza. Of these the mushrooms were a particular highlight, the citrus of the yuzu shining through without overwhelming the headline ingredient. If either my companion or I had been feeling particularly mercenary this might have provoked issues with sharing. Gyoza were perfectly presented and fried to a good crunch and the kohlrabi delivered a well developed cylinder of flavour to the meal. It’d be unfair to label the chickpea teriyaki a disappointment but it didn’t live up to my memory of the dish, being a touch drier than I recalled.

With a drink each, all of this failed to head far North of forty pounds, a number that’s hard to pick fault with for a meal in an independent, quality restaurant which makes such a positive contribution to the city’s food scene. As far as meeting the criteria for our meal out, that was a resounding success and both of us will be looking into return visits.

The post Ippuku Tea House appeared first on York on a Fork.