Beyond Ramen: The Early Word on Daikaya's Izakaya

Daikaya is essentially operating as two separate restaurants on two different floors. Downstairs, customers get their ramen, slurp and leave. The upstairs izakaya, however, has an entirely different menu, and encourages diners to linger there. But is the food enough of an enticement to get drinkers to stick around? Here's the early word on Daikaya's izakaya from bloggers, Twitter and more.

The Dishes to Try News: WaPo's Going Out Guide highlights three dishes of note at the new izakaya: wasabi octopus, sesame panna cotta and ankimo with miso escalivada. [WaPo]

The Generally Strong News: Over on Don Rockwell, a few readers have visited the izakaya already. One is darkstar965, who summarizes, "For a 3rd day, this was impressive and, overall, we enjoyed the experience.  Most of the dishes were good or very good with a couple standouts.  The place is very hip and no doubt will be very popular.  Value is very good." [DR]

The Fried Monkfish News: Also on DR, cheezepowder singles out the fried monkfish. "The breading was light, crispy and not greasy.  I also liked the dipping sauce that came with it. " [DR]
 
The Twitter News: Restaurant publicist @britgarrison (who does not rep the restaurant) Tweets, "Still craving grilled avo, brussels+pork & umeshu plum wine from @Daikayadc's new Izakaya." [Twitter]

The Celebrity Chef Endorsement: From Graffiato's Mike Isabella on Twitter: "Capping my nite off @Daikayadc sipping on sake... eating my fav grilled avocado. @chefkatsuya is killin it!" [Twitter]

The Old Bay Croquettes News: The Huffington Post declares the menu highlights to be "grilled oysters with housemade oyster salt and sake, grilled avocado with ponzu and fresh wasabi, and abura-miso rice balls using Fukushima's mother's recipe from Miyako, Japan. A Western update to chawanmushi adds shitake mushrooms and Parmesan, while, in a nod to D.C.'s proximity to the Eastern shore, crab croquettes come seasoned with Old Bay." [HuffPo]

The Aromas of Miso News: From UrbanDaddy: "Soon, the aromas of sake and miso will get to you. You'll reach for a menu that includes Spicy Cod Roe Spaghetti, house-fermented vegetables and wasabi octopus. t's a dish with legs." [UD]

The Fusion News: Just about all of Daikaya's Yelp reviews so far (and there are a ton) are for the downstairs ramen. An exception comes from Andrew H., who gives the izakaya four stars. "I had high hopes that were both met and not. How is that possible? Because I was expecting a traditional izakaya with high-quality Japanese street/bar food and didn't get that; instead, I got a izakaya with high-quality Japanese/'I guess italian' fusion food. And this was definitely a very good unexpected surprise." [Yelp]
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