Sumiya

Santa Clara, CA

The izakaya rage continues in the bay, and we've attempted to jump on the bandwagon dining at Sumiya with Bro-Co. We love Japanese food and izakaya foods are easy for my brother who is not a big sushi fan. Through some lucky timing, we were seated in five minutes and asked to leave for someone else's 8:30 Saturday night reservation. No problem! Once seated, we were given a plate of cabbage covered with sweet soy sauce.
The menu is vast and the combinations are endless, think of it like having Japanese tapas. Its fun because you get to try a whole bunch of small bites. We started with the popular fried chicken skin with octopus salsa. This was definitely the most unique menu item of the night. We followed up with the grilled rice triangle (usually a ball). Interesting, but ultimately, just crunchy edged rice.

Crispy Chicken Skin with Octopus Salsa

Yaki-Onigiri - Grilled Rice 

We had a bevy of yakatori next, each listed below. Surprisingly, it did not stand up to the flavors that we had at Nombe in the mission. The tsukune, chicken meatballs were the standout.

Negima - Chicken Thigh and Green Onion

Tofu Yakatori

Tsukune - Chicken Meatballs

 

Butabara - Pork Belly

Kamo - Duck Breast

Sweet and Spicy Squid

Teba Yakatori - Chicken Wings

Ever since having the whole grilled squid at Uzen in Berkeley, we've been in love with this dish. It was well made here also, but can't top our fave.

Ika Sugata Yaki - Whole Grilled Squid

I'm still not sure how this is a house favorite, but as recommended by the waitress, we ordered the Jagabata, grilled potatoes with grilled garlic and butter. We love potatoes as much as the next starch loving family, but this dish was boring. Lame and boring.

Jagabata - Grilled Potatoes with Melted Butter and Garlic

Dombori's are quickly becoming Bro-Co's go to dish at Japanese restaurants, mainly because every Asian kid is raised on rice dishes like this. It was good, solid filling fish here.

Soboro Don - Ground Chicken and Cucumber

Ramen too? Yup, we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything. It was decent, but couldn't touch a good ramen place.

Sumiya Chazuke

I guess the only reason that I would say I was disappointed is because this is a really popular place in the south bay and was hoping for more. The yakatori at Nombe was better but the other dishes at Sumiya beat Nombe. Basically, if you put the two of them together, they'd be well rounded establishments, but for now, they're both just subpar. Ippuku in Berkeley is the next stop on my izakaya journey and hopefully that one does meet expectations.

Rating 5.5/10

September 5, 2010