Thursday, March 12, 2015

Dan Izakaya in San Jose, California

Asari Butter

When I saw this place in a list of izakayas nearby, I immediately dismissed it based on the name alone. Dan? Like Dan Quayle? (or Marino? Aykroyd?) I figured that was no way that a place like that could be any good. But then it was pointed out to me that this was actually the same place that some of us used to go to every week back when I still lived here. That place was called Tanto, which might not sound like a proper izakaya either if one is thinking of the Lone Ranger. But I loooooved that place, and it finally dawned on me that Dan was just a soft pronunciation of Tanto.

Anyway, we came to Dan tonight. I'm not sure if it was the same owners or chef as the old Tanto, but it was definitely the same location (1306 Saratoga Avenue, 408-249-6020). I lowered my expectations given my experiences with some Tanto-related spinoffs, but fortunately the food turned out to be pretty good. Now, it still wasn't quite the same as the old Tanto either...these guys dressed up their yaki onigiri with some ikura and niboshi rather than keeping it simple. But in the end it still tasted good enough for us to leave satisfied. Yeah, I'll come back here again.

2 comments:

diana said...

Dan is awesome! Did you try the sashimi salad?

bma said...

No, but I'll try to next time. Thanks for the heads-up.