If there was a perfect Izakaya outside Japan, it might be Oku

• Name + address: Oku Izakaya, 2 Water St. Vancouver

• Type of food: Japanese

• Appetizers:

• Mains:

• Diet: seafood, meat, vegetarian

• Wheelchair accessibility: No

• Licensed: Yes

While it’s situated in Vancouver’s hottest tourist destination, the city’s latest izakaya, Oku in Gastown is anything but a tourist trap. 

An izakaya is an informal spot for drinks and small, affordable dishes meant to be shared. As much as the food and drink, it’s the inevitable spirit of conviviality that’s the added spice to the izakaya experience. 

Owner Takeshi Hasegawa cut his teeth working as a chef at one of Vancouver’s Guu restaurants, a small chain credited with being Vancouver's first izakayas. One year into his new venture, he’s not suffering for lack of patrons. 

Reservations are a must and there is a 90 minute time limit on tables. After this, depending on availability, you will be offered a seat at the bar. Highly recommended.

A dear friend, herself a restaurateur of the award-winning Yuwa, suggested we dine at Oku. We were joined by another mutual friend and after all the intervening years we picked up where we’d left off: sharing our mad love of food and drink.

Edamame, that staple of the izakaya table, was a different affair from the usual bowl of steamed beans. These had been marinated in soy and seasonings and then flash-fried. Magnificent but I’ve now been spoiled and won’t have them any other way. Neither would you.

The arugula salad was up next and came served with myoga which is also referred to as Japanese ginger but more closely resembles a cross between a French shallot and a mini Bird of Paradise.

The salad was further dressed with Japanese rice crackers and peanuts and was a very fresh way to begin our adventure.

Beef tartare arrived having been cured in kombu and came with an assortment of sides: kelp tsukudani, chimichurri sauce, pickled burdock root, pickled nappa, green onion, garlic crisp, cheddar cheese, onsen egg and nori seaweed wrappers.

We took turns experimenting with adding the ingredients to the beef and then folding it all together in the nori trying to determine our favourite combinations. In the end we mixed the entire mess together and that really was the charm. Umami fireworks.

I’ve eaten off-cuts (beefheart, liver, sweetbreads) in the past and yet I always think twice before trying something new like beef tongue. 

Let me just state that if like me, you’d hesitate, this dish at Oku will have you abandoning that hesitation. It was sublimely soft and tender and the blistered tomatoes sitting in that flavour-packed reduction had me reaching for a soup spoon. 

The cut looked entirely lean but on the palate betrayed an almost fattiness and I referred to the experience as poor man’s wagyu. Served in this way, with a crown of scallions and crispy garlic, it was a revelation and one of the nicest dishes of the last year.

As always, the requisite chicken karaage was a hit around the table but with added amadare glaze, yamitsuki spice, ponzu onion and sesame.

Takeshi had taken simple deep-fried chicken thigh and given it such depth that each mouthful was almost fatiguing. I say “almost” because I also couldn’t stop eating the things. Perfectly fried in the best oil, each bite revealed a steaming and moist,  marinated-to-the-core, explosion that you didn’t want to end. Yet it did and then it was on to the fish.

Being on the Pacific coast Vancouver is blessed for seafood in two ways: it has its own bounty at its doorstep and it receives almost daily flights of Japan's freshest fish.

When visiting the city it simply makes sense to experience that which you otherwise might not anywhere else.

That was the case with the Hokkaido scallop served at Oku. On the first bite of that nigiri, I collapsed back in my chair and felt strangely emotional. I took a few moments before finishing the remainder and I think Takeshi was amused by my reaction. 

I shared that while I’ve had nice scallops back home, it was nothing like this. He explained that his supply of seafood is never frozen and is brought in from Japan several times a week. This freshness can’t be captured after an item has been frozen as freezing has a profound effect on not just flavour but texture as well.

My friend insisted that I try the Japanese sea urchin as it is milder, creamier and yet deeper in flavour than other uni. At $17 a piece it was eyebrow raising but she assured me that this was bargain pricing for something this special. She would know.

She also knew what my reaction would be and she was right. The uni fairly dissolved from just hitting the warmth of my tongue and its silky sumptuous cream affected me the way that scallop had.

After many years of having not seen each other, we came together around a table in Gastown to recapture memories and tell new stories. The celebratory spirit at Oku, one that seemed to be shared by all that night, was clearly an outward expression of cherished friendship and the food…well it was just love shared.