Iz IZAKAYA GO Amazing or Iz It Not?

Can professional food writers disagree? You bet your sweet bippy they can. But on the whole, those arguments are usually of the “how-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin” variety.

It is rare that any group of critics — people who have been paid for their opinions for any length of time — to look at a chef or a restaurant and come to diametrically opposite opinions about what they are eating.

Amateur foodies — even experienced, passionate ones — can sometimes cheer-lead when one of us would beg caution, or vilify over trivialities that would have a pro thinking, “That’s fine, but you really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That said, sometimes you can sometimes go to the same place and have such different experiences that each side will question the sanity of the other. (Remember, unlike movie, music or architecture critics, food writers don’t all sample the exact same goods. Restaurants are some of the most organic enterprises on earth, and all it takes is a hangover, a fight with the spouse, or an AWOL dishwasher to turn a top flight operation into an inedible mess.)

Case in point: IZAKAYA GO.

ELV — the man, the Web site, the unapologetic user of abbreviations about the Japanese people — has been heartily recommending IG on this site, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for over a month now. He’s eaten there three times, unrecognized and un-comped. Almost every bite has been good to extraordinary, and the sashimi (seen above) even a cut or three above anything we’ve had recently at anyplace whose initials weren’t Kabuto or Katsuya by Starck.

Not only was the fish top drawer, but the warm chicken salad with a creamy-tangy ponzu dressing:

….and light-yet-intense chicken broth ramen:

…have all been chopstick-dropping delicious.

By all accounts, our social media drum banging has had the desired effect. We’ve seen steadily more customers on each of our visits, and friends-in-food have told us of full houses on weekend evenings. (Not bad for a place that’s barely six weeks old.)

So, as we alluded to above, some of our passionate and experienced gastronomic pals went last Saturday night on our recommendation. Their verdict:

“Horrible.”

“Inedible.”

“Terribly overcooked.”

“Worst meal of the year.”

How could this be? Has ELV lost his razor-sharp palate? Was he over-served or held captive by the undeniable charms of a sultry sake siren?

Could he possibly…perish the thought….actually be wrong?

(To be fair and completely honest about it, ELV was wrong about a restaurant once, but then discovered he was mistaken.)

So what gives?

It was easy to deduce the disconnect once ELV did some serious Sherlock Holmesian investigating.

“What night did you dine?” he asked.

“Saturday,” the galloping gourmands replied.

“Well there ya go. Problem solved,” was all he needed to say.

Because pilgrim, dining on a Saturday night is the gastronomic equivalent of drinking on New Year’s Eve. Saturday night is amateur hour. It’s the night when every Wilbur and Mabel — from Bumfuck, Utah to Sopchoppy, Florida — thinks theys gonna have a big ole time in the big city. Thus are you fighting with crowds and dealing with kitchens who are stressed to the max and floundering through the whole evening.

But rather than itemizing the various horrors you can confront on this most loathsome of dining days, we at ELV will leave it to a food writer named Jim Quinn to say it best, in words we first read in 1983:

“[N]o matter how good the restaurant is, never eat out on a Saturday night. That’s when intimate, romantic restaurants turn loud and raucous, when big, cheerful, bustling restaurants turn distraught and frantic, when you’ll be one hundredth instead of one tenth or one twentieth of your waiter’s earnings (so he won’t have the time, even if he has the inclination, to give you good service). And most important of all , Saturday nights  are so rushed and hectic that many restaurants with famous chefs hire part-time underchefs to help out with the extra work — underchefs who are not nearly as famous, usually for very good reasons.” – Quinn, Jim, But Never Eat Out On A Saturday Night. Doubleday Dolphin (1983).

ELV realizes that the Vegas dining economy can sometimes turn this advice on its ear. Given our convention trade, a Tuesday or Wednesday can sometimes be more slammed than a Friday or Saturday. But off the Strip, every word of it remains true.

So there you have it, dining friends of Eating Las Vegas. You simply picked the wrong night. Further sleuthing revealed that indeed, Izakaya Go was packed to the rafters on your disappointing night. For a brand new operation, such stress was bound to reveal itself in inartfully presented plates and poorly executed cooking. Go on a Sunday, Monday or Wednesday (as ELV did), and we’re almost certain you will have a much nicer meal.

But before we leave you, we want the above words of Mr. Quinn to become seared on your brain — as they have been on ours for 32 years:

“So never eat out on a Saturday night; any other day is bound to be better. Except Mother’s Day, of course, — never, never eat out on Mother’s Day.”

IZAKAYA GO

3775 Spring Mountain Road #301

Las Vegas, NV 89102

702.247.1183

P.S. For the record, ELV’s favorite nights to eat out are Monday (when he can see what the “B” team is doing) and Thursday and Friday (when the produce and fish are the freshest).

14 thoughts on “Iz IZAKAYA GO Amazing or Iz It Not?

  1. So being busy entitles mistakes. Good to know. Considering I ONLY eat out on Saturdays and have had hundreds of good meals in vegas your theory is bunk. Not saying you didn’t have good meals, but for 10/15 plates to FAIL is Gerald Chin Stripsteak bad. How do you fuck up tuna belly or collar? And how do you disrespect a guest by actually letting a visibly burned plate leave the kitchen?

  2. Also, since we’re blaming circumstances here – what about visiting hearthstone on a holiday, 3rd day in, and slamming it (while making claims on your blog that didn’t fit the verbal descriptions you made just after)?

  3. in all fairness, the first thing I said was they were really, really busy and i gotta try them again…but, Saturdays are the same menu, same price so they will really need to figure it out…

    having said that, I’m not a food critic or writer and never will nor do i wanna be. I just love food and I’m a life long student of it. but….that one dish in particular…. at that very instant when they decided if they should throw it out or serve it…it was right then that they showed little respect for food, the customers or themselves. it was really that bad…other misses could be easily corrected with a few simple tweeks… and Michael is right about heart stone …was well above what I expected and meeting with chef – i saw that there is a drive and passion that is rare these days…nothing cookie cutter about it.

  4. Experienced Izakaya Go last Friday. The kitchen was obviously slammed, but the real issue was with service. It was the third day on the job for our first waitress, they pulled her off our table and gave us someone else – who proceeded to make numerous order and timing errors. A third waitress (possibly a partner?) had to be brought in to give explanations of some of the dishes.

    But I did not consider these issues to be representative of a problem… in fact I found it quite charming. The staff was not informed and poorly trained, but their excitement of being involved in a restaurant that was clearly going to be very popular was infectious. My better half and I rolled with the punches, and actually had a good meal… and we will return. For the price, we were rather happy with the 8 dishes we ordered (only 7 arrived due to the waitress error – the staff graciously offered to comp the missing Uni Sashimi once the mistake was discovered but we declined since we were already full).

    If I had any complaints about the kitchen, it would certainly not be about the quality of the ingredients. The sourcing of the fish was clearly far superior over similarly priced venues in Vegas. My only negative comments would be over the American-sized sashimi served (bigger is not better), the excessive use of lemon slices as a garnish, and the knife skills of the chef that performed the fish butchering can use a bit of an improvement. But even with these downsides, the sashimi at this humble Izakaya that attempts to be all things Japanese for all people was still far superior over an dedicated sushi restaurant downtown that recently opened. The menu at Izakaya Go is so vast, I imagine I could eat here 10x in a row and never have the same dish twice; regardless of the fact that we are ordering at least 6 dishes per visit; there is great value to be had here! Is it the best Izakaya I have visited? No… but it is certainly one that has been added to our steady rotation.

  5. ELV responds:
    We know not of what M. Uzmann is speaking when he excoriates us for “…making claims…that didn’t fit the verbal descriptions.”
    We do know that we’ve been eating Light Group food for a dozen years (at least) and haven’t found an original thought on any of their menus.
    We also know that our meal at Hearthstone was beneath mediocre, and that he and other young food bucks need to quit getting so excited over a fucking roasted pig.
    And what InTheCards said.
    Thanks to all for your spirited, contentious-but-thoughtful comments.

  6. I was at Izakaya on Sunday night and things were great. The sashimi was fresh, chilled and very tasty as was all the other food we had. I put it on par with Sen which I prefer because it is only a block away .
    On a side note I was at Nobu on Tues night with some business associates. The 4 of us had the $175 Omakase….pitiful. I could not believe how bad the nigiri was. Dry rice WTF. with drinks and 3 bottle of wine the bill came in north of a grand. The food pedestrian at best.
    One of the most disappointing meals in a long long time. Raku next time.

  7. …if only I’d have been wearing a wire re: your comments on Hearthstone vs. CRUSH (which you neglected to rip despite saying TWICE at the table that Hearthstone was better. ;-)

    Its cool though, more pig for the rest of us.

    Now I’ll go read the critics praise Tom’s Urban for giving them Fieri food for free…

  8. Serious and unbiased question… whats with all the Hearthstone love?

    Literally all of the educated gourmands that I have spoken with who tried Hearthstone, eventually then walked away saying “meh” at best. Conversely many of my dining friends who are lesser experienced really enjoyed Hearthstone the first time, and then as they continued to return they found less and less to enjoy. Mind you this is a small sample size, but it is quite telling that the only praise I come across for Hearthstone is from the local scribes who never say anything bad about any kitchen and in angry quips from Heathstone fans in this blog. Personally I thought Hearthstone would be a great local resource to eat at when I don’t feel like going far if it was a few blocks from my home, but I would have no interest traveling to eat here. There is no innovation, it is just a repackaging of ideas to a consumer that is lacking access to innovation.

  9. John

    Another chime in that was there was it was god awful bad, both service and basic execution of food. Definite worst meal of the year contender. However, since I trust your judgement I’ll give it a try, cautiously again on a non-Saturday, mainly because it was extremely cheap.

    But I think you should give Hearthstone another shot. If they will let you in the door at this point.

  10. Hey Hearthstone, Peasant called. They want their concept back. (Hey FIX, Sam’s American called, they said you’re welcome for the wings everyone thinks you created because you say you do).

    Uzzman, Saturday is amateur night., case closed, not even open for an argument, but it doesn’t mean you deserve less for going on that night, it just means you raise the odds of getting a spectacular experience. But arguing this point only solidifies that you are an outsider looking in, which is fine, but please understand some of the inner workings. Like not getting sushi on Monday in NYC, or ever eating a Sunday brunch special.

    Izikaya is a good casual little romp, devoid of price-gouging, but a place you can go with friends and have fun.
    Judging it next to higher end sushi places is unfair. However the Uni Dumplings are fantastic.

  11. Outsider looking in…okey dokey loube…I’m not sure I ‘argued’ any point, other than to say a good restaurant always offers its A game. For that kitchen to send out the shit they did is a disgrace and an insult to the customer whether it is Tuesday or Saturday, beginning or ending of service.

    I went with friends. I had fun. The food was garbage.

  12. Have not been to Izakaya go yet, but saying a restaurant should be expected to be bad on a busier night or that you accept that a restaurant isn’t as good when it is busy is giving the chefs a get out of jail free card. Good chefs and good cooks get the job done no matter how busy it is. Good restaurateurs design spots with the idea to never be too busy to not be able to put the best product possible up at the pass. I can go as far to say that having a good host or maître d would prevent a good restaurant from going down in flames during a busy night . Giving out free passes or taking a review from a Saturday with a grain of salt is a cop out in my mind.

  13. The only thing I found impressive of Hearthstone was its charcuterie selection. Everything else was a bit of a sleeper. Even its pizza. Especially the pizza. (It is just one grade above yard house and that is being generous about it.)

    Hearthstone has hype. Anything put in Red Rock seems to be a doomed failure other then big franchise outlets. I’d be surprised if Hearthstone outlasts mercaditos (which is just another downgrade-quality of ‘authentic’ mexican food.) Sadly, majority of the patrons for summerlin are looking for just franchise/sandbox resto’s. Nothing seems to last up in summerlin.

    Exceptions are to be made.

  14. 3 visits to izakaya go so far.. service has its issues mostly lack of knowledge and finesse from servers.. nothing noticeably terrible tho and better than most Asian joints.
    The food is amazing. Uni Shumai incredible! Everything I’ve tried which nearly the menu is excellent.
    Izakaya Go is the best izakaya I’ve been to in Vegas.
    And being busy is not an excuse to suck. But only a mammaluke would eat out on Friday or saturday.

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