Izakaya – restaurant review

While Park Street has long been a hub for Asian restaurants, including the sadly-missed HK Diner and Toro Noodle Bar, College Green’s row of shops and restaurants have never fared as well.

Occupying the unit that was most recently the short-lived Sip cafe and next door to Catch 22, Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant offering a great deal for late-night diners, those in need of a takeaway or students seeking a reasonably-priced lunch.

Inside, a wall-mounted list of hot drinks with Sip branding and a large coffee machine are still in situ, while a couple of Asahi beer adverts and Japanese wall-hangings give the place a bit of character.

On this warm weekday night the bi-folding front doors that make up the shop window are pushed back to extend the compact space onto the pavement, and a string of red paper lanterns swing in the breeze.

The waiting staff, many of the them students, are polite and efficient as they field takeaway orders at the counter and seat customers at tables near the front of the restaurant.

From a set menu (£7.95) that includes chicken katsu curry, a vegan and gluten free yasai shoyu noodle soup, and vegetable gyoza udon soup, I pick the chicken yaki udon and add a small plate of pan-fried pork gyoza for £2.

A separate menu of small plates offers the likes of kimchi (£3.50), squid karaage (£4.75) and king prawn tempura (£5), with an early bird offer of three plates for £10 making it excellent value.

Udon at Izakaya

As a car backfires outside and makes the diners on pavement benches jump, a steaming bowl of glistening udon arrives smelling delicious. Traffic light-hued peppers, beansprouts, slivers of onion and chunks of chicken are mixed in amongst the thick noodles, and slivers of chilli add gentle heat to every few mouthfuls.

The cheap cut of chicken is a little gristly but chef hasn’t scrimped on the portion size if you don’t mind picking through it. The udon is thick and cooked so it is soft but not rubbery, with the fresh vegetables adding crisp, crunchy textures.

The whole dish is a little oily but not unpleasantly so, and despite being an enormous portion it remains light to the end.

Pork gyoza with dipping sauce

Three pork gyoza (vegetable and chicken are also available) are cooked to crisp perfection, with translucent skins browned on one side and fillings packed with meat. The remaining dipping sauce – soya sauce and vinegar with extra spring onion – ends up in with the udon adding some extra flavour to the last few mouthfuls.

Washed down by a bottle of cold Asahi beer, with the chatter of several languages around and soft lift music playing to drown out the cars, it’s a cheap and cheerful place to be.

It’s never going to rival Bristol’s best, but faced with a choice of trekking up Park Street to Wagamama, you might as well keep it local and get your noodle fix at the bottom of the hill.

Izakaya, 39 College Green, Bristol, BS1 5SH
0117 929 4999