I was meeting some friends for a pre-game before dinner, and the only criteria I had regarding locale was that it needed to be in or around Koreatown. I threw out a few options, including Sake Bar Kirakuya. A lot of my friends love Sake, myself included, so this seemed like an obvious choice.
Getting there is fun… almost all of us had a little trouble finding it. It’s on the second floor of a Koreatown building. You first have to take an elevator, and when you step off, the entrance is to your right. The interior is surprisingly classy given that its decorated with sake labels and bottles. They manage to make it look more like a restaurant than a frat house, and I personally liked the decor and dimly lit feel of the place quite a bit.
When you sit down, the super cute Japanese girl behind the bar brings out a hot towel to wipe off your hands. Nice touch. The restaurant had an extensive menu of sake, but I was also there for the $20 beer bucket and wing special. The deal is: $20 for 5 Sapporo bottled beers and five Nagoya style wings. You can get additional wings for $1 per wing. It goes on from 5-7 and 11:00 – close Monday – Saturday.
Of course I got the cheaper option, and I’ve always been a Sapporo fan anyway. They brought out the bucket right away, and the Sapporos were cold and on ice.
The Nagoya style wings were great — they had a nice sweet-salty-sesame flavor with sticky sauce on some very juicy chicken wings. I only asked for the free five wings since I had dinner plans later, but I don’t think it would be out of order to add another five for a dollar a wing. It would still be a good deal.
If you’re not a beer drinker, the sake menu is extensive. The most reasonably priced bottles were between $40 AND $50 for a 720 mL bottle (the cheaper bottles are most easily recognized by a red stamp on the menu that says “Recommended") That’s just 30 mL less than a bottle of wine, but the ABV is higher in sake.
(Who's ready for Sake-Bombs!)
And here’s an added bonus! If you’re eager to learn about the sake-making process, Kirakuya features a very informative chart on their menu.
Final conclusion... It’s nice to go somewhere other than another Irish or American style pub for a change. Sick of that boring shit? This is much more interesting.
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