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    Izakaya Kuroyama

    3.7 (63 reviews)
    Open 5:00 pm - 2:00 am (Next day)

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    Business Info

    IZAKAYA KUROYAMA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Good for groups
    Happy hour specials
    Outdoor seating
    Dogs allowed

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    Recommended Reviews - Izakaya Kuroyama

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    Wagyu skewer
    Sho R.

    I took out food on a weekday evening. The place had good crowd, but not full. I ordered in store. Waiter was nice enough to give me a table to wait and a glass of water. Food was ready in 15 minutes. Wagyu skewer was my favorite item here. Chicken katsu don and chicken ramen were my other items. Both were good.

    receipt
    Scott W.

    First time here. We were in Madison for a show at the Orpheum. Wanted something close by, that was relatively quick. Izakaya turned out to be a good choice. It's a few blocks from the theater, an easy walk. When we arrived, around 6pm, we were the only ones there. The place is a bit dark inside, likely caused by all the lanterns that covers the large windows on the front. There are colorful flags and umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. It's a nice effect. There are either booths or tables, along with some tables outside. There is a large bar with stools. Took a booth inside. Got menus and a couple of waters. The service was a bit slow at first (again we were the only ones there), but that picked up as the meal went on. We were new to this menu, and the server helped us with our questions. We ended up ordering Yakisoba with Shrimp added, Beef Tongue Stew (Tan-shichu), and Eel Rice (Unagi Don). All the food was very good. Good portions, and flavorful. The added shrimp to the Yakisoba were small and few. Also, the broth for the Tongue Stew was very good, but it was lukewarm. The Eel Rice was very good. Tender pieces with a nice tangy sauce. Overall a good experience.

    inside is decorated amazingly
    Elizabeth B.

    Quality ramen, we both ordered a tonkatsu and enjoyed it - well flavored, had everything you'd want in Ramen. We were able to get in, order, and be served fast (Thursday night). The cornar decorations really set the vibe for a great experience and we loved that we got to sit in a booth! Only concern was the ceramic bowls we were eating out of had several chips and cracks - this is a health risk given it can potentially harbor bacteria or release toxic chemicals into the food - this was my only issue and if this were remedied I would say they are worthy of a 5 stars. The staff was incredibly attentive, kind, and efficiently on their game - working together as a team and ensuring the whole restaurant was vibrantly enjoying their experience and they even seemed to be happy to be working - I appreciated that energy!

    Kolt K.

    We had a great experience overall the food was very good, flavorful, and clearly made with care. The atmosphere was also a strong point: warm, inviting, and a really enjoyable place to sit and eat. The only thing holding this back from a five-star rating was the customer service. It wasn't necessarily bad, just not very friendly. A bit more attention and warmth from the staff would make a big difference. Still, the quality of the food and the vibe make it well worth visiting! Side note - please make sure the iPads are not right next to a table. A constant beeping takes away from the experience.

    Elmers glue textured rice.
    Eric B.

    First time and last time. We came with high hopes and expectations. Beware, the service is slow and they want everyone to order via QR code. If you haven't ordered for multiple people online, get a volunteer ahead of time. Once we finally ordered the dinners came out within a minute. The chicken katsu was dried and tasted like 3 day old canes left on the counter. Appetizers came out 10 minutes after the dinners. Once I saw the bill, I felt like we were at a Michelin rated restaurant. Avoid. Should've been $50 for the quality instead of $150. Go to the Taco Bell cantina instead. IYKYK.

    unagi
    Maddie T.

    Came here for a Saturday night valentine's day dinner with my boyfriend, the food was good! The izakaya is mostly small plates so you're able to order a lot of dishes. Everything came out fairly quickly but still paced out. My favorite was the unagi and the wagyu, but I love how the chawanmushi came out in an egg and nest serving dish! So funny, lots of people asked us what it was. For dessert, we tried the taiyaki ice cream. The matcha ice cream was very light and refreshing, but I wish the matcha flavor was a bit stronger. The taiyaki itself was filled with red bean and so tasty! Definitely recommend :) Since this place recently opened, they seemed to still be working out some kinks with handling busy nights. I felt a bit cramped in the restaurant and servers were constantly being nagged by who I'm assuming was the manager. Still, I felt like the service overall was fine and I would come back. I definitely recommend making a reservation, lots of groups were waiting near the door and even in the back, especially because it's so cold outside this time of year.

    Wagyu skewers
    Noah L.

    We had a reservation for 7 and were seated at a table that could accommodate half our party. The second table they were going to connect to ours still had folks sitting at it. After like twenty minutes we were still waiting to the second half of our table. I understand not wanting to hurry folks along, but our server didn't even know about the situation and half of our party was standing up. After we got the second half of our table things improved significantly. The food was really good, not quite the best izakaya food I've had but way better than anything in Madison. Yakatori Wagyu skewer was great as was unagi. I think everyone was happy with the food. However some of the folks bringing the food did not know what they were bringing. They would announce "beef" or "chicken". There are like five things we ordered from that animal. Overall I liked the place a lot, nice decor. I value food over anything but the service kinda disrupted things/actually disrupted our enjoyment. But I'm planning on coming back.

    Fawn J.

    My husband and I were very excited to try Izakaya Kuroyama which is a Japanese bar and grill serving small plates/tapas focused on popular Japanese street food. This is one of the few restaurants in the area that is conveniently open late even offering karaoke after 9pm Friday and Saturdays which is very fun! I had mixed thoughts on our experience but I was disappointed mostly with the service. When we first walked into Izakaya Kuroyama, it was a very lively, cozy, yet casual atmosphere mostly filled with young college students from the nearby university. The ambience and esthetics represents the culture of Japan with beautiful bamboo umbrellas on the ceiling, a wall collage of Japanese artwork, and traditional lanterns! Izakaya Kuroyama has a great menu with affordable cheap options to try many different small plates and larger entrees. They serve a variety of poplular Japanese appetizers, Ramen, Yakatori (chicken skewers), and rice/noodle dishes. Some popular dishes are the Karaage (Fried Chicken), Seafood Okonomiyaki (Pancake), Tonkotsu Ramen, and Waygu beef skewer! They also serve cocktails, sake, and Japanese beer. Izakaya Kuroyama even serves a few fun Japanese themed desserts like their Dorayaki Ice-Cream (Matcha pancake with ice cream) to satisfy your sweet tooth! :) My husband and I enjoyed trying different menu items! The food was really delicious! I really enjoyed the Tonkotsu Ramen that had a savory, rich, creamy pork broth with a good amount of noodles. The Tonkotsu Ramen had a satisfying umami flavor with a salty goodness packed with pork flavor with a beautiful presentation! Unfortunately, Izakaya Kuroyama needs to better train their servers or try to recruit experienced servers. The service was disappointing. Our main server didn't know how to correctly pronounce certain menu items, was unprofessional, and didn't know all the food items on the menu. We had more than one server helping out that were scattered in their thoughts, unorganized, and moving at a slow pace. We also had the different servers accidentally dropping off the wrong food items and had our appetizers come out same time exact time as our main dishes which wasn't a big deal but the servers didn't pace or time out putting in the menu items in the pos. Especially for an ethnic restaurant, it is important and respectful that the servers knows how to correctly say and pronounce the name of cultural ethnic food items and at the least be familiar with what items are on the menu being able to describe it to customers. Although, we didn't have the best experience at Izakaya Kuroyama with the service, my husband and I loved the fun, casual atmosphere, and great food! We plan to back to Izakaya Kuroyama to try more menu items. I hope they will work on training their staff better and work on providing better customer service because the food was great but the poor customer service ruined the overall experience.

    Gyudon bowl
    K. M.

    The food is great but the service is bad (be prepared that they're slow, they will mess up your order, and they will absolutely not care). Do with that what you will.

    Takoyaki
    Grace S.

    Honestly, I love this place. The service is always great. The food I've had is quite good. I love the beef tongue even though it often comes out a tad cold.. The scallops are to die for. The mushrooms are tasty. I haven't tried the whole menu quite yet, but the environment is what makes the place amazing. Casual dinner turns into wild karaoke. You always end up making friends with other patrons towards the end of the night. I'm so glad this place opened.

    Spicy Miso Ramen
    Puddy M.

    Such a cute new place. Loved the vibes. Service was great. Food was smaller than I had expected but had the charred/grill taste. Spicy ramen was hearty and full of flavor.

    21.Sapporo Spicy Miso Ramen
    Arnaldo V.

    Spicy Miso ramen... all heat no flavor. I believe the not so good ratings were given truthfully. One and done.

    Alice L.

    This place genuinely needs to reexamine their food quality and recipes because for the ambiance, the food was lacking in so many ways. They really tried with the izakaya concept but failed to deliver We ordered 6 things and im shocked- the only thing fairly decent was the sweet potato but thats being generous. The meat was wack and was served on some coal plate but jt was hella over reused and dirty. The meat wasnt even warm so i dont know why it had to come on this plate. Plus the coke that we ordered was so flat it might as well have been juice. The omurice was not authentic. It sorta gave me the ick if im being honest. We left within 10 minutes because we couldnt even finish the food because it was bad. The bill came out to be 68$ and i think losing this on a slot machine would have been more worthwhile.

    Chicken Katsu

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    1 year ago

    Great service and good. Tried the beef rice don and bbq. All options have good value and great to taste

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    1 year ago

    Really liked this place. The skewers are great. Really like their fried chicken and beef tongue

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    5 months ago

    This is the most authentic Japanese cuisine in Madison. Understand what you're ordering and you will not be disappointed.

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    1 year ago

    Great food and good vibes! Chicken katsu was solid, and yakitori was also pretty solid

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    Tavernakaya

    Tavernakaya

    3.7
    (322 reviews)
    0.5 mi
    $$

    We were immediately greeted by some welcoming hosts who had the cutest outfits! We're were seated…read moreimmediately even though it was a busy Saturday night. Our server, Delaney, was AMAZING! Give her a raise! So helpful and so nice! We started with the seaweed salad, it was a small portion for three people to share, I recommend one or two people should order it. It was delicious and really hit the spot. My drink, one basil after another, was DELICIOUS! I will definitely be coming back for happy hour and getting that again. I also tried my friends rose water lycheetini which was very tasty as well. The basil drink was a bit booze-ier than the other which I liked. For our main courses we ordered the spider roll, negihama roll, and the salmon roll which I would rank in that order. The spider roll was so salty and yummy. The negihama was so fresh and flavorful. The salmon roll was good but nothing to write home about.

    After seeing a YouTube video with a master Japanese sushi chef trying American-style sushi, a new…read morephrase entered my lexicon: "Mayonnaise Roll." Regrettably, I will encounter one during my visit. More on that later. I started off with a Mojo Mojito (N/A). Big points for noticeable mint notes, something which was forgotten in two I had previously (in different spots). That said, it was a little sweeter than I prefer, but this is a matter of taste. For my app, I ordered the OG Pork Buns. These were great! The buns were soft, and the pork was tender and well balanced in terms of ratio of meaty to fatty. It was also sauced the perfect amount, and had a great amount of cucumber for freshness. While I can't put it in the S-Tier, I will easily give it a B, maybe an A if I am in a good mood. The only changes I would prefer (also personal preference) is a little acid for brightness, and a shift towards the fatty end of the ratio. Then we arrive at the fated Sunset Salmon Roll. On the surface, it promises to be a roll to remember: two kinds of fish, three kinds of veggie (including jalapeño), tobiko, and mayo. Instead, anything the roll tried to do was lost as the balance was way off. The quantity of rice was such that it seemed as though the rice was the main event, and everything else was cast as "Waiter #3." To make matters worse, the Yuzu mayo was very strong, further shifting focus away from the fish and veg. Thus, we arrive at "rice and mayo roll." When asked how I was liking things, and I communicated as much, the bar-server offered to change it to something else (thank you very much). That something else was two sets of Nigiri: Unagi & Seared Tuna (Bincho Maguro Tataki). For the Unagi, this was perfect with no notes. The eel was cooked and sauced perfectly, and the balance of rice to protein was ideal. Good job. I can't say the same for the Seared Tuna. The kiss of fire can elevate a piece to otherworldly levels, but only if done correctly. Here, the flame seemed to be applied as an afterthought, and added nothing of value to the fish. The only thing it did was take away some of that amazing freshness sushi-grade fish has by partially cooking it. Any smokey and roasty notes were not in the building. Final verdict: Tavernakaya got off to a promising start with a great virgin Mojito and pork buns. However, it faltered severely when it came to sushi. While the Unagi Nigiri was a strong contender, the Sunset Salmon Roll and Seared Tuna Nigiri were poorly executed. Thus, while I am not against trying their ramen on a later day, I'll likely steer clear of the sushi side of the menu.

    Photos
    Tavernakaya
    Shrimp tempura roll
    Shrimp tempura roll
    Tuna roll

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    Tuna roll
    Muramoto Hilldale

    Muramoto Hilldale

    3.8
    (413 reviews)
    3.0 mi
    $$

    Muramoto Hilldale seems to have a great selection of sushi rolls, but they also have authentic…read moreJapanese dishes like katsu curry rice. I ordered lunch and got two chef's choice rolls with miso soup. Everything was really good, and the miso soup had a nice, rich dashi flavor. The desserts were honestly a highlight. The matcha crème brûlée was rich and perfectly balanced, and the lychee sorbet was super refreshing with real lychee pieces inside -- really high quality. Definitely recommend trying dessert here. The staff were super friendly and really attentive, which made the whole place feel comfortable and welcoming. Overall, a great spot with a nice balance of quality food and atmosphere. Highly recommend!

    This place used to be tasty and fun. I don't know if it's a change in ownership or what, but I can…read moreno longer abide the vibe and pace. I've tried it out a few times since they (seemingly) transitioned and today solidified that it's no longer worth going to. Today's lunch was served slowly, with poor timing from the kitchen, and little interest from waitstaff. I finished my entree before my husband's even came to the table. There were only 3 other diners in the restaurant. There appeared to be at least 4 servers and 4 cooks working. The waitstaff sat in the bar folding napkins and talking. I understand needing to do side work. I do not understand bringing two diners their meals 15 minutes apart. The food itself was just ok.

    Photos
    Muramoto Hilldale
    Sushi Combo No.1
    Sushi Combo No.1
    Muramoto Hilldale

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    Izakaya Kuroyama - izakaya - Updated June 2026

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