Service: 4/5
Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 3/5
Came with a group of 5 other people to this relatively new izakaya.
We ordered too many different foods to really review one by one, so I'll some up it up simply.
To start off, I have to say that my review is a little biased because I lived in Japan and also visited South Korea several times in my life so my expectations are (and possibly forever will be) higher than most people. And in so, I'm a lot harsher when it comes to the food part of my reviews.
I'll start with the ambiance and decor. The outside is very sleek, with a somewhat hard to find door to the place. My friend accidentally went into the izakaya right beside it because they couldn't find the door to this place. The inside was kind of cute, with lanterns and wall paintings mimicking what you could find in Japan. The place was also quite spacious and we sat comfortably as medium sized group.
The service was okay, nothing to really comment about. Food came in a timely manner. One point to highlight was they gave us extra sauce free of charge for our skewers.
The food was...mediocre. I didn't have high expectations going in so it didn't really fail in that regard. The skewers were a good size, with the grilled eel (unagi) being possibly the better of all of the ones we ordered. I think overall the skewers were kind of dry, and some lacked flavour. The soup, okonomiyaki and chicken, which were the food we ordered that were not skewers, was kind of oily. Again, the flavour was kind of lacking in these too, but they weren't bad.
We also got free popcorn, which was kind of a plus?
I think as an izakaya, Mokutan is a place I'd recommend especially because it's one of the better ones not downtown. If you're looking for a sizeable menu, I think you're going to be satisfied with the healthy number of options.
As for if I'd come again...i don't think so, unless I was really craving skewers and can't find anywhere else. read more