New Beer Garden Items at Chaya Downtown

Summer at Chaya Downtown means the Beer Garden is back! Running until August 31, Chaya’s popular beer garden includes some new izakaya  items this year. Now in its third year, it’s been interesting tracking what has been popular with the Downtowners.

One of the new dishes is the King Salmon sashimi salad. As a lover of salmon, I was secretly delighted that this dish was pure salmon. Oh, and some salad, too. The dressing was great and it was generously priced.

When I started seeing pics of the Mozuku somen noodles, I knew I had to get some of my own. It’s very Japanese to me. There’s a bit of a slipperyness that the Japanese (and I) enjoy along with a savory broth. It is a cold noodle so it’s very refreshing on these scorching nights we’ve been having lately.

Another new item was the Hiyayakko tofu trio. I particularly loved this because again, it was really Japanese to me. Between the miso, chicken and shrimp, it was discovering how and why tofu is so great.

 

Executive Chef Atsushi Kenjo has been at Chaya Downtown for a little more than year. He’s cooked at Chaya San Francisco and Chaya Venice as well. He wanted to make sure we got enough to eat and mentioned we should try the sushi in addition to the yakitori and kushiyaki items we were getting next.

I know there are big fans of bacon-wrapped anything but I tend to like my savory and sweet food separated (with the exception of salted caramel). So it was a big surprise to me how much I loved the bacon-wrapped dates! All the skewers great but I seriously considered getting anoher skewer of the bacon-wrapped dates.

 

 

 

The skewers are so affordable, it would be nonsense if you didn’t order all of them I particularly liked the beef tongue and mushroom skewers.

 

Less exotic but still flavorful are your beef and chicken skewers.

 

For drinks, I normally go for the sake sangrita or the classic gin martini at Chaya. My friend opted for the Spiced Ginger margarita. What’s great about the beer garden is you can also take advantage of the all-night happy hour and cocktails as well.

 

We did try a couple of sushi rolls from the happy hour menu as well as the stuffed shishito peppers I loved so much from last year’s beer garden menu. Chaya has kept some of the best sellers and I’m glad the peppers made it to the list!

You have another month to get down to Chaya Downtown to enjoy the beer garden.

 

Chaya Downtown – beer garden until August 31

525 S. Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071 — 213-236-9577

© The Minty 2012