Iza

Every time we drove down soi Thonglor; we noticed that a new Japanese restaurant opened. It is next to The Orient (a Thai restaurant that I need to blog about as well) and is across the street from Tops shopping center. The new restaurant is called Iza which is short for Izakaya.


Iza is a sushi restaurant, part barbecue place and part sake bar all rolled into one, Iza is trying to do it all. The decor is modern & plush; with comfy sofas & chairs, granite tables, chocolate hard wood floor and mood lighting with backlit walls filled with ceramic sake jars, lots of glass, wood and metal. The colour scheme revolves around, chocolate, browns, beiges and black.


Iza has an impressive spiral staircase leading up to the second floor yakiniku dining room. We decided to sit downstairs but did take a sneak peak at the second floor. We were surprised how small the room was compared to the size of the restaurant downstairs.

Iza has a very interesting photo book menu detailing their choice of fusion-focused sushi. Some of the most interestingly named & looking sushi.


The first dish was Maguro Avocado Temaki (180 baht). The tuna, avocado & rice were of good quality, nice textures and good taste. The problem was that the sushi chef did not toast the nori seaweed. So the nori seaweed was limp, soggy & too chewy.


The second dish was Spicy Wonder...salmon, tom-yum, onions, nori (140 baht). This was one of the choices of 'roll of the month'...it sounded interesting so we decided to try it. After having popped a roll into our mouths; at first it had a unique texture & flavour but after chewing, it turned out that the tom-yum was too over powering and salty (not a good thing).


The third dish was Druken Dragon...spicy tuna, asparagus, topped with avocado (380 baht). This was a good & fun looking dish, the ingredients were fresh & good and it tasted very nice.


The next dish was Beef Teriyaki...150 g. (450 baht). The beef was cooked right (which means not over cooked), it was tender & juicy. The only issue we had with this dish was the teriyaki sauce was absolutely yucky. It was too sticky & gooey and it tasted industrial. We think the sauce was not home made and from a bottle...really bad.


The last dish was Grilled Kurrobuta Pork...150 g. (350 baht). The pork was cooked nicely, it was tender & juicy.

Overall; the food was not bad but not the best in town. They did use good raw materials & presented the food well; but when it comes down to the details, Iza was not strong. From the soggy nori seaweed to the horrible industrial teriyaki sauce, these small things will catch up with Iza. People are not stupid and will start talking if Iza does not improve.

On top of this; Iza has an army of staff (actually, I have never seen so many people walk in & out of the kitchen) but for some strange reason, the service is a bit chaotic. No one is talking to each other; after we ordered, two other different staff came to our table to ask if we wanted to order. We ordered hot green tea but it never arrived, so I had to ask another staff.

We probably would think twice to return to Iza...not that it was horrifically bad. It just was not a memorable experience.

Address: 1/F, Somerset, soi Thonglor
Phone: 02-712-7836
Opening Hours: daily 11am-3pm, 6pm-midnight