Izakaya Zero in Huntington Beach

[Carlsbad]

Four of us had an excellent dinner at Izakaya Zero last Saturday night. The food and service were first rate. Has anyone else tried this place?

[SiseFromm]

I read a review of the restaurant and I've been meaning to get in to try it. Truthfully, though, we just never make it over to Huntington Beach for dinner. It's in the old Red Pearl spot, no?

[Carlsbad]

Yes, it is.

[SiseFromm]

So how was it? Any details you want to divulge?

[Carlsbad]

I thought it was great, actually. Much better than I anticipated. The menu is on here, although I think it was a little different when we were there. There were a lot of dishes I wanted to try, really much of the menu sounded interesting. We all picked some. There was an interesting Italian and French influence in some of the dishes.

We shared all the dishes. This is what I thought of the ones I can remember: Edamame- excellent; Hamachi sashimi dish that isn't on the menu shown: really, really good; Grilled Snapper Lemongrass Soup- really good; Duck Confit: a knock-out; Shiso Linguine Carbonara: really outstanding; Brown Rice Risotto: Excellent; Vegetable tempura: very good; Crab Cigars: good, but not next time; Koro-Koro Filet: okay (better with a little soy sauce), but there are much better dishes. For dessert, the Mochi green tea ice cream was intriguing and looked liked sliced limes, the fried ice cream thing was good, and the chocolate souflee that was excellent. Every dish was nicely presented.

The restaurant was far from packed, even on a Saturday night. If it were near me, I would go back often.