My First Japanese Breakfast – @ Azay in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
Beautiful Plates
As from my The Shota review, I’m a huge sucker for presentation, including the plates. The designs and shapes are so beautiful, and I hear that traditional Japanese breakfasts have an amazing presentation that uses plenty of little plates.
Bay Area Japanese Breakfast?
The only place I currently know that has Japanese breakfast in the Bay Area is Cassava. It’s only available during brunch/lunch as part of a $35 (as of early 2023) lunch set. I do plan on going at some point, but it’s just the matter of taking BART into the city on a Saturday morning or something… something that I don’t enjoy doing, but will do for good food.
Hello Azay
My bestie mentioned some great things about Azay, as she and her sister had some of their food, including a pork belly omelette and a noodle dish. I looked at the menu and was like OMG they have Japanese breakfast! I was going to LA soon anyways, so we made that part of the plan.
What is in a Japanese Breakfast?
Just One Cookbook has a good description and image of what a Japanese breakfast consists of. It’s very well balanced, consisting of rice, fish, veggies, tofu, soup, etc. YUM!! I love eating in the morning (definitely a breakfast person, but I must need my coffee beforehand), so this sounds perfect for me!
Azay’s Japanese Breakfast
Description contains –
- Saba mackerel
- Dashimaki tamago
- Tofu
- Tsukemono
- Miso soup
- Rice
- Ocha
Azay Japanese Breakfast Review
We (party of 4) went to Azay on a rainy Saturday morning. Made reservations for 10AM, small place so reservations are highly recommended. The place felt rather homey, and the look of the Japanese breakfast seemed homey as well. Good options throughout. My ocha (a green tea) came before the food came and that was just perfect to warm me up after my coffee from elsewhere. Somehow I thought there would be some sashimi included as well, but the Japanese breakfast fish is all cooked fish. Here are my thoughts on each item –
- Saba Mackerel – Looks to be a great cut, but the fish itself was rather dry in my opinion. I tried it by itself, with the rice, and with other stuff, but it was too dry for my taste. I do love raw mackerel though… perhaps not so much cooked?
- Dashimaki Tamago – The egg had good texture, just like traditional tamago, but the flavor was not the same as the kinds on nigiri and such. The dashi makes the flavor unique here.
- Tofu – It was cold, which threw me a bit off guard. Otherwise, very light tasting.
- Tsukemono – Preserved veggies. Not many pickled veggies in this selection, but all was included was OK. The asparagus was not what I was expecting, and I’m not an asparagus fan unfortunately.
- Miso Soup – Yum, always a great option for me. I love miso soup!
- Rice – Plain… meh. Wasn’t much here to mix it with for flavor.
- Ocha – I really did like the green tea. Good flavor, warm, etc. Only complaint was that I didn’t get a second cup!
Overall my Azay Japanese breakfast is pretty good. I love everything included in concept, but the tastes itself was a bit on the plain side and I was not a fan of the dryness of the fish. I don’t think I would be getting this one again, but they have such great things on their menu that I can’t give them a bad rating. I’m definitely interested in trying Cassava’s Japanese breakfast and see how that compares… NorCal/SoCal style.
More Food from Azay
A couple of us got the Japanese breakfast, and the other couple of us got their daily bento. Photos of what we ordered this time below. Enjoy!
Daily Bento
There are some similarities between their daily bento and their Japanese breakfast. Very similar components, but tasted very different. The rice and miso soup were the same. Fish was also a white fish, but this one was even drier!! How??? The veggies in salad forms wasn’t so appetizing. The other veggies had this plum flavor to them as well. The yellow thing was egg-like, but a different texture and had pumpkin flavor to it. We ended up trying and trading things around (between the bento and the breakfast) as the flavors in the bento were really unique compared to food we normally eat. The pumpkin flavored egg was great to mix with my rice, and I couldn’t let it go to waste.
Chawanmushi
I love this stuff. Chawanmushi was probably my favorite thing I had at Azay. Nice and light steamed egg with some seafood within, and added some ikura to bring it over the top. So good.
Housemade Rillette and Pate
We were going to Girl & The Goat that evening because I didn’t get to try the goat liver mousse last time, and I had to try it this time around. I needed something to relative compare, and pate seemed similar enough – something to spread on some bread, and this dish does that. Pretty light and rich (yeah, I know…) at the same time, crispy bread. Great with the mustard and stuff. We either liked this dish or didn’t. Seemed 50/50, and I didn’t dislike it.
Until Next Time
Based on other reviews (mostly Yelp), Azay’s Japanese breakfast is really super good, but the textures and some flavors didn’t quite agree with me, mainly as I can’t get over how dry that fish was. I really enjoyed their Chawanmushi, so I would definitely come back to Azay to try their other stuff, such as duck confit, matcha crème brûlée, lobster bisque, Maison Akita gourmet bento, miso black cod dinner set, baked Alaska, and more. Great mix of items during lunch and even more during dinner.
