TanakaSan – the new Tom Douglas restaurant named after his long-time chef Eric Tanaka – opened in May.

With Chad, our nephew Jack and our niece Erin

We welcome you to TanakaSan!

We finally had the opportunity to try it out and we were pleasantly surprised by the creative menu – playful takes on Asian classics such as pork buns, the “Osaka pancake” (a modern version of the okonomiyaki), artful sashimi and lots of noodle dishes.

Hamachi Sashimi at TanakaSan

TanakaSan is located on the ground floor of the Via6 apartment building at 6th Avenue a Lenora Street (very close to other Tom Douglas staples – Dahlia Lounge and Lola). TanakaSan is a central component of Assembly Hall, an innovative marketplace comprised of TanakaSan, Assembly Hall Juice and Coffee, and Home Remedy (a market and deli). These food assemblies are joined by an interior hallway and a rather open floor plan linking the three.

Our waiter was well-versed in the menu and we headed his recommendations. The salty carmel/serranos/garlic twice-fried chicken wings were tasty and definitely spicy!

Twice fried chicken wings

The pork dumpling soup was delicious and the marinated eggplant (in soy, coriander, and black bean sauce) was brilliant.

Thankfully, our waiter didn’t seem to mind when we took the centerpiece (a ten-inch tall gold godzilla doll) off of an empty neighboring table in order to do battle with our centerpiece (a ten-inch tall black godzilla doll) – perhaps he has seen this before.

Godzilla insisted on taking a scary selfie!