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Included In
Imagine a party game where you draw two different dish names out of a hat—pork tonkatsu and tikka masala, gumbo and loco moco, and miso soup and risotto. Now imagine someone at the party was committed enough to cook each duo. That someone is Itsumono in the ID.
This Japanese gastropub follows a mukokuseki theme, which translates to “without nationality.” Corn cheese truffle pasta and scallion pancake birria quesadillas may sound like mash-ups generated by an AI bot that listened to 30 hours of Action Bronson, but each element works surprisingly well. The mergers are as dialed in as they are inventive and fun, and these will easily be some of the best dishes you eat all year. Case in point: when a shrimp patty meets a roux-kicked gumbo, it becomes more exciting than any individual gumbo or shrimp patty.
While not all of Itsumono's dishes follow the hybrid model, that’s the section of the menu where you should get comfortable. Go wild with pork cutlets covered in a thick sauce that tastes precisely like butter chicken, or a caesar salad made from shaved napa and topped with garlicky whipped cream. Mundane romaine, who?
photo credit: Nate Watters
photo credit: Nate Watters
photo credit: Nate Watters
photo credit: Nate Watters
photo credit: Nate Watters
Elsewhere on the always-changing menu, Itsumono’s straightforward plates feel like the food equivalent of showing up to a Halloween bash without a costume. Sure, the practice is technically allowed, but why bother? We’re talking overcooked mezze rigatoni with garden-variety bolognese, or limp cauliflower karaage. It doesn’t seem like anybody had fun with these dishes, or at least not nearly as much fun as they had with nori-dusted tater tots or Seattle dog musubi.
Food aside, another perk of Itsumono is that the masses seem to not know about it yet. The casual-but-not-too-casual dining room will inevitably have a few people pounding sparkling sake jelly shots, but there's always space for you and some friends. Even if you're booking a table for six people, you can usually secure a next-day reservation without any drama. So keep this place on your shortlist for a last-minute dinner or a first date where you don't mind having a TV playing Iron Chef in the background.
Pulling dish names out of a hat wouldn't produce pleasant results, realistically speaking. What if you got stuck with s'mores and chicken gyoza? But at Itsumono, food isn't randomly created. It's intentionally fun. Save the marshmallow dumplings for your 2am experiments at home.
Food Rundown
Sparkling Sake Jelly Shot
photo credit: Nate Watters
Salad
Yuzu Kauliflower Karaage
Hamachi Crudo
photo credit: Nate Watters
Ginger Scallop Risotto
photo credit: Nate Watters
Tikka Tonkatsu Don
photo credit: Nate Watters