About two years ago Ichiza Kitchen opened in the Goose Hollow neighborhood, providing something completely unique – Buddhist monk cuisine. No alcohol is served, and everything is non-GMO and vegan – any “meat” listed is faux. The seating is small and feels like an intimate hole in the wall- only about 25 or so people, in four-tops, although there are some picnic benches outside as well. Dishes come all at once as per the name Ichiza, which means “one setting” , a reference to the zen principle of stopping to contemplate one’s path.
The best plan of action is to order lots of small “dim sum” like bites and a couple larger dishes to share. For small snacks to combine, look for the Chili Oil Wontons (wontons filled with vegan ‘pork belly and beef’ in a mixture of house chili oil, garlic, sesame oil, and garnished with cilantro and chive), the Shumai (‘money bag’ dumplings filled with vegan ‘shrimp’ and ‘pork’, dressed with a ginger and green onion sauce), and the Ba Wan Buns. We tried the steamed and grilled turnip cakes with shiitake mushroom dipping sauce too which you can see with the chili oil wontons, but I would not order them a second time personally as I found them dry on my visit. I wish we had ordered the Cheong Fun rice noodles or Kimchee Gyoza instead.
The Ichiza Kitchen Ba Wan Buns, three steamed tapioca dumplings filled with bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and vegan ‘pork’ with a spicy tomato-based dipping sauce shaped like small bunnies, are almost too adorable to eat.
For the main sharable dishes, the favorite of our table was the Mapo Tofu, a dish of Tofu and vegan ‘ground beef’ stewed with spicy chili peppers, doubanjiang, green onion, ginger, and garlic served over a bed of short grain rice and cucumber. This had by far the most bold flavor, and would make any mouth happy – beware they are made daily with limited availability.
Another big bowl item is the Adobo Bowl, with vegan ‘chicken’ marinated in coconut vinegar, black soy sauce, bay leaves, black pepper, carrots and onion over a bed of short grain rice with peppered tomatoes and calamansi citrus dressing. This latter was an ok dish, a good choice if you do not want the spiciness of the ma po tofu. They also offer 2 noodle dishes which we did not try.
Save room for desserts like Mango and Chili Ice Cream Sundae with AVIV mango ice cream topped with toasted coconut flakes, ground chili, mango chunks, chocolate chili sauce and a chocolate coated Filipino soda cracker. Additional option of banana lumpia may be available. Halo Halo with layers of shaved ice, sweet beans, coconut jelly, candied palm fruit, coconut sport, jackfruit and ube hayala jam drizzled with coconut condensed milk and with a mini scoop of AVIV vanilla ice cream
Ichiza Kitchen does not accept reservations and will seat all parties in order of arrival, all members of the party must be present, and they do not accept parties greater than six people because they are so small.
Have you heard of Ichiza Kitchen? Which of these would you like to try?
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