Discover the taste of authentic Japanese food and drinks in a newly launched \u201cIzakaya\u201d dining at the Mai Restaurant of Fiesta Resort & Spa in Garapan.<\/p>\n
Izakaya is a type of Japanese bar or restaurant that is popular for after-work drinking.<\/p>\n
It serves alcoholic drinks, including sake, jinro, or soju, and truly delightful Japanese dishes that come in a variety of small sizes.<\/p>\n
At Mai Restaurant, Izakaya opens from 6pm to 930pm daily.<\/p>\n
HIGHLY AFFORDABLE<\/p>\n
Mai Restaurant manager Noriko Nampo said Izakaya offers quality food at low prices, mostly at $3 to $5 per order.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people think that if it\u2019s a hotel, it\u2019s expensive. But it\u2019s not true with our Izakaya dining. It\u2019s a totally different concept. We want people to enjoy their after-work time,\u201d said Noriko.<\/p>\n
For the whole month of June, diners can take advantage of the restaurant\u2019s \u201cparty of four\u201d promo, which gives a free one 375ml bottle of Jinro and a 50-percent discount on all items ordered from the Izakaya selection.<\/p>\n
It means that from June 1 to 30, diners would actually be paying $1.50 or $2 for most food items.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is truly exciting. We are excited ourselves to offer this to our costumers,\u201d said Noriko.<\/p>\n
TRADITIONAL CUISINE<\/p>\n
Izakaya gives local diners a chance to discover traditional Japanese cuisine.<\/p>\n
The restarant features finely selected appetizers such as Sunomo, Ae Mono, Ohitashi, hijiki, aburaage aburi, and kimpira gobo.<\/p>\n
These are mostly vegetable dishes.<\/p>\n
For instance, Kimpira Gobo is a stir-fried slices of carrots and Burdock root, a fiber-rich food, in soy sauce.<\/p>\n
The restaurant also offers grilled, deep-fried, simmered food items as well as rice and noodles, that all come in an elaborate and appealing servings.<\/p>\n
Izakaya rice, for instance, called yaki onigiri is a baked triangular piece of rice in soy sauce or sweet miso.<\/p>\n
NEW CHEF<\/p>\n
Mai Restaurant has a newly arrived chef from Japan, Wataru Henmi, who prepares the Izayaki dishes.<\/p>\n
Wataru, who arrived on island only last week from Sendai, is a sushi master.<\/p>\n
Wataru, 34, said he began his Japanese kitchen career more than 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
He first worked in Sendai, then later in a sushi restaurant in Shioyama, a place near Sendai that is famous for sushi. In 2001, he went to Canada to work at a Japanese restaurant. After nearly two years, he returned to Sendai.<\/p>\n
He found out about Saipan from a friend who works here.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very talented. A person who knows his skills in sushi making and authentic Japanese cuisine invited him to come here,\u201d said Noriko.<\/p>\n
Wataru said he is excited about the restaurant\u2019s focus on Izakaya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy that it\u2019s being done here. I am able to do what I enjoy doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he has learned the art of sushi-making since he was a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I love doing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Discover the taste of authentic Japanese food and drinks in a newly launched \u201cIzakaya\u201d dining at the Mai Restaurant of Fiesta Resort & Spa in Garapan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}