Izakaya Kichinto

Beeeeest place i Portland. I go more than once a week. Great gluten free options as well and has the best happy hour

My visit to this establishment was less than perfect to say the least. The service and food were very disappointing.
There were so many people approaching our table that it wasn’t clear who exactly was waiting on us. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the person who took our drink and appetizer order had remembered to actually put the appetizer order in to the chef. So we didn’t get our takoyaki. And that is sad because compared to our entrees, it might have actually been a nice thing to eat.
The spicy miso ramen was neither spicy nor miso-​y. There was very little heat to it at all which would have been fine had it not been described that way on the menu. Likewise with the miso. There was no big mouth coating hit of umami when tasting the broth. It tasted like it was made with a dry packet of miso flavoring or something. What was extremely present in the broth was the flavor of vinegar. This was the strangest and unfortunately, worst bowl of ramen we have ever come across.
The other entrée was slightly less disappointing. The hamachi don was strange in that the fish is seared and sauced with unagi sauce. I’ve never had anything like it so i figured I would give it a try because I love hamachi. After trying this dish, I’m just going to stick to eating hamachi nigiri or sashimi. The components of the dish are simple and good, but the flavors just didnt work imo. the most disappointing aspect of the dish is that the bed of rice was plain jasmine rice. hamachi don on the menu is described as having a bed of sushi rice. so why didn’t i get that with my dish?
worst of all? No one asked us how our meal was after the entrees were served. No opportunity to even address our issues let alone rrctify any of them. Unbelievable.
After the first entrée was brought to the table, I asked the server about the appetizer. He admitted he forgot to place the order but didn’t seem to care much and didn’t offer anything to make up for the mistake. my entrée was already in front of me. i was hungry. i was going to eat the whole thing. i didn’t want an appetizer at that point. i swear this idea of ‘you have to eat family style’ and ‘dishes do not come out not in a particular order’ and you should be quirky and «speak up if you MUST have a dish» and omg we’re having so much fun what is this place lol is just a cop-​out for how sloppy the dining experience is here. never coming back. not recommending to anyone. bye felicia

I am so glad we came here!
We stumbled upon it because toro bravo was so busy. It happened to be happy hour too. Everything was so cheap but it was soooo good. We got the calamari, bacon wrapped quail eggs, salmon and scallop hand rolls, ramen, beef curry, and take Yaki.
The hand rolls were surprisingly really good and the bacon wrapped quail eggs were so good I wanted to go for seconds! Get the chicken quarter too! It was so crispy and the sauce it came in was delicious.
Everything was also a really good price.
The service was actually pretty good, and I was surprised to see bad reviews o my the service. It was kind of slow when we came in, and multiple servers helped us out.

I had such a great experience here. Ordered the bacon wrapped quail eggs & poke love (wrong name, I think) and was blown away. The service was amazing. Everyone was super welcoming and friendly. It was slow and my server was constantly cleaning or conversing with me, whereas most would just go talk with friends/​coworkers. Very impressed.

Kichinto is fantastic!
Our first time here and it is a bonafide winner. You must order the garlic butter edamame, the Chicken Karaage and the sweet potato fries. We also ordered the Pork Cheeks. AMAZEBALLS!
We would order every single dish again!
The service is outstanding!
Kichinto is a winner!

Solid izakaya option — happy to have it since the demise of bamboo izakaya on Alberta! Excellent happy hour option. Haven’t had the ramen yet but the beef don is great as is the gyoza and all of the skewers. Sake flight is useful to sample a range, but I ultimately only like the katana sake, so just ordered that afterwards.

Slooooowwww and bad service. The waiters acted like this is the way they run and already expect a bad tip so they don’t make any effort to make it right.
We had meant to go to Toro Bravo but decided to come here instead, since the wait time they gave us for Toro Bravo was 2 hours. Well, I wished I had just waited because we got a call from Toro Bravo before we even got our first dish at this restaurant.
Not only did we wait over 40 mins for our first dish to come, we had to cancel our order for our last dish because it had been over an hour. Server didn’t make an effort to make it right, they just cancelled it like this happens all the time. The group next to us also cancelled two dishes because they were taking so long.
Usually at a restaurant with good service, they would make an effort to compensate for this, either by getting you a free dessert or removing an item for your bill. None of that, not even a sincere apology. Don’t bother coming here, unless you want to waste your time and money.

I almost never write Unilocal reviews for restaurants, businesses, etc. But I felt the need to help out my fellow man. I’m not sure what’s more disappointing, the fact that our meal took nearly and hour to finish coming out, or that this business frankly doesn’t really care about its poor service because it can rely on the steady stream of overflow customers from a certain popular tapas location next door.
Actually, I lied. Our meal never finished coming out. We canceled the last item out of sheer frustration. I was somewhat surprised that no concessions were made, but then again annoyed customers are probably a daily routine here, as evidenced by the family beside us who also followed our lead and canceled their remaining items.
I universally give businesses the benefit of the doubt. But this place went far beyond doubt. It’s now lost two customers for life.

Simple but so flavorful. One of my favorite izakayas in Portland. Ordered the mushroom and shishito pepper skewers, pork cheeks, and cold soba noodles. Everything was very affordable and service was great. Will definitely be back.
Went back a few days ago and ordered the squid, shoyu ramen, and hamachi. Service was slow but food was great. Happy hour is all night, mon-​thurs.

On our second visit the service was absolutely awful. We were seated very close to the kitchen but our waiter ignored us for the entire 2 ½ hours we were there! We bussed our own table and waited an incredibly long time I between courses. He would check and say «I’ll go check» and it would miraculously be suddenly ready. Super fail.

Stopped in around 3:00pm on a Saturday. Ordered the Shoyu Ramen and added the soft-​boiled egg. Very tasty, quality meat and broth was full of flavor. Staff was attentive and friendly. Marcos gave me a 10% off coupon at the end of my meal to entice me to return.
I would have returned without the coupon :).

Happy hour all day Monday through Thursday — probably the best happy hour sushi in town. Ramen bowls are top notch. Prices make it all a steal — both for drinks and food. Easily able to have a dinner for two with drinks for less than $ 20.
Don’t go if you’re in a hurry! Service is great but the place is usually pretty busy so expect to wait a little longer. Totally worth it if you have the time.

Japanese restaurants can be a dime a dozen but when you’re one of those kind of restaurants in a city like Portland, it’s sure to be different and maybe a little weird.
We put our names in next door at Toro Bravo and were quoted a 2 hour wait so there was some time to kill. My friends suggested we have a little happy hour here at Iza Kich so I happily went along with it. The wait was nearly non-​existent so I was a little apprehensive but they got to us after about 10 mins or so of waiting.
We were led to our table which happened to be upstairs but as we were winding our way through I noticed many seating areas with throngs of shoes strewn about, I think they were going for the authentic not wearing shoes bit like in a traditional Japanese home. I could totally dig that however I believe the seating was so far down on the ground I feared I may never be able to get back up! We finally got to our table and it was just that, a real table! We were given menus then explained about their unique system.
You don’t just look at the menu and wait for your server to come back when they think you’re ready, you just call them using a call button. Yes, you heard me right! Anytime you need something you press a button and someone will come to your table within a reasonable amount of time! I had never heard of a system like that and it was funny how it totally fed into my childhood want to touch and press EVERYTHING!!! My friend Mark was the chief presser and even felt bad when he had to press the button again for something else but they encourage this!
At first we weren’t going to eat then we decided to get some appetizers. I am so glad we did because they were really really good! I remember having a Garlic Butter Edamame which was so dang good I knew I had to workout like super good to work that off. Normally I don’t care for edamame but this was so worth it! Somewhere in there too we shared some sushi rolls as well and that’s the extent of what I remember.
The service was awesome, the setting was awesomer and the best part was sharing it with my dear Portlander friends! I will go back for sure!

I had a hard time coming up with a rating for this, because this place is so promising, but a few things didn’t sit right with me.
First, the GOODS:
–Décor is beautiful, I love screen doors separating the booths
–Server was extremely sweet
–Karaage (fried chicken appetizer) was very juicy. Not very crispy though.
And for the NOT SO GOODS:
–We weren’t informed that it was happy hour when we were seated. We overheard another server tell his table, so we asked ours for the HH menu. Our server probably forgot :/​
–Ramen was really expensive (~$ 12) for what tasted more like phở. I usually eat ramen with tonkotsu (pork broth) base with chashu meat. If I’m charged $ 12 for that kind of ramen, I’m okay because I know it takes half a day to cook the chashu to that state of tenderness and the pork broth to stew.
This broth tasted beef based. I did like that the ramen tasted clean and not fatty. Maybe it takes a long time to make this kind of broth too?
The beef that came with the ramen tasted like normal slices of beef, not extremely high quality or anything. Though you’re allowed to put in add-​ons, I wish the ramen came with more than just beef and spring onions. No seaweed at all. No corn, no egg, no bean sprouts or bamboo shoots. They cost extra.
–Service was kind of slow :/​~10−12 minutes for appetizer, ~15 more for food. We came late and the place wasn’t even half full. I think maybe the food is made to order.
Three stars because I enjoyed the food, servers were nice, ambiance was great. The experience was lacking, that’s all.

I will give this place a 4.5 rating. Our server was excellent. We didn’t know which sake to order, so he brought a few samples for us to try. We ended up getting a bottle along with some food. Had the spicy miso ramen with poached egg, bacon wrapped quail, shishitso peppers, okra, mushrooms, beef tsukune, squid mouth, and a few more items.
The food is pretty much the same as the other two locations… I was hoping them to have more izakaya items. The décor is pretty nice and inviting.
Only con… don’t go when there’s a blazer game or a concert next door because parking is terrible.

We got the Spicy Miso Ramen, Takoyaki, Bacon wrapped Quail Eggs, Chicken Karaage, & the Fatty Maki. All items were delicious!
The ramen noodles were cooked to perfection & different from other ramen places. The broth & veggies in the ramen reminded me of Bun Ho Hue. It wasn’t too spicy imo. Takoyaki was comparable to the one served at Kukai, just less sauce on top. The Karaage were bite-​sized pieces, which was nice, and not as salty/​flavorful as other ones I’ve had, but still delicious, & served with a white tartar/​mayo (?) sauce. Fatty Maki tasted super fresh, but a bit expensive I thought (5 pieces for $ 10). Bacon wrapped Quail Eggs were delicious & exactly what you’d think they’d taste like.
Service was good. We went on a Saturday night (around 7p) & got lucky & were seated right away. Ambiance is casual & the place is nicely decorated & clean.
Overall, good quality food, great taste, just a bit pricey.

So much fun!
My partner and I were looking to try something new, had a craving for ramen and ended up here.
Were first seated downstairs at a table that felt too brightly lit (BRIGHT spotlights shining directly on our heads) — asked if there were any other options and we ended up having a sweet tatami room with a kotatsu table all to ourselves upstairs.
Took a bit for a server to realize we were there tucked out of sight at end of walkway but when she found us– the service was superb and her tips on ordering were perfect.
We had:
Jelly Fish Salad– cold appetizer, great savory strips of jelly that mixed well with crisp slices of cucumber
Bacon Wrapped Quail Egg– delicious skewer of bacony-​yumminess. Salt of the pork was a perfect compliment to the soft and rich little boiled egg in the center
Bo– Gyoza– nice flavor, good crisp on the outside, subtle dipping sauce
Mapo tofu (don’t remember official name of the dish) — mushroomy, garlicky almost stew with cubes of buttery melt in your mouth tofu
Spicy Miso Ramen– Had no idea what I’d been missing until I tried this! A bit on the salty side but absolutely delicious!
To top it off-​A Toto Washlet bidet in the bathroom that had us searching the Internet and trying to figure out if we could get one for our house!
Grade: A
Great ambiance, chill soundtrack, fun details in décor and fantastic food. Gave 4 stars only because there’s so much more of the menu I have yet to try!

I’d like to cut Kichinto’s some slack, seeing as it hasn’t been open for a very long time, but it’s got a long way to go. As a party of 8, we were told that the wait time would be 15 minutes… which then remained the same 30 minutes later. Eventually that become a «soon»… and then a «next», as we sadly watched everyone else who was there before and after us get seated. In fact, Toro Bravo (which is right next door) quoted us a wait time of 4 hours, and yet they called us just minutes after we were finally seated at Kichinto’s. I’ll leave you to ponder that.
We finally ordered our food: a few hand rolls, takoyaki balls, and their take on chirashi bowls. Our waiter forgot which hand roll was which… so we took a look at the colors and figured it out for ourselves. And I really use the word «chirashi bowl» loosely. They have the standard price for poke don and sake don, $ 15 – 16 each, but the amount of fish you get? Well, they always say a picture is worth a thousand words; so just look below. The 5 – 6 small chunks of fish that you get with your rice aren’t even satisfying, and we left almost as hungry as we did coming in (with our wallets significantly lighter). Thank goodness we had that table at Toro’s for dinner #2.

I was just in for a quick drink and snack before heading to a farewell shindig elsewhere. Ordered a couple hand rolls and some sake. The happy hour prices are great! Nice quiet place to sneak to post-​work to decompress. Tucked away by Toro Bravo, I almost walked passed it for TB but decided to give it a shot. I’d love to come back with an emptier belly and try the ramen and curry. I saw them pass by for another patron and they looked and smelled wonderful.
Wish the sake list was more robust and some Japanese whiskeys would be a nice addition.

ポトランドのおいしい日本料理をやっと見つけた！
This is the authentic, delicious, low-​key Japanese restaurant experience I’ve been searching for ever since I got back from Tokyo! It felt like a real izakaya, with a laid back vibe and an extensive menu.
Their food was some of the most authentic I’ve had in Portland, only minus the stuffy/​snobby atmosphere and painfully high prices.
Izakaya Kinchinto は私のオススメです ぜひ行って食べってください！