Ojai Restaurant Review: Izakaya Full Moon

Tucked away behind a tea shop, this easy-to-miss Japanese restaurant in Ojai has a real sense of secrecy about it. Can you keep it under your hat?

Selection of dishes at Izakaya Full Moon, Ojai

In this digital age, where hardly anything remains unseen, it’s not often that there is a place with a sense of obscurity. But Izakaya Full Moon is just that. Entering this easy-to-miss little spot on Ojai Avenue gives rise to a rather thrilling sense of mystery; I can’t help but feel as though I’m being let in on a great secret.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not really a secret. The restaurant has been serving customers in its small, tucked away space surreptitiously hidden behind the Magic Hour tea shop, for almost two years. But it has done so quietly, somehow managing to stay in the shadows. Perhaps that’s the Japanese way: After all humility is so deeply ingrained in the country’s culture, it’s hard to imagine a restaurant like this shouting about itself. So here I am, doing it on its behalf.

Izakaya Full Moon is run by husband-and-wife team Yuya and Asaka Ueno, who moved to the United States from Japan 14 years ago. Yuya honed his culinary skills at a number of Japanese restaurants between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, including the wildly popular noodle spot Tsujita in Sawtelle. The couple moved to Ojai in search of a quiet place to raise their three kids and opened their first restaurant, Cagami Ramen, in Camarillo in 2016. Over the past five years, this has proved a great hit, drawing in punters with its satisfying bowls of ramen. But when the former Hip Vegan space on the eastern end of Ojai Avenue became available in late 2019, the Uenos decided to launch a second site closer to home, aptly naming it in a nod to the ancient Chumash name for Ojai.

Yuya Ueno behind the sushi counter at Izakaya Full Moon, Ojai

Izakaya Full Moon is modeled on a traditional izakaya, a Japanese pub or drinking hole if you like, which literally translates as “stay-drink-place.” Here food is typically served to accompany sake, beer and whisky, and dishes tend to be small, tapas-style. The restaurant is tiny, with a handful of tables on the intimate patio outside, and a few chairs wrapped around a wooden sushi counter inside, where the stark, minimalist interior is beautifully offset by a striking blue tiled wall.

Unlike the space, the menu isn’t tiny at all, listing all the classic izakaya staples like yakitori (grilled bbq skewers), karaage (fried chicken), ramen, rice bowls, sushi and sashimi, and then some. We begin with a large bottle of Kirin beer and a cup of sake because, well, it seems rude not to. From the selection of skewers we get a lamb chop, chicken thighs with onion, and beef, all of which are hot, hearty and delicious. The skewers are bijou, anyone with a large appetite would need at least ten of the little things, but then there are so many delicacies on this menu, it’s a missed opportunity to only order skewers.

Take the goma kampachi, for instance, thinly sliced amberjack tuna slathered with a sesame soy sauce marinade that is so sweet and sticky I want to lick the plate. (I don’t). Or the sushi, which is not like sushi you may have got used to at other Japanese establishments. If rainbow rolls and creamy crab and avocado creations are you jam, you won’t find them here. This is simple but perfectly executed sushi, with fish so fresh it melts in your mouth. We order handrolls with generous helpings of salmon and yellowtail and they are simply divine, the rice perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the seaweed delightfully crispy.

There are small bowls of ramen, dense with flavor and thick with umami; a signature dish of kaki-age (tempura corn) that kids will love; and grilled rice balls that you can order plain or with steaming Tai Snapper broth poured over it.

Izakaya Full Moon is an authentic Japanese restaurant run by a genuine Japanese couple, who are quietly and excellently doing their thing. The only question now is can you keep the secret?

Izakaya Full Moon
928 East Ojai Avenue, Ojai
805-633-9109

This restaurant review was first published by the Ojai Valley News.