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Izakaya Tenko

3.8 (353 reviews)
Updated 2 months ago

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IZAKAYA TENKO ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Moderate noise
Casual
Good for kids
Outdoor seating

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Miso soup
Marisol R.

Yummmy! Amazing place, excellent service! Very kind people, seems like locals come here often and recognized by the waitress. She was very sweet and welcoming. There is lots of options for food, seating for large party of 10 available. Seating of 4 people 6 tables, additional bar area seating for additional 8 people. Very clean area, lovely relaxing atmosphere and music. Will come back!

4. Pork Belly with Garlic
Vivian P.

I love when a spot has happy hour that doesn't end at 5 pm. They have happy hour tuesday-thursday 4:30-6:30 pm. We got greeted and seated immediately. The service here is incredibly attentive. We had multiple servers come up to us to check if we had questions, refilled our water, etc. As someone who doesn't eat raw fish, there are SO many options here that are yummy. The spicy crunchy shrimp roll and caterpillar roll was YUMMY. I would skip the karage (nothing special) and the crispy pork belly was a bit over cooked for my liking (I like the juiciness of the fat) but they did say it would be crispy, so I can't fault them for that. Don't skip their skewer options, the garlic beef and salmon belly- they are literally melt in your mouth. The eel nigiri was SO smokey and juicy. I would get that again. I will 1000% be taking my parents here! I love the food, service, and family vibe here. They have lots of regulars.

Caterpillar roll
Johnathan H.

Amazing local Japanese restaurant! The staff are super friendly and chatty, and looks like there were a few regulars sitting at the bar on a Monday night. Our server gave some really good recommendations and here are the highlights: Salmon belly skewer: 10/10, it will literally melt in your mouth Tuna nigiri: 3/5, it's a lower quality cut of the loin with very little fat Caterpillar roll: 5/5, super generous with the amount of eel and avocado This place is going into our rotation of local spots!

Prime garlic rib eye beef skewer
Mehgan M.

Decided to try out Izakaya Tenko as a birthday dinner celebration with my boyfriend and it did NOT disappoint between ambiance, service, food, drinks & price! We will absolutely be back. We went in hungry but not starving so we split a bento box, ordered an extra miso (1 already comes with the bento), and 2 beef skewers paired with a Saporo and sake! The beef skewers we asked to be served medium & had so much flavor, literally melted in our mouths! Miso soup was hearty, & served perfectly warm! With the bento box we got the crispy pork belly & teriyaki beef which came with white rice, salad, and potato salad and of course an orange slice. All of it was very flavorful, and we continued to be more and more fulfilled with every single bite! Staff was super sweet and FAST! Like I said, will absolutely be back!!

M L.

We still go out of our way to get their dinner bento. Such a great deal for the variety and portions. Staff is always very friendly and food has been consistent.

Truman W.

Same here after a Soka concert, Mostly empty on a Sunday night. Pleasant Japanese decor and soft jazz music. Ordered a bunch of grilled stuff -- mushroom, salmon, zucchini, beef tongue, chicken meat balls, shishito beef - all very good. My favorite was the beef tongue. Also ordered - agedashi tofu (not good - soy sauce instead of dashi broth, tofu too crispy and hard); spider roll (good taste but too soggy) Good attentive water and tea service. Would I come back again? Yes, for the skewers only.

Spicy Crunch Salmon Rolls
Shahram M.

Stopped by this Japanese restaurant in lake forest on a Friday night with family. We sat down promptly and the service was fast. Tried an assortment of sushi and hand rolls edamame cucumber salad and their spicy beef bowl. All gray and fresh although the the spicy beef bowl wasn't spicy and was more sweet than anything else. Overall a solid 4.

Mapo Tofu
Anuja S.

The best sushi I have ever had! This place beats all my other experiences with Japanese cuisines. I was here for a business dinner and we ordered chef's specials, sashimi, garlic edamame, chef's choice of sushi rolls (8), wagyu, blackened cod and seared scallops the sashimi quality, preparation and presentation was one of the best, same with sushi. The scallops were cooked to perfection and I loved the sauce it came with, the cod was tender and juicy and again cooked perfectly. I don't eat beef but colleagues cudnt stop talking about how good the wagyu was. The service is good and ambience was perfect for a business dinner, not too casual or loud or formal. Enjoyed my dinner and the experience here. Will be back again to try out their hotpot.

Cool lanterns. Love the vibe.
Jason G.

Service wasnt as friendly/attentive. The iced green tea had low matcha quality. The sashimi wasn't as fresh. I enjoyed the skewers, garlic pork belly, shrimp tempura. - 1 star.

HH menu
Jonathan C.

So glad that this place is now on the LF gift card list! 4.5 but rounded up because of service and LF gift card eligibility. They have HH Tues-Thurs and Sundays which lasts until 6:30pm. There are a decent amount of items on there that's worth ordering including a skewer sampler and sushi rolls. It's nice that the yakitori grill is behind glass so that it doesn't smell smokey inside. We haven't been able to try a bento since we've been sticking more with the HH and skewers but we'll eventually try it! Plenty of parking and we haven't had an issue with wait time for a table. There are some high tops at the bar area too with a tv usually playing sports. Overall definitely worth a try for some delicious Japanese food.

Bay M.

We're always on a hunt for yakitori and this place really surprised us! We love finding local gems. Reminds me of Honda-Ya in Tustin. Also important to note that if you're coming here for Yakitori, they only serve this during dinner time. Came in for dinner on a Sunday and we were seated fairly quickly. Not the biggest dining room, but they also have bar seating available. We basically ordered a little bit of everything to try. Tried their rainbow roll ($17.95) which was decent. Chicken gyoza and crispy garlic pork belly for appetizers. The garlic pork belly was served sliced and on a bed of shredded cabbage, it was amazing. I'd order that again for starters. The cucumber salad was okay. BBQ pork ramen was delicious, 2 big pieces of BBQ pork, half an egg, and the broth was so flavorful. The yakitori menu ranges from $3.75 to $14.99 per skewer. Great selection but we tried the chicken leg meat w/ sauce and one with pepper and sea salt only, chicken meat ball (3 pieces in a skewer), garlic pork belly (fave!), prime rib eye beef, prime garlic rib eye beef, zucchini (2 skewers in an order), shitake mushrooms, and quail eggs. Amazing flavors, we really enjoyed all the yakitori. Service was great despite the short staff, they attended to us in a timely manner. This place makes it to our list of date nights. Highly recommend!

Really sad California hand roll
Danny L.

We've been here numerous times over the past few years and sad to say the food quality has been on a steady decline while the prices have risen significantly. We usually order a mix of yakitori, sushi rolls, appetizers, etc. but have recently left the restaurant always feeling like we overpaid. Their service is a hit or miss and the last time we tried to order takeout, we were put on hold for almost 10 minutes. We hung up and just drove there to order. It took them 20 minutes to prepare 1 fresh cut roll and 4 hand rolls. The nori they used to wrap the hand rolls were already soggy/chewy and looked like a kid prepared them. This is most likely the last time we eat from here.

Jan M.

This was our 4th visit and I finally remembered to check in! Our new go to for Japanese food. Service is always good, food is delicious, and $5 happy hour beers! It's a small place so we get there early before it gets too busy. We love their Bento Box dinners. Lots of food!

I got ripped off with a six dollar fountain drink to go

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2 months ago

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1 year ago

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1 year ago

Great fresh sushi. The fried rice is good and the service was prompt and easy to pick up my order.

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4 years ago

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1 year ago

The salmon cut rolls are perfect for little kids. The scallop and sashimi rolls were yum. 4 fancy rolls and 4 salmon rolls for around 110

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3 years ago

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4 years ago

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1 year ago

Such a good hidden gem! Their sushi is great, and they have a wide variety of other options! The atmosphere is unique and fun

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Izakaya Tenko Reviews in Other Languages

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The service and food is great here! We are always greeted warmly like family members…read more The sushi is very fresh and tasty! Today we got the Chicken Katsu. Very good! I highly recommend this business!

This is a very reliable sushi spot in the area for consistently solid rolls. As a caveat, I…read morewouldn't say the flavors are anything out of this world or particularly unique compared to some other sushi spots, nor is it especially "authentic" (the large specialty roll menu makes that pretty clear). That said, I'm not complaining: as a sushi spot in America that caters to Western tastes, this place hits. Some of my favorite rolls are the Bella, the Mission Viejo, and the Seared Tuna roll. One minor area for improvement is to-go orders. They seem to get very busy, and there could be better predictability around wait times. The order processing for peak hours (6pm on a Saturday) was about an hour, but on my most recent visit, my pickup order was delayed by about 30 minutes, pushing it to 90 minutes. It was frustrating for me, but I think it can be even more frustrating for Door Dash drivers since they're paid per delivery and long, unexpected waits can throw off their entire queue and earnings for the night. I do want to commend their customer service, though. They have always been great dining in, but this time, they could tell people were frustrated and genuinely tried to reshuffle orders and adjust priorities. Overall, improving order flow and wait-time forecasting would make a noticeable difference!

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The Rice - Deluxe Kaisen Donburi, Kawaba Beer Pilsner

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Can't believe I haven't written about this place after all these years…read more Hands down the best authentic Japanese restaurant with some really amazing items especially in their rotating menus written on the blackboard. Can't go wrong with anything here but the best ones are the seasonal ones and those specials on the board. Be adventurous and try something that you won't see in typical Japanese eateries around here. Some of my favorites: - beef tongue curry - saba mentai roll (slightly sour marinated and grilled mackerel) - scallop creamy udon - grilled mackerel They use local organic veggies. Have good alcoholic beverages selection. Service is always prompt even when they're busy around lunch time. The place is cute and reminds me of the one featured in the Midnight Diner on Netflix .

My mom's beean talking about this place for a couple years now, and I kind of wrote them off…read morebecause any time I wanted Japanese, I wanted actual sushi. However, we finally stopped by last week since we went for a walk in the strip mall and didn't feel like going home to cook dinner. I splurged on the premium don, and my mom go the nabeyaki udon, which was one of several specials of the day. My don was amazing. It was $39, but had probably 8 different types of fish, each with multiple pieces. They all tasted super fresh. I recently left Oahu, and have been fully unimpressed with sushi at an affordable price on the mainland. This was it! Sure, it wasn't rolled or had nori, but it hit the spot. The prices are amazing for what you get. The place is amll, maybe seats 5 parties, though they have some out door seating. It's in a very unassuming strip mall in Foothill Ranch of all places, but the place is immigrant, Japanese owned, and doesn't have a lot of staff - husband in the back, wife in the front. Expect things to take a little time, but the service is great, the vibe is casual, and the food is GOOOD. I noticed out of the four parties, half were Japanese speaking. Like, the people know where to go. I hope they do well and seems they have been open for five years now. Don't expect sushi rolls, no eel sauce, etc, but do expect very well-done home style dishes that will fill your stomach and soothe your soul. I will definitely be back.

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Fat Fish Sushi - Salmon skin hand roll and a whole bunch of rolls.

Fat Fish Sushi

4.1(416 reviews)
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My wife, kids, and I visited Fat Fish. The boys LOVE sushi and thought it would be a good treat for…read morethem tonight. I told the owner that we would have three AYCE and my wife would be ordering beef off of the menu because she is allergic to fish. The owner instantly got mad and angrily told us that we ALL get AYCE, or none of us will. I explained that my wife can't eat fish. She got more angry and said that this is her policy. Rather than endure more of her fury, we left. I want to support little businesses and we went out of our way to go to this restaurant. Needless to say we will not be back. Her policy is fine. It is her restaurant and I respect her right to set her rules. The attitude was uncalledfor.

Fat Sushi is a newer addition to the Lake Forest Gift Card promo - so we decided to check it out…read more Its located in a shopping plaza off of Lake Forest Drive. Plenty of parking. Nothing fancy here to see, just a local mom & pop type sushi joint, which we are fans of! We were seated right away in one of the few areas inside. Everything was clean and bright. a little warm inside as it was a hot day and they had the door open, with a breeze. I saw one sushi chef that greeted us and he was making the rolls and dishes at the front. I ordered a hot sake and it was super hot and really good. We also got a few rolls, which were all delicious, a salmon skin hand roll - the salmon was on the chewy side and a little cold, and the agadashi tofu, which had a lovely dipping marinade. The fish on the rolls were nice fat pieces, and so fresh and yummy. Next time will have to try some nigiri.

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4.4(618 reviews)
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Came here after playing softball nearby at the lake forest rec park because I wanted sushi,…read moresearched Yelp and this place is highly rated less than a mile away (3 minutes drive according to iPhone). Off we went. Parking was easy in a large strip mall. No hostess here - you are greeted by the 2 sushi chefs upon walking in to sit wherever you'd like. The picture menu is easy to order off of. There are 2 big screens in the room. Tonight they were playing the World Baseball Classic. Women's restroom was clean - check! You get complimentary edamame upon being seated. Just 1 server handling all orders at the time we came in - a nice Korean lady, who at times seemed oblivious ie cleaning empty tables instead of giving us our check at the end of the meal when it was very apparent we were done. lol I looked for something on the menu that has unagi AND salmon but no dice so opted for dragon roll. My other half ordered #8 (forgot the name but it was good though I preferred my dragon roll more) but all in all our rolls came out delicious. Looking around, this place appears to be both a local spot and date spot from a few couples in the room. At the end of our meal our server brought us 2 pieces compliments of the chef, who said it was yellowtail. They have a stamp card that yields 10% after 5 meals and 20% off after 10 meals. We now know where we'll go after our weekly softball games!

A little disappointed. I'm usually not one to leave negative reviews, especially for Japanese…read morerestaurants, but I feel like they have potential to do better -- which is why I wanted to leave an honest review. FYI -- no photos because we were busy with a cranky toddler. First, the service was genuinely great. The sweetest lady helped us with the menu and served our food, and we really appreciated her kindness. We were also given complimentary edamame, which was thoughtful, although it was bland, dry, and cold -- almost like it had been sitting in the fridge for a while. Since it was complimentary, we didn't think too much of it. For the mains, we ordered the beef teriyaki and chicken teriyaki bento specials. Unfortunately, both proteins were sliced extremely thin. The chicken especially had a jerky-like texture, and both the chicken and beef lacked flavor. After reading other reviews, they had similar experience. The teriyaki sauce itself was also pretty bland. The tempura was okay, but the tempura dipping sauce tasted watered down and lacked the usual savory depth you'd expect. The one standout was the roll topped with salmon and avocado with spicy tuna inside. It was presented beautifully and tasted fresh and well-balanced. Based on this, I honestly think rolls are what they do best. I really hope they improve the preparation and seasoning of the chicken and beef because it was a major turnoff -- and this is coming from someone who eats pretty much everything. It's hard to justify paying around $22 for a bento when the main protein feels flavorless and insubstantial. With so many good Japanese resto in Lake Forest, I would skip this until the proteins are fixed.

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Izakaya Tenko - japanese - Updated May 2026

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