Ita-Cho: Sake to Quaff and Seasonal Dishes to Nibble

Ita-Cho is a small Japanese restaurant tucked into a mini-mall that could draw me back any time. The food is wonderful, the presentation beautiful and the mood as soothing as the misty mural of mountains, pines and temples mounted on the wall.

Given its location, you might expect Ita-Cho to be nothing more than a neighborhood cafe dispensing homespun sukiyaki and tempura. Neither, however, is on the menu. Nor is this a sushi bar, although it looks like one, with chefs busily composing dishes behind a counter. According to the menu, Ita-Cho is a koryori-ya , a restaurant that specializes in fresh, seasonal fish and vegetable dishes. It is also a place where Japanese go to drink sake or beer and eat the food that goes best with these beverages.

This could be grilled chicken wings (just the two-boned central joint, mounted on a skewer), fish dumplings wrapped with noodle-like strands of fragile dough and steamed, or jade-green rings of lettuce filled with chicken and arranged in the lightest imaginable broth.

The dumplings-- wasu shumai --are nothing like the open-ended, pork-stuffed shumai of Cantonese dim sum. And the chicken in lettuce is an exemplary blend of subtle flavor and lightness.

Some of the foods reflect preferences that are distinctively Japanese, like strong tasting broiled whole smelt with crunchy roe, or fish liver, or thick, pinkish squid rings that at first looked as inviting as a pile of rubber bands. But the rings were remarkably tender and full of flavor.

Tori tatsuta age is Japanese-style fried chicken. The chicken nuggets are coated with cornstarch, deep-fried and served with mustard-flavored mayonnaise and a lemon wedge. Steamed Dungeness crab--obligingly cut in half for a small order--comes with a sprightly, vinegar-based dipping sauce. And steamed white fish, in a bowl of light broth with chrysanthemum leaves and Napa cabbage, could qualify as spa food; it’s brightened by a lemony soy-sauce dip.

Although most people recoil at the thought of fish bones, the spiny carcass is an essential component of Ita-Cho’s fried flounder with lemon sauce. Separated from the fish and fried crisp, they are as crunchy and tender as chips.

Ita-Cho is open only at night and remains open into the early-morning hours, as befits a beer and sake operation. There are several sakes to choose from.

Prices are surprisingly modest. Two could share an assortment of these dishes for about $25. There is a nice dish of slim Oriental eggplant topped with minced shrimp in a delicate sauce for $4.50. The wasu shumai are $4, the tori tatsuta age is $3.50, and the Nagasaki-style braised pork and chicken wrapped in lettuce leaves are each $4.50.

Ita-Cho, 6775 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 871-0236. Open Monday through Saturday 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Parking available. MasterCard and Visa accepted.