Over the past nine months, Baraboobians have had access to Japanese food in their downtown.
Little Tokyo Japanese Restaurant opened late last October at 111 4th Street. Israel Hernandez, a former chef at two now-closed Wisconsin Dells Japanese restaurants, owns the small restaurant, which has a variety of sushi rolls, sashimi, gyoza, and hibachi grill dishes, as well as Japanese drinks Sake and Sapporo.
“After working all my life (in Japanese cuisine), I got tired and wanted to start something I really like,” Hernandez, a native of Mexico, said. “For me, cooking hibachi and everything, that’s my dream. This is, for me, something good from the beginning.”
Hernandez said that he wanted to add variety to Baraboo’s food scene with Little Tokyo. He said that the small restaurant was constantly filled during his first few weeks in business and that this summer has been busy as well.
Little Tokyo has weekly special dishes along with its menu, which features 28 different sushi and other Japanese rice rolls, which have varieties of eel, shrimp, scallops, tuna, and seaweed wraps, along with numerous other ingredients. Nine types of individual sushi rolls are sold a la carte as well.
Pork gyoza, a type of fried dumpling, is one of 18 appetizer and side order options, which include edamame pods, crab Rangoon, and Miso soup.
Little Tokyo has a small bar with a seafood display window on one end, and is appointed with Japanese decor.
Along with the former Ginza of Tokyo and Naruto in Wisconsin Dells, Hernandez has also worked at Japanese restaurants in Arizona and Iowa. Little Tokyo is his first ownership venture.
Little Tokyo is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
AloJapan.com