Until recently, W'burgers only had mediocre places to have Japanese cuisine. Bozu serves good food and fun drinks. But their service is unbelievably slow, always under-staffed. Samurai, Miyako and Wasabi are all alike; typical Japanese restaurant in America. Snacky is more like a bar and the waitress is weird. Zenkichi, unlike any of these places, may become a new heaven for Japanese food lovers in the hood.
Right next to the Tops super market, the building sits on the corner of Wythe and N 6th. Dark-stained wood panels cover the entire extrior walls. With my friends, I walked in to this restaurant on the first weekend since its opening. They were booked out for the eveing. All seats are on the second floor so we failed to peek in this new izakaya. They didn't have a menu for us to get the idea of $ range. Although we found it pretentiuos and secrative on our first visit, I gave it another chance on one Sunday night. The staff is almost all Japanese. Each seat is a tiny booth and has a wood screen to half-cover for more privacy. The menu is surprisingly simple. They specialize on authentic Japanese tapas and you cannot expect sushi or sashimi (except on a daily special), which I very much appreciate. The best dish we had that day was the stewed pork belly—their signature dish.
Meat and fat all melt down and very comforting. It maybe less sweet to my taste. I highly recommend this place, especially on Sunday night when you can easily get a seat without reserveation and it's quiet than other weekend evenings. Is this worth traveling from the city or south Brooklyn? On a quiet Sunday night, I'd think so.
