Masa Miyake tried the izakaya concept—the Japanese version of a gastro pub—formerly at his tiny aerie on Spring Street, which is now the Home Catering take out and sandwich shop. It closed shop a few years ago.   But Portland newcomer, Chef Thomas Takashi Cooke, and his wife, Elaine Alden, are exploring similar opportunities here to open his restaurant, Izakaya Minato.  On Tuesday evening, he held a pop up at Bao Bao showing off his  menu.

He hails from San Francisco where he was head chef of that city’s highly regarded Tsunami.  He and his wife Elaine moved to Portland recently.

Quite a crowd convened at Bao Bao to sample Cooke’s fine Asian fusion menu

While his search is on for restaurant space—a heavy topic these days for chefs and restaurateurs because there’s so little available—he definitely made a good showing with the dishes that he presented.

His menu includes small plates as well as the  chef’s sashimi selection. We started off with steamed greens laced with a sesame sauce.  It was a delicately conceived dish with the  sweet flavors of sesame perfuming the greens and vegetables.

Greens in sesame sauce

The cured sardines were beautifully presented: the body of the sardine was fried and towered over the slices of cured fish in a fan of neat slices.  The deeply fried bones were like eating candy.  This was a great dish that I would hope to see often at the forthcoming restaurant.

Cured sardines

Japanese fried chicken had the requisite crunch and good coating of flavor over the dark meat.  I felt, however, it needed another dipping sauce besides the soy on the table.

A good dish of Japanese style fried chicken

A dish described as fried hake was actually a lightly corn-starch-dusted piece of the white fish that had some crunch set floating in a beautiful amber broth.

Fried hake in amber broth

The star of the show was the cabbage pancake—okonomiyaki–coated with bacon and mushrooms and drizzles of Japanese mayo–similar to the okonomiyaki that Miyake served at his diner and sometimes available at Pai Men.

Cabbage pancake

Since all the dishes were priced in single digits, it’s very reasonable.  Though adding up a big stack of small plates can raise the tab.  Still, even with sake and beer  it cost two of us a mere $35 each for a fine meal.

I hope that Cooke finds his space soon since this will certainly add to creative Portland’s roster of Asian restaurants, still so popular with so many diners raring for more.