[Laguna Hills] [Japanese] Kappo Hana Japanese Restaurant

Kappo Hana Japanese Restaurant
25260 La Paz Rd
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
(949) 770-7746
http://www.kappohana.com

We went house hunting again down in the Laguna Hills area.  Afterward, I used my Yelp app on my phone to find a nearby restaurant for an early dinner.  We were both in the mood for Japanese, so I just picked the first Japanese restaurant that was on the list, Kappo Hana Japanese Restaurant.



Kappo Hana isn't big.  It has a very http://www.eileenlikestoeat.comy feel to it.




After looking at the menu, I realized "hey this the Kaiseki restaurant in OC that I've been wanting to try!"  Just like Wakasan in West LA, Kappo Hana also offers Kaiseki dinner for $35 per person.  But it is by reservation only at Kappo Hana, and reservation has to be made 3 days prior for 2 or more people.  On the menu, there's a note that read "Kaiseki set dinner is one person meal. Please do not share." in Chinese only.  That's kind of funny.  haha....  Because only us stingy Chinese would share those Kaiseki meal?


Sapporo Beer (small) ($3.75)

Dr. P ordered a Sapporo, and I got hot green tea.  Yes, they don't charge for hot green tea.  One of my biggest pet peeves is that Japanese restaurant charge for hot green tea.


Appetizers

We came here as a spur of the moment thing, and could not try their $35 Hana Kaiseki.  Since Kaiseki is their specialty, we ordered a kaiseki bento and a kaiseki kamameshi dinner.  We both received the same appetizers.


Seafood Salad

Seafood salad was made with clam, octopus, black ear mushroom, and bamboo shoot.  It was one of the best Japanese style seafood salad I've ever had.  The flavor was outstanding.


Spinach

Spinach was very flavorful.  I could taste bonito.  Maybe the spinach was cooked in bonito broth?


Tuna and Green Onion with Miso Dressing

Melt in your mouth tuna sashimi with super yummy miso dressing.  The sashimi was paired with green onion.  I never whole green onion raw like that because I don't like the strong taste.  But strangely the green onion here tasted so fresh and crisp without that green onion taste, I was able to finish them all.


Sashimi

Tuna and halibut for sashimi.  Both were high quality and very fresh.  We were both blown away by how good the halibut was.


Vegetable with Shrimp Paste Tempura

Vegetable with Shrimp Paste Tempura came with Dr. P's kamameshi set.  This was a great twist of the traditional shrimp and vegetable tempura.  Instead of a whole shrimp, they made the shrimp into shrimp paste, and stuffed it inside eggplant, lotus root, and shitake mushroom.  It was delicious!  Dr. P especially likes the shitake mushroom one.


Steamed Egg Custard

Steamed Egg Custard was also from the Kamameshi set.  It was silky and creamy.  There was a big piece of chicken and a big piece of shrimp on the bottom of the cup.


Mix Kamameshi Dinner ($21.50)
Kaiseki Style Course Dinner

What is Kamameshi?  From Wikipedia: Kamameshi (釜飯) literally translates to "kettle rice" and is a traditional Japanese rice dish cooked in an iron pot. Similar to takikomi gohan, kamameshi is a type of Japanese pilaf cooked with various types of meat, seafood, and vegetables. By cooking it in an iron pot, the rice gets slightly burned at the bottom which adds a desirable flavor to the rice. It is often sold as ekiben.



Mix Kamameshi had shrimp and chicken on top of vegetable rice cooked in an iron pot.  When the lid was opened, we were greeted by appetizing seafood aroma.



Lots of vegetable in the rice.  The rice was moist and wet.  I am not sure if the rice was supposed to be this way, or the chef added too much water since I've never had kamameshi rice before.  The chicken was tender, but it didn't really have any flavor.  The vegetable rice had more flavor than the chicken and shrimp.


Shokado Bento ($21.50)
Kaiseki Style Course Bento

This was my Shokado Bento.


Vegetable with Shrimp Paste Tempura

It had the same tempura dish.


Steamed Egg Custard

And the same steamed egg custard.


Stewed Chicken Meatball and Vegetable

Stewed Chicken Meatball and Vegetable was really good.  It didn't look like it, but it was full of flavor.  Daikon, pumpkin, and potato were all stewed until they just melt in my mouth.  The meatball was tasty and very tender.  I could taste the sweet mirin in the broth.


Miso Cod

We love the miso cod!  It was cooked perfectly!  Soft, flaky, and so good with rice.


Miso Soup & Rice

Their miso soup was really good, too.  It tasted like it was made from fish stock.  Lots of seaweed and tofu.


Dessert

Dessert was panna cotta with strawberry jam and fresh pineapple.  Perfect way to end the meal.



We were so stuffed, and still couldn't finish all the food.  Everything was good, except that I thought the kamameshi rice was a bit too soggy.  Service was great.  We would love to come back again to try their $35 Kaiseki dinner.  Also we saw other customers eating shabu shabu, and it looked delicious.  We gotta go back to Kappo Hana soon.

[ad#ad-unit]