The Gossiping Gourmet: Who needs decor when you have great Japanese food?

I was pleased to discover a new Japanese restaurant in the beautiful Orchard Hill Center just off Portola Parkway and Culver Drive in Irvine.

It’s called Jinbei, and it serves excellent food. The place is rather small and minimally decorated. It has the clean, unfussy sensibility of most Japanese restaurants, with a sushi bar at the rear and pale wood booths or a long banquette for seating.

The large menu includes many categories, and the daily specials are presented separately. The staff recommends that you start here before looking at the regular menu. Staff also notes that wild fish are received directly from a wholesale company in Japan every Tuesday and Thursday.

My dining companion and I decided to try two different bento boxes so we could taste more items. We began our meal with bowls of a miso soup that may have been the best I have ever tasted. Its rich broth was accented with seaweed and cubes of tofu.

Both bento boxes were served with a small bowl of seaweed salad that included a sweet, gelatinous dressing as well as potato and broccoli salad. This may sound like an odd combination, but it turned out to be very tasty. The crunchy broccoli added texture and a layer of flavor to the pieces of potato, and all was tossed together in a mayonnaise-like dressing. Both salads were very good.

I had the pork katsuya, which was breaded and fried and then sliced in thick pieces. The pork, which the restaurant called “soft pork,” was tender and juicy. My only complaint was that it had a bit of an oily aftertaste. From my years in the food business, I know that changing the oil frequently is really important.

My dining companion ordered the teriyaki chicken. The delicate teriyaki sauce didn’t overpower the tasty chunks of chicken but gave them a lovely, sweet overtone. Good, sweet, lightly fried onions rounded out the dish.

The bento box is also served with sashimi — in this case, tuna, salmon and yellowtail. The fish was rather bland, though the spicy tuna rolls were good. The tuna itself was velvety and flavorful, and the spiciness was just the right amount to accent, but not overwhelm, the fish. Of course, there was rice on the side.

I was surprised to see two very non-Japanese desserts. One was a homemade melting chocolate fondant with ice cream. We selected the other, the crepe with ice cream.

The freshly made crepe was wrapped around a filling of rich dark chocolate ice cream and topped with more ice cream, whipped cream and colorful little tiny candies. It’s not what you usually expect in a Japanese restaurant, but it was very tasty. Pieces of fresh fruit decorated the plate.

We wished that we had room to try some of the daily specials. We found some interesting cultural melding. Uni spaghetti is one of the most popular. Also available is a beef stew with tomato sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese.

Of course, there are many traditional offerings as well — for instance, seafood tempura, several preparations of octopus, tamago (the Japanese rolled omelet), many kinds of fish and seafood, monkfish liver, deep-fried soft-shell crab, grilled salmon collar and the list goes on. The specials change regularly.

The regular menu also lists sushi, deep-fried dishes, Japanese soups, special rolls, favorite rolls and nigiri sushi.

This is a restaurant that you will want to return to so that you can try everything. We will certainly be back.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].

Jinbei

Where: 3915 Portola Parkway, Irvine

When: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily; dinner, 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Prices:

Food: $4.50 to $26 (approximate)

Desserts: $8.80 to $9.80

Sake:

Bottles: $18 to $27

By the glass: $4.80 to $9.20

Information: (714) 544-2800