RESTAURANT REVIEW:

In my constant search for places that serve food past 9 p.m., I may have found my favorite.

Not only does Kappo Honda serve until 1 a.m., it has such a wide variety of food that you could spend all night in the place and not even get close to finishing the menu.

This place is patterned after a Japanese izakaya, a drinking establishment that also serves pub-type small plate foods to partyers of all ages.

The food is perfect with the sake and beer, and the restaurant is laid out with tables and booths around a large table in the center.

The menu is six pages and includes everything from noodles to rice to sushi to deep-fried, pan-fried, steamed, grilled and stewed dishes.

The first time I visited, the menu was extremely intimidating, and I stuck with items I could easily identify. A Japanese couple were sitting next to us and saw the culinary naiveté being exhibited by my guest and me and made some suggestions for us the next time we visited. We wrote them down and came back soon after well-armed.

This restaurant is perfect for two people, but much like dim sum or teppanyaki, the more people, the better the experience. We came to the restaurant with four people, and not only could we sample more food, but the wait staff seemed more eager to help us. Of course, we were ordering voluminous amounts of sake and beer, so that may have had something to do with it as well.

We began with grilled yellowtail cheek, and even though these dishes are supposed to be appetizer size, this is a generous portion. The yellowtail is slightly grilled and flaky and tender, as it should be.

We ordered sushi next; salmon skin and blue crab and avocado. The salmon skin had a very distinct flavor and was crunchy. The blue crab was a bit disappointing. There was no discernible difference between the crab and the avocado.

A tempura whitefish was next, and it was very flaky and only had a light tempura, which allowed the rich flavor of the fish to shine. The sauce, which seemed like a mixture of crushed Japanese radish and ginger, went well.

If you like garlic, try the fried garlic, but make sure you don’t eat it by itself. It is much better with something. We asked for spicy mayo, and that helped quite a bit. Then I was combining it with the grilled calamari, and that seemed to work well.

The baked scallop was probably our favorite of all the dishes we tried. It was flat and on a bed of rice with a seaweed band.

We ordered a bunch of sushi, and for $1.80 a piece, you can get salmon, halibut, white fish and albacore. The tuna and yellowtail is $2.25. The most expensive item was sea urchin for $3.80.

The rolls were also reasonably priced, though I thought $12 for the crunchy roll was a bit much.

We ended our meal with grilled sea bass. It was really good and had scallions on top. The bass was a decent-size portion and of decent quality.

Despite all the food we ordered, we didn’t even make a dent in the menu. That is one of the great things about Kappo Honda — the variety of the menu will keep you coming back, and the specials the place offers will constantly challenge your palate.

KAPPO HONDA is at 18450 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley. Call (714) 964-4629.

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at [email protected] or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.