Oak & Coal

I generally enjoy this type of food and was excited to try something new after getting a recommendation from a coworker. It was honestly the worst meal (and pricy) I had of any price point in the past 3 weeks of travel. The meatballs diserve special recognition for being burnt to a crisp and the consistency of chewing gum. It did not appear any flavor was added of any kind including in the rather complex sauce. Chicken Katzu was alright 5/10 as far as katzu goes. The Brussel sprouts were good and had the most taste of any of the 4 other dishes I had. It also reeks of cleaner like stale beer and vinegar.

More like a 3.5 star rating, overall a solid find! We shared a lot of small dishes between three people and everything was enjoyable. The place is fairly busy, and the parking lot also fills up. We particularly enjoyed the skewers

Pretty cool ambiance here. Nice and chic. Food was decent at best based on what I’ve tried. Tsukune - the meatballs were quite dry even with the sauce. Overcooked. Crispy unagi - probably should’ve skipped this. Karage - actually pretty tasty. But nothing special. Kurobata sausage - average Garlic noodles w/ shrimp - way too mushroomy. They might as well just call this mushroom noodles. All in all, it was quite pricey for what it is and the portions weren’t even that big. Compared to other izakayas I’ve been to in oc, they overcharge by a good amount. Granted, it’s a cool ambiance for a night out but strictly food-wise, it could be so much more.

I’ve been here pre-Covid but came back for the first time last week. They’ve now expanded to the place next door which is where we sat. We started with the shishito peppers and cabbage salad. Occasionally a shishito would be spicy otherwise cooked to a nice blister. The cabbage salad was light but a good way to begin our meal. The garlic noodles were delicious as well as the skewer of organic chicken with scallions. Dip the chicken in the yuzo kusho to bring out the full experience. Just my opinion but I wouldn’t order the Wagyu donburi ever again, pretty mediocre bowl of mush. Unfortunately we had to send the seared hamachi back (I rarely ever in my life send food back) but it was too briney or oceany tasting. It was the last order and the waitress told the table next to us they had sold out so not sure what happened but luckily they were nice enough to take it off our bill. The snake river Wagyu beef skewers will have you drooling they’re so freaking good. These also come with the yuzo koshu which make for a great flavor combo profile. Ended things off with the ube banana pudding that came out in a jar. I shared it with 2 other people and by then was stuffed.

The idea feels so simple: grill food. The depth of flavor of the food at Oak and Coal is beyond simple. Everything we had was so bold and savory. The drinks were fantastic, and the staff was exceptionally friendly and generous. I absolutely loved everything that I had: garlic, eel, scallops, spicy chicken wings, corn. You can't go wrong. Also: the menu is broken up into rounds. They planned this!

We had a late dinner at the bar seats, great food and atmosphere! Although we seated 15 minutes before the kitchen closed, the server and bartender were really friendly and helpful, they made sure that we ordered enough food and checked periodically.

Delicious but tiny portions. It's a variety of Japanese style kebab meats, seafood, and veggies. Each skewer comes with 4 pieces. Each piece is bite sized. So that means each skewer is 4 bites. Pieces range from $4-$7 per skewer. That's right, $1-$2 per bite of food. There's no corkage fee as long as you buy it from next door (and they check), so buy your own bottle of wine. Otherwise you'll be paying $10 per glass of wine. The dumplings are amazing. The sweet sausages are great. Warning the jumbo shrimp comes shell on. The hot Soba noodle soup is great.