Mr. Max Izakaya
3028 N Belt Line Rd, Irving, TX 75062
Google: 4.8 Stars (1,344 Reviews)
Habibi-san’s rating:
Dua Lipa was at the Broken Spoke in Austin the day before me. My retirement home cohort of twenty somethings, already ten years above the average age of ACL attendees, was devastated to miss our Albanian queen. It’s not like I would have had the courage to ask her to dance anyway. First of all, I can’t two-step for shit and I don’t think that Dua can perform her set with broken toes. Secondly, even if I did miraculously muster the courage, my fiancée would have consulted the room full of cowboys on the most inhumane way to perform my castration. Pick either scenario and I lie awake at night for the rest of my life, silently begging for the return of my lost manhood.
Even without the anticipation of a potential wild Dua Lipa encounter, you just can’t beat a good ‘ole fashioned Texan honky tonk (noun: a cheap or disreputable bar, club, or dance hall, typically where country music is played). Unless of course you dislike Shiner Bock and listening to deep track country music all night on a loop.
While North Texas has cocktail bars, sushi bars, sports bars, Irish pubs, taverns, seedy shitholes, microbreweries, and speakeasies (skip your next trip to Bourbon and Banter and instead ask the wait staff about the Stache after your dinner at Renny’s), one additional type of watering hole is wedging its way into the great American bar scene: the Japanese izakaya 居酒屋 (いざかや).
The kanji for “izakaya” 居酒屋 literally translates to “stay-drink-place,” so I have no choice but to lock it away as a potential gender neutral name for my first child. If you scroll long enough on your “For Your Page,” I am sure you will encounter one of many Dallas influencers recommending the original Mr. Max Izakaya location in Irving. Along with any In-N-Out moving to a new state for the first time, Mr. Max Izakaya has gained popularity across DFW due to its novelty, interior floor seating décor, and delicious Japanese tapas served the izakaya way.
Each plate has a no frills authenticity that highlights the inherent purpose of an izakaya, feeding drunk bastards drunk food. That means salty mackerel seared on a portable grill featuring a single slice of lemon in case you are feeling particularly posh.
How about flame-grilled squid with a lump of ginger? Somehow, the squid had minimal chew while retaining the flavor imbued from the barbecued cooking grates.
I would show you the miniature grill that the chefs were using behind their glass screen to cook up mackerel, squid, yellowtail, shishito peppers, and beef tongue, but I was too chicken to snag a photo during their brief moments away from their stations. I am sure I can find a Temu or AliExpress alternative that will cook up a similar squid texture, albeit with added toxic fumes.
My favorite “tapas” of the night was the chicken karaage with tartar sauce. According to my calculations predicated solely on personal opinion, eggs make up 42% of the Japanese diet, and tartar sauce is no exception. Every fish fry in the contiguous US should have tartar sauce made with kewpie mayonnaise and diced eggs. It certainly would incentivize me to better remember not to eat meat on Fridays during Lent (Easter egg: Habibi-san is Catholic, please keep reading Baptists).
The takoyaki was excellent for two reasons. One, the octopus chunks used in each fried ball were larger than usual. Second, the takoyaki balls were served in an escargot plate which made me wonder if I could find French Onion soup on the menu. You may also notice the remnants of an A5 Wagyu meat skewer dashed with wasabi and a light ponzu sauce. You have my permission to pass on this because every Japanese cow must have recently been put on a fitness program if A5 Wagyu is suddenly this chewy.
(Nice ring, right? Hopefully, the fact that I am a Catholic twenty-something year old engaged man living in Dallas is not enough information to reveal my identity. I think it is safe to say that Habibi-san’s fiancée’s engagement ring reveal will make as many headlines as Zendaya’s reveal at the Golden Globes).
While the food at Mr. Max is delicious and they deserve all the exposure they receive, the restaurant should not exactly be considered an izakaya. For starters, an izakaya does not close at 9 PM on weekdays and 10 PM on weekends, nor does it require you to book reservations with a minimum of three people to avoid the wait for walk-ins. Japanese salarymen and “career women” alike flock to their local izakaya after work to drink heavily and eat late into the night.
Thank goodness North Texas is home to four Yama Izakaya & Sushi locations that welcome patrons until 2 AM. I recommend starting with the Legacy location since their menu boasts the typical array of Japanese “tapas” like the other three locations, but also includes a comprehensive list of Chinese dishes and half priced select rolls every Sunday until 9 PM. Who cares if Yelp thinks the service is “nonexistent” or the facility cleanliness is “sketchy?” From my experience, this is far from reality. Hail a server, order a Sapporo on happy hour, and see if it is possible to have a bad time. Head to head, Yama beats Mr. Max by split decision.
While both Mr. Max and Yama are excellent options to scratch your izakaya itch, as of January 2025, there is still no izakaya in North Texas that offers nomihoudai (飲み放題) which translates to “drink as much as you like.” A spigot of beer, sake, or shōchū attached to the wall next to your table with an unlimited trickle of booze for a designated time frame is still only unique to Japan (or outside of my periphery).
If I could invest in the first izakaya that pulled that off in North Texas, I would find myself in AA faster than it would take Dua Lipa to find a more suitable dance partner.
Ma al salama (さようなら ),
Habibi-san
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