Keto-friendly dinner

Chili Shrimp Girl a.k.a. Big Head Shrimp is finally back in town for the first time since the pandemic began. We made arrangements for her to come see her goddaughter CC, and caught up over dinner at Koji Charcoal Grill (菊志炭燒) in order to accommodate her current keto diet. We had been to the sister restaurant Le Bec Fin next door a few times, but somehow never made it through these doors.

They claim to use binchotan (備長炭) for grilling, and on the menu they do list out a section of items which are char-grilled, while others are done over electric grill. We picked a selection from both types.

Deep-fried baby white shrimps (白海老唐揚げ) - I get to eat a lot of glass shrimps at sushi restaurants, but this was probably the first time I've had them deep-fried with shells on.

Very, very tasty. Just about as good as deep-fried sakura shrimp (桜海老).

The restaurant provides this tasty dipping sauce, which was made of sesame oil, deep-fried garlic, sesame, and possibly dried scallops... I could just eat this like XO sauce.

Sardine fish cake (特製いわしさつま揚げ) - pretty tasty, and probably better than most other versions of さつま揚げ I can remember.

Grilled wagyu ox tongue (焼き和牛タン) - grilled tongue is always tasty...

Chicken wing with salt (手羽先塩焼き)

Grilled shishto peppers (焼き獅子唐辛子)

Grilled sweet potato (焼き薩摩芋)

Charcoal grilled skirt steak (和牛ハラミ炭火焼) - this was served with some yuzukosho (柚子胡椒) along with green pepper miso.

Pretty tasty, with plenty of beefy flavors thanks to the cut.

Charcoal grilled miso-marinated white cod (銀鱈西京炭火焼き) - the charred skin definitely delivered plenty of smoky flavors.

Grilled corn (焼き玉蜀黍)

Grilled chicken skin (焼き鶏皮) - chicken skin is always gonna be great.

Charcoal grilled Japanese wild eel (日本天然うなぎ蒲焼き) - this was very, very nice. It's been a while since I last had wild eel, and the texture was certainly a lot nicer. Not at all mushy or limp. Also had ZERO muddy flavors.

Charcoal grilled abalone (鮑炭火焼) - I was initially skeptical of why abalone in shell would need to be grilled over charcoal, but methinks there was indeed some smokiness in the shellfish. The liver was a little too salty for me, and surprisingly not smoky enough.

Grilled sea urchin onigiri (雲丹焼きおにぎり) - very, very good. The sea urchin wasn't just the topping, but we've also got it throughout the rice ball.

I definitely ate too much... but this was pretty good. Should come back more often.