Elk Grove's Kurumaya offers a different cup of tea

A hidden gem in Elk Grove Village, Kurumaya Japanese Kitchen numbers among a handful of places that come as close as the Chicago area has to izakayas, Japanese taverns. "Hidden" is perhaps a misleading term - Kurumaya seems quite well known to the Japanese community. I have, however, never been there when my party wasn't the only non-Japanese customers in the place.

Mariko Kitazawa, owner Hiroko Kitazawa's daughter, says Kurumaya is more upscale and family-oriented than the izakayas frequented by salarymen in Japan, with a more extensive menu. Yet this cozy, casual spot, with its excellent, home-style cooking, is nothing at all like the sushi bars constituting most of the Japanese restaurants in these parts.

Hiroko Kitazawa, a native of Yokohama, opened Kurumaya in 2002. According to her daughter, she had been running a karaoke bar in Mount Prospect when she was asked to take over the onetime Maui Mark location. (A "kurumaya," by the way, is a runner who pulls a "kuruma" or rickshaw, a man-powered carriage historically used by samurai and other dignitaries.)

Most of the menu at Kurumaya, as at izakayas in Japan, consists of appetizer-sized small plates. Typically, diners order a variety of these for sharing, perhaps finishing up with a noodle dish or a larger entree.

Despite the mainly Japanese clientele, there are regular menus in English, with short explanations for each item. Also, at each table a small book of charming, hand-drawn pictures of the dishes offers English descriptions detailing their principal ingredients. The waitstaff I've encountered have been competent English speakers, friendly and helpful with menu choices. Although there's a daily specials board that's only in Japanese, those who don't speak that language will still find plenty to choose from.

You'll find a mixture of familiar dishes, like gyoza, plump pan-fried dumplings filled with onion-flavored ground pork, and more exotic items, such as kawaebi kara-age, small, salty, fried, head-on freshwater shrimp that you crunch shells and all, with a squeeze of lemon - like prawn-flavored beer nuts. Other choices from the long list include chicken kara-age, fried chicken nuggets; potato takoyaki, pieces of octopus inside deep-fried potato balls; kurobuta negema, grilled pork belly; agedashi tofu, fried tofu in soy broth; and mozuku, a seafood salad with a mild vinegar dressing.

More substantial offerings include saba shioyaki, excellent salt-grilled mackerel, with a crisp skin and tender, flaky flesh, and tonkatsu, a nicely fried pork cutlet encased in crunchy bread crumbs, served with a mound of shredded cabbage and a thick, Worcestershire-like sauce. You can also get versions of katsu, a Japanized version of schnitzel introduced in the 19th century, with miso sauce or mild Japanese curry sauce.

Other main dishes include several kinds of teriyaki and tempura featuring crisp, lightly battered giant shrimp. Entrees come with miso soup, a green salad with gingery dressing, Japanese pickles and rice.

Noodle dishes range from cold soba noodles and hot udon soups to a wacky dish of spaghetti tossed with slivers of red bell pepper, onion and a few gelatinous orbs of salmon roe, then drizzled with runny Japanese mayonnaise.

It's not a sushi bar, but Kurumaya serves a respectable selection of fresh nigiri and makimono, including some newfangled rolls like the Mexican roll, featuring tuna and jalapeno, and the Elk Grove roll, a tempura twist on the California roll. The house specialty, oshizushi, pressed sushi, comes with tuna, salmon, mackerel or freshwater eel, although they were offering a combination special during my latest visit.

Along with tea and soft drinks, Kurumaya serves American and Japanese beers, a few wines, and several kinds of sake and shochu, vodka-like Japanese spirits.

I confess I've never quite developed a taste for Asian desserts, so my favorite here is green-tea ice cream, but those who enjoy Japanese sweets more than I will also find red-bean soup, fish-shaped cakes filled with red-bean paste, and kinako mochi, chewy rice-cake balls rolled in gritty toasted soybean flour.

As a plus, Kurumaya is handy to Tensuke Market (3 S. Arlington Heights Road, Elk Grove Village), a great grocery where you can pick up Japanese items to cook at home.

• Restaurant reviews are based on one anonymous visit. Our aim is to describe the overall dining experience while guiding the reader toward the menu's strengths. The Daily Herald does not publish reviews of restaurants it cannot recommend.

Kurumaya

Facts: 1201 E. Higgins Road, Elk Grove Village, (847) 437-2222

Cuisine: Japanese small plates

Setting: Casual Japanese tavern in a strip mall northwest of Busse and Oakton

Price range: Appetizers and small plates: $5.95 to $13.95; entrees $13.95 to $24.95; desserts $3.50 to $4.50

Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays

Accepts: Reservations, major credit cards

Also: Limited bar; free parking; party room available; lunch specials