Udon, whiskey highballs and mabo tofu at Yume Ga Arukara and Izakaya Ittoku

Good local eats

Udon served hot at Yume Ga Arukara in Porter Square, Cambridge.

We dug last week into our favorite bowl of ramen from old friend Sapporo, which has relocated to the CanalSide food hall in East Cambridge after 33 years in a Lesley’s University Hall in Porter Square. That food court that Sapporo was part of has been in transition, and its final form remains unclear. Cafe Mami, Tampopo and I Love Sushi continue to operate; Korean favorite Chocho’s closed; Sapporo moved; and Izakaya Ittoku and Yume Ga Arukara shifted into a space in the building that was formerly the Shaking Crab. We featured Izakaya Ittoku and Yume Ga Arukara when we started this column during Covid, but the new space is an opportunity to revisit and resample.

The eateries share some overlap in management and ownership, which is part of the reason behind their pairing in the new space, where the two bleed into each other’s culinary territories similar to the way they did in the food court.

At udon-focused Yume Ga Arukara, lines still form at key points of the day and week even though there is significantly more space; for Tuesday lunch you can walk in and sit right down, but if you’re coming in with a party of four on a Friday for dinner, be ready for a 40-minute wait. The house-crafted noodles – which is all Yume Ga Arukara does – make for silky, succulent slurps and come in a select few variations: cold and hot, regular or spicy, and with beef or without. I prefer the cold version, in which you get the essence of the noodle more. The hot soup version is a creamy, rich chicken-based broth and comes with plenty of crisp, fresh scallions and shrimp tempura crunch. Yume Ga Arukara now offers alcohol, but know that it’s a dine-and-dash event, because nearly every seat fills and there’s a horde of people hovering for the next one to be freed.

The amped-up vibe at Ittoku is the embodiment of a Japanese izakaya (“a place to stay and drink”), where highballs of Japanese whiskey and soda are ready to serve and the festive menu – and I mean the physical one, not the dour online listing – comes with anime-framed pictures of the myriad Japanese small plates you can choose from. There’s a complete sushi and yakitori (Japanese grill) section, as you might expect, but the mainstay at Ittoku is the okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake made with shredded cabbage and sometimes noodles with various meat, seafood and cheese toppings. In Japanese the name means “as you like it,” and you can get your okonomiyaki eight ways to Sunday with each arriving on a sizzling griddle. They’re surprisingly filling and make a good group appetizer to get things rolling. For me, Ittoku’s eight-piece sushi sampler, essentially a chef’s selection, has always been a solid go-to, providing different flavors and textures without the hassle of having to choose. In the pantheon of Cambridge sushi, Ittoku is solid and now also serves tamari, sushi and rice balls loosely akin to nigiri but more petite and tight.

Mabo tofu at Izakaya Ittoku, which shares space with Yume Ga Arukara – yet will not let customers pass through to the other eatery.

Exploring Ittoku’s menu is nearly a scavenger hunt. You’re discovering something new to try constantly, and in the move Ittoku has expanded its offerings. I made a worthy gamble on the new mabo tofu, which is framed as a “staff meal favorite.” It’s basically your classic Chinese mapo tofu (only in Japanese it’s “mabo”) with ground chicken and pork; as served up at Ittoku, it’s a hearty but not filling nosh with a moderately spicy kick. Another pleasing discovery was the succulent chili ebi, a sizzling tray of sweet and spicy shrimp with mini bao toasts to go on. It’s a bit of a messy eat, but more than worth the napkins-consuming effort. Other recent finds were the juicy chicken meatball skewers, which are far bigger than you’d expect, and classic tamago taki, a Japanese omelet with cod roe. Asian egg dishes always stand out for their creaminess, and this was no exception. Other curiosities are the chicken, kimchi and udon soup; stir-fried beef intestines; and mabo ramen.

Ittoku is open only for dinner, and do know that even though the eateries share the same open space, you have to enter through the correct entrance (Yume Ga Arukara from inside the Lesley building; Ittoku from the street door) or you will be collared and turned back. And if you’re curious about the festive shoutouts in Japanese made as servers guide you to your seat, it’s a communal welcome and an announcement to the kitchen staff of how big the newly seated party is.

The pair’s old locales had a homey, festive flair to them, and while some of that cozy intimacy may have been lost in the move, the new space is vibrant and inviting. It’s a relaunch that feels uniquely new, and a welcome changeup in a restaurant-rich neighborhood.