Etc Bar x Thai-zakaya

Although we’ve had somewhat inconsistent experiences across two Costa Mesa locations of Hanuman Thai Eatery, they’re undeniably nice restaurants, and we’ve fully understood why they have built such devoted fans since opening in 2020. As it turns out, their owner previously opened neighboring Japanese restaurant Etcetera Sushi & Izakaya in 2015, and decided to reboot the place in January 2026 with a partially new name and theme: Etc Bar and Thai-zakaya. With a half-Japanese, half-Thai menu that leans heavily but not exclusively on seafood and drinks, this new restaurant can fairly be described as a “fusion” concept, though a better implementation than that word might suggest to some people.

It’s possible to eat a fully Japanese-style meal at Etc Bar & Thai-Zakaya, thanks to a choose-your-sushi list offering salmon, tuna, toro, uni, yellowtail, and eel in nigiri, sashimi, hand roll, or cut roll formats ($10 to $27), typical izakaya appetizers such as gyoza ($11), edamame ($9), chilled tofu with avocados ($12), and deep fried soft shell crab ($14). Several teriyaki plates ($10 to $12), Japanese-American items such as spicy tuna on crispy rice ($5/piece), and Kalifornia rolls ($11) are also available.

Our resident salmon fan found the hand roll to be unremarkable, though the presentation was – like Hanuman – impeccable. An order of six raw oysters ($21), split evenly between kumiais, royal miyakis, and blue points, was equally impressive visually and in flavors, arriving with a floating cup of fried shallots on top and multiple sauces (including ponzu, sweet chili, cilantro chutney) on the side. While all of the oysters were delicious enough to enjoy without the sauces, and the large kumiais were particularly impressive, the sauces added strong flavors and textures as accents for those who prefer them.

Ordering exclusively Japanese dishes or raw seafood here would be missing the point, though. Etc Bar appetizers such as truffle brussel sprouts ($12), Issan hamachi ($18), “Asian fries” ($9), and a Thai elote (Thailote, $10) weave together Thai (tom yum mayo), smoky jaew sauce), Japanese (puffed rice, furikake), and western (truffle-infused soy sauce, french fries) influences in disarmingly positive ways. Those “Asian fries” superficially looked like speckled basic sliced potatoes, but between their sweet mayo dip and just-right dusting of furikake wound up being more compelling than expected. Similarly, the Thai-zakaya menu’s salmon garlic chili ($16) was a perfectly Nobu-esque riff on salmon crudo, leveraging dabs of crunchy garlic chili oil and truffle salt to seriously punch up six nice slices of raw fish.

Some of the new items are clearly experimental. Khao soi ba ($24) repurposes a bento box to hold Japanese soba noodles, crispy Thai egg noodles, and sliced fatty pork in separate compartments for dipping into a small reserve of khao soi sauce, with pickled mustard greens and chili oil crunch somewhat awkwardly occupying their own spaces. Though this dish takes up a lot of table space, it could benefit from larger noodle and protein portions; Hanuman’s traditional khao soi offers better value and flavor for the same price next door. By comparison, Etc Bar x Thaizakaya’s take on the Japanese sea urchin noodle dish uni mentaiko udon ($29) arrives looking picture perfect, with a colorful mix of fish eggs, uni dollops, egg yolk, and mixed nori and micro greens on top, but when stirred together, the dish takes more like basic, underseasoned pasta and cream than a briney product of the sea.