Despite the fact that FuRaiBo tends to be dominated by a heavy Westwood crowd, I actually think the raucous college atmosphere helps to solidify it as an izakaya. No, you're not going to find Japanese businessmen in the tatami room with their shoes off, getting soulful, but you'll find plenty of people around who want great grub to go with their beer.

My brother and I ducked in just to nosh on a few things after a disappointing trip to a sushi bar left us kind of hungry. Among our favorites are the yaki onigiri (grilled rice ball). It comes in a few flavors at FuRaiBo, but I honestly couldn't tell which was which, as the primary flavor I was picking up was "grill".

FuRaiBo is most famous for their chicken wings, and as usual, we'd have to order them extra spicy for them to have any flavor at all. I think the more muted spice is intentional, as it's not meant to set your mouth on fire. It's still a great crunch to the wings, even if the heat isn't there.

And of course, I'm not going to be able to walk away from kakuni (pork belly) if I see it on an izakaya menu. My standard is still the pork belly at Musha, but this is a pretty solid rendition. After all, it's pork belly, so how could it be bad?