Nombe is the latest restaurant to hit the Mission, and it's making quite an impression. Designed as a post-work establishment, Nombe is the first and only Japanese style Izakaya to open in the neighborhood and features a variety of Japanese tapas and an extensive Sake list. Izakaya is a type of establishment in Japan that serves both alcohol and food, sort of like a Japanese version of a gastropub. Nombe serves adventurous yet affordable small plates instead of the typical sushi and sashimi combo (there actually are no sushi/sashimi options on the menu), and will soon add over 75 different types of hand-selected sake to pair with a specific palate. However, having only opened a week ago, Nombe is still working on acquiring their liquor license so do some research before planning a night of sake-tasting. As for now, their 75+ imported sake collection remains untouchable.

Now, how adventurous you want to be is up to you. Menu favorites seem to be the Brussel Sprouts cooked with mint and yuzu (people are calling Nombe's brussel sprouts better than SPQR's, which, in the Brussel Sprout world, is a big-ass deal), the grilled Black Cod served in a spinach, leek and miso paste with julienned fennel, and the Shichimi pork belly skewers prepared Chinese-style with a sweet soy braise. All of the food used at Nombe is sustainable and locally sourced in Northern California, and the produce used is guaranteed to be seasonal, fresh and organic. And best of all, most dishes run $6-9 range, makeing this an affordable way to sample.

If you're one of those people who likes to eat odd parts of animals, Nombe has you covered. Like Chicken? Try some chicken skin, liver, gizzards or heart to change things up. Or if you think Chicken is too vanilla, spice it up with beef hearts (allegedly if you’ve never tried animal heart you're supposed to start with beef and work your way up to the chicken- something about the taste of blood being less overpowering...gak).

Get Wize: Friday and Saturday nights from 11pm-2am Nombe openes up a pickup window serving gourmet Japanese street food like octopus balls (so this is what the Japanese eat when they have the drunken munchies) or fried BBQ Pork rice balls (what's with all these balls people?). Their changing late night menu gets posted on twitter, so check out what other odd balls (haha get it?!) Nombe serves up.