Mojo Jojo?

No, apparently not the villain from the Powerpuff girls. Hojoko, a throwback to the Howard Johnson that used to sit on Boylston, now the home of the Verb hotel and its rock & roll izakaya restaurant.

The inside was a lot more spacious than I had expected. Very modern and fun and funky.

The menu was interesting? I know, such a cop-out word. But really, I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'd like to go back with more people and order more off the menu. 

In true Japanese form, they bring out napkins to clean your hands before your meal. And of course, they're super cute and expand from this:

 

To this, after dropping the tablets into the water:

 

 Now that your hands are clean, you're ready to eat.

This was my drink - the 5,6,7,8. I know, I felt like I needed to start breaking out some dance moves after ordering it too. Pretty good. More alcohol in it than you would think. Not sure about the mango foam on top - it was sweet at first, and then it kind of just sat there for a little while, not moving. Rather bizarre. I did not have a second.

Richmond's drink - the Toyko tea. I tried a sip off the top and only tasted seltzer, so I'm no help here.

'Weed,' only not that weed. Seaweed. And cucumber. This was light and refreshing. A good start.

Spicy hamachi roll. I'm not even sure what it was in here, but something really overpowered this roll for me. And not in a great way. Would not eat again.

Housemade foie gras "spam" roll. I think this has dehydrated foie gras? Again, not sure about this. It was different and interesting, but not memorable.

Salmon belly robata. This was really good. With a nice hint of lemon. I could eat this all day. 

The okonomiyaki. Also really good. A bit heavy handed with the bonito flakes. But overall very tasty. The sauce had a great tanginess to it; the mushrooms provided the meatiness; and the bacon, well, who doesn't love bacon? :)

Soy and garlic chicken wings. These were huuuge. I generally like my wings smaller (seriously, I ate half of one of these), but the batter on this was really good. Very thick, but very good. And such a good flavor.

My peach sake. Sweet. Not overly sugary sweet, but a nice light candy sweetness. The jelly in there was a bit weird for me, probably because I couldn't see it. And yeah, it kind of looks like hand sanitizer. 
















I really liked Hojoko. I guess I was expecting bolder flavors, and when I did get it, I wasn't sure I liked it. But I will be back. Probably to try that dogzilla. :)

Side note: beware, the bathroom is downstairs and really smelled like fish. Like, "I'm at a fish market" smell.