Gonpachi continues the Global-Dining tradition with three floors of good eating. The overall design is almost identical to Zest in Ebisu, but with a Japanese not Tex-Mex theme. The first two floors are a rustic village where a matsuri is constantly underway. There’s a cavernous interior courtyard with two-story-high ceilings, a wraparound balcony with little wooden alcoves, lots of dark, recycled wood, stone block walls, and projecting interior roofs over wood-slat booths. 

Strings of round white party lights hang above the main floor. Taiko and shakuhachi music drifts overhead. You expect a line of yukata-clad obasan to come teetering out of a back room doing a bon-odori dance. (Instead, a waitress in blue happi and checked bandanna scuffles by in thongs.) The open kitchen is a festival shed where cooks turn skewers of meat over a long barbecue grill. This isn’t fine dining, but it is good, country-style izakaya fare at reasonable prices. Our spread of several courses, dessert and two drinks apiece came in around JY7000. And the food-yakitori, handmade soba and udon noodle dishes, and other assorted items-is fresh and the portions big. Skewered and grilled wasabi duck (JY600 per stick) was full of the right kind of flavor, chewy, tender, and organic. Pumpkin and coconut soup with vanilla ice cream, small mochi balls, and a dollop of red anko (JY600) was a flavorful, creamy, and not too sweet dessert. 

The food isn’t all by the book. The ground shrimp shinjyo-age with sweet chili sauce (JY750) looked like deep-fried lion fish or a kid’s drawing of the sun-thin strips of orange won-ton shell stuck out in all directions. Yuba gyoza (JY600) were like fried spring rolls-ground pork, shrimp, carrot, and shiso tipped out when dipped into the Tabasco-y sauce. 

In addition to nama beer (JY550), there’s Hida Takayama Dark Ale (steep at JY1400 for 500ml), California wine, French champagne, and a broad selection of nihon-shu and shochu from around Japan. Cocktails come with Japanese twists-the ramune sour or a fresh ginger-and-shochu cocktail that’s like strong, zesty ginger ale (JY600). At the bar, you can sip your poison from a black lacquer box while sitting on a sake barrel barstool.