FuRaiBo

Japan isn’t widely known to specialize in any type of fried chicken – most surveys outside the country would point to breaded karaage before anything else. But when it comes to wings, a fried chicken preparation from Nagoya commonly known as tebasaki (“wingtips”) is Japan’s analog to Buffalo wings, coated in a garlic-soy dressing similar to one of the two original flavors of Korean-style fried chicken. Thanks in part to its use of black pepper as spice, tebasaki tends to be saltier and more dry rather than sticky, making the wings easier to eat without a mess. We became fans years ago after trying them at both an izakaya in Japan, and at a dedicated tebasaki restaurant there, but their obscurity meant we wouldn’t likely find them in the United States.

So we were excited the moment we saw a sign for tebasaki specialist FuRaiBo pop up in the window of a Santa Ana plaza back in 2020, seeking employees. Then we went to the location very quickly after it opened, ordering their signature wings, but nothing else, as the restaurant said it couldn’t launch its full izakaya-style menu yet because of staffing and logistics problems. The wings were fine – not up to the standards of versions we’d had in Japan – so we decided to return when the rest of the menu was available. FuRaiBo’s Los Angeles location had a large, Shin-Sen-Gumi-style collection of izakaya fare, so we were hopeful the OC location would match it.