Of clam pizzas and izakayas

Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of Feb. 14, 2017:

Craig LaBan: Khmer Grill is one of several food stands inside the new Chinatown Square food hall on Race Street (read Michael Klein's story on it in this section). Lots to look at and taste at this food court already, but I was drawn to this family-run operation toward the back, where they're grilling the handmade sausages the mom used to sell at the Cambodian pop-up market that happens on weekends at FDR Park. Loved the snap on the skin, the sweet and zesty aromatic pork stuffing . . . would definitely come back for another skewer.

Reader: A long time ago, some people took me to Lombardi's in NYC for my first clam pie. It was great. Where can I find a clam pie in Center City?

C.L: I love a good clam pizza, but they can be hard to come by done well, especially since clams can turn rubbery in the heat if not well-handled. Stella used to do a very good one. So does Biga, which I recently reviewed (and loved) in Bryn Mawr (although that's not Center City). Years ago, I had a pretty good one at Savona topped with actual clams in the shell . . . haven't been back to Savona since it completed its renovation, and not sure if they're still doing that clam pizza. But I remember it fondly. The best clam pizza in the universe, of course, is not at Lombardi's, but Pepe's in New Haven, Conn. Nothing has ever lived up to that.

Reader: It didn't come up in your Royal [Izakaya] review, but how would you compare the experience to Double Knot downstairs? I get in your ratings for Double Knot it has to be on the entire concept but curious which things you like better or worse between the two.

C.L.: Well, Double Knot and Royal Izakaya, for all their apparent similarities (the dark vibe, the wide-ranging Japanese menus), are actually very different in character. Double Knot has a bit more of a modern vibe. The cooked menu has a fusion spirit (and was a little less consistent as the plates got larger), though the grilled skewers are straight ahead and uniformly good. Royal Izakaya takes a far more straight-ahead, authentic approach. The extensive cooked menu of small plates from the izakaya side is very traditional, which, depending on your expectations, may be less exciting than Double Knot. But everything was exceptionally well-cooked. The sushi bars, I think, are very much on par. Jesse Ito has a more limited selection on any given night at Royal Izakaya, but his selection is dedicated to those tastings, and ever-changing and hyper-seasonal and sourced largely from Japan. So you're tasting a lot of fish that are really hard to find (like "kinki," aka scorpion fish). There's not a lot of pyrotechnics or fancy flourishes there, just perfectly cut and presented, pristine fish. Kevin Yanaga at Double Knot is also one of our master sushi chefs - he was my rising star chef of 2016. There's a little more razzle-dazzle in his sushi. But Double Knot's sushi bar, with a huge restaurant to serve, does not have the liberty to focus on small omakase tastings like at Royal Izakaya. There's a certain poetry to experiencing sushi in a well-orchestrated omakase like Royal Izakaya's, where Jesse takes you from lean fish through the "shiny" fish through multiple parts of the same bluefin, and then an exploration of shellfish. Honesty, I loved them both.