For every hungry person who thrives on the culinary circus, noise and frenzy surrounding the latest restaurant sensations, there are probably dozens more who retreat from the crowds and lines in favor of quieter quarters and no-fuss meals.

Matsuri easily fits the bill for the latter. It recently opened in the cozy spot formerly occupied by the oden restaurant Hakkei, tucked in an unassuming office building on Young Street near Keeaumoku. It’s been attracting a local crowd ranging from young couples to the senior set out with friends just to have a good time, not to make their mark on social media.

The modest izakaya offers an extensive menu of sushi, hot and cold dishes, and deep-fried dishes. Its menu is still evolving as executive chef Akito Yoshi­oka gets to know what Honolulu diners want. He spent 13 years as owner of Noboru restaurant in Kailua before selling the business and staying on to manage the restaurant for the new owner. In that bedroom community Noboru was beloved for its teishoku, nabe and sukiyaki, and he tried bringing some of those concepts to Honolulu but quickly found city diners are more interested in enjoying great fish and the smaller share plates of izakayas.

There’s no reinventing the wheel here, but Matsuri delivers all the basics at fair prices, starting with ika shiokara for $3.50, garlic edamame for $4.50 and melt-in-your-mouth simmered eggplant (nimono) for $5. Handmade, curdlike oboro tofu in a shoyu jelly is $4.50. Add $7.95 for a crowning touch of uni.

The highlights are gorgeous sashimi platters comprising fresh catch available locally and from Japan’s Tsukiji Market and a daily roster of specials. One recent special was a quartet of grilled baby abalone ($12.95) served with sliced alii (king oyster) mushrooms, sauteed with green onions in garlic butter. Also, look for the exclamation points on the menu, such as one set surrounding “!Mouthwatering! Wagyu aburi nigiri.” Sorry I missed that one.

I noticed groups of four often build their meals around the deluxe sashimi platter ($58) featuring the chef’s choice of 30 pieces of fish and seafood. You can’t make substitutions, so you just have to have friends who will eat the selections you won’t, and vice versa. Smaller platters feature three kinds of seafood (nine pieces for $24.95) or five kinds (15 pieces for $29.95).

Next best are chirashi sets, rice bowls layered with sashimi, priced at $24.95 and $29.95. Sushi rolls run $8 to $20. Vegan and vegetarian diners might want to note the roster includes eight vegetable rolls priced from $5 to $9, but the selection is limited to standard sushi bar veggies such as cucumbers, takuan, avocado, kanpyo and natto.

Most people appear quite content with the sashimi, chirashi and rounds of sushi with generous slabs of fish dwarfing the sushi rice that accompanies it. I don’t mind starting a meal with fatty hamachi nigiri, but if you don’t need the carbs, slivers of the fish are also available in sashimi form, served in a pool of ponzu and capped with a slice of jalapeno.

Some of the dishes that appeared promising but didn’t work were deep-fried soft-shell crab ($7.50) that was compressed and forgettable, and white asparagus paired with uni ($9.50). Unfortunately, the stalky asparagus was the canned variety and had no affinity for the dark and light pieces of uni lying on top of it. I was told both were bafun uni, and while darker pieces had the sweetness associated with bafun, lighter pieces had the pungent odor of local wana, the reason I refrained from eating uni most of my life.

After the miss with the crab, I was skeptical about the tempura, but the batter proved light and crisp over shrimp ($10), fish ($12) and vegetables ($12). An assortment of shrimp and vegetables is $15.

Kurobuta sausage ($7.25) or wafu steak ($15.95) will fill a craving for meat, and you also can’t go wrong with butterfish misoyaki ($12.95). Another izakaya staple is chicken karaage ($7) that will serve minimalists well.

Cool off afterward with desserts of zenzai ($5.50), tempura ice cream ($12) or one repeat from Yoshioka’s Kailua playbook, sake creme brulee.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.