We all know about the evils of alcohol. One of its side effects is that it causes you to lower your standards. This explains the phenomena known as “beergoggling” and why no one expects the food in bars to be any good—it just has to be edible. Similarly, in Japan, they have izakaya, restaurants where the emphasis is on drinking, and the salarymen who frequent them aren’t too fussy about the food. We’re not sure if Suzuya is intended to be a drinking restaurant. But it would seem to be given the quality of the dishes we sampled on a recent evening. It’s a nice enough place, with light-colored wooden booths and friendly floor staff. We can’t say much about the food or the skill of the cooks, however. The fish on our mixed sashimi platter was a bit too fishy, as were the five plump clams in our hamaguri butter yaki. Grilled dishes, such as iwashi shioyaki (grilled sardine with salt) and yakitori were edible but boring. On the fried side, tiny deep-fried shirauo fish were tasty enough but overcooked; ebi (prawn) tempura were OK but on the soggy side. You can’t miss Suzuya’s big white sign on Thonglor that alerts potential diners to the fact that there is a Japanese restaurant down the soi. If you’re not drinking, we suggest that you ignore it.