Food was delicious. Especially the eggplant curry. And the gindara; not over salty. Freshest sashimi I've had in a while. Service was excellent and felt very comfortable. Will definitely be coming back.
Terrific Japanese cuisine in an unassuming location. The sashimi is great, but my party found ourselves more impressed by some other dishes: grilled chicken and the eggplant curry were surprise hits. Explore the menu and be delighted — with flavor!Wheelchair accessibility: It's a little tight inside but zero steps at the door.
A Great place to dine in with family, friend or biz partners for intimate talks. A hidden gem
Tiger
Oishi bento for lunch. Authentic Japanese food too with daily changing options
DANNY KidSuper LIN
Delicious Japanese izakaya cooking at its best in San Jose, CA. Loved the Salmon onigiri which were pretty dense rice balls fried to a crispy exterior. Unagi sushi and chicken namban were delightful too. They also have quite a few bento sets available on both lunch and dinner. The place got kinda toasty without much ventilation so one star off.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
Susan N.
Great small gem !!! Great finding and so satisfied! Bento box was great and fresh yum yum
Teri A.
Plenty of parking. Restaurant was clean and homey. We were there early and there were plenty of tables as well. Service was good.My Dad got the Saba - mackerel bento and I ordered the Unagi bento. We both enjoyed our lunch. Their miso soup was delicious!Someone had a Yelp review on their sausages so I ordered that also. It was tasty and served with ketchup and mustard on the side.
Julias Bento
Ajito is more of your hole in the wall type vibe for Japanese Izakaya. It is located in a non descript old, tiny, strip mall. Despite passing by this place many times… I seriously had no clue it would serve yummy Izakaya food.So if you are down for a more no frills version of Japanese tapas, this place is good to go, but if you are wanting the boogie insta vibe… definitely a no go.
I came here on a weekday night with my family and really enjoyed the food. Food came out quickly and service was efficient. It's a very traditional Japanese restaurant and reminded me of some of the restaurants I went to in Japan. Some of our favorite dishes were:- Nasu Agedashi- Katsu Curry- Grilled Chicken ThighsTheir bento boxes looked really good too. Will definitely be back to try other dishes.
Amy N.
Cute authentically Japanese place with really good food! Quick service but they rarely came back to check on us. I wanted a lemon for my gyutan but I never saw anyone come back except for the check so I just ate it as is. The beef tongue was thin, slightly chewy, and absolutely delicious with a ginger green onion "sauce" on top. I originally thought it was daikon with something green added!They typically have 3 specials of the day (~$22) so I went with the special C - gyutan (beef tongue) bento box with croquette! The croquette was also crispy and fluffy potato goodness but my mom's is better!My friend seemed to really enjoy her hamachi kama!Overall, happy and would come back to try other stuff too!They also had a cute kids bento option!! Hello kitty or cat, I want to show my kids!
Linda M.
I ordered online for pickup. Pretty easy to do, my order was ready when I got there 10 minutes earlier than the pickup time. They had just opened and weren't super crowded.Ajito is located in a plaza so there was plenty of parking around. The front door is a bit nondescript, but they put a sign to indicate which is theirs.I ordered the kaisen bento, which is huge! Packed with so much delicious and fresh food!The croquette was great, veggies and fruit were fresh. Salad was refreshing. All the components of the chirashi were delicious. Shrimp was perfectly sweet, tamago had a great texture. Scallops were nice and fresh, everything melted in my mouth. I would absolutely return!
Daniella X.
It's a quiet and authentic izakaya run by Japanese owners and staff. The service is super friendly and they've recently started allowing dine-in.The izakaya has lots of small dishes options, and here are some of my favorites:Pork Sausage: $12.55 for five sausages. They may be just sausages, but the taste is really amazing, nothing like the ones you find in supermarkets.Grilled Cheese with Bread: The best dish on the menu! It's a cheese lover's dream, you definitely have to try it! It's incredibly delicious!Amaebi Nigiri: $12.55 for two sweet shrimp nigiri with a fried shrimp head. Whenever I eat Japanese food, I always order this one.Ikura Nigiri: $10.99 for two salmon roe nigiri. It has seaweed at the bottom, rice and fish roe on top, and it's served with cucumber. I really like this one!Uni Nigiri: The sea urchin is quite fresh, and the price is not bad either!Salmon Ikura Nigiri Combo: This combo includes salmon and fish roe nigiri. I order this every time I come here. I really like how they make the salmon sushi into a rectangular shape with a mint leaf in the middle, keeping it true to its original style.Ribeye Steak with Garlic: It's actually pretty good, but the garlic flavor is just too intense.Mocha Ice Cream: This one is absolutely amazing! It has mochi, red bean, ice cream on top, a waffle biscuit in the middle, and a generous amount of matcha powder at the bottom. I highly recommend it!The average cost per person is around $70, but I didn't order any alcohol. Overall, it's a nice place to unwind and chat with friends after work.
Yushi H.
I tried Ajito for the first time recently and was blown away by the food and service! I came a little after dinner time and was seated immediately at an open table. The waitress brought us an iPad and informed us that we'd do all the ordering on the iPad, which I liked.Our meal ended up being: 1) Takowasa. This is raw octopus with wasabi sauce. I love Takowasa and like to order it any time a restaurant has it. When this one came, I was surprised to see how much they gave us! At other restaurants, they usually only give a very small dish, but here, it was quite a lot, which I really appreciated! 2) Yaki Onigiri. This is a grilled rice ball which I loved! Grilled perfectly and the topping went perfectly with it. 3) Chicken lettuce wrap. This was minced chicken and shiitake mushroom with lettuce wrap. I enjoyed eating this growing up, and was excited to try it here! It was great. 4) Teppan Chicken Takitori Sauce. This was delicious! The sauce is all at the bottom so we made sure to dip each chicken bite in the sauce to get all the flavor. 5) Chawanmushi. This is steamed egg custard with shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, and chicken. This is a favorite of mine that I also tend to order at any restaurant that serves it. I really enjoyed it here! 6) Lastly for dessert, we had the hojicha crème brûlée. I've always loved hojicha, and crème brûlée is one of my favorite desserts, so ordering this was a no brainer. It was amazing! Nice and light, and the perfect amount of sweetness. Overall had a great meal here and would highly recommend trying out Ajito! I know for sure that I'll be back!
Food was delicious. Especially the eggplant curry. And the gindara; not over salty. Freshest sashimi I've had in a while. Service was excellent and felt very comfortable. Will definitely be coming back.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Salmon Skin Salad, Kaisen Bento
Terrific Japanese cuisine in an unassuming location. The sashimi is great, but my party found ourselves more impressed by some other dishes: grilled chicken and the eggplant curry were surprise hits. Explore the menu and be delighted — with flavor!Wheelchair accessibility: It's a little tight inside but zero steps at the door.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sashimi Salad, Chicken Wings, Fried Chicken
Sadly the food and services are not as good as a few years ago. Waitress was rude
the food is REALLY good but the price is the only thing that makes me put 4 stars.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Salmon Sashimi, Chicken Wings, Chicken Karaage, Fried, Fried Chicken
A Great place to dine in with family, friend or biz partners for intimate talks. A hidden gem
Oishi bento for lunch. Authentic Japanese food too with daily changing options
Delicious Japanese izakaya cooking at its best in San Jose, CA. Loved the Salmon onigiri which were pretty dense rice balls fried to a crispy exterior. Unagi sushi and chicken namban were delightful too. They also have quite a few bento sets available on both lunch and dinner. The place got kinda toasty without much ventilation so one star off.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great small gem !!! Great finding and so satisfied! Bento box was great and fresh yum yum
Plenty of parking. Restaurant was clean and homey. We were there early and there were plenty of tables as well. Service was good.My Dad got the Saba - mackerel bento and I ordered the Unagi bento. We both enjoyed our lunch. Their miso soup was delicious!Someone had a Yelp review on their sausages so I ordered that also. It was tasty and served with ketchup and mustard on the side.
Ajito is more of your hole in the wall type vibe for Japanese Izakaya. It is located in a non descript old, tiny, strip mall. Despite passing by this place many times… I seriously had no clue it would serve yummy Izakaya food.So if you are down for a more no frills version of Japanese tapas, this place is good to go, but if you are wanting the boogie insta vibe… definitely a no go.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Yakitori, Whole Squid, Salmon Sashimi, Chicken Karaage, Beef Skewer
Restaurantji Recommends
I came here on a weekday night with my family and really enjoyed the food. Food came out quickly and service was efficient. It's a very traditional Japanese restaurant and reminded me of some of the restaurants I went to in Japan. Some of our favorite dishes were:- Nasu Agedashi- Katsu Curry- Grilled Chicken ThighsTheir bento boxes looked really good too. Will definitely be back to try other dishes.
Cute authentically Japanese place with really good food! Quick service but they rarely came back to check on us. I wanted a lemon for my gyutan but I never saw anyone come back except for the check so I just ate it as is. The beef tongue was thin, slightly chewy, and absolutely delicious with a ginger green onion "sauce" on top. I originally thought it was daikon with something green added!They typically have 3 specials of the day (~$22) so I went with the special C - gyutan (beef tongue) bento box with croquette! The croquette was also crispy and fluffy potato goodness but my mom's is better!My friend seemed to really enjoy her hamachi kama!Overall, happy and would come back to try other stuff too!They also had a cute kids bento option!! Hello kitty or cat, I want to show my kids!
I ordered online for pickup. Pretty easy to do, my order was ready when I got there 10 minutes earlier than the pickup time. They had just opened and weren't super crowded.Ajito is located in a plaza so there was plenty of parking around. The front door is a bit nondescript, but they put a sign to indicate which is theirs.I ordered the kaisen bento, which is huge! Packed with so much delicious and fresh food!The croquette was great, veggies and fruit were fresh. Salad was refreshing. All the components of the chirashi were delicious. Shrimp was perfectly sweet, tamago had a great texture. Scallops were nice and fresh, everything melted in my mouth. I would absolutely return!
It's a quiet and authentic izakaya run by Japanese owners and staff. The service is super friendly and they've recently started allowing dine-in.The izakaya has lots of small dishes options, and here are some of my favorites:Pork Sausage: $12.55 for five sausages. They may be just sausages, but the taste is really amazing, nothing like the ones you find in supermarkets.Grilled Cheese with Bread: The best dish on the menu! It's a cheese lover's dream, you definitely have to try it! It's incredibly delicious!Amaebi Nigiri: $12.55 for two sweet shrimp nigiri with a fried shrimp head. Whenever I eat Japanese food, I always order this one.Ikura Nigiri: $10.99 for two salmon roe nigiri. It has seaweed at the bottom, rice and fish roe on top, and it's served with cucumber. I really like this one!Uni Nigiri: The sea urchin is quite fresh, and the price is not bad either!Salmon Ikura Nigiri Combo: This combo includes salmon and fish roe nigiri. I order this every time I come here. I really like how they make the salmon sushi into a rectangular shape with a mint leaf in the middle, keeping it true to its original style.Ribeye Steak with Garlic: It's actually pretty good, but the garlic flavor is just too intense.Mocha Ice Cream: This one is absolutely amazing! It has mochi, red bean, ice cream on top, a waffle biscuit in the middle, and a generous amount of matcha powder at the bottom. I highly recommend it!The average cost per person is around $70, but I didn't order any alcohol. Overall, it's a nice place to unwind and chat with friends after work.
I tried Ajito for the first time recently and was blown away by the food and service! I came a little after dinner time and was seated immediately at an open table. The waitress brought us an iPad and informed us that we'd do all the ordering on the iPad, which I liked.Our meal ended up being: 1) Takowasa. This is raw octopus with wasabi sauce. I love Takowasa and like to order it any time a restaurant has it. When this one came, I was surprised to see how much they gave us! At other restaurants, they usually only give a very small dish, but here, it was quite a lot, which I really appreciated! 2) Yaki Onigiri. This is a grilled rice ball which I loved! Grilled perfectly and the topping went perfectly with it. 3) Chicken lettuce wrap. This was minced chicken and shiitake mushroom with lettuce wrap. I enjoyed eating this growing up, and was excited to try it here! It was great. 4) Teppan Chicken Takitori Sauce. This was delicious! The sauce is all at the bottom so we made sure to dip each chicken bite in the sauce to get all the flavor. 5) Chawanmushi. This is steamed egg custard with shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, and chicken. This is a favorite of mine that I also tend to order at any restaurant that serves it. I really enjoyed it here! 6) Lastly for dessert, we had the hojicha crème brûlée. I've always loved hojicha, and crème brûlée is one of my favorite desserts, so ordering this was a no brainer. It was amazing! Nice and light, and the perfect amount of sweetness. Overall had a great meal here and would highly recommend trying out Ajito! I know for sure that I'll be back!