Made me lose faith in sfstandard for ranking this place 4th of best Japantown mall restaurants. Super mediocre food and slow service and tacked on default 20% tip and 5% credit card fee for a group of 5. Curry was flavorless and watery and the pork katsu was thin. Would not go nor trust sf standard again for food recs
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
Siana
devoured in seconds.🤤
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Rodrigo Mathias
The restaurant is interesting and has a cool decoration. We decided to come hers to try their Japanese curry and have to say it disappointed tremendously.
1. Tonkatsu curry: the pork was cooked perfectly and crunchy. The seasoning was OK, nothing outstanding and the rice was good. The curry sauce was good but nothing outstanding. It really looked like the curry was store bought instead of cooked for hours as I saw online. My wife said that the curry tasted more Indian than Japanese, and it is pretty similar to the Trader Joe’s frozen meal, which is a bad sign for a curry served in a restaurant. 3/5
2. Karaage Curry: the curry sauce was identical, so was the rice. The problem here was that the chicken came inside the curry sauce. At first I didn’t understand why. When I took the first bite, obviously the karaage chicken was completely soggy and not crunchy at all. Couldn’t identify much the seasoning of the chicken. 1/5
They have many options of Japanese beer, including draft beers which was cool. Their menu is pretty extensive, so perhaps we choose the wrong dish of their menu. I heard that there was an event that day and it was very busy at the restaurant, but not sure if that would impact how good the curry was. Wouldn’t return here for curry to be honest, was probably the worst curry I had in a restaurant in the Bay Area.
The beer and two dishes were around $75.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 3
Thao Ha
Super cute hole in the wall place in Japantown. Manga lines the wall you can read and anime is usually playing on the TVs inside. Not very large so groups of 4 or less are best.
I think their pastas are pretty good but the curry is sorta not that great. It seemed to taste oddly sour. Their Japanese Pasta though is very good. Recommend the creamy tomato pasta or their fish roe pasta. Their spicy is not spicy
Service is always very nice and the servers are super attentive
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Jennifer Kwok
Went many years ago and thought it was good. Now the quality might have gone down and it’s a little pricey. Service was just meh, the Japanese chef was the most polite person there, there were several waitresses but they weren’t very attentive. Crammed seatings.
dana s
great food. nice staff. anime playing on the TV and Japanese language Manga collection to read while you wait. also a good collection of drinks.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Majid Gharghi
Good is great, the gentleman who runs the place is awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ali Mojdehi
Had fried oyster, tuna sunshine. Ramen and udon are all tasty and fantastic. Overall great Japanese experience in a tiny place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cam W
Good katsu curry in a fun restaurant with cool theming. Loved that there was a fried egg on top of the curry! I also liked the seating at the bar
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Alice Tian
- we did not receive the physical menu that customers both before and after us got. - although there was a qr code menu, no one informed us of this, so we sat for 10~ minutes twiddling our thumbs for a menu, t trying to give the servers the benefit of the doubt (looking back: we sat at the front of the restaurant, at the bar area, where the servers could see us and our lack of menu very clearly). - after finding the qr code menu (by ourselves, mind you) and mentally choosing our items, we waited for an additional 10–15 minutes for a waiter to take our order. - afterwards we decided to raise our hands to order, but it took about 3~ minutes of them passing by us for them to take our order—which they only did because we spoke up. - in the 3~ minutes (it’s a very small store, and we had been waiting for 10-20 minutes for someone to come by), both servers passed by us several times, and made eye contact with us and our raised hands 4-5 times, but did nothing to signal their acknowledgement that they would come back to us. - this would not have been a problem, but in the 10-20 minutes we waited for someone to come by, we watched the servers go to other tables that didn’t raise their hands to take their order, go to tables that did raise their hands to see their concern, clean a few tables, and otherwise. - so, after 3~ minutes of watching them avoid our hands, we finally spoke up and asked if we could order. -we ordered a miso ramen to split. we asked for an extra bowl, and she said there would be a sharing fee—we eventually found out that this sharing fee was $4.00 for our $19.90 (pre-tax) ramen. (note to self: always ask for the sharing fee before you decide to share) - our singular ramen came out to a total of $26.92, for, i kid you not—the most mid, horendous, disgusting, and expensive ramen i ever had. the broth was very oily—and not in a good, yummy, chasu ramen way—and had a weird flavor that was somehow flavorless and overwhelmingly disgusting at the same time. i am usually a huge soup lover (even when the soup is just average), but i did not want more than 2 spoonfuls of this broth. the soup made me feel sick in the stomach and had a icky, slimy feel going down my throat. the noodles were very clearly overcooked. the texture was sinilar to instant ramen noodles that had bren left on the counter overnight. - also, our food took 15~ minutes to arrive, which is reasonable. however, in that time, several people who came into the store after we ordered received their meals before us (within 5~ minutes). - although i personally believe this place deserves -800,000,000 stars, i must give it a lowly 1 star. please never come here, or if you do, leave before falling into the sunk coat fallacy that my friend and i fell into (that since we already waited for so lonf, what’s a little longer? YOU FOOL, you’re waiting for the worst experience of your life). - thank you for coming to my ted talk, and i hope you enjoyed the rant.
Terrible service. Mid food. And cramped/ugly interior. Unhappy with this dine in experience
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Thenuka Karunaratne
I’ve been here at least 30 times since 2019. It’s my #1 favourite restaurant in San Francisco. The ambience, the katsu curry, all of it on point 👌🏾
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Letty Ruiz
From the moment my partner and I stepped into the establishment, we received a rude welcoming. The older waitress scolded us about having outside beverages. We politely told her we’d get rid of it. Even though I did not like the way she received us, we still chose to stay. She threw the menu at our table, and walked off. Once we ordered our food, I chose to make a phone call, and I spoke in Spanish, her demeanor changed. We watched her welcome WHITE customers and speak rudely to people of color while we sat and ate our food. After experiencing this, I would recommend people not to go into this establishment… specifically if you’re a person of color.
Food was okay anyway.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Rachael Huffman
Just really freaking good food.
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jarrod W
Really cool little spot - favorite part about it was atmosphere. The vibe really does remind me of a place you’d stumble upon in Japan.
Had Loco Moco and Kawaba Pilsner. Would recommend both.
Made me lose faith in sfstandard for ranking this place 4th of best Japantown mall restaurants. Super mediocre food and slow service and tacked on default 20% tip and 5% credit card fee for a group of 5. Curry was flavorless and watery and the pork katsu was thin. Would not go nor trust sf standard again for food recs
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
devoured in seconds.🤤
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The restaurant is interesting and has a cool decoration. We decided to come hers to try their Japanese curry and have to say it disappointed tremendously.
1. Tonkatsu curry: the pork was cooked perfectly and crunchy. The seasoning was OK, nothing outstanding and the rice was good. The curry sauce was good but nothing outstanding. It really looked like the curry was store bought instead of cooked for hours as I saw online. My wife said that the curry tasted more Indian than Japanese, and it is pretty similar to the Trader Joe’s frozen meal, which is a bad sign for a curry served in a restaurant. 3/5
2. Karaage Curry: the curry sauce was identical, so was the rice. The problem here was that the chicken came inside the curry sauce. At first I didn’t understand why. When I took the first bite, obviously the karaage chicken was completely soggy and not crunchy at all. Couldn’t identify much the seasoning of the chicken. 1/5
They have many options of Japanese beer, including draft beers which was cool. Their menu is pretty extensive, so perhaps we choose the wrong dish of their menu. I heard that there was an event that day and it was very busy at the restaurant, but not sure if that would impact how good the curry was. Wouldn’t return here for curry to be honest, was probably the worst curry I had in a restaurant in the Bay Area.
The beer and two dishes were around $75.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 3
Super cute hole in the wall place in Japantown. Manga lines the wall you can read and anime is usually playing on the TVs inside. Not very large so groups of 4 or less are best.
I think their pastas are pretty good but the curry is sorta not that great. It seemed to taste oddly sour. Their Japanese Pasta though is very good. Recommend the creamy tomato pasta or their fish roe pasta. Their spicy is not spicy
Service is always very nice and the servers are super attentive
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Went many years ago and thought it was good. Now the quality might have gone down and it’s a little pricey. Service was just meh, the Japanese chef was the most polite person there, there were several waitresses but they weren’t very attentive. Crammed seatings.
great food. nice staff. anime playing on the TV and Japanese language Manga collection to read while you wait. also a good collection of drinks.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Good is great, the gentleman who runs the place is awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Had fried oyster, tuna sunshine. Ramen and udon are all tasty and fantastic. Overall great Japanese experience in a tiny place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Good katsu curry in a fun restaurant with cool theming. Loved that there was a fried egg on top of the curry! I also liked the seating at the bar
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
- we did not receive the physical menu that customers both before and after us got.
- although there was a qr code menu, no one informed us of this, so we sat for 10~ minutes twiddling our thumbs for a menu, t trying to give the servers the benefit of the doubt (looking back: we sat at the front of the restaurant, at the bar area, where the servers could see us and our lack of menu very clearly).
- after finding the qr code menu (by ourselves, mind you) and mentally choosing our items, we waited for an additional 10–15 minutes for a waiter to take our order.
- afterwards we decided to raise our hands to order, but it took about 3~ minutes of them passing by us for them to take our order—which they only did because we spoke up.
- in the 3~ minutes (it’s a very small store, and we had been waiting for 10-20 minutes for someone to come by), both servers passed by us several times, and made eye contact with us and our raised hands 4-5 times, but did nothing to signal their acknowledgement that they would come back to us.
- this would not have been a problem, but in the 10-20 minutes we waited for someone to come by, we watched the servers go to other tables that didn’t raise their hands to take their order, go to tables that did raise their hands to see their concern, clean a few tables, and otherwise.
- so, after 3~ minutes of watching them avoid our hands, we finally spoke up and asked if we could order.
-we ordered a miso ramen to split. we asked for an extra bowl, and she said there would be a sharing fee—we eventually found out that this sharing fee was $4.00 for our $19.90 (pre-tax) ramen. (note to self: always ask for the sharing fee before you decide to share)
- our singular ramen came out to a total of $26.92, for, i kid you not—the most mid, horendous, disgusting, and expensive ramen i ever had. the broth was very oily—and not in a good, yummy, chasu ramen way—and had a weird flavor that was somehow flavorless and overwhelmingly disgusting at the same time. i am usually a huge soup lover (even when the soup is just average), but i did not want more than 2 spoonfuls of this broth. the soup made me feel sick in the stomach and had a icky, slimy feel going down my throat. the noodles were very clearly overcooked. the texture was sinilar to instant ramen noodles that had bren left on the counter overnight.
- also, our food took 15~ minutes to arrive, which is reasonable. however, in that time, several people who came into the store after we ordered received their meals before us (within 5~ minutes).
- although i personally believe this place deserves -800,000,000 stars, i must give it a lowly 1 star. please never come here, or if you do, leave before falling into the sunk coat fallacy that my friend and i fell into (that since we already waited for so lonf, what’s a little longer? YOU FOOL, you’re waiting for the worst experience of your life).
- thank you for coming to my ted talk, and i hope you enjoyed the rant.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Terrible service. Mid food. And cramped/ugly interior. Unhappy with this dine in experience
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
I’ve been here at least 30 times since 2019. It’s my #1 favourite restaurant in San Francisco. The ambience, the katsu curry, all of it on point 👌🏾
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
From the moment my partner and I stepped into the establishment, we received a rude welcoming. The older waitress scolded us about having outside beverages. We politely told her we’d get rid of it. Even though I did not like the way she received us, we still chose to stay. She threw the menu at our table, and walked off. Once we ordered our food, I chose to make a phone call, and I spoke in Spanish, her demeanor changed. We watched her welcome WHITE customers and speak rudely to people of color while we sat and ate our food. After experiencing this, I would recommend people not to go into this establishment… specifically if you’re a person of color.
Food was okay anyway.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Just really freaking good food.
Food: 5
Service: 5
Really cool little spot - favorite part about it was atmosphere. The vibe really does remind me of a place you’d stumble upon in Japan.
Had Loco Moco and Kawaba Pilsner. Would recommend both.
Really enjoyed my time here!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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