Walking by, we were intrigued and decided to stop in. Didn't know what it was about. It looked like a coffee shop and had a sign for a brewery on the side of the building. Surprise, it's a Japanese restaurant! We got the tasting menu for 2.A lot of dishes came out all at once, it was slightly difficult to tell what was what. What I noticed first was that the seasoning was off. Everything tasted similarly of dashi, but the dashi lacked flavor and umami. The textures of each dish were too similar. Everything was sort of soft and bland. We looked on the menu to verify ingredients, each dish came out tasting the same as the last.The walls next to us were full of handwritten raves for the chef but honestly, the food was just bland and meh. Nothing stood out. Nothing was excellent. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't flavorful. It needed salt, or crisp elements, or more acid, something different to freshen and excite the palate. Maybe it was the tasting menu we got, but that should be the place to really show off skills.It was also a little odd to be eating Japanese food in what felt like a student bookstore or coffee shop. But if the food was better, that would be fine.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Angchen Yu
Authentic Japanese
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Carmen Q.
Best kaiseki! owner is awesome he made the best fish!! Food is amazing you can taste the food that's not masked by seasonings!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Russell Moore
It’s been a year since I ate here and I still can’t stop thinking about the terrible experience we had.The first time we went here me and my partner had a wonderful experience, but when we came back after the pandemic with friends we were horribly disappointed. We spent over 400$ with no drinks and the 4 of us were not even near full, and one of the dishes felt inedible. The sashimi tasted old, and there was not a single memorable dish. Everyone of us left feeling absolutely dumbfounded and ripped off.I really hate to write this, especially because again I’d like to state that I had a wonderful experience here once before, but the restaurant appeared to go through something during the pandemic.I’m writing this to warn people who can’t afford to be disappointed. Spending what little extra money we had in hopes to make someone’s night special and leaving in extreme disappointment was very upsetting.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
Hermione Potter
Love this neighbourhood restaurant. Tried it again after almost a year and it was fantastic.
Had a wonderful family dinner. Amazing food and great service.Would love to attend their sushi night some Thursday.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sushi Night, Nigiri
elorza dellarciprete
This Japanese restaurant is an absolute delight! The sleek and modern decor creates a stylish and welcoming atmosphere. The menu showcases a wide range of traditional Japanese dishes, all beautifully presented and bursting with flavor. From the fresh sashimi to the perfectly cooked tempura, every bite is a true culinary experience. The attentive and friendly staff add to the overall exceptional dining experience. Highly recommended for anyone craving authentic and delicious Japanese cuisine!
Jaime Austria
Just go, man.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
JY H
I love great food, and among all food, my favorite food is sushi. I actually admit I can be quite snobby about sushi but I go to any restaurant with expectations adjusted for the type of food and price point. As I strongly prefer traditional type of sushi over fusion, I thought I found a decent restaurant to try with realistic expectations.This is THE WORST restaurant I ever dined at including any type of food (fast food, really bad bbq place with dry briskets, tourist trap, food trucks). No self respecting sushi chef will serve sushi like they did.We were there for early dinner and there was no customer at that hour. Table was sticky and there were flies. No transparency on price - price itself wasn’t shocking but food was just absolutely terrible and I asked if there was sushi chef working tonight when I saw grayish fish and toro with gristle served. This was the first kind of BAD in terms of bad restaurant experience. We moved onto a couple of spicy tuna rolls after and tried saba box sushi which was sooooo bad….? Watery ginger and undercooked Hard rice.We told sushi chef (he was a senior Japanese man) how bad it was and why and he stood there nodding and saying “thank you” to several points I made (this type of interaction almost NEVER happen, especially for so many misses on BASIC food quality doesn’t happen!). When we left around 7pm, I saw the waitress coming out and putting “closed” sign as we drove off.Dined here in 9/27/2023. Paid $395 before tip ($165 for nigiri shown in the photo) for absolutely horrible meal. This is a fraud, not just a bad experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Sahil Kumar Aneja
This is an Omikaze which is a boiled dish restaurant. The emphasis is on a light cuisine and sashimi. There is an open kitchen view; you can sit at the counter or at a table. The atmosphere is supposed to have a local and small-community feel. The restaurant gave us a Midnight Diner (on Netflix) aura.You have the option of choosing your own courses or try a Kaiseki which are a set series of dishes that the Chef has chosen to tell a story with particularly paired flavor profiles.We chose our own dishes:Pork Belly with Black Vinegar (highly recommend, so flavorful that I ordered seconds), Box Sushi with Salmon (Chef Suzuki swapped in a fatty salmon because my girlfriend had frequented the restaurant before), Mushroom select soup (very light), Chazuke Rice in Broth with Scorched Rice and Sauteed Konbu Kelp (leathery kelp that has a great consistency and mouth feel) with Spinach. We also tried the Beef Gyoza which was also very flavorful with the right amount of crisp.I also had a nice imported Japanese beer and a lemony dessert sake.Carbs/fried options are recommended to go at the end because they fill you up and take away from the flavor profile of other dishes if you fill yourself up first.It can be a bit pricey, but that is expected with rampant inflation and price gouging across the United States. Also, their choice of ingredients and imported alcohol is not incredibly cheap.Despite some of the overly critical and pretentious reviews that I have seen of this place, I would recommend at least trying it out, being nice and respectful (that goes a long way), and having an open mind about the chef’s approach, history, storytelling, and journey.Chef Suzuki and staff were explicitly kind and accommodating to us even with 3 other tables while we were there. If you come enough times and get to know him, then you will have a chance to write on the wall and have a specially prepared meal in the back room with him. See the attached picture of the art on the wall that Chef Suzuki did himself.Parking: Plenty of parking in side streets and nearby businesses.
Just the best Japanese restaurant in the South Bay Area! :)
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Mackerel, Nigiri
Stephanie V
Absolutely loved the food there! They have a lot of traditional Japanese dishes I have never found in other restaurants. The fish was so fresh for the nigiri we ordered and the salmon Sake Saka-jio Mushi in broth was out of this world delicious. The broth was very delicate and super tasty ? Also loved the Maguro Okura Yamakake appetizer we got. The chef also came by to see how the food was and gave us extra nigiris at the end of the meal. 100% recommend!!!!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Nigiri
Tal Surasky
Such a great authentic Japanese food.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Victoria Jiang
Went there last year. The food was tasteless but extremely pricey! It’s not acceptable! Will never go there again.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Keith Rosenberg
One of my fav restaurants in all the Bay Area - the chef here is very meticulous about high quality ingredients and a uniquely curated menu. I have been many times but most recently had steamed pork belly with thick cuts of pork imported from Spain - this dish was amazing! If you’re a person who normally likes ramen but you are willing to try something more homestyle, get that - you won’t be disappointed. We had multiple pieces of tuna sashimi from a tuna that had just arrived from Japan, and it was so ridiculously fresh. The eggplant dish is a popular fav too - even for someone like me who doesn’t usually like eggplant. Also, even though the menu has a lot of unique items, nothing is too far fetched that a non-adventurous eater would be unable to enjoy. I leave this restaurant feeling very energetic and fresh, I like it so much I even write a review - get in there, what in the world are you still doing reading!
Walking by, we were intrigued and decided to stop in. Didn't know what it was about. It looked like a coffee shop and had a sign for a brewery on the side of the building. Surprise, it's a Japanese restaurant! We got the tasting menu for 2.A lot of dishes came out all at once, it was slightly difficult to tell what was what. What I noticed first was that the seasoning was off. Everything tasted similarly of dashi, but the dashi lacked flavor and umami. The textures of each dish were too similar. Everything was sort of soft and bland. We looked on the menu to verify ingredients, each dish came out tasting the same as the last.The walls next to us were full of handwritten raves for the chef but honestly, the food was just bland and meh. Nothing stood out. Nothing was excellent. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't flavorful. It needed salt, or crisp elements, or more acid, something different to freshen and excite the palate. Maybe it was the tasting menu we got, but that should be the place to really show off skills.It was also a little odd to be eating Japanese food in what felt like a student bookstore or coffee shop. But if the food was better, that would be fine.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Authentic Japanese
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Best kaiseki! owner is awesome he made the best fish!! Food is amazing you can taste the food that's not masked by seasonings!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
It’s been a year since I ate here and I still can’t stop thinking about the terrible experience we had.The first time we went here me and my partner had a wonderful experience, but when we came back after the pandemic with friends we were horribly disappointed. We spent over 400$ with no drinks and the 4 of us were not even near full, and one of the dishes felt inedible. The sashimi tasted old, and there was not a single memorable dish. Everyone of us left feeling absolutely dumbfounded and ripped off.I really hate to write this, especially because again I’d like to state that I had a wonderful experience here once before, but the restaurant appeared to go through something during the pandemic.I’m writing this to warn people who can’t afford to be disappointed. Spending what little extra money we had in hopes to make someone’s night special and leaving in extreme disappointment was very upsetting.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
Love this neighbourhood restaurant. Tried it again after almost a year and it was fantastic.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tempura, Chazuke, Chefs Choice Sashimi, Nigiri
Had a wonderful family dinner. Amazing food and great service.Would love to attend their sushi night some Thursday.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sushi Night, Nigiri
This Japanese restaurant is an absolute delight! The sleek and modern decor creates a stylish and welcoming atmosphere. The menu showcases a wide range of traditional Japanese dishes, all beautifully presented and bursting with flavor. From the fresh sashimi to the perfectly cooked tempura, every bite is a true culinary experience. The attentive and friendly staff add to the overall exceptional dining experience. Highly recommended for anyone craving authentic and delicious Japanese cuisine!
Just go, man.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I love great food, and among all food, my favorite food is sushi. I actually admit I can be quite snobby about sushi but I go to any restaurant with expectations adjusted for the type of food and price point. As I strongly prefer traditional type of sushi over fusion, I thought I found a decent restaurant to try with realistic expectations.This is THE WORST restaurant I ever dined at including any type of food (fast food, really bad bbq place with dry briskets, tourist trap, food trucks). No self respecting sushi chef will serve sushi like they did.We were there for early dinner and there was no customer at that hour. Table was sticky and there were flies. No transparency on price - price itself wasn’t shocking but food was just absolutely terrible and I asked if there was sushi chef working tonight when I saw grayish fish and toro with gristle served. This was the first kind of BAD in terms of bad restaurant experience. We moved onto a couple of spicy tuna rolls after and tried saba box sushi which was sooooo bad….? Watery ginger and undercooked Hard rice.We told sushi chef (he was a senior Japanese man) how bad it was and why and he stood there nodding and saying “thank you” to several points I made (this type of interaction almost NEVER happen, especially for so many misses on BASIC food quality doesn’t happen!). When we left around 7pm, I saw the waitress coming out and putting “closed” sign as we drove off.Dined here in 9/27/2023. Paid $395 before tip ($165 for nigiri shown in the photo) for absolutely horrible meal. This is a fraud, not just a bad experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
This is an Omikaze which is a boiled dish restaurant. The emphasis is on a light cuisine and sashimi. There is an open kitchen view; you can sit at the counter or at a table. The atmosphere is supposed to have a local and small-community feel. The restaurant gave us a Midnight Diner (on Netflix) aura.You have the option of choosing your own courses or try a Kaiseki which are a set series of dishes that the Chef has chosen to tell a story with particularly paired flavor profiles.We chose our own dishes:Pork Belly with Black Vinegar (highly recommend, so flavorful that I ordered seconds), Box Sushi with Salmon (Chef Suzuki swapped in a fatty salmon because my girlfriend had frequented the restaurant before), Mushroom select soup (very light), Chazuke Rice in Broth with Scorched Rice and Sauteed Konbu Kelp (leathery kelp that has a great consistency and mouth feel) with Spinach. We also tried the Beef Gyoza which was also very flavorful with the right amount of crisp.I also had a nice imported Japanese beer and a lemony dessert sake.Carbs/fried options are recommended to go at the end because they fill you up and take away from the flavor profile of other dishes if you fill yourself up first.It can be a bit pricey, but that is expected with rampant inflation and price gouging across the United States. Also, their choice of ingredients and imported alcohol is not incredibly cheap.Despite some of the overly critical and pretentious reviews that I have seen of this place, I would recommend at least trying it out, being nice and respectful (that goes a long way), and having an open mind about the chef’s approach, history, storytelling, and journey.Chef Suzuki and staff were explicitly kind and accommodating to us even with 3 other tables while we were there. If you come enough times and get to know him, then you will have a chance to write on the wall and have a specially prepared meal in the back room with him. See the attached picture of the art on the wall that Chef Suzuki did himself.Parking: Plenty of parking in side streets and nearby businesses.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Gyoza Dumplings, Chazuke, Assorted Sashimi, Salmon Box
Restaurantji Recommends
Just the best Japanese restaurant in the South Bay Area! :)
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Mackerel, Nigiri
Absolutely loved the food there! They have a lot of traditional Japanese dishes I have never found in other restaurants. The fish was so fresh for the nigiri we ordered and the salmon Sake Saka-jio Mushi in broth was out of this world delicious. The broth was very delicate and super tasty ? Also loved the Maguro Okura Yamakake appetizer we got. The chef also came by to see how the food was and gave us extra nigiris at the end of the meal. 100% recommend!!!!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Nigiri
Such a great authentic Japanese food.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Went there last year. The food was tasteless but extremely pricey! It’s not acceptable! Will never go there again.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
One of my fav restaurants in all the Bay Area - the chef here is very meticulous about high quality ingredients and a uniquely curated menu. I have been many times but most recently had steamed pork belly with thick cuts of pork imported from Spain - this dish was amazing! If you’re a person who normally likes ramen but you are willing to try something more homestyle, get that - you won’t be disappointed. We had multiple pieces of tuna sashimi from a tuna that had just arrived from Japan, and it was so ridiculously fresh. The eggplant dish is a popular fav too - even for someone like me who doesn’t usually like eggplant. Also, even though the menu has a lot of unique items, nothing is too far fetched that a non-adventurous eater would be unable to enjoy. I leave this restaurant feeling very energetic and fresh, I like it so much I even write a review - get in there, what in the world are you still doing reading!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5