Dan Izakaya Restaurant

San Jose, United States

4

Closed now

38 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 408-249-6020
Website:
www.danizakayarestaurant.com
Address:
1306 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA, 95129
West San Jose
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
2.3 miWinchester
2.3 miCampbell
2.5 miHamilton
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Dinner
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
No
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
No

Today

Today 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (San Jose) 15:37 Friday, 29 November 2024

Business hours

Monday 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Tuesday 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Thursday 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Friday 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
6:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Saturday 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
6:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Sunday 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm

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38 reviews of Dan Izakaya Restaurant

No registration required
Place rating: 3
San Jose, CA
Great food, lousy service. The pork belly was delicious so was the garlic steak. The uni rice is also good. The beef liver is over cooked and the scallops were just so-​so. Sushi was fresh and tasty.
Always busy, need reservation.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
Good Japanese food with my favorite uni clay pot. I can eat uni everyday. It would be an incomplete Japanese meal without uni.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
I came here for a friend’s birthday dinner and we were seated fairly quickly. The service was pretty slow that day, but the food was good. I got a sashimi dish, and the fish tasted fresh. The udon with tempura was really good (I tried a bit of my friend’s).
I enjoyed the food but the service was kind of slow. Maybe it was just that day though!
Place rating: 4
Cupertino, CA
My parents and I have been eating here once a week for about half a year now.
Every week, I get the same dish:
Chicken Katsu Don: Crispy, tender chicken with some katsu sauce, potato salad (smooth texture and great taste), lettuce, kimchi, and rice. The best thing about this dish is that each component tastes great by itself, but also put together as well.
I have tried a few other dishes here, but I find this to be the most complete dish, and I would recommend it. It’s also at a fair price. Which I forgot.
Great service, I would recommend this place to a friend.
Place rating: 5
Los Gatos, CA
Love this place. They have a large menu selection so it’s easy to get confused on what to order but based on my experience they are good at everything they make.
Some excellent dishes:
Sashimi salad
Salmon, avocado w/​row
Grilled pork cheecks
Udon with tempura
Clams with garlic butter
Fast Friendly walk-​in service in the Walgreens shopping center next to the Ethiopian restaurant on the far corner– please don’t miss it.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
Made a reservation for dinner a few days in advance and was informed that tables on weekends are only available for 1.25 hours… Upon arrival, we were immediately seated. As it was a warm day outside, the meal started to become challenging as the restaurant filled up and the A/​C was weak… :/
Started out with the Shrimp & Vegetable tempura and it was very good. 4 pieces of shrimp and an assorted medley of vegetables along with a tempura dipping sauce.
Moved on to the soft shell crab and it was also very good with a small sesame-​based dipping sauce. Crab was lightly fried!
The salmon avocado carpaccio with salmon roe was excellent. Salmon was very fresh and the dish was very refreshing.
The eggplant with sauce along with the mini udon complemented the meal very well. The broth with the udon was excellent!
~$ 31/​head after tax and gratuity by the friendly staff!
Place rating: 4
Stockton, CA
First thing: Be prepared for a wait! I came here on a Friday evening for dinner, and the wait was almost 2 hours long. So I came back the next day right when they opened, and there were already people waiting! But I can totally see why this place attracts so many customers. Authentic japanese food! I had the salmon and salmon roe rice bowl, which was really good. My friend got the uni rice bowl, and I have to say that it tasted a lot better than the salmon rice bowl. The uni bowl came with an egg and when you mix everything together, the flavors all blended to a nice creamy and flavorful mix.
For the rice bowls, you can choose between small, medium, and large sizes. I got a small, and I found myself still hungry!
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
I love this restaurant. I’ve been here a number of times and have never been disappointed with my meal.
Here are all the things I’ve sampled and my thoughts:
Stamina Don — This was pretty good. The beef intestines were tough, but the dish itself was super flavorful.
Zuke Maguro Don — I really liked this. The tuna is super fresh (although I wish they give you a little more), and the soft boiled egg is the perfect complement to the dish.
Buta kakuni udon & mini curry — I absolutely love their lunch sets. The pork in the udon was really tender and flavorful, and the udon was perfectly cooked. The mini curry was standard.
Clam ramen — My least favorite dish. I had this a while ago, but I just remember not liking the broth/​there was not much toppings in the ramen.
Pork and tofu mini hot pot — This is from the dinner menu, and I highly recommend it. The broth is delicious, and the tofu is so silky.
Prices are very reasonable, and the quality of the food is very high. Beware that this place gets really crowded at lunch. Either come early or late to avoid the lines. Highly recommend this place, and will be back many more times to sample more of the extensive menu.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
3.5 stars for my overall experience. This is a cute little restaurant. I stopped by here around noon on a Saturday. The first round of people went in, and there was already a wait of around 15 people outside. Quite crowded, but the wait went relatively quickly for a table of two. We waited for approximately 20 minutes.
I came here because I saw a pic of their unagi bowl online, which looked delicious. We decided to order three rice bowls: uni ikura meshi (seared), salmon ikura, and unagi. The clam ramen also looked good but we opted out because my friend is allergic. Since it was super busy, the service was a bit slower. We didn’t get our tea until we asked, and when the food arrived, the server didn’t bring us two spoons.
The portions were smaller than I expected, which surprised me. It’s like the size of a bowl used to serve Korean tofu soup. But in their defense, we did order the small size (hefty at about $ 15 each). Uni ikura meshi was good but very strong. Friend said that the salmon tasted too cooked. I enjoyed the unagi bowl, however.
Cute place and wish I lived closer. I would come back again to try the other items.
Place rating: 1
Santa Clara, CA
Uhhh, I don’t see the hype of this place. :[
So came here Saturday night for my BF’s birthday dinner. (Side note: they don’t do ANYTHING for birthdays, no free scoop of ice cream, nothing) I made a reservation for 10 people. Our table was ready @ 7:30 which was great. The experience started off wonderful. We were seated and given the menu. (Another side note: the menu they have online, is old. The prices need to be updated!!) Well, I already had an idea as to what I was going to order so I was just waiting for everyone else.
I ordered the Tempura Udon and it was NOTHING special. I was sad and disappointed. It was just noodles in broth and a side of tempura. Not worth $ 11.75. Plus the udon was plain. The tempura was okay. I could have made it @ home. I also ordered the Grilled crispy rice balls since I saw so many pictures of it on Unilocal,I had to try them. Well I was sad again. I had salmon in the inside and it was a skimpy portion of it. You take one (big) bite and that was it of it. No more salmon. The outside was good though, but bad for you lol.
I believe they also added the gratuity AFTER the total. I’m not sure anymore. I was mad from not having a great meal. But be on the look out for that.
Overall, I’m not going back. This place was not worth it. I just didn’t see what other people saw. Plus the other nine people I went with, one even being an Elite here on Unilocal,also said the same thing I said… not that great, go somewhere else.
Place rating: 5
West San Jose, San Jose, CA
I have visited here many many times. I am Japanese and this place is one of best Japanese restaurant around South Bay Area.
I came here lunch time and also dinner time.
Lunch:
I ate Kaiden yakimeshi. Which is sashimi on top of hot stone bowl rice. So sashimi is half raw. Please put soysource as soon as it is served. Then the rice where surfaced the hot stone have crispy rice. That’s good. Love it! This one come w salad and miso soup.
Dinner:
I usually order horumon which is organ. That’s the best. Kakuni is good too.
Overall I love them. And the size is not too big.
Place rating: 4
Cupertino, CA
Clearly I just didn’t know what to order last time. When I came here last time with a friend, we each ordered one thing (not to share). This second time, I came here with my mom and we ordered 4 dishes to share. The experience was so much better! I should have known haha… this place is a lot like Gochi/​Tanto where the dishes are small (ish) and meant to be eaten tapas style. The more dishes you can try the better your experience will be.
— Soft shell crab: This was alright… nothing too special. It was deep fried to the point where you really don’t get that much crab flavor out of this. Probably wouldn’t order this one again.
— Clams steamed in garlic butter: This was delicious! You don’t get that many clams, though. But I loved the flavor, and the soup. The garlic butter complemented the dish super well. If only it came with more clams!
— Hamachi carpaccio: SO GOOD. The hamachi slices are thicker than what you would expect in a carpaccio dish, but the fish is so fresh and the seasoning/​toppings they used really brought out all the right flavors. This is a great dish to start out with!
— Uni and salmon roe rice bowl: So… I normally steer away from uni. I’ve never been a big fan of the texture. But the uni here was super fresh, and when mixed with the salmon roe, rice, and soft boiled egg, it was amazing! Definitely my favorite dish of the meal. For the two of us, we got a medium size bowl and it was just right! Although with everything else that we ordered, we were stuffed.
The total (not including tip) came out to be $ 58 or so. Compared to prices at Gochi/​Tanto, the prices here are pretty similar, and the quality makes the price worth it!
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
I’ve been back a few times and I have to say I’ve enjoyed my meals here. Always seems to be a wait most of the times. You can try to make reservations here, unlike some other izakaya places. If you don’t come earlier in the night, you’ll probably miss the uni and ikura rice bowls! It’s happen to us twice haha. Service is nice and friendly, it can get busy sometimes so you’ll have to flag down a server. The food quality is fresh and flavorful.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
I came here with some friends a while back and I definitely recommend making reservations! They get very busy during peak hours.
I ordered the salmon with salmon roe which comes in a stone pot. There is rice with uncooked/​half cooked salmon and roe on top of it. I love how the salmon is not fully cooked and it tastes so good. If you wait a few minutes before mixing everything up, the rice gets a bit crunchy which is a nice combination with the salmon.
The interior is very dark, not too big, but there are a few tatami-​like tables in the back which is pretty cool!
Great food with so many options, I’d definitely come back!
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
Came here for a nice lunch with my parents.
Parking/​location:
There’s plenty of parking as it’s located in a large plaza.
Service:
The waiters were attentive and worked at a high pace. They seemed to be on point and accustomed to having a lot of customers at a time. There may be a line but they move quickly.
Price:
The food is well worth the price for the quality. You can tell the sushi is better than the majority of spots in the area.
Food:
We ordered the sashimi salad, chirashi bowl, uni bowl, and a few other items. The chirashi bowl had a large variety of assorted sashimi and was delicious. If you enjoy uni, the uni bowl is a must. It appears as if their udon and cooked plates are popular as well. Will likely give one a try next time.
Place rating: 4
Fremont, CA
I just had dinner here with my girlfriend this past Sunday. We tried going to Kula which was a fail because I won’t wait 3 hours. That’s just crazy.
My friend had heard good things about this place so we drove over to Dan. We arrived around 6pm on Sunday and waited about 15 – 20 minutes. While we were waiting, I was looking at other people’s food and I was glad to have ended up here. This looked way more exciting than just having Sushi alone.
We ordered their Tuna Roll, Agedashi tofu, Saba, Grilled Scallops with Salmon Roe, Pork Belly with Green Onions, Tender Chunky Beef Tongue, Fried Mochi and Eggplant with Shaved Yams and Natto, 720ml Suishin Junmai Sake, and Sapporo. Everything we ordered was all pretty darn good — my favorite was the Grilled Scallops with Salmon Roe. This dish stood out the most. Items like Agedashi and Saba were just what you’d expect. The only item I thought was just okay was their Pork Belly — wasn’t very flavorful to me. Beer and sake were great, I picked one of the lower priced bottles.
Service was good and atmosphere was nice — they even have a few tatami tables in the back. Overall we had a great experience and it was a nice place to end up at.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
I tried this place several years ago and I really wasn’t impressed and haven’t returned since. My boyfriend saw a friend’s picture off of Instagram and was like, «Ohhhmyyygawd we need to try it.» I was like sure… but why does the name seem so familiar? I looked it up on Unilocal and saw my three star review. Eh okay, I’ll try it again. We made reservations and we were late and thankfully they were very accommodating. We didn’t have to wait at all once we arrived. I had better experience this time. Maybe I didn’t know what to order back then or the quality went up? I’m not sure, but I definitely liked it better this time around.
Get the soft boiled egg and uni! It was rich but the sauce had enough acidity to cut through the fattiness. We also really enjoyed the potato gratin. It was cheesy and super buttery. The chicken cartilage was pretty salty, but would pair well with beer. I would definitely come again!
Place rating: 4
Milpitas, CA
I made a reservation on a Sunday night for two people at 5:30. They limit reservation times, ours was 5:30−7pm. It was more than enough time to eat and chat because the food comes out very quickly. We ordered more food during our meal and we were still able to finish and get out of there before 7.
I recommend making a reservation before you go there, and if you don’t, you definitely want to get there when it opens. They seat customers with reservations first and save some tables for reservations, so don’t be surprised if you see empty tables and a long wait.
We ordered:
Sake (salmon) sashimi– This was delicious! It came in 9 big pieces and it was very fresh– it was probably our favorite dish, as we ordered another one of this!
Grilled hotate (scallop) and ikura (salmon roe) — There were 4 pieces. It was flavorful, but definitely overcooked– it was very chewy on the outside.
Amaebi (sweet shrimp) nigiri– It was a little dry, but it was very sweet– my friend and I loved it! They served it with the deep friend heads and they were delicious!
Uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) stone pot rice — We ordered a large, which was definitely way too much for us. This is what we came here for, and what I love about this dish is that you can order a different sizes. Tanto and En only have one size, so I think that this is a plus! It was extremely worth it because they give a LOT of uni, but the downside to that was that the uni wasn’t very fresh.
Overall, I would highly recommend this place. It’s very similar to En and Tanto. For two people, our total was a little over $ 80. They have great customer service and I’ll be back to try the other dishes!
Place rating: 2
San Jose, CA
2 stars is the rating given to a restaurant with such an unfriendly, unskilled greeter that you never get seated. It’s not about the waiting list, or reservations; we get all of that. The fake smile did not help either. A personality or a brain might have.
Place rating: 2
San Jose, CA
I gave 2 stars because I still didn’t have a chance to try the food here, however, I got treated so badly, I won’t coming back here.
I got there at 7:20pm, there was no waiting list sign in but reservation by phone only… really? We wait for 10mins then I asked the waiter how long do I have to wait for next table, he told me about 45mins. I asked him what about those empty tables, he said they are reserved at 8pm. It was 7:30 but he wouldn’t let us in and let those table be empty for 30mins. I’m not sure this is a good way to do business, I hope that waiter is related to the owner, otherwise I wouldn’t hire him to ruin my business. This waiter was not friendly, very pretentious and bad sense of organized, for this I went to next door to the Ethiopian restaurant which had fantastic food. Thanks to this rejection and thanks to you, Dan Izakaya, we’ve found a good restaurant with good service.
Place rating: 5
Campbell, CA
Went there for dinner and drinking today and it was a great experience, the place gets super crowded but it is normal for an izakaya.
I am not sure if the owner and chef are Japanese, the taste is not the most «authentic» if you are comparing strictly to the taste of izakaya in Japan, but they taste good, and the ingredients are very fresh. The server we had was also helpful and friendly. The price is quite reasonable as well, we had 4 dishes, pitcher of Sapporo and it was only around $ 85 something. Will definitely be back.
Place rating: 5
Campbell, CA
Perfect perfect perfect Japanese cuisine. A most if you truly want to experience fabulous food and service. Perfect for a great date night!
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
WOW! What great tasting treat. Now I am not in any way an expert in this style but I have to say, it was a wonderful meal. For its size, I felt the restaurant menu had a lot of options. Be warned don’t go try to unless you have a reservation. If you don’t have one be ready for a long wait, but its with it!
The Order:
1. Seared Cha-​shu pork with spinach, and Onions
When we ordered this my friend started complaining about how he doesn’t like the fat and
soon as he put it in his mouth the first 2 words were «oh wow!» We ended up ordering
another round of this. It was so tender and melted in your mouth.
2. Butter grilled mochi with spicy Cod row
I would not call this spicy but very good. I wanted to see more row on it for the flavor.
What do I know it was perfect. I tasted the mochi and the row and it felt well balanced.
3. Monk Fish liver with ponzu
This was served a little cold and it was not bad. I would have loved to try it a little warmer.
possible spread a toasted bread of some sort?
4. Toro sashimi (got 6 pieces instead of 9 big mistake)
It melted in your mouth. I had some before in San Francisco and this was just as good.
5. chicken karaage
This was ok. I like it served w curry powder, lemon and mayo (mayo and lemon only here)
Would not order this on the next visit.
6. Beef and potato croquette
I would say this goes to the same category was the karaage.
7. Sunomono (shrimp, squid, octopus, cucumber and seaweed in vinegar)
This was really good. The seafood was good, but I would have to say that I enjoyed eating
the veggies more. The cucumber and seaweed in the vinegar was a good surprise.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
I picked this place after seeing the reviews below, and wanted to try a dish that isn’t usually offered at other Japanese restaurants. So, I picked the clam ramen! What can I say, if you love the taste of clams and clam juice in your soup, you will love this. It tasted like a soup of linguine and clams, minus the garlic accents. The noodles were the authentic Japanese kind, and the seasoning was a bit of sesame seeds, green onion, and seaweed. Less is more. I’d come back here for the stir fry next time.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
High quality, delicious Japanese small plates restaurant.
You have to make a reservation to eat here, Otherwise, we love coming here and we always order something new because their menu has a bajillion items on it.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
I heard that Dan gets really crowded and you’d need reservations to get a seat but I didn’t believe it. I’d been to the nearby burmese restaurant and Dan didn’t look busy or noticed. It’s in the corner of a somewhat dim plaza.
My friend surprised me with a surprise dinner date at Dan’s and, boy, was I surprised. The hamachi carpaccio was by far my favorite followed by Dan’s crunch roll. My friend enjoyed her order of uni and roe over rice. We ended up sharing everything because it was too good not to. We also ordered an order of California Rolls in case we weren’t full off the rest of the food… [we eat a lot] only to be struggling trying to finish 2⁄4 plates! Customer service here was up to par. They were nice, attentive and somewhat shy. We were checked up on by everyone and not just our server which was a nice surprise. At times, it felt like we were being rushed to leave (since there were prior reservations made for our seats) but, really, who takes that long to eat anyway? So all was good! 10⁄10 would recommend [ESPECIALLY THE CARPACCIO, seriously hoping i’m not spelling it wrong].
Place rating: 3
New York, NY
Came here for lunch because my mom raved about the salmon-​ikura lunch set. She’d been here multiple times and wanted to take me and my sister.
They open at 12PM on Saturdays, and by 11:50AM, there were already a number of parties waiting at the door. As soon as they opened, they seated the parties that had a reservation, and then seated the rest of the parties in the order that we had arrived. Thankfully, we made the first seating — but 30 minutes into our meal, the tiny restaurant was already packed!
The four of us ended up all ordering the salmon-​ikura lunch set, which comes with the salmon-​ikura rice bowl and a bowl of udon soup. The salmon-​ikura rice bowl consists of torched salmon served with pickled veggies and roe on a bed of rice. I found the salmon a little undercooked for my liking, and I just was not feeling the consistency of cooked/​raw fish meat. I ended up shoving the salmon against the stone pot to cook it a bit longer, which worked perfectly. :)
I definitely enjoyed the udon soup more than I enjoyed the rice bowl. The soup was exactly what I needed to warm up my belly, and I hadn’t had udon in a really long time!
All in all, I think the lunch sets are a great value, but I don’t know if I would recommend the salmon-​ikura lunch set as highly as my mom did. I’d definitely be open to returning for a different entrée or lunch set though!
Place rating: 4
Saratoga, CA
I go there twice a month. I prefer to eat lunch there because the Lunch Special always surprises me. Usually I can’t finish a bento, but when I have the Dan’s bento, I could finish every bite of it!!! It only cost me 10.50 for a bento.
Although it usually takes waiting, it is still worthy.
It is in my top five Japanese restaurants!
Place rating: 3
Berkeley, CA
Small hole-​in-​the-​wall izakaya style restaurant. While the food and customer service were decent, I’ve had far better Japanese restaurant experiences for lower prices.
Onto the food:
— Scallops with roe: scallops were seared to perfection, but they only give you 3 and charge you around $ 10.
— Nankotsu (chicken cartilage in skillet): really crunchy in a bad way, too salty
— stirfried yakisoba noodles: solid, lots of flavor! cabbage and grilled onions were well-​cooked.
— mixed vegetable tempura: this stole the show for me. Tempura okra, mushroom, eggplant, and potato were all great and not overdone.
Service was reasonably helpful in giving us recommendations, but a little inefficient in getting people seated. All in all, I’ve had better izakaya at Gochi in Cupertino with more attentive service.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
Not your traditional Japanese restaurant, and that’s a good thing. No wait… it IS a traditional Japanese restaurant, and that’s a good thing. It’s more an Izakaya style restaurant, so don’t go in there looking for the dinner plate #3.
Be brave, try new things, and realize that this is what Japanese is supposed to be like.
My sister loved this place, and when I go here again, I’ll be sure to order something for her. Love you Beth.
Place rating: 3
Los Altos, CA
We visited this place for my friend’s birthday. We made a reservation for 8 people at 7.30PM and we didn’t get seated until after 8pm. We should of be able to be seated within 10 mins of wait instead of more than 30 mins after getting to the restaurant. Anyway, we ordered a lot of food and everyone were hungry so we didn’t take any picture but eat lol…
Like many of other reviewers stated, the restaurant always bring 1 dish at a time and it’s literally everyone take 1 bite and then we are waiting for another 5 – 10 mins for another dish to come. The flavor was great for sure, but I think for the price they charged, they should of manage the service quality a bit more.
Overall, I would recommend this place if you have smaller party. Should try out their intestine dish, the flavor was great. The other dish should try would be the uni rice. Overall, we didn’t know how we ordered but we end up will a bill that close to $ 500 dollars lol…
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
I think the fact that the place is tiny and tables are in such high demand… makes it so much more exciting. I would have never noticed it tucked away at the end of a strip mall, but it doesn’t need all that glitz and glamour with how popular it is.
I was lucky enough to snag a last minute reservation (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) for a Saturday night. I originally had the idea to walk in right as they opened at 6pm, and am glad I didn’t, because when I showed up for my 6pm reservation there was already a line of people out the door being turned away. We were seated at the sushi bar, which includes maybe six seats. The main dining room offers maybe eight tables, and there is a section in the back with two or three Chabudai rooms that seat up to six each.
We ordered the Uni w/​Onsen Egg as well as the Uni & Ikura Rice Bowl (you can choose from a small, medium, or large). There was plenty of meat in each. We also got the Ankimo and the Clam & Pork Belly Mini Hot Pot. Everything was very fresh, but the hot pot stood out the most. The broth had so many layers of flavor, and was not in the least bit too salty like many. This was a pretty large bowl for the two of us, and I got to take a lot home. My only critique is that I wish the broth was more spicy, but you can just add your own chili powder.
I don’t know how such a small place handles such an extensive menu, and everything was on point! It’s difficult to narrow your choices down to so few. Service is a little all over the place, but you realize after a while that you just have to flag someone down and they’ll help you out, considering the place is so small — they’re all very friendly, though.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
DELICIOUS! I called in for a reservation at 6:30pm, got here early and was able to seat us. You have to order the hot pots, they’re really good, I had the salmon and salmon roe, and also the bbq beef kimchi. SUPER delicious!
Ordered a bunch of grilled items with sauce, kobe, squid, chicken, beef tongue. My fav was the beef tongue, really really good!
The hotpot comes out pretty fast, chicken takes the longest, kobe beef I could skip, but everything else was really good.
Place rating: 3
San Jose, CA
There is definitely a depth to this menu with a ton of options. I do think that in general I have had better Japanese cuisine but this place would count in my book as pretty solid. Came here with a friend a couple months ago and tried:
— Sashimi Platter: pieces were big! I prefer quality of the sashimi at Tomi or Mizu but this was A-​OK.
— Uni with Soft Boiled Egg: many reviews compared this to spoonful of happiness at Koo (SF), though I prefer SOH at Koo, it was an interesting combination, would have liked a better balance of ingredients
— Unagi Rice: pretty filling and shareable
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
I came here with my parents on a Friday night. We made a reservation, and good thing we did because it seemed like most of the tables were reserved. The service was alright… they forgot a couple of our things and certain dishes came out really slow. But the food was quite delicious.
The stars of that dinner were definitely the salmon/​salmon roe stone pot rice and the uni/​salmon roe stone pot rice. My personal favorite was the salmon — I love how the fish is just seared. Their skewers were great as well. Overall, I would come again!
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
I kept hearing how great this place is so we came here last night for our 6 year anniversary!
I recommend getting there when they open for dinner unless you have a reservation. We were first in at 6:00 and after we were seated we heard them telling people it’s a 30 to 60 minute wait. Yikes … Popular place!!!
It got packed fast but we had GREAT service throughout our entire dinner.
The Miso was some of the best I’ve had at a restaurant (my wife makes the best).
I love Scallops so when I saw them on the menu my choice was made. I had the Scallops with Asparagus and Bacon. The scallops were delicious, cooked to perfection. The asparagus was sliced quite thin, I would have preferred it not be sliced thin. But it was still very good. There was just enough bacon to give the dish some flavor but it did not overwhelm the scallops or asparagus. This was a good choice for dinner .
My wife had the Spider Roll and she loved it.
They have a pretty extensive menu and we’ll definitely be back to thy some of the other menu items.
We’ll definitely be back!
Place rating: 5
Fremont, CA
Not your typical Japanese restaurant as Dan specializes more on home-​style rice bowls. I’ve heard that they get super busy quick, which I’m not surprised, we went around noon and the place was soon filled with people from the Silicon Valley on their lunch breaks.
I ordered a katsu don while my boyfriend’s family got mackerel don and their infamous uni ikura don. I really loved the katsu. It was tender on the inside with the right amount of crispiness/​texture on the outside. The egg was steamed perfectly and complemented well when eaten with the katsu. I didn’t personally try the other items, but my boyfriend’s family enjoyed their food too. The complimentary miso soup was also MSG-​free and helped cure some of the heat from the fried food.
Unfortunately, not much service was involved, but understandable given the volume of customers they serve. Make sure you come early~
Place rating: 4
Sunnyvale, CA
Great izakaya! Granted, I did make all the ordering choices based on my trusty Unilocal Elite buddies’ recommendations. Thank you, buddies!
FOOD:
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Luckily my dining companion was pretty game to try anything, so I did some Unilocaly consulting and combined various strategies. We started with the **Salmon Carpaccio with Avocado**. The pieces of salmon were thicker than I expected for the carpaccio label, but I’m not complaining when I get extra meat!
Next was the special secret menu item, pointed out by Beth W: Chicken Karaage Curry**, which apparently is usually only a lunch item, but they gladly made it for our dinner. Our last dish was courtesy of Elaine N.‘s recommendation and was also glorious. The **Unagi Stone Pot Rice** was absolutely delicious. The unagi (eel) had the perfect barbecue flavor.
SERVICE:
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We found ourselves here a little after 9pm and they took us anyway. Right on for patient staff. They were still attentive and even encouraged us to stay while they began to clean up and prepare for closing time. So very kind of them. Even more noteworthy was when we asked if we had enough food, they said yes instead of pushing more food on us (we would probably have believed them).
TIP: Always consult reviews of trusty Unilocalers so you can have just as enjoyable of a dinner as we did.
DATE TIP: Great place to get to know your date, especially to see how adventurous they can be!