Gohan Japanese Bistro

There were 2 sushi/​Japanese restaurants next to one another. I chose Gohan because it had a unique name. I was hoping it lived up to its name. We were greeted with smiles and were seated at the sushi bar. The place was off the charts decorated and had unique artwork along with such a cleanliness. The chefs were so friendly and funny. We were given free Saki and edamame. The menu was top shelf with so many unique items to choose from. Each one had a full description but the chefs gave more detail. Each food item was off the charts delicious. I am definitely going back to this Goldmine. I recommend Gohan to all my family and friends. It did live up to its unique name. Very happy
June

Soft opening with 20%off your entire bill after change of ownership! Was a little disappointed cos the menu has changed, more sushi rolls now and no more Cutlet curry, udon, beef donburi or those fancy desserts. But their rolls are awesome! We had the sumo & Mafia roll… it’s really good! Hope they will add more menu items beside sushi!

This place is NOT closed. It is temporarily shut down for remodeling, but they said they will re-​open in a week. We love this place so much that we personally drove over there to investigate if it was in fact closed.
We go to Gohan pretty much every weekend for their spicy tuna don… it is seriously the best! Huge portion of spicy tuna, perfectly cooked rice and their special wasabi/​jalapeño relish. We are counting down the days until they re-​open!!! :)

This would be my second visit to Gohan since they opened.
On my first visit, I remember the menu being a bit more complicated than it was at our latest visit this past weekend. They had creative dishes, etc. But they might have figured out that’s not what people need right now.
Good-​bye, Fukada and your long-​ass lines. Hello, Gohan. The menu is now simplified with the likes of combo meals a la Fukada. Except there is no wait and no sense of superiority the servers at Fukada sometimes have.
Hubby and I both did it up combo-​style. He went with the beef yakiniku which turned out to be a petite steak paired with tempura. Both were very well done.
I did the beef curry udon paired with a spicy tuna bowl. Both were very very good. It’s noteworthy that the spicy tuna bowl was no slouch in the portion department and it was topped with delicious yuzu kosho.
Hubby and I both, however, immensely enjoyed the appetizer we ordered. Fried calamari. You shake your head thinking «Dime a dozen!!» Well, theirs is different… six huge, thick strips of fat calamari, perfectly battered and fried. This isn’t your typical Italian overbreaded little rings of skinny seafood.
Service was very nice and friendly… I wish more people came here at dinner!

I just can’t say enough how good this place is. The other day we went here for dinner and the shrimp katsu was perfect. Bye bye Curry House, hello Gohan!!!
However what’s prompting my update review is the chef blessed us with an amazing dessert on the house! Lychee ice cream with sweet blueberries accompanied by one of the best tiramisus I’ve ever had.
So nice!!!‘
I love Gohan!!!

Despite 3 families, each with crying babies battling each other for the loudest and longest-​running scream… Despite the only 1 waiter who was running around from table to table, to counter and to the register… Despite the long wait… The food tasted great!
With that said… the 3 stars come from the following:
* Edamame Gyoza (dumpling) — The gyoza skin was very green. Wow. The filling was really tasty too. If you could get passed the color, the skin does have a faint edamame flavor. 6 pieces. To be honest, I didn’t want to share it with the rest.
* Potato Croquette — Crispy outside, fluffy & tasty inside. It was great! Better than most places. It tastes absolutely in-​house made. Fried to perfection. Only 2 small-​medium sized pieces. wish there was more
* Soft Shell Crab — a nice portion, although an appetizer so probably could share comfortably with 2ppl ~ 3ppl (maybe). It was nice and fried. Pieces of the leg and body. it was all good!
* Udon — I recommend Sansai Udon, the soup base it a lot more flavorful and rich than the Tempura Udon.
* Check in and receive a free Green Iced Tea. :)

Wish I could give this place a 4 ½ stars.
We Dine on: weekdays for dinner
Wait: none
Service: short handed, currently looking for more employees. Staff is very friendly and helpful
Food: great quality, nice portions. Always yummy and done right
Price: for what you get, the price is reasonable
Tips about we ate (we give everything a thumbs up) :
The miso soup has very hearty pieces of seaweed and tofu and they use firm tofu
Chicken and sweet egg donburi bowl: very balanced, broth throughout all rice, savory, sweet, yet not overpowering
Steak teriyaki: asked for medium rare, cooked perfect, tender
Chicken katsu: chicken moist, breading was crispy and not greasy
Salad: balanced, mixed greens not just iceberg.

Past by this place numerous times and always wanted to try it… at least once. Interior and atmosphere is nice. Check-​in and you’ll get a free iced green tea. Score! Got the curry udon. It was good, but I felt like there was hardly any noodles. I was just left with a bunch of curry soup. Wish they added veggies or something in the curry as well. Tried my friend’s mushroom curry and that dish is good! Really good. Love the mushrooms they used. If you like curry and you like mushrooms, get the mushroom curry dish!

I came a few weeks ago to try this place.
My girlfriend recommended this place because we were craving some Japanese food around my area.
Service: EXCELLENT. We got tons of free sides and I know it was grade A service.
Food: This is where it got a bit tricky. You need to be smart about what to pick because some of the food is only average compared to other dishes which are spectacular. I had the Spicy Tuna over rice (Highly recommend) + udon veggie soup, and the beer teriyaki. The beef was nothing special and the price didn’t do it justice.
Décor: I loved it. It felt very warm and a great place for a date. I love the design and it wasn’t dirty at all.
Price: It was pretty steep to have only two main dishes and the bill ran up to almost $ 30ish.
After reading some of the other reviews, I think I’m going to give this place another try during LUNCH TIME instead.
Overall, SPICY TUNA over rice was good! The service is excellent, but the prices are bit steep for the quality in SOME of the dishes offer.

3.5 stars.
Soft shell crab — $ 10 — slightly above average 3.5÷5 —
Servings are HUGE. The crab tasted alright. It was pretty darn deep fried tho, so I couldn’t tell how fresh this thing was. Most soft shell crabs I’ve had are lightly deep fried (and easily half the size) but this was deep fried almost like onion rings. The seasoning was excellent so I couldn’t tell how fresh it was.
Beef Curry Udon — $ 12 — 4.5÷5
Excellent and recommended if you are a curry lover; top 5 curry udon’s I’ve had. The dish that saved the night. They are very generous on the meat. The curry is delicious and the noodles taste great. My recommendation? I should’ve asked for extra green onions and tempura batter on the side.
Spicy Tuna Don — 2.5÷5 — $ 3 — Average /​borderline below average
I don’t know if it was an off day but I was disappointed in the quality of tuna here. It was clear the tuna was NOT fresh. They season the tuna w/​wasabi and the tuna/​mayo seasoning. The sauce/​seasoning is excellent, but it could only do so much to hide the old/​stale tuna taste. On the positive side, portions are huge. Maybe the serving sizes are big here because the ingredients aren’t fresh? That’s only speculation just to be clear.
My girlfriend had the tempura udon and she enjoyed it too.
TIPS:
— udon/​rice bowl (small) combo for about $ 15.
–A bit pricey. Make a reservation or prepare to wait
–No sushi here
–Located just across the street from Gen BBQ and near Honda-​ya. The inside is spacious and very clean.

I was able to eat here yesterday for lunch. It was unexpectedly a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE. I didn’t have much expectations for this place. I just went here cause my sister said she had it bookmarked. They do NOT have sushi here. It’s a Japanese restaurant that focuses on the other items and they do it well. The place is well lit and feels good. The menus has udon, bowls, and appetizers.
Beef yakiniku don — This meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Thick pieces of beef and onions in the sauce over white rice. Something simple turned so good! One of the best beef bowls I’ve experienced.
Spicy Tuna Don — The portions here are huge! The fresh pieces of tuna are so good with this different wasabi sauce on top. It was official. I was in love. It’s over white rice and I’ll try brown rice next time
Soft shell crab — Wow! The tempura fried soft shell crab was so good over the ponzu sauce on the plate. This thing is magnificent. A must order appetizer
Beef curry udon — Large portion of the piping hot bowl of curry udon. They do not skimp on the thin slices of beef either
Miso soup — Can’t go wrong
Recommendation: Everything I had on the menu was spectacular!

I’d be willing to update this entry if I try something better, but I had an awful experience here because of seemingly uncooked brown rice in my spicy tuna bowl!
I came with a group and 3 of us ordered the spicy tuna bowl with brown rice. It was undercooked/​cold! We explained it to the manager afterwards since none of us were even close to finishing our meals. He apologized emphatically, but I would need to come back to redeem the visit. The others in our party were happy, thus the 2 stars.

I am definitely a fan of the restaurant, for no other reason than the owner is just a great guy. I was in with two friends and the chef walked us through the menu, gave us some free nibbles, and even let my friend’s wife kind of create her own plate. The cuisine is a mash up of lots of influences, so to just call it Japanese is really a disservice.
I will definitely be back to try out more of the menu and figure out my favorites, so I can put this spot in my regular rotation.

Another Japanese restaurant that shows and serves yummy food that are not sushi ^^
This is the place to go for every Japanese dish you crave for except sushi.
Ordered:
1. Tempura Udon — the udon are perfect cooked, the soup base is light, but not under season kinda way. The tempura was placed on the side instead of inside the soup, which is the way it should always be done. The tempura was seasoned very well and very crunchy.
2. Beef Yakiniku –the beef is cooked medium rare placed on top of Japanese rice. There’s a sweet, salty, sour sauce that’s very good and unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before (a reduced ponsu suace?)
3. Chicken Katsu Curry — this reminds me of the curry I had in Japan. I fell head over heels when this dish came out. The chicken are fried to perfection; not oily on the outside crust and not dry in the inside.
Service:
The waiter is extremely friendly, nice and attentive. The waiter made sure we were happy with our food!
Tip: If you can’t decide what you want, go for their noodle and rice combo~ the perfect way to go here ^^ They open until 2:00am, so on those nights that you’re looking for a place to go drink, this is the place!

I had a dinner date with my cousin, Lynda P. She suggested that we go to Fukada. It was traffic hour and the 5 fwy was a nightmare. So she ended up Unilocaling and finding Gohan, which seems like it was comparable to Fukada and the plus side… it was a lot closer.
I ordered the combo plate which consist of the curry udon and teriyaki chicken don. My curry udon reminded me of the curry udon at the Curry house, minus the sizzling pot and all the toppings. My Chicken don was good, however I wish it had a better chicken to rice ratio. On the bright side at least it wasn’t swiming in teriyaki sauce. I was satisfy with my meal. it warmed and filled me up. Plus the hostess kept on coming back with the green tea pot to refill my cup.
My cousin ended up ordering the Sansai udon with the spicy Tuna don. I didn’t try her dish. She said it was good, but it doesn’t compare to her beloved Fukada. I have never been to Fukada so I can’t compare the two.
This is a cute little place, very clean. However, Why are the chairs so heavy? I tried pulling out the chair before i sat down and I was like holy crap! I am not here to review theirefurnitures. But I was just saying…

I had to wait a while for my blood pressure to drop before writing my review on Gohan Japanese Bistro. This was the worst experience I have had with a restaurant in a really long time. First, no one greeted us when we went there. After about 5 minutes of just standing there, this girl with long hair finally approached us and we asked how long the wait was. She looked lost and a little flustered and said it’d be about 15 minutes. It looked like chaos, but we decided to wait. We had just left Oki Doki because there were like 6 groups ahead of us over there. And I had decided on Gohan because the first time was a pleasant experience and I remember the food being decent (probably 3 stars for the first visit).
The only male server there cleaned up an area for us to sit down by the windows. We waited about 20 minutes for a table. Then we just sat. And sat.
Sat some more. Finally the girl who greeted us earlier brought us two waters. And didn’t say anything.
Then she brought us menus. I asked how long it would be to take the food because the table next to us was getting their order in piecemeal (dad already done eating, kid just got his food, mom was outside, then mom got her food), she said, «well, there are a lot of people here.» Uh, yeah, you’re a restaurant, it’s good to be busy. Anyway, we took the risk and ordered our food. No one ever asked us if we wanted any drinks. So then we waited.
She came back and asked us what we ordered. Then I got the wrong thing, then I got the right thing. Then we had no utensils. I had ordred the udon with beef tepanyaki combo and had to ask for a spoon. Got a giant metal cafeteria spoon. I can say that’s the first time that’s ever happened to me for a bowl of udon. My beef was overcooked, but my udon was pretty good (same as first visit).
On top of that, there were two people standing immediately to our right, talking to the table next to us, so we had to stare at ass the whole meal. Literally, for like 30 minutes, two asses were just right next to us, while they were yapping away.
Turns out they had some lounge opening that night and basically weren’t ready for it. What the girl should’ve done when I asked how long the wait would be was to tell me that it was the first time they were trying out Lounge night. I had to find out from Drew W. because I was spending all my waiting time writing Unilocal tips.
There was a lot of hand-​shaking and laughing and Korean-​speaking people, but definitely a lack of service. At first we thought it was the kitchen that was slow, but no, the food was great, and it came out like 5 minutes after we ordered it, so we knew it wasn’t them.
Also, when you see the waitresses counting the tables to remember what order goes where, that’s a little scary. And it’s even more awkward when the host/​manager (how looks like the Chairman on Iron Chef) asks them who ordered what, they’re shaking their heads, and basically chastises them in front of the customers.
The manager at first apologized for the wait and said dessert would be on him. Then when they screwed up my order, when he brought the check, he automatically took my order off the tab. He did apologize, and said he would hope we would come back again, but with the disconnect between the staff, the sheer cluelessness of the two female servers, and the overall just chaos of the place (people walking around, getting up and down, ass next to me the whole meal), it was not a pleasant experience. What a way to spend an anniversay dinner.

This isn’t your typical sushi bar/​sushi roll kind of spot — it’s a bistro that serves comfort food! The décor is adorable! I’ve dined here for lunch couple of times but not as often as I would like. Mainly cuz their pricing are a lil bit much for lunch. But they do serve good quality, fresh food. Service has been outstanding so far.
: FOOD:
I generally get their lunch combos (generous portions!):
Sansai Udon
— Delicious & fulfilling. Reminds me of Fukada’s sansai udon. Love all the mountain vegetables~
Beef Yakiniku
— Usually tender, not dry & flavorful. The sauce that they pair this with is yummy. But I’ve noticed every time I do order this the beef isn’t cooked consistently. Twice I’ve had it dry & tough and one other time it was perfect — medium rare & juicy.
Beef Curry Udon
— The curry soup is too thick for me & plus not enough soup. There are no potatoes or carrots but some type of red pickles (i think) and green onions that did go well with the curry. But I don’t think I’d order this again. I much rather prefer the sansai udon.
: NOTES :
1) Mo MSG!
2) Check in on Unilocal app and get a freebie (I’ve gotten free iced green tea & it’s yummy!)
3) They do serve alcohol here (wine, sake, beer)!
4) This spot isn’t hard to find at all. It’s located really close to the 5 freeway and in the same plaza as Yogurtland & 7 – 11.

4.5 stars… I try not give too many 5 star reviews because there’s always something that can be improved. All I need to say is that this place was such an awesome discovery that I’ve been back 5 times in a month.
There are no sushi or rolls here. What? You think that’s all Japanese people eat? If you like spicy tuna, you HAVE TO get their «Spicy Tuna Don» which is a rice bowl with their spicy tuna on top. I have no idea what rainbow and sunshine they add into their dishes, but the flavor is something I’ve never had anywhere else. Everything always taste fresh. Get something Fried, their batter is very different from anywhere else… in a good way.
Be sure to «check in» on your phone’s Unilocal app. They usually have a small surprise.

No sushi at Gohan, as they will tell you upfront on the door sign. And, seriously, why has all Japanese food around here basically been reduced to nothing but sushi? In Japan, sushi is a freaking treat and, if not exactly a delicacy, then definitely a rare, special occasion indulgence (hello – «Jiro Dreams of Sushi» anyone?). It was time to dig a little deeper.
After slurping my way through an eight-​dollar curry udon bowl and picking away at Remy’s eleven-​dollar ribeye plate, I can confidently say that Gohan can expect repeat visits. My udon somehow got creamier as dinner went on, to the point where the remaining broth took on a silky and smooth sauce consistency. Perfect for those last few gulps.
And the ribeye was just immaculately cooked and cut prior to being served. For eleven bucks, you get a VERY generous serving, along with a delicious homemade yakiniku sauce and rice. It’s cut into, oh, 20 strips or so, the way skirt steak is usually served and this way you have every bite that’s pink on the inside and beautifully charred at the edges. Scrumptious!
The place is clean, with some very interesting (homemade? custom-​made?) wooden plank chairs. Very calming service, with Japanese beers at below average prices. Tucked away at a very unassuming corner of Tustin, this is a great way to get your non-​sushi Japanese on. A total treat!

We have come to find that Tustin has a lot to offer food-​wise, and only a couple of miles away from Irvine, it’s proven to be worth the short drive past city boundaries.
After being disappointed by the long line at Honda-​Ya, we decided to drive around until we found another place to dine… and then we discovered Gohan Japanese Bistro! I had seen Gohan on Unilocal before, and finding that it gave free iced green teas to Unilocaling-​customers, we ventured in.
The décor was minimalistic. The space was compact. We were seated and given menus as soon as we came in. Gohan offers traditional as well as some nouveaux japanese cuisine (but more so of the former). I decided to get a special — their Croquette curry. My fellow diners decided to get Mushroom curry and a Sansai Udon and Terriyaki bowl combination, respectively.
Before any of the food arrived, I decided to redeem my green tea. Thank goodness it was free — it was basically a colder and more watered down version of regular green tea (matcha).
Then the food came… and here’s when things got so right and so wrong… I’ll re-​tell it in a simpler manner:
–Mushrooms in Mushroom curry were sauteed nicely, but roux was average. (+/​-​)
— Croquette in Croquette curry was AMAZING — soft, buttery, crispy — but curry, like that of Mushroom curry, was average and somewhat salty. (++/​-​)
— Sansai Udon was average as well — no wow factor. (-)
— Terriyaki in Terriyaki bowl was horrifically chewy and dry… had to ask for ponzu sauce to add a bit of moisture to meat. (—)
— Waitress apologized profusely and frequently. (+)
— Waitress apologized again, but this time in the form of a delicious Green Tea Mousse Cake, which had a spongey texture but was nonetheless very light and, well… moussey. (++)
Overall, Gohan isn’t all that bad… it’s just nothing out of the ordinary. It definitely filled me up and there were some definite highs (and lows, of course), and the service was as good as it could be under the circumstances.
Would I go back to Gohan? I’m not quite sure yet. Maybe for their tapas and croquette, but that would be all.