Mao Nishida

As a Japanese person, this restaurant is legit! True izakaya experience. Everything is so tasty. I’ve been here a few times. Suquid black ink fried rice and potato salad are my favorites! For this time, we didn’t make a reservation but we went there at 5 on Friday so we could dine. I think making a reservation is safer. We brought our 3 month old ;) he enjoyed the ambience ;)

+8

Christine P.

What a great find. Friendly staff with great recommendation for beer - it was exactly what I wanted. The food was excellent, perfectly grilled and balanced seasoning. The restroom was clean which is a great sign for the level of cleanliness of this establishment. I have my dog with me so we got the cool seats at the open space right at the entrance, the floor was clean and she loves hanging out there with us as well. This location is a short 1 block from UC Berkeley what a beautiful campus. I will be back.

+5

James Wang

Appreciated the small dishes for variety, but quality differed between dishes and I also found many of them lacked flavor. My favorite dishes were the negima (thigh with leek), the shisho making, and the goma yogoshi (spinach in sesame paste) for their more unique tastes. I wouldn't recommend the Nama-Yuba nor the mochi wrapped in bacon or nori. Service is good with the plates coming out in intervals to accentuate the dining experience. Would recommend making reservations since the restaurant gets packed quite easily.

+4

Eric

The food was delicious but a little inconsistent. Some of the dishes were exceptional and sometimes mind-blowing, others left something in the kitchen (no, not literally). The chicken giblet skewer, for instance, was amazing-you'd never think something so unassuming could have so much flavor. The agadashi tofu was full of deep flavors....I hadn't had this in a long while and it took me back to the first time I was blown away by it. The ethereal pork belly was perfectly paired with a smear of wasabi. The karaage redefined "fried chicken" for me forever. The service seemed a little confused but professional, unintrusively personable, and attentive. We did have to wait for I think around 20 minutes for our table. Sometimes we were served by what seemed like kitchen staff, which was fine, but they didn't seem altogether confident that they were bringing the right plates to the table. Not that we would have rejected anything placed before us.... Whoever thought up the cabbage & white miso mayo appetizer is a genius. We were skeptical but in the end it was devoured. Parking is easy: there are 2 lots down the street that are cheap and well lit. Make reservations and bring your appetite. You won't be sorry.

+19

R H

Food was okay, but as other reviews said, it’s very dark inside, especially as we sat in the little booth across the bar area. Overall an authentic izakaya experience. Would recommend small groups to dine there.

+6

Jean Tsou

This is probbaly the most authentic Izakaya style restaurant in the Bay Area. Yakitori with variety of choices. Chiken momo is really yummy. Good wine list too.

+12

Chris Quartly

A very pleasant experience. Japanese cuisine is not something I eat a lot of (sushi-aside) but everything here was well prepared. The skewers were maybe lacking in some flavour/seasoning to my tastes but the service was very good and I would recommend the restaurant to anyone visiting Berkeley. I was in the area for a concert (Del Amitri at Cornerstone) and am glad we picked this as our pre-concert meal.

+7

JP G

I had a small snack shared with a friend. We had the mackerel and chicken skewers. The shochu and bar staff were my favorite part. Despite the business they were friendly and attentive. The seating area in front was also nice. The overall ambience evoked an authentic space in Japan, though I haven't actually been there. It would be nice to come back for a sit down dinner, but it might be out of my budget. Overall very nice but I didn't feel that the food that we ordered was all that special. I would bet that a larger meal would yield more finds and would love to go back and see what else they have if it weren't for the price tags.

Justin Steele

This would be five stars across the board as the food is fantastic and the environment brings back great memories of my high school and college years in Japan. They seem to specialize in chicken and chicken related items (chicken broth, etc). But everything we had was outstanding including rafutei that was as good as what I ate in Okinawa over the summer. My big issue is no heat at all. The restaurant is open air in front and their windows overhead are wide open. It was a freezing cold night so all the customers were wearing their jackets and hoodies trying to stay warm. We had come from the freezing cold football game so had a hard time warming up. It is big enough of an issue that I wouldn’t eat here when the weather is cold. Other than that the food was excellent.

Sy L

The food was disappointing. Only two out of five chicken omakase skewers were properly seasoned, the rest were pretty bland. They know how to grill, the charred flavor was on point, but we had to ask for some salt to season them ourselves… the appetizer cold tofu was surprisingly salty though. The uni creamy udon again needed more salt. Otherwise, atmosphere and service were good.

Phuong Luong

This place has been in my to-go list forever but it fell short for me. I got to try a few things including the skewers, squid fried rice, wings, porridge, and only standout was the wings. Love the vibe tho!

B. Li

Great seasonal dishes with occasional misses, on-point ambience, slightly pricey House pickles are good, crunchy, not too acidic, and offer different textures. Good side to order when you order more than one fried item. Winter oden has a good broth that's mellow and easy on the stomach, but at $20 I may as well just make my own. Fried maitake is a great vegetarian choice with texture, flavor, and aroma. Yakitori set is cooked well, but was under seasoned this time. Tare flavor was too light; it didn't even come off as well salted. Sweet potato would be a great dessert if they could just bring it last.

+3

Used to love this place but service and food quality have both gone down pretty significantly. We waited for 1.5h before our food came, and everything was under seasoned. No one refilled our water or helped ordering another drink during the entire dinner. When we complained all we heard is sorry we are back ordered other people have been waiting for two hours and are just getting their food there is nothing we could do. We got complimentary pickled vegetables, which is the lowest cost item you could find on the menu, and we have already ordered and ate the same pickled vegetables. Seriously, do you not have better solutions to comfort your starving customers who have been sitting there with empty water bottle and no food for 1.5h at 9:30pm? It was ironic when they came over and told us the kitchen is closing and this is the last call if we want to order anything else - when 80% of the food we ordered at 8:30 still hadn’t showed up. Would not go back.