Takara Restaurant

Recommends

michel0218

Joined 4 years ago

Home of the hottest wasabi. Cool way to spend your lunch with the rest of the asian-food-innocent family. I loved the sushi with the uber hot wasabi thing, and the sashimi the fried yakitori. Place was cool and nice though, for a cheap and tiny restaurant.

Recommends

Chelsea Lin

Joined 6 years ago

Avoid the waits typical of quality sushi spots at this Japantown gem with an emphasis on the classics.. While the Japanese restaurants that line the popular Kinokuniya and Kintetsu buildings often have lines of hungry gaijin spilling out the door, just across the picturesque Peace Plaza lies Miyako Mall -- home of Takara and a handful of lesser-known eateries. With a hearty "irashaimasu!" servers welcome wide-eyed diners to take a seat at wooden booths beneath hanging paper lanterns. The menu offers an impressive list of appetizers that can double as small-plates if your party is eating izakaya style (yakitori, grilled or raw oysters and even natto, a fermented soybean dish not for the faint of heart or palate), as well as a la carte nigiri and a number of lunch and dinner combos. For an authentic family-style experience, order the nabe (Japanese stew, great in cold weather), sukiyaki or shabu shabu.

High Marks
"...for during-the-week after work relaxation, it's ideal..." (isabelleinsf, Citysearch user)

"The sushi is fresh (on par with Hamano and company) and they serve the equivalent of Japanese comfort food (porridges and tea rice)." (noefoodie, Citysearch user)

Low Marks
"...our meal was very stressful as our orders were coming out piecemeal at random times..." (sfrain, Citysearch user)

Recommends

modestobruce

Joined 6 years ago

Best Affordable Japanese Restaurant. We visit the restaurant an average of twice per month and thoroughly enjoy each visit. The lunch special for $6.95 is a real value. We usually select the White Tuna Sashimi. Dinner at $18 (including dessert) is well worth the money for authentic Japanese Cuisine. Every dish we have tried has been delicious. My wife is Japanese--I am not--and this is our favorite place to dine in the City. The service is very prompt and courteous. Cleanliness is very important to us and the place is kept immaculate. Take the kids to McDonald's and bring your significant other here for a great date. No, we are not related to the owner; we just want to see a great restaurant fairly rated.

Doesn't Recommend

nvz

Joined 7 years ago

Most Kid-Unfriendly Place. Several friends of mine and I went there for lunch during the week with our children. Before all of us even walked in, the waitress said to make sure that children do not bother other customers (they were not, we were just walking in). Some of us sat down, and she said to make sure that children do not touch the soy sauce containers (nobody was touching them). Then she said not to let children walk around in the restaurant (they were not. We were looking at menus). It was pretty obvious that they did not want our business, so we left.

I cannot believe that a restaurant like this is in business in the bay area, and they certainly lost our business forever. We didnt get to taste their food, but the service was pretty disgusting.

Recommends

isabelleinsf

Joined 7 years ago

Great sushi and menu selections!. They have a decent selection of warm/cooked food, but their sushi is outstanding. It's not a place for romantic dinner dates (the service is simply not up to par), but for during-the-week after work relaxation, it's ideal.

Recommends

jfwallace

Joined 7 years ago

Good Sushi. This is a great place to get sushi and a beer to unwind after work. It tends not to be crowded during the week with sushi to go as an option. They also have a decent selection of appetizers which is a plus since I am new to SF and haven't found a good izakaya place yet.

Recommends

sfrain

Joined 8 years ago

Stressful experience. The service was horrible. The waitress messed up our orders in so many ways and was running around like crazy the restaurant should be embarrassed. It made our meal very stressful as our orders were coming out piecemeal at random times, missing one thing or another, having food but no rice, watching our food get cold. The portions are small, but quality still as good as I remember. I still think the food is a notch above most casual Japanese restaurants. However, the Top 100 rating has brought much more business than they use to have, and is reflected in the inability for the service to keep up at this mom and pop shop. I'm sorry to see this hidden treasure get exploited by all the SF foodies.

Recommends

yardena

Joined 9 years ago

The real thing. My favorite sushi place in San Francisco to date. I haven't ever had anything that wasn't outstanding. Outside the restaurant is a tank of live shrimp; if you ask for the fresh shrimp, they fish out a couple and decapitate them on the spot. I watched someone eat one that was still wiggling (not my cuppa tea, but the point is that you have the option). Price isn't cheap but the quality is worth it.

Doesn't Recommend

hkchien

Joined 10 years ago

Not worth the hassle. We were "ordered" (not even asked nicely) to vacate the table the minute we finished our food, albeit the fact that the line was very short and there were a few reserved tables empty for more than 20 minutes. It's a pricey restaurant (2 item combo for $18, quite a bump from last year), and we expected to be treated better than this. The food is average anyway--my tonkatsu is very dried, worse than bento from Nijiya. Overall, a very unpleasant experience.

Recommends

maclaren65

Joined 11 years ago

Oishii desu ne!. We eat in Japan Town a lot and had not tried Takara until tonight. What a great discovery! We both ordered the same $16 three-course dinner set. The sashimi was excellent and all the other traditional dishes were first rate! :.) Just before we were about to stay we couldn't eat another bite, we received our ice cream. Mmmmm...what a great way to end the meal. We're looking forward to returning soon for more traditional Japanese dishes.