Hachi Ju Hachi in Saratoga

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.

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.

Came here because of the good reviews but was disappointed with the quality of food. The atmosphere was not very inviting. We ordered Set B so we can taste 9 different dishes. The food arrived fairly soon but only 2 dishes stand out and the rest was ok. We added teriyaki chicken and grilled pork belly, they were nothing special as well. So overall the food is totally not worth the price.

Ive dined at Hachi Ju Hachi numerous times, and each time the chef and hostess gave us a big welcome. The chef is incredibly friendly, generous, and has provided us with an incredible experience.There are dishes that Ive loved, and dishes I didnt really like. But thats just because their dishes are truly traditional Japanese cuisine, and I have enjoyed each experience. I cant praise this place more highly with their friendly, welcoming staff, and the absolutely incredible sashimi that would rival that which youd order in Japan. The chef is a true artist. I cant wait to go back soon.

Amazing! I lived in Japan for 3.5 years and the food here is fantastic. It’s very fresh, flavorful, and tasty — even for someone who has lived in Japan for a long time. We got the set a menu, and next time, we will get the set b menu to try more items. There were only two chefs and two waitresses for the night, so they were working really hard to make sure all of the orders were made quickly. They were also very careful due to Covid and has a lot of signs around everywhere to prevent the spread of Covid.

This place is so wonderful! The server was amazing and the chef was super friendly! The food is authentic and delicious. Not your typical restaurant, you could see the chef puts lots of effort into the dishes. It is like home cooking, and feels very inviting. Would definitely recommend and return multiple times. I wish I could give it a 10000000/10000000 if Google had the option…

Authentic Japanese cuisine with friendly staff. However, their choice of sushi is pretty limited (unless you be there for their sushi nights’ specials). We liked chicken teriyaki but the seafood and vegetable tempura was mostly vegetables as you can see in the picture. Description of dishes is very concise on their menu.

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!!!!

All-in-all, authentic subtlety of Japanese flavors, good use of seasonal ingredients, flexible ordering, but wait can be excruciating for some and outside seating for dinner is not ideal at the moment. Looking forward to trying it again for lunch or after pandemic conditions.Came here on a late November night around 6PM. During pandemic operations, theyve set up a tent roadside for outdoor dining and heat lamps for tables on the sidewalk.One issue though, the heat lamps couldnt be positioned in an ideal position or set to a proper strength to deal with mid 40s F temp to adequately warm everyone at the tables, so keep that in mind if youre coming for dinner.Now for the food. Temperature wise, set A was perfect for dinner on a cold night. 3 soup dishes with varying umami elements and dashi. The flavors are delicate and subtle. If youre the type to slather your food with BBQ sauce, this is not the cuisine for you. Theres a heavy emphasis on complementary flavors between the veggies and the protein. Extra points for the pairing of hot clay pot dishes with refreshing cold dishes (tsukemono with unagi, etc). The sashimi were choice cuts and the wasabi was the real deal. However, this came at a steep price of $56 for 8 pieces of assorted.Some points of to note though. Set A is said to be enough for 1 - 2, but for a party of two, Id highly recommend ordering at least 2 extra sides. If you dont like Japanese eggplant, you will not enjoy the default dishes in set A. You are free to customize and replace dishes at will. Tsukemono was refreshing, but wish it was a stronger pickling for that appetize inducing acidity.Also, given the current conditions, service can be slow. Id check the menu beforehand online and be ready to order when you sit. I asked for a couple minutes to review the menu and the wait between ordering and dish arrival quickly became 40 minutes. Its a small business and times are rough, so its not unexpected, but definitely a point to keep in mind.

This is a special little restaurant for authentic Japanese cuisine. The head chef runs a kitchen which is open to be viewed by the patrons. We has an assortment of sushi, sashimi, pig belly, tempura, and other miscellaneous dishes. Everything was outstanding. My only warning is their tap water tastes unfiltered and little strange.