Katana-Ya in El Cerrito

This Japanese restaurant has been running in El cerrito for years and is one of those establishments that all locals know about and go to. The restaurant is located within a small shopping center and is next to a popular Japanese grocery store. The food at Katana-ya is good and flavorful. They have a variety of Japanese dishes from noodles, rice, sushi, and sashimi. The menu is extensive and has actually been reduced down to a more manageable selection. This time we came here with the family for a Friday night dinner to celebrate the start of the weekend and to take the kids out since we didnt go out anywhere for summer break. We started with a chicken Karaage which had a nice crunchy outside and a soft tender inside with lots of flavor coating. There was a plum sauce to accompany the dish as well and it gave the chicken a nice tangy taste to cut the fried taste a bit. All of our entrees came with a salad and Miso soup. The salad was delicious and fresh with a really nice mayonnaise based dressing. The Miso soup was flavorful but a bit salty for my taste. For my main dish I ordered a Katsu-Jyu which is a deep fried pork cutlet over rice with a dashi sauce and egg over rice. It came with a potato croquette and a little dish of pickled vegetables. The Katsu-jyu was good and savory. The pork cutlery was tender and went well with the egg and rice. The marinated carrots that had the dashi sauce was a bit salty. We also had beef sukiyaki which looked like it had vegetables, glass noodles, beef and some other ingredients all cooked in a flavorful soupy sauce. My son had the beef udon which came in a nice cast iron pot. I didnt try it but he said it was really good. My daughter who has an expensive taste ordered the sushi and sashimi dinner set. Im guessing it was pretty good because she ate the whole thing.Overall the food was good. The service was excellent and the wait staff were very attentive. The atmosphere was really nice, calm with a touch of cozy warmth and relaxing instrumental music piping from the speakers. I would recommend this place for a nice quiet japanese meal.

The food is always amazing and the price has only ever been reasonable. Their vegitarian options have been awesome and I expect to continue using them as my main japanese spot in this side of the bay.

Place is cute and small and quite clean. Menu has a lot to choose from either ramen or sushi items reasonably priced.We shared the house pho and bento box from lunch menu with beef teriyaki choice as well as sake maki.Portions are good but food is just decent. Not so flavorful pho. Sushi was ok and beef was bit chewy.

Hot green tea (Love!) 💕❤️Miso Soup, orange salad, vegetarian dish set was the perfect order and amount. The food is 5 Stars. ✨⭐️✨And with white Chardonnay 🥂

The ramen feels like it’s from instant noodle package. The worst ramen I have ever ever had. I ordered the House Chashu Ramen, and my partner ordered another kind. Both are bad. For the Chashu ramen. Extremely thin Chashu, like those from the grocery store next door. The egg is solid yoke and flavorless. Don’t know why they call this place a Ramen place.Service isn’t that great either.

My wife and I come here pretty often. We are both visually impaired, and the staff is always friendly and accommodating. We come here when we are craving Ramen. I always order the house Ramen and enjoy the pieces of pork, soft boiled egg, and dumplings inside. The sushi isn’t the most mind-blowing that I’ve had, but it is always consistently really good. I always order the Katana-Ya roll and bounce around between some of the others for my second role. I’ve heard great things about the nigiri, so I’ll have to try that sometime soon. Glad this place is a three minute walk from our apartment.

Excellent service. They play relaxing instrumental music which add to zen atmosphere for me. I been since 2015, the specialty sushi rolls and ramen are always fresh and yummy.

A great place for classic Homestyle Japanese food. The tempura is crunchy, hot, and not greasy. The ramen and sushi are made with care. The super friendly staff is very attentive.

It’s a great place to go to for dinner great costumer service.

First of all- our waitress Jessica was awesome!All of the food we had was outstanding. The sushi rolls, the spicy ramen, the tofu steaks, the udon, and the chicken Katsu curry. But something very special, that they make here, ( that we have never found at any other Japanese restarant) is the “beef rolls dinner”. Imagine 3 pieces of thinly sliced beef, stuffed with mushroom, spinach and sweet carrots -then drizzled with yummy teriyaki sauce and served with rice and their delicious kimchi. Every bite was such a treat. It’s not on the menu, since the ownership changed, but they were kind enough to make it for us. I hope they put it back on the menu (officially, ) so that others can enjoy it as much as we do.