Taro San Japanese Noodle Bar in Palo Alto

Came here after Barrys and got some Udon without a reservation - no line at 11 am exactly haha.Good:- Loved the wagyu niku udon - really good portion sizes and the soup was really flavorful - texture of the udon was unique and it tasted more hand pulled 4/5- Really good karaage too - kind of tasted like popcorn chicken but thats the way I like it 5/5- Very chill and dim interior good for catching up- The duck tsuke udon just seemed like a smaller dish but the duck that I had was still juicy and tasty. 3/5Bad:- Took a bit longer to get our foodOverall this was a solid place to visit and Id come back for more udon! Reminds me of Udon Mugizo in Mountain View.

Nice to see a place specialize in udon! Much more creative than most udon places (reminds me more of Tokyo where every noodle shop feels is unique). I definitely feel like the chicken udon is the go-to dish here. I would recommend that to everyone. After eating you also feel good afterward (healthy). Also the sushi rolls and cauliflower are really good too. Was interesting to learn the chef was the head sushi chef at google. Very kid friendly, good veggie options too. Please come to San Francisco / outer sunset! I could eat here every day.

The service is terrible with the lady in the picture, she rolled her eyes while I was asking questions, and I asked her for Wi-Fi password, she lied to me there’s no Wi-Fi, and I asked another server, he told my the guest Wi-Fi password.We order two udon, the uni one is salty, and the beef one is plain. Never wanna come back😂

Went there for dinner on a Friday night with some work friends. Just an important information, they require that your entire party be present before they will seat you. Once seated, though, theyre fairly quick to bring out our orders. I had the panko shrimp roll and the pork belly kakuni don. I liked the dishes well enough. I had also ordered a raspberry yuku saketini, which was also okay. I had also tried the chicken kraage; this one was delicious. They had excellent customer service, and service staff check on you at least once. The restaurant is also very clean. I think they are a pretty popular place because they turn the tables over pretty quickly and were seating groups steadily. Overall, pretty good experience. I may come back and try other dishes!

We ordered pork belly kakuni don 👍, takoyaki 👍, sashimi salad 👎👎 hamachi kama 👎, duck and short rib udon 👍. Sashimi salad was not fresh, we smelled and not even touch the sashimi. Service is good.

This is a gem. Great udon, great chicken (crispy and not oily), great sushi, great tempura, great salad. This place is all around good. The food is good and the servers are fast and attentive. We ordered a variety of food here and it was all around excellent. We were shocked at how good it was, especially because the place had great prices and great value. I highly recommend eating here.

Had a great experience here while visiting Stanford mall! The staff were great and the menu had lots of great options. We really enjoyed the sushi offered and the udon was spectacular as well. Highly recommend getting one of their combo deals as it comes with a variety of great foods.

We had the truffle mushroom cream udon and the uni cream udon. Both tasted good, the flat style udon they used was nice. I also really liked the chicken karaage, takoyaki, and bacon wrapped mochi. The karaage was super crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. For dessert we wanted to try the creme brulee but both flavors were out of stock. We tried the mochi donut holes instead with the 3 different dips. They were alright but nothing crazy, I think I prefer just regular mochi donuts. My favorite sauce is the caramel one. Also recommend the yuzu lemonade drink, it was very refreshing.

Food was mediocre. We got seared tuna spicy salmon rolls. It was a little bit smoky but lacked flavors otherwise. My friend got uni ikura udon and she didnt finish it. She said it was okay. I ordered seasonal truffle udon, which was creamy as told by our server, but still, it was very underwhelming overall. I didnt finish it either.

Not sure why this place gets bad ratings about anything other than service, and our service was fine for the most part. Food was great, while the prices are high, the portions are good and the ingredients are excellent. Just be smart and dont order the bento box at an udon place...Uni ikura risotto - delicious also came with some mentaiko. Needed a tiny bit of shoyu.Duck tsuke udon - Really good broth, noodles were great consistency for it, duck was good, but broth could a been hotterNiku udon - Solid staple nothing special about their broth but still fine, the noodles were what made this stand out, thick as hell.Deep fried soft boiled egg - while Ive had better, this is still really good and a hard to find optional add-on.