Top Japanese Restaurant in San Gabriel
Ducks Restaurant
1381 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
Iconic San Gabriel Japanese soul food. Always busy but worth the wait. Everything is made from scratch. Curry is made from a family recipe and the broth for the ramen is exceptional. Ive seen families walk through saying they love it as well because theres something for everyone of all ages. In a small restaurant you wouldnt expect their drink selection but they have about 7 or 8 unique Japanese beers and Sake! Definitely food for the soul in every way.
Jazz Cat Restaurant
121 Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
7 Years In LA, this is still my favorite restaurant.Just like Monica in friends, SEVEN, SEVEN, SEVEN....SEVEN!!I moved here 7 years ago from Denver on a mission to eat good food. The first here I was here I splurged at every restaurant possible, American, Mexican, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, so on and within those genres of food breaking it down to specific specialties of the cuisine. When I first went to Jazz Cat it was a small location on Valley next to Noodle World/Boiling crab. At the time they were still using iron pots where they used petroleum jelly to light the fire to heat up the soup. Being that the restaurant was tiny and not meant for 50 people to light individual fires in the restaurant, it was too hot. Listening to their costumers, they opened a brand new restaurant with well vented tables and electric burners.Fast forward 7 years later. My go-to broth is still the Spicy Seafood Essence (formally known as the Jazz Cat Spicy). Not sure why they call it spicy, because its not spicy, its just more flavorful than the original. If youre a seafood eater, try the seafood as your protein, if not stick with the beef as your protein.MUST TRY side ordersDO NOT leave without ordering what we call awesome balls. Yes, I said it. The formal name for this dish is GOLDEN FISH BALLS! ERR MERHH GERRDDD they are so good....special surprise for you when you bite into them.Second side you MUST order is Popcorn Chicken. Yes, fried chicken showered in jazz cats secret dust....possibly MSG ;P hahaha. You wont regret it.
Katsu Sando - San Gabriel
710 W Las Tunas Dr Unit C6, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
They have extended hours now, which is great, because now I am able to come after work hours to get a katsu sandwich if I so desire! This place is very casual and reminiscent of a mini mart and old fashioned LA eatery of late-night sandwiches and 3am burritos.Unfortunately, they dont close that late, but late enough as a dinner to grab on your way back from your commute from work. They have chicken, pork, shrimp, and mushroom katsu sandwiches. Ive only had the opportunity to try the chicken katsu sandwich: Its a solid sandwich that pairs even better with the sauce, though Id be more impressed if it was flavorful enough without the addition to its slightly spicy sauce side (that you are given).Its definitely too much for me to eat at once, and the sandwich was sliced in half that you can stow away to eat later if the first half fills you up!Its in a convenient location, which there is parking on a plaza lot and alongside the streets.The front is clean, but plain, and some would consider the sandwiches pricey for the area. It was pretty quiet when we stopped by, maybe if they had a radio or curated playlist that played into the aesthetic of the shop, that would be pretty cool. In addition to more drink choices ( the more unique or zany the better!) as the selection was lack luster. Would also appreciate a larger selection of varied merch like patches, car fresheners, car decals, enamel pins, ect, as I find the mascot very endearing.Will update again when I am able to try their other delicious sounding offerings! Happy to have a katsu place here, and hope it sticks around.
Sushi Rolland Japanese Restaurant
264 S Mission Dr H, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
Been meaning to eat here forever. Finally, I came in today for lunch. Got the Combo C and the Blossom Roll. Ive eaten at all the Japanese restaurants in SGV and Little Tokyo. This one is up there. High quality of food, while flavors go together well without being overpowering.
Shenyang Restaurant
127 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
I went to this restaurant for the first time and bought three dishes: Guobao Pork, Big Lapi, and Shredded Pork with Beijing Sauce. After driving 4 miles home, I found that the Guobao Pork was warm and all soft and soaked in the soup. Not a single piece of meat was crispy! Anyone who has eaten Northeastern cuisine knows that the Guobao Pork must at least have a crispy texture. However, the Guobao Pork here is not at all like freshly baked. I have every reason to suspect that you are buying the leftover vegetables from lunch. Give it to me! Not only is it not crispy, it has the texture of meat that has been soaked in juice for a long time, and it is warm, not hot! The texture of Da Lapi is completely hard and rejuvenated, as if it had been stored in the refrigerator for several days in advance. Every bite is full of hard lumps, and I vomit while eating. The shredded pork with Beijing sauce only has one or two green onions. If you don't look carefully, you won't find the green onions. You have to prepare the green onions yourself. I stopped by today because I wanted to eat Guobao Pork. It was the first and last time, and I was really angry! Not to mention the small portion, the dish was warm, the cold skin was hard, the texture was wrong, and the ingredients were not fresh at all. I just looked through the comments and found out that there were comments about cold pot pork being served to customers. Oh my god., I can't imagine encountering such a black shop in the United States! I would like to remind everyone to be careful not to step on the wrong thing. Not to mention losing money, your good mood will not be beautiful anymore. ?. One additional sentence: Guobao meat is full of tendons and cannot be chewed at all. It is really bad!
Hayatobi
6420 Rosemead Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91775, United States
This is a San Gabriel gem!I’ve lived in San Gabriel for most of my life. We haven’t had a local Japanese restaurant in the area for quite some time. We especially haven’t had one that was Japanese owned and operated. You’ll often find the chef and owner working in the back.The food is delicious. We had the agedashi tofu, crispy rice with spicy tuna, and edamame to start. The crispy rice with spicy tuna was easily my favorite starter.The chicken katsu curry was my entree. The chicken was moist and perfectly breaded to pair with the hearty curry. My girlfriend had the tempura udon. She thoroughly enjoyed it. We also shared an eel avocado cut roll.We finished everything off with the green tea mochi ice cream and black sesame ice cream.Everything tastes like it was made from scratch. We will most definitely come back!
No.1 Kazoku
162 W Valley Blvd #3723, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
This place is known for having alcoholic boba drinks. Sadly, the boba with alcohol is only offered certain days. It use to be just weekends, it is now extended to Thurs-Sat I believe, but just call ahead so you wont be disappointed. Also, every weekday they have a special. I went on a Monday and they had a CA Roll if you order over $30.Our waiter and waitress seemed nervous at first and it was a bit awkward because this was our first time here. We were disappointed a finding out we couldnt get alcohol-boba drinks and then they were also out of oysters! Agh!! We want our raw seafood, otherwise why go to a sushi joint?Anyways, being super hungry I just ordered a few yakitori. We had the pork belly, squid, quail egg, and chicken hearts to start with. All of which were cooked very well. My friend was like why is this squid so soft? I thought it should be chewy! I told her that no, that squid is chewy if its overcooked, but this were perfectly grilled. Just FYI Yakitori on Wednesdays are $1.50 each! I want to come back and eat grilled meats to my hearts content.The sashimi/sushi here is average. I base this on the freshness and tastiness of the Ikura. I know, maybe thats not fair, but if its fresh I think other things are also. Whatever, dont tell me how to think! My ikura was bright and not wrinkly, not too salty, not too much rice, and did not taste too fishy.We ordered sashimi plate for 2 people with 3 pieces of salmon, tuna, a white fish rolled around some sprouts, and what I believe was 3 pieces of yellow tail. It was plated very well and everything was fresh tasting. We had a piece of fatty salmon at the end and that was also delightful.At the end of our meal the waiter that kept coming around was very nice and we asked if we could get ice cream for checking in on a app. He said yes, but they ran out of green tea. I was going to be annoyed again with this, but he saved the day offering other flavors with chocolate syrup and a cookie. That is the way to make me happy after running out of a 3rd item! (Even if its free...) So my friend and I had our dessert and then the owner came out and offered us each (and all the customers) pieces of lotus seed moon cake because it was the Moon Festival that week. What a lovely end of my sushi craving induced meal.
Bonchon San Gabriel
710 W Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776, United States
While I would love to give Bonchon a higher rating, I just cant. I enjoyed the food, but the service was atrocious.Dont get me wrong. I went there because of personal recommendations from friends to get the Korean fried chicken, and they werent wrong. I had one other place, and Bonchon blows it out of the water with their exterior and the chicken tenderness. However, the main thing that bothers me is the service provided to me at Bonchon.I went to Bonchon and ordered 3 items: 20 pieces of soy garlic wings, the seafood udon soup, and the bulgogi house special fried rice. Each of the items had something wrong with it.The fried chicken only had 19 pieces rather than the 20 I was promised. While I do realize this may not be a huge problem, I still would like the full amount that I ordered since I am paying the money for it. Aside from that, it was fine. However, we also ordered the soup and the fried rice. We waited about 10 minutes for the fried chicken -- which was good, but that was probably because everyone else already had their orders so it wasnt busy for the kitchen. When we finished the chicken, which was in about 20 minutes, the fried rice and the soup didnt come out yet. We waited about 5 more minutes before asking about it. When the waitress came out, she claimed that it was in the process of being made, but we could tell that they didnt even start on either of the orders.After about 7 minutes, the fried rice came out. To be honest, the fried rice was okay. There wasnt anything special about it since it is just fried rice but with bulgogi in it. In my opinion, it is a pretty standard dish. The only problem that we had was that it took such a long time since they forgot about our order. When we finished the fried rice, we waited another 4 minutes before they brought out the udon soup. When it was brought out, the server wondered whether it had seafood added into it and said they would check. We decided to not touch the soup since we thought that they would come back with a reply. After about 4 minutes of waiting, we decided to ask about one of the servers whether the udon had seafood. They came back and said that it did. I think that was a terrible customer service on their end since the server said they would check whether it had seafood or not. It wasnt until we asked about it that they confirmed for us rather than coming out and saying whether or not it did.In totality, the fried chicken was good while the udon and the fried rice werent anything special. The main caveat; however, was the horrendous customer service. I dont plan on going back just because I dont want to wait for a long time just to be served poorly.P.S. The time approximations were due to watching the basketball game and using the clock.
Kami Buffet & Grill
909 San Gabriel Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770, United States
This Asian mixed-flavor buffet has many dishes, including Japanese food, Mexican food, and fruit salad. The light in the room is a bit dark. I dont like the carpet in the dining room. I feel that it is not hygienic. There are a lot of tables in the restaurant, a lot of guests, and the taste is pretty good.
Wa Izakaya - SGV
120 N San Gabriel Blvd # I, San Gabriel, CA 91775, United States
4.5 ⭐️s for overall experience! My friend, her kids, and I enjoyed our meal in mostly every way - flavors, service, and cleanliness. The house salad was healthy (not just iceberg lettuce) and had a generous portion for one person. My friend said it was super delicious - Sunset roll, blue crab roll, and miso black cod were on point flavor wise. Only negatives were that the seaweed was a bit chewy (not super tough though) and the soup slightly salty. The staff was kind, friendly, attentive, and patient - hard to come by these days. Prices are reasonable and I plan to come back. Parking is tougher at times in this plaza, but at some point, youll find a spot.