Quote:
Originally Posted by kenmei
oooh, good topic. that way any local JFers can try out eachothers recomendations 
San Jose, California, which is about 45mins south of San Francisco. Tons of Japanese people and Japanese places here...we have a Japan town and various stores including hyakuen(daiso), supermarkets (mitsuwa & marukai) and many restaraunts (from your korean/chinese sushi to real japanese ones)
kaiseki -- ehh, not too sure. everything here is more izakaya than kaiseki style.
ramen -- a tie between Kahoo Ramen in San Jose: which is awesome for their kara miso (spicy miso), I love spicy food and their namamen (fresh ramen noodles) are hard to beat. and then Maruichi Ramen in Mountain View: which has FRESHER noodles made onsite (you can even watch them make em) and they have TONKOTSU!! Including KURO RAMEN. if you love garlic (like me) you'll love kuro ramen...stuff is AMAZING!
izakaya -- another TIE. Saizo in Sunnyvale: traditional style izakaya, small and personal restaraunt with a menu that has a lot of variety. if you've never been to an izakaya this may be the place to start. just think of it as japanese tapas. Gocchi in Cupertino is more of a fusion style izakaya. They have things like kimchee kochijan (korean style) pizza which is super awesome. They also have an extensive menu and haven't found anything I didn't like yet.
Sushi -- only one place, since it's super hard to find Japanese run sushi joints these days (90% are chinese/korean run) the one we've found is Sushi Maru in Mountain View. The sushi chef is awesome, we speak to him in Japanese and he's very generous to us with the better pieces and sometimes a little extra (he'll also give us free stuff) This is the one place that gets fresh UNI so if you're an uni-lover like my wife, this place is definately for you. |
Nice, i will keep this list in case I want to travel to your area
Just so everyone else know, you don't have to follow my format. My post is the way it is because there aren't that many Japanese restaurant choices in Toronto... everyone seems to serve only sushi and sashimi.. so if you have things you want to add and review, feel free