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Good Japanese Restaurant in your local area??? - 08-02-2011, 12:25 PM

What are some of the better or best Japanese restaurant you've visited locally in your own country or in your area?

I am from Markham, a smaller city north of Toronto Ontario (Canada). Here are my choices for Japanese retaurant:

For Kaiseki - The best, or I shold say, the ONLY place I've ever tried, is a place call Sushi Kaji. Its rather far from where I live, and its extremely pricey, but it really bring out the true Kaiseki atmosphere I've experienced when I was in Japan

Ramen - Iwatei, just behind J-Town in Markham, it is also relatively expensive for Ramen, but they are far more authentic than the Ajisen chain we have here

Izakaya - GUU. I think this particular chain has restaurant all over the world, but the one in Toronto is not bad, food is great, not a big fan of its atmosphere though

Sushi and Sashimi - Can't say I've had any good sushi in Toronto ever..... The closest thing I had was from a restaurant name Fune, in the heart of Toronto, but still its nothing compared to ones I had in Japan

What about you? What and who would you recommend in your area?
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08-02-2011, 05:31 PM

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.


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08-02-2011, 06:47 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by kenmei View Post
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
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08-02-2011, 06:52 PM

Naperville which is one of the larger suburbs of Chicago, about an hour away.

Shinto, it can be either a sit down or with the chefs cook infront of you (can't remember what it's called) very good though and a decent selection of food and drinks (from what I saw, still underage)

For sushi there is a place by the local movie theater called Tokyo Bay, great sushi, and great service with a large selection of sushi to choose from. They also give great miso soup as an appetizer.
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08-02-2011, 06:53 PM

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Originally Posted by astrogaijin View Post
Naperville which is one of the larger suburbs of Chicago, about an hour away.

Shinto, it can be either a sit down or with the chefs cook infront of you (can't remember what it's called) very good though and a decent selection of food and drinks (from what I saw, still underage)

For sushi there is a place by the local movie theater called Tokyo Bay, great sushi, and great service with a large selection of sushi to choose from. They also give great miso soup as an appetizer.
teppanyaki


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08-02-2011, 06:55 PM

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Originally Posted by astrogaijin View Post
Shinto, it can be either a sit down or with the chefs cook infront of you (can't remember what it's called)
You mean Teppanyaki?

We have a couple of teppanyaki restaurant in Toronto too, but much of which are operated by Chinese owners and hired "unseasoned" Chinese chef, the gimmicks is no longer the quality of the food or cooking, but more on the show itself, they killed it with crazy shows, so I just stopped going all together...
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08-02-2011, 07:15 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by godwine View Post
You mean Teppanyaki?

We have a couple of teppanyaki restaurant in Toronto too, but much of which are operated by Chinese owners and hired "unseasoned" Chinese chef, the gimmicks is no longer the quality of the food or cooking, but more on the show itself, they killed it with crazy shows, so I just stopped going all together...
seems like they're all like that... along with a huge pricetag.


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08-02-2011, 07:17 PM

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seems like they're all like that... along with a huge pricetag.
The show is not what bother me most.. its the amount of food wasted during the show... Real teppanyaki is an art, and i don't think i've seen teppanyaki chef wasting food in Japan when I was there... so the true spirit is completely destroyed, the whole thing turn into a clown show....
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08-02-2011, 10:16 PM

I don't think any of the food was wasted, but he did make alot of fried rice which was delicious. Also his name I believe was Victor and he said he spent years learning how to do everything.
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08-07-2011, 10:03 PM

Here in southern NH there are unfortunately not a lot of good Japanese places. It is frustrating.

There are a few "supposed" Japanese restaraunts around here.... but almost all of them are run by Chinese people or Korean people, and for some reason the food is just slightly "off" in those places.

In some places... it is mainly American Chinese food called Japanese. As an example, stuff like tempura there is basically an order of "Chinese" deep fired something with the really thick, oily, heavy batter on it.

Probably the best Japanese place near here is called Takumi, in Nashua NH. It has a pretty broad menu and it also has a diverse list of Nihonshu. Most Japanese places in this area do not have this extensive a selection. Of course It has the "requsite" teppanyaki part so common in America...... but we always eat in either the dining area or the sushi bar. In general, the food is really good. There are some Japanese working there, but most of the staff are Chinese it seems. The owner however is Japanese, Toru Oga.

Takumi Japanese Sushi & Hibachi

I find that the better Japanese places (at least around here) seem to be indicated when I see the list of sakes........ more types of sake..... generally better food.

best,

.............john

Last edited by JBaymore : 08-07-2011 at 10:10 PM.
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