Yayoi Cupertino

Coming from Taiwan, we're familiar with Yayoi, and this place feels very authentic - I almost felt like back in Taipei, unlike other chain restaurants that may adapt to the local style one way or another. The food is good. I like that the water comes without ice. Pork katsu is perfect - juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Rice is softer than I'd like though. When we ordered salmon and tuna don, we specified no seaweed on the rice, and I think they removed seaweed from the miso soup as well - kudos! Overall very pleasant experience. Good atmosphere, food and service. Will definitely come back!

The ambience is very nice! The chicken katsu was super light and crispy. We love the serving ware. Very pretty. Highly recommend the Gozen. Great variety of dishes. We like the rice.

My two kiddos love it here. Of course the grown ups love it too. Everything tastes amazing and fresh. I was so full so I took my dessert to go. Also very rarely will I give 5 star reviews and this place gets 5 stars. Best food ever.

Hitsumabushi was amazing, it was very close to what I had in Tokyo - the only difference may actually be the condiments instead of the eel itself - that's how close it was. A pleasant discovery. 🔥🔥🔥 Tonkatsu leaves a LOT to be desired however - really need to go back to the drawing board with this one. 🫠 forget about worth the money, it was almost not worth the calories and I'm not even on a diet!! But Hitsumabushi was good so still 5 stars

Whenever I crave Japanese tonkatsu, this is the place that comes to mind. The crispy tonkatsu, paired with the sauce and freshly ground sesame seeds, is incredibly fragrant and authentic. I’m really happy to have found such delicious tonkatsu here in the U.S. As for the salmon don, it wasn’t as enjoyable—it had a strange bamboo-like taste that overpowered the freshness of the salmon. I’ll probably skip the salmon don next time, but I’ll definitely come back for the tonkatsu.

Went around 2hrs before closing time and we were immediately seated. I hear you usually have to wait. Had two servers who were decent (esp the female server). Ordered via a tablet. It makes ordering easier. Other than the photos shared in this review, we also had tamago yaki, which was the only dish I didn't like (too firm and salty for me), and Sapporo beer. Food there is good overall, but quite overpriced. The sushi was actually decent, which is harder to find around here. They also give free rice refills, but the portion sizes are on the smaller side so idk if anyone would need additional rice. The rice isn't bad for the area as it's been hard to find good quality Japanese food in the area. But unmemorable. Those 2 sushi rolls in the photos are just under 5 bucks each, and despite being delicious, they can be eaten in one easy mouthful. That's a decent guage for the overall pricing for everything. We paid close to 100 usd for what we ordered (!!!), but I had a nice time with good company so I may go back whilst I'm holidaying in the area. Definitely not a place I'd go more than twice on my trip though due to the price. Beer came in a pretty and chilled glass. The tables and chairs were clean. They had subtle music (reminded me of new age jazz) that wasn't blaring/obnoxious/pop. The upscale atmosphere seems just right to grab a beer and some appetisers. On the downside, they use poor quality disposable wooden chopsticks that splinter everywhere. Their bowls are cheap and do not match the nice food they serve. But at the end of the day, I took a star off because the prices are steep and that's really all.

The atmosphere is great. You order through a pad device, which you can track the process of order. If you need help, you can select the help you need from the help menu on the pad device, too. The price may look a bit higher than other Japanese restaurants, but it has already includes tip, so it's quite reasonable. There are quite a lot of selections on the menu. We enjoyed the food we ordered, except the beef sukiyaki is a bit salty for me. The presentation of food is very nice, too.