The Yakitori - Fremont

What was supposed to be a 35 minute wait ended up being a 1 hr and 30 min wait to be seated. No one acknowledged us. We had to keep going in to check on the status. Those who came after got seated first at the bar, when they never mentioned that it was an option. By the time the food came out, it was a total of almost 4 hrs of being there. We waited too long til the point we lost our appetite.

This place is awesome! The food was very good and it came very fast. The music and the ambiance were fun.Beef tongue was very tender and melts in your mouth. The pork belly and the short rib were juicy and had a sweet and kinda citrusy sauce. The chicken shoulder and thigh were tender and flavorful. The takoyaki was not very good though, the batter was very liquidy and there was very little octopus inside.I recommend that you get there ahead of time (way before you get hungry) as the wait to get seated can be up to 50 minutes. Even then I think this place is worth checking out, I’ll be going back!

1. Food wise is pretty good. I noticed the sauce they used to marinate the meat for the grill was tasty. But it lacks of the authentic Japanese grill flavor (not strong enough charcoal flavor). The kalbi was delicious but the meat quality is so so. Not tender, bit chewy. Teba was impressive because it's quite moist and juicy.2. I expected to smell the strong and aromatic charcoal smell, but don't smell it. May be they didn't use the good charcoal 長炭.3. Sukiyaki was not what I expected. I was expecting traditional sukiyaki sauce instead it's miso. Presentation was cool but the flavor is ok. It's like having kimchi miso soup. Which isn't bad.The place is a bar so it played loud music.The service is very good. The waitress and the waiter was attentive. Although there was an incident where 4 older Chinese patrons (from mainland China, it's pretty obvious with the Mandarin accent) was making a scene. It sounded pretty unreasonable complain but regardless, the way they made a scene was embarrassing, even for me being Chinese. They ended up leaving. Not sure if they even paid for the meal.All in all, not a bad experience besides the yelling next to my ear. But for the price, I expected better.

Brilliant. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. LOVE the food fresh cooked with the ice cold beer. Recommended to relieve your weekly stress..

Love the rustic atmosphere, the aroma of coal and shoyu/mirin/sake when you first open and enter the door, takes me back in Japan all over again, the staff are so helpful and polite. They take their time to go over with the list and orders. Service was great as well as the food. We ordered almost half of what was on their menu. We also shared a huge pot of sukiyaki (shared by 3). I suggest you come in early before they open or be prepared to be on the waiting list. Either way, I personally think it's worth the wait. I will be looking forward to coming back here again.