Category Archives: Japanese

Sophie’s Crepes & Halu

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I had a craving for crepes after hearing my co-worker Patsy talk about them so after work, Ron took me to Japantown for some Sanrio shopping and crepes. Patsy told me there was a new Sanrio store open in Japantown so of course I had to go see. It’s one of the new boutique shops of Sanrio. For a picture of the storefront, check out Patsy’s blog here. I got myself a new coffee mug, a sweatshirt, and a cute green frog for my friend.

Afterwards, we stopped at Sophie’s Crepes to satisfy my crepe craving. I ordered the strawberry and nutella crepe (for $5.37 total). The crepe seemed a bit overcooked, too crispy but the strawberries were refreshing and the nutella nice and gooey.

We stopped by Sports Basement afterwards just to check it out, we’ve never been there before. I get a 10% discount from work. It would’ve been great if we found something but didn’t find anything we wanted just then. We do need new bindings and maybe new boots for our snowboards but probably won’t get them until the end of winter.

Afterwards we were craving Japanese for dinner and went to check out this local place called Halu. We’ve passed by it a few times before while looking for parking in the area and I read good reviews about it on Yelp! so thought it a good place to try. They serve mostly yakitori, ramen, and rice dishes. The place is very unique, very small… they have tons of Beatles paraphernalia and great Beatles music!

We had some sake. Light and refreshing.

The deluxe yakitori combination platter. There’s no choice but a good selection of 7 skewers. From left to right: chicken wings, shrimp, okra, mushrooms, chicken, chicken meatballs, and beef (the beef was the best).

The agedashi tofu. Was a bit soggy but the sauce very tasty.

Chasu ramen. Soup was a bit bland but with the addition of a bit of spices, much better. The soup is very “creamy” so watch out. The pork was very tender, almost melted in your mouth. The ramen was thinner than I liked but cooked well.

Overall, I probably wouldn’t return for the chasu ramen but they do have a special butter garlic ramen that might be yummy and also have okonomiyaki which we’ll have to go back and try. The beef yakitori was the best and the people sitting next to us had asparagus wrapped in bacon which looked really good too so we’d have to try other yakitori options if we go there again.

Sophie’s Crepes
1581 Webster Street (between Geary Blvd & Post St)
Near Kinokuniya Bookstore

Halu
312 8th Avenue (between Clement St & Geary Blvd)

Joy Sushi – Winter Solstice

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http://www.joysushi.net

Ron’s family invited us over for dinner and to recognize winter solstice. We went to his parents’ house to pay respects to their departed grandparents and offer then rice dumplings. We’d come back after dinner to eat the rice dumplings.

We went to dinner at Joy Sushi, a Japanese restaurant that we frequent. We ordered a ton of food and I hardly remember what is what… Henry had gotten a $50 GC for only $3 but we had to spend a minimum of $100 in order to use the GC. He bought it from Restaurant.com when they were having a sale. A very good deal… now I have a new place to check out for cheap(er) eats.

We shared some sake.

Rainbow roll and blossom roll.

Agedashi tofu.

I forget what roll it was with the eel.. but the one with the salmon on top is lava roll, spicy salmon. Plus some sweet shrimp sushi.

The best part of the meal. Hamachi kama, the yellow tail fish cheek served with a vinegar sweet sauce. We ordered two! So good.

Baked scallop roll.

Ron’s mom always likes to eat udon. This is their beef udon. The beef was a bit tough but the noodles were fun, a bit chewy.

The family.

Green tea cheesecake… not good.

Tempura green tea ice cream.

Overall after the $50 GC, the dinner still cost about $100 after tax and tip. We ate plenty and rolled out of there. We always have a good dinner there. Oh, they take reservations, so call ahead if you’re planning on going on Friday or Saturday night.

Joy Sushi
30 South B Street
San Mateo, CA 94401

Silver Bells Arts & Crafts and Tanpopo

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/tanpopo-san-francisco

This morning I went to the Silver Bells Arts & Crafts Faire near Japantown. They had a lot of Asian inspired crafts including jewelry, purses, candles, kitchenware, artwork, cards, etc. It was very crowded but everyone was very friendly and I got a few nice gifts for friends and family. I can’t wait to see what they have next year!

Afterwards, I met up with Ron and we had lunch in Japantown at Tanpopo. They had Kyushu Ramen with Chashu. It’s a delicious pork bone broth with roasted pork. It’s one of the closest to the ramen we had in Japan and it was pretty affordable. This bowl of ramen had extra chashu and is a large bowl for $10. Quite filling and good after a walk in the cold.

After coming home though, Ron and I both had a bit of food coma. Maybe too much starch…

Ariake Restaurant

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http://www.sfariake.com/

Tonight we decided to go out for dinner since it’s been about two weeks since we went out somewhere nice to eat. We decided to have Japanese and went to Ariake Restaurant. We went in around 6pm and there were only 2 other parties there but it filled up pretty quickly as we were having dinner. They were nice enough to turn on the heater right above our table as it was a chilly evening. They also served a hot wonderful smelling and delicious tasting tea.

Our little table in the corner was nicely decorated with a fresh red rose. A pretty nice touch. The service was excellent and very efficient. An empty dish never stayed on our table for more than a few minutes before being whisked away.

We ordered the “Love” chirashi, monk fish liver, and chicken teriyaki. We had miso soup and salad as well.

In the chirashi, they were nice enough to substitute the salmon roe for extra hamachi, my fav fish, in the chirashi. The sashimi in the chirashi was excellent, very fresh, and I enjoyed the other ingredients of the dish, the marinated bamboo (I think), the soy sauce mushrooms, the sprouts, shredded turnip, and tamago. For $20, I was very satisfied.

The monk fish liver was nicely sauced, a bit soy and spicy sauce. Yum! If you like liver pate, you’d like this dish.

The chicken teriyaki wasn’t terribly special but a good portion and tasted like chicken teriyaki should taste, not over-sweetened like some places.

Our dinner came to $52 total after adding in tip which isn’t bad considering how much sashimi we had to eat. Yum!

We got home and the kitties were all sitting around bundled up. Even with all that fur, they get cold too.

Ariake Restaurant
5041 Geary Blvd

Sushi Raw San Bruno

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http://www.sushirawsanbruno.com/

We attempted to go have dinner with Ron’s parents tonight since we hadn’t seen them for a few weeks but unfortunately, they already ate so we went to find our own dinner before visiting with them.

We ended up in San Bruno and stopped at Sushi Raw. The restaurant itself looks like a converted Jack-in-the-Box or other fast food joint since it had a drive-through window still installed.

The place only has about 10-12 tables but also has a sushi bar. The tables had cute bowls for soy sauce/chopstick rest.

We ordered something called the Island Roll which has hamachi, salmon, and tuna wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber. It was $13.95 which was a bit expensive but likely because it contained so much fresh fish. There was a tangy sauce but we still requested for wasabi because their sauce didn’t quite do it.

We tried their tako sunomono which is an octopus salad. The restaurant that makes my favorite tako sunomono is in Stockton because they make it spicy… haven’t been able to find it since. The toasted sesame seeds were a nice touch but still not exactly what I wanted. This was $6.95.

Lastly we ordered the special bento box where you get your choice of 3 items. We chose the tonkatsu, chicken teriyaki, and spicy tuna roll. The bento is served with miso soup and salad. The miso soup was good because they added those white long mushrooms. The rest of the bento was good but not spectacular but had a nice presentation, I liked the plates. This was $13.95.

Now upon coming home and looking online, apparently you can place your order online and they can deliver! Too bad we don’t live down there. One other thing to mention, their wasabi was good, nice and spicy, it hits you in the nose when you least expect it.

Sushi Raw
1789 El Camino Real
San Bruno, CA 94066