Tanto Japanese Restaurant
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
19 reviews
Santa Clara, CA
"This place has been around for years. I used to go here about 12 years ago with a group, to refuel after a night of dancing. Scott was nice…" read more »
112 Reviews for Tanto Japanese Restaurant
Very good authentic tapas! I can't recall everything that was ordered, since my friends were placing all the orders. But Ioved practically everything on our table.
If you want tapas style japanese food, this is the place to try out.
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Authentic Tapas (Small dishes and drinking, which is what Japanese people do after work. This is not really for sushi thought they do have sushi in the menu).
We spent $130, and ordered many dishes. All the dishes were authentic and taste pretty good, but I still think this place is a bit over priced over all.
I do have to say that... with the same price, I would goto Gochi.
This was my first Japanese restaurant experience. I ordered pretty much everything on the menu. They also serve sashimi and rolls, which are always fresh and tasty.
I tried the chicken and meatballs soup in a clay pot with some fried potato balls and some pork and tofu in a hotpot this evening. Everything was delicious. I felt so Japanese!
The tea and service was delightful, the waitresses were helpful and friendly.
4-5 dishes with beer and tea was $60, a little pricey for a Tuesday night dinner, but totally worth it.
I have been here for lunch and dinner. Lunch as really good clam ramen set. The broth is rich but not thick. Dinner has lots of tapas with a very authentic Japanese sweet soy sauce taste. My favorite is their dessert it has ice cream and mochi and is among my favorites! The environment is cozy but lively and crowded. I love the place but just know that the minute you step out your clothes will smell! (hence 1 less star)
My favorite Japanese restaurant besides Yuki Sushi.
You get real japanese food, not some pussy americanized california rolls, or fancy dragon rolls.
All I can say is, come with a crowd, preferably with at least one who speaks japanese and knows the cuisine well, order everything on the menu. Everything we tried was very good. Nothing really stood out, but it was a great meal.
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Alright so I pretty much love ALL the food there. Heck, I get a salad to go and then finish it before I'm out the door. So if I was giving out stars just for the food - Tanto definitely receives 5 stars. I'm from Japan and the food makes me feel homesick so that's definitely a good thing. What makes it four stars is the service... which is embarrassing because most of the waitresses are Japanese. They're cocky and condescending. Until I started speaking to them in Japanese, they acted like they were too good to serve me and my friends. I HATE places like that but I just keep going back because of the good food... The pricing's alright - I feel like it's worth it but I may be biased, coming from Tokyo where EVERYTHING is pricey.
Basically, food is amazing but if you can't stand bad service, then maybe this just isn't the place for you. But suck it up, give it a try. I swear if you just ignore the service you will looove Tanto!
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UPDATED 4.2.08 below....
elated and sleepy after a delicious meal here......
oink oink.....
ps.
will write a review after i am done with my playtime (rolling in thick mud or maybe it's with daniel henney - check out my blog and then exercise your imagination)
_____________________
sorry for the delay. between writing a review for tanto or taking a walk with daniel henney. guess which one i chose? seriously, have YOU looked at my blog yet? anyway, here's proof:
http://www.friendsoflb...
don't we make a cute couple? oink oink.... :)
upon entering tanto, we were greeted with a huge smile and "welcome"!!! we were quickly seated and menus were brought to our table almost immediately. these people are friendly, fast and efficient.
i ordered the silver cod, which came with a miso soup and salad ($10.95). the salad looked like the ordinary salad, but had a unique and flavorful taste. i like it. the miso soup was good. (kabuto's nameko soup is still my favorite though) and the COD....oh the cod....was light and buttery and totally melted in my mouth.....hm....hm....good. oh sweet love.
my lovely lunch companion ordered the clam ramen. she was a bit skeptical at first because she does not like ramen. it was weird, i would usually order the ramen, and she would usually order the rice dish, but on this day, we swapped. well, the verdicts in, and she surprisingly loved the clam ramen. her only complaint was that it was a bit sandy, otherwise, the flavor was awesome.
this place has like about 8 tables for two and 9 tables for 4, in the front section. in the back, there are little rooms for two and four, with curtains. waitresses are fairly cute, i like the one with tattoo. the bathroom is clean. there's a private lot with ample parking.
remember to bring ****CASH**** because they do not take any other form of payment. thank goodness for my lunch companion, otherwise, i may have to join the kitchen crew and wash dishes to pay off my meal. (this is the second time in my entire life where i went to lunch with someone and did not have any cash on me)
did i like tanto? would i come back again? absoTANTOlutely!!!! :)
the meal for two: $24
my smile after a good meal: http://www.piercecolle...
PRICELESS :)
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The classic izakaya in the area. Homely, with the classic crowded atmosphere, with sake, shochu, and beer bottles everywhere. A bit more greasy-feeling than your run of the mill Saizo, Gochi, etc, but what it lacks in decor, it makes up in authenticity and food.
Made a reservation for 5 on a Friday night. They must have been busy, since we were about 5 minutes late (right outside walking to the restaurant), they called us to confirm that we were there. They wanted to give up the seats! Lucky that they didn't.
Dishes here were pretty well done. Some were hits, some were misses. But overall, good food.
Detailed listing of food we ordered:
Good dishes-
1. Gindara (Black Cod) - Oh my goodness. Extremely tender fish, just melted in your mouth. Excellent flavoring, with a bit of sugar and sake braising. Took a while to come out, but well worth the wait.
2. Asari Ramen (Clam Ramen) - They are famous for this dish. Shio/butter based broth, with significant amount of Clams and Garlic, wakame, and ramen. A definite must get.
3. Kalbi Ishiyaki (Stone pot kalbi) - Excellent consistency flavoring, saucing. Mix the onions, kalbi, sauce, all together in the stone pot, and you have excellent meat. No significant overcooking possible for the meat, and no over-chewiness.
4. Yaki onigiri - Excellent grilled onigiri. Salmon flavoring inside, with garnishes of slivers of green onions and ikura eggs. A great rendition, went great with different sauces (i.e. Asari ramen soup).
Decent Dishes-
1. Buta Kakuni (Braised Pork) - Again meat was a bit dry, but with the fat it was excellent, but the saucing was great.
2. Gyutan (Beef Tongue) - Nice shio (salt) seasoning. Wished that the tongue was a bit thicker for more quantity/chewiness, but overall, pretty good.
Mediocre dishes-
1. Kimchi chahan - Decent flavoring, not as flavorful as I would have liked. The kimchi in the fried rice was a bit larger than I would have liked as well.
2. Aigamo tatsuta (Fried duck) - A bit dry, but overall, decent flavoring.
Boo (not so good) dishes-
1. Yaki Udon - Bacon, cabbage, beansprouts and udon. A bit of wakame furikake also on top. Not so great flavoring, tasted a bit greasy and general flavors did not mesh well.
2. Red bean/rice cake ice cream - Tanto Sunnyvale does it better. Red bean paste was not heated, hence just a mess of cold red bean and ice cream. Could make at home.
4 stars - Overall decent food , but pretty darn expensive. 5 of us split about a 150$ check.
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Came here for dinner with a friend last night. Very hidden behind the Walgreens.
Service was ok and it wasn't even busy.
Now the food. The fried duck was my favorite. It was so flavorful and not greasy at all. I could eat a whole bucket of that stuff (and have a heart attack and die from all the cholesterol). The yaki onigiri was GREAT. So crunchy like the rice you find at the bottom of clay pot rice (a favorite of mine) and yet soft and tasty inside. I think they stuck some sort of salmon sauce inside and definitely lightly salted the outside. Mmm.
Mediocre dishes were the daikon salad and agedashi tofu. Nothing to write home about.
The Gindara black cod... wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Sure, it was super tender, but it was soooooooooooo buttery. It made me feel a little sick. It was literally dripping in butter or whatever that flavor was... at first taste I was like "This doesn't taste like fish... what does it taste like?" and my friend could only answer "It kinda tastes like butter steak. You know, that steak that's just dripping with butter?" I don't know... I'll definitely come back here, but I don't think I'd ever order the Gindara again.
Anyway, nothing special. I like Gochi much better.
The poster who said Tanto's chef isn't Japanese is an idiot. I've sat at the counter many times and he IS, in fact, Japanese. This place is a true izakaya jaunt (and truly one of the ORIGINAL japanese tapas restaurants in Silicon Valley) unlike others who have popped up recently with their "fusion" tapas. Don't get me wrong, fusion tapas are good too but if you're looking for something that is authentic, this is the place.
Favorites: garlic steak, clam ramen, kinki (fish), anything on their specials list.
Be adventurous.
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Great, authentic Izakaya!
This is where I go when I miss my mom's home cooking! The foods awesome and they have a pretty good selection of sake and shochu. When I requested a freshly cut grapefruit to mix with my shochu, they brought it out even though it wasn't on the menu. That's what I call service! All the staff are Japanese and they know what they're doing. I felt right at home.
Highly recommended if you're looking for the real thing!
Japanese Tapas...
Pretty good. Service was so so. They were nice, but not super efficient or anything spectacular. The food was pricey for what it was, but what can you expect Japanese Small Plates should tell you that. It was $90 for 3 of us, which isn't bad at all, but for the type of food it is... it's a little on the pricier side.
Overall, pretty good if you like that type of food. It's small and definitely a change from the usual SUSHI. :) I'd go back again
4.5 stars. My favorite Japanese Izakaya. I've always been fascinated by the izakaya craze that's been taking over Silicon Valley in the past few years but never quite had that super satisfying food experience after trying a bunch. Until now.
Rice w/red snapper (5 stars) - Delicious. They bring you this whole cooked snapper and a stone pot of rice with some ingredients. Then the waitress debones the fish in front of you and makes the tastiest snapper rice that is served hot. So good. They also give you a simple but satisfying soup broth that you can use use the rice crust at the end. And nice personal service.
Short-rib special (4.5 stars) - Rare pieces of short rib brought to your table in a stone pot and cooked there on the spot through the stone pot - so it's fresh and not overcooked. Excellent marinade and good side sauces.
Garlic steak (4 stars) - extremely garlicky but good!
Cooked vegetables (4 stars) - the cooked veggies were surprisingly good since we weren't expecting too much
Salmon rice ball (3.5 stars) - can't remember exact details but we were happy with it.
Crab croquet (3.5 stars) - good but mosty because it was fried. Didn't remember much crab flavor
Eggplant miso (3 stars) - the most average dish we got among the bunch. Decent but probably not exciting enough to order again,
Special dessert ice cream (4.5 stars) - love their special ice cream that comes with some soy powdery thing and mochi balls (forgot the name) . So good. BUT they skimp on the portion here. Tanto Sunnyvale gives you this huge cup that could easily be shared by 2-4 people. Here they barely give you half of that.
Place is small and modest but we got some of the back open booths where you take your shoes off. Service here is so much more personable and friendly compared to the Sunnyvale location.
Came here because Gochi had a ridiculous wait of 3 hours without reservations even though we tried to eat early. We did call in last minute to tis Tanto without a reservation and they were accomodating but asked that we finish within 1hr, 15 min (which was no prob since they were reasonably fast with our food).
Bottom line: Definitely coming here again. Much prefer this Tanto than the one in Sunnyvale since their service is so much better and it's not as crowded and crazy as Sunnyvale. Tanto San Jose has restored my liking of Izakaya. But stop being so stingy on the ice cream and be more generous in portion like your Tanto Sunnyvale sister restaurant.
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Tanto used to be my favorite spot, but I think that the place is now a bit overrated . At least that's what it seems for their lunch. (I do not know about their dinners anymore, though--They serve Japanese pub-style meals at night, and they used to be very good.)
As so many Japanese businessmen who patronized this place have left the area, I have been wondering how they are....
Udon + tendon combination (noodle and tempura over rice), for instance, does not have any substance or value or taste. Okay, so they may be using one of those frozen udon, they could at least make it more special by adding their own soup. But no, it tastes like they just make it from a packet of powdered soup. That is almost an insult. Tempura tastes so soggy like it sits in their kitchen all morning. I had a pretty bad heart burn all afternoon into evening. Ditto with katsudon (cutlet over rice)--the meat was too hard and dry and crumb part too oily. And their rice is terrible now, like is it a leftover from the night before, or are they using different rice now?
If you order Tempura udon, your tempura comes out nice and fresh, like it should be, but why discriminate? Clam ramen is good, and only good if it is freshly made. If the broth sits there too long, it would start to smell badly, and that's what we have to combat now as we walk into the restaurant. I feel like they just let go of so many things.... Why are their standards becoming substandard?
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Yum Yum....I'm still dreaming of their clam ramen soup and their Rice Balls! If you are like me, and love Japanese food, then you must go there and try a bit of everything....however the only disappointing dish we had was their eggplant. The flavor was really good but some how the eggplant itself was very bitter!! I felt like I was eating bittermelon but having a bad aftertaste in my mouth after the first chew.
But things you must try are the fried oysters, clam ramen (btw: this is a big bowl so you can share), rice balls (extra crispy) hamachi kama and make sure you save room for dessert cuz their apple napolean with the caramel sauce is soooooooo good that I practically slurped the sauce instead of eating the apples. Their mochi ice cream with soybean powder is very tasty as well!
I was shocked when we arrived to Tanto to see that it was in one of the ghettoest strip malls ever!!! (It's by a store that sells boating stuff, and..some other random crap!) .
The outside is so odd, so bizarre! The inside is actually really cute and clean. The people there are nice, and even the portions are small, everything is pretty yummy.
Don't forget to get shiitake mushrooms!
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I would have to say that the food is solid. Some items are great, and some weren't so great.
Grilled Beef Tongue - Very good. My favoriate is from Gochi.
Cubed Ribeye - This was really tasty, but that might have been from all of the fat that was on the meat. But still it was very tasty.
Grilled Onigiri Rice Balls - I went here almost a year ago and I still remember how good this tastes. They are the only Japanese Tapa's restaurant I have found that can actually mixes the little fish with the rice. It is then fried to perfection... Crunchy on the outside, hot and soulful on the inside.
Lunch Specials are also a great deal. The curry Tonkatsu is ridiculous.. Especially when it comes the wonderfully tasty little bowl of Udon.
The bad...
Some of the waitress are nice, and one of them there is a biatch. Not neccesarily to me, but she just looks like she is mad at something.
I also had a very bad experience with the Sashimi. the fish was pretty good quality, but they simply defrosted the fish and it still had the ice crystals! Totally ruined that 25 dollar experience.
Bottom Line...
Check this place out as the food is really good. However be willing to fork up some coin and what out for the "mean" waitress. Gochi is better!
My apologies, but the review above was for the Tanto on El Camino.
After visiting hte original Tanto on Saratoga, my perception of this restaurant has completely changed. The waitress here was really nice and very attentive. The food was absolutely delicious here. Here's a breakdown of what we ordered.
Sashimi Salad - Great starter
Buta Chige Ramen - Really really good pork and kimchi ramen
Tako Potato things - these were only o.k. Not the same as tako yaki in Honolulu.
Garlic Steak - Ehh it's still good, just not great. They give you all of the fat on a ribeye cut and serve it in stoneware.
Grilled rice ongiri in broth - favorite thing all night. Just get it
Yaki onigir - consistenly good
Chimiji - Japanese pancake good
Dessert - Ammazing.. Some vanilla ice cream with soy powder and and mochi balls. Made the dinner.
This place is a must visit. Excellent food. This is the original Tanto and i suggest sticking with this one. The waitress were nice and they didn't have an attitude problem like the other Tanto on El Camino.
4/21/08****Just went back and also had the pork pies!!!!! Man oh man! Imagine slowly stewed butabara (pork) wrapped in Filo Dough and baked!!! All served on mashed potatoes and a sweetened soy sauce to tie all the flavors together. Flaky, meaty, soft, and sweet. The flavor was incredible and it reiterated the hidden powers of amazing food. ***
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Good typical japanese dishes, try to tai-meshi, it's a tai fish cooked with rice, excellent!
I prefer this one over the one on El Camino. The staff are much much friendlier than the ones at the El Camino restaurant, which makes a big difference. The wait for a table during Friday dinners are still pretty bad. Lunch time waits are not so bad.
My personal favorites are the:
- Clam Ramen (for lunch)
- Yaki Onigiri (grilled rice balls)
- Gyutan (beef tongue)
- Ankimo (fish liver)
- Octopus Sashimi
Cash only for lunch. They pretty friendly and attentive at first, but once the place becomes busy they may forget about you. Reservations for dinner are highly recommended.
Stopped by for an early dinner the other night. Upon entering, we were informed that we could have the private room to ourselves provided that we were able to leave within the hour.
...The tables within the restaurant were full and the bar was the only other alternative, as there was no wait.
We sat down in the private room and noticed the large extensive menu, similar to Ichiza in Las Vegas. We ordered a whole medley of foods, Sashimi Salad, Chicken Carage, Deep Fried Shrimp, and Garlic Beef.
Throughout our entire meal, the wait staff kept on harassing us, to put in our order, to take away our plate, and put our remaining piece of Prawn with our other dish etc.
The message that I got was that we needed to give up our table after 1 hour.
Although the food itself was excellent, the prices were pretty expensive and the service was absolutely horrible.
We quickly finished up by our time frame, expecting that the reserved party for our room would be at the door already...WRONG!
There were a few tables open within the dining area and the reserved guests hadn't even arrived yet!!!!
Food: 4.5 stars
Service: -100 stars!
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I had heard a lot about this place but after the dinner I would say I didn't feel the flavor. Only the Sashimi salad was good. The rest of the dishes just seemed ordinary. I think for the money you pay there, there may be better options.
The service was very good. Very prompt and very friendly, like in any other Japanese restaurant.
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I like the white tuna(shiro maguro) donburi with udon.
The service is good.
The price is right for lunch.
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I heard about this place from some friends so I decided to check it out. I must agree, Tanto is pretty tasty but it is fairly expensive in comparison to some other tapas style restaurants that have the same dishes. The place is pretty small so it gets extremely busy on weekends. Luckily I went on a weekday and got seated within 10 minutes. The employees are friendly and will try to seat you as fast as they can. Here are the items that I tried: blue fin toro, kani croquettes, braised duck, agedashi tofu, kimchee pork stir fry. All were really good and I would definitely go back... one important note is that with this type of restaurant you need to know the good items on the menu. Basically you can't just order random dishes and expect all of them to be 5 stars. If you don't know what to order you can just ask what are the most popular dishes. I would give this restaurant 5 stars but the price is a bit much for the ingredients of food.
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Really not that great. I honestly love Gochi so much more. Gochi has much better service, ambiance, and food. When people compare Tanto to Gochi, it really confuses me because Gochi is in a whole different league. I am giving this place 3 stars because they had delicious salmon sashimi and the kim chi fried rice was good. However, if I were to ever come here again, it'd be because Gochi was booked solid for the night and i HAD to eat izakaya.
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yes, it is in a ghetto ghetto strip mall, but i love this place. it's a very low key restaurant with with an intimate vibe once inside. if you're looking some mean japanese tapa place, this would be it (and gochi).
don't even try going without a reservation on friday & saturday nights. it'll be packed and they'll snicker, take a look at the list and tell you you'd be waiting for a very long time. if you want to try this place out on a weekend, make that reservation ahead of time.
I don't understand the hype. I had been looking forward to eating at Tanto for months, but left feeling very underwhelmed. My husband and I went with a Japanese teacher that we were hosting. I was hoping to impress him with my insider knowledge of one of the better izakayas in the area, but apparently I failed. The menu has a dizzying array of choices, so in fairness to the restaurant, perhaps I didn't pick a lot of their stronger dishes.
We ordered the scallops with uni, which was tasty by default due to copious amounts of butter. Our Japanese friend ordered a kimchi dish which was just okay. I think I would stick to ordering kimchi in a Korean restaurant. We had the red snapper rice dish which I had read about on Yelp. It was good, but nothing revolutionary. My husband is a big fan of pork belly, so he ordered the buta mentaiko itame, which was more like limp bacon, than the juicy, fatty goodness of a true pork belly.
Service was good. The restaurant wasn't too busy on the night we were there. The waitress spoke Japanese, so that was a nice touch for our guest.
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Very good food with a more expansive menu than your typical Japanese restaurant such that the best way to eat here is to order dishes and eat family style. Faux tatami rooms (place for your legs) are fun. Sashimi was excellent..
Tanto is my idea of comfort food: enoki and oyster mushrooms baked in butter and sake, unagi oshisushi, chicken gizzards lacquered in a soy-garlic sauce and covered with a generous pile of thinly sliced green onion, garlic sprouts stir-fried with uncured bacon under a cooled-down, barely poached egg... yum. I've never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a small table or seats at the bar, and it's just a cozy, chill place to grab some food and wash it all down with cold Japanese beer.
When it comes to pitting Gochi vs. Tanto, I love both places for different reasons. Tanto is simpler and more homey, but no less delicious. To borrow a trope from the 1990s TGIF powerhouse "Step by Step," I think of Gochi as Karen (the pretty, ditzy sister) and Tanto as Dana (the smart, cynical sister, always ready with the "zing!").
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This is the default place my friend and I go to when we just want to grab a bite, chill, and drink. I prefer this one over the one on El Camino. :)
People have reviewed it quite well, I just want to put in my two cents because it's one of my favorite places. :)
1. The sashimi salad is excellent. The size/quantity has varied quite a bit in recent times but whatever. It still tastes great. Thank you Yelp for that tidbit of information. ^_^
2. Littleneck clam ramen. Delicious. It may be fatty or something though. When I bring home the leftovers there's this thick, yellow ring of something around the edge. I'm assuming it is fat, but where is the fat coming from? Surely not the clams...
3. Go with someone who knows how to order at an Izakaya. The friend and I who usually go together went once with a (at the time) new friend who ordered for us. We were very pleasantly pleased with what he ordered and to be quite honest, quite impressed too. hahaha I hope he never reads this.
Anyways, try this place out. Read the other Yelp reviews for more food stuff, but I will say the Yaki Onigiri is also very good. :)
*edit* I didn't give it 5 stars because it's a good staple place to go to, but nothing super super special other than the sentimental memories I now have. ^_^
If you're looking for Sushi, this is not the place. This is an Izakaya joint, which is simply a Japanese Tapas restaurant (i.e. appetizer foods designed to drink with).
Tanto does offer a lot of interesting dishes that are good, though not unforgettably great. But with a cold Asahi, you'll have a pleasant dining experience.
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this is one of my favorite japanese restaurants in san jose. dont go here to eat sushi though. i like the chicken karage, kani croquettes, and the onigiri rice balls. must have tried the whole menu here. we would go here and spend about $70-100 just 2 person, thats with 1 big bottle of a decent cold sake. good place to eat and drink sake. too bad they dont open late.
I came here with a friend late on a Saturday evening, about 15 minutes before closing. The frenetic movements, gesticulations and speech of the waitresses were in keeping with an urgent need to close up shop. Packed all the way til closing, Tanto no doubt makes a mint for its operating hours; and for good reason. The food is good. This is definitely not a menu built for un-seasoned japanese food lovers. There are a lot of dishes that are relatively hard-to-find in most other locales... and for that reason, I have to give this place props.
If you're up to experimenting with new combinations to a western palate, this is definitely a place to go. Ambiance is marred by constant motion and noise. Service is brusque but not quite rude. EtOH options are plentiful and solid.
I loved it, but have to mark it down for a chaotic atmosphere.
Incidentally, despite having 4-5 minutes to glance at a menu, and then rattle off orders to the waitress (who insisted the kitchen was closing imminently), we were able to get in 2 tall glasses of Asahi (nama!) and 7 orders of food, wolf it down at a brisk pace... and were on our way, happily sated!
My husband is Japanese, and he really liked the food there. The dishes are little expensive. Service was good, but rushed. When we called to make reservation for 4 at 6, they didn't take our names. When we got there, the waitress looked surprised and told us to finish eating in one hour. They quickly took the order, served our food and we were out of there within a hour. They were very friendly and did everything with smiles.
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Had dinner here the other night. Didn't have reservations so me and my cuz had to sit in a tiny room! It was different and unique in it's own way. I found it somewhat difficult when it came to ordering, because I didn't really recognize anything on the menu. I could tell you what I ordered if I had a sample menu, but from what I had it was pretty good. It's a pretty packed place and seems like the local Japanese community like it a lot. I think I'll need to do more research on what to order here, but I'm sure it'll taste just fine. One minor complaint on the Sashimi Salad, the pieces of sashimi seemed to still have some skin and the not good tasting pieces that should've been removed.
Recommendations: I can't remember! =P
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Been tempted by the many izakayas in the South Bay, and finally had the opportunity to venture out and try one! We chose Tanto mostly because it was among the few izakaya restaurants open for lunch on a Saturday! Yep, it's tricky like that! I guess you can only really appreciate an izakaya in the evening.
We were seated at the sushi bar and noticed a steady stream of customers this summer afternoon. A lunch menu was given to us, and we wanted to see if they had more. After inquiring, their regular menu was given to us.
We started with the Shimesaba Sashimi, vinegared mackerel ($8.50). Pretty tasty and full of flavor. This was a nice start and only made us excited about our other dishes.
Our next dishes all came at once and we barely had room to eat! The Ikura Chizuke, dashi soup over rice with salmon roe, ($6.25) sounded and looked more appealing than it actually was. It lacked flavor and I found myself utilizing quite a bit of soy sauce to give it some much needed flavor.
The Littleneck Clam Ramen Noodles and Rice Ball ($8.50) came from their lunch menu. Again, it sounded a lot more exciting and tasted okay until I almost cracked a tooth on a broken shell. That wasn't so nice.
The Pork Cutlet Rice Bowl $7.95 came with soup and salad. The BF wanted to try their version, but was disappointed to see it covered with a scrambled egg mixture. The pork was a bit tough and not easy to eat at all.
Overall, our experience at this izakaya was just alright. Then again, we're coming from eating at Ichiza's http://www.yelp.com/bi... in Vegas, so I guess our expectations are a bit higher. There's no complaints about how fast your food comes out because you barely finish telling you the waitress what you want, and the food is coming out already! The bill was immediately brought to us just a moment after our last dish was put before us though. (Uh, are they trying to get rid of us?) I think that's a little too fast. And they didn't bother refilling our tea either, which always bugs me.
I guess I'm looking for something a little better...
Side note: Although everyone else says they take credit cards, there were signs everywhere saying "Cash Only." Maybe their credit card machine broke down?
(Feel free to check out my photos in the business profile!)
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Recently I went there to have a dinner with a friend. As usual, the place was packed. The fact that so many people were there made the inside seem really small. A taller person might feel claustrophobic.
Waitress' service was occasionally inattentive. I know they're busy, but can't they hire one more person to make things go smoothly? Maybe this restaurant needs to hire an older but more experience person instead of college students.
First we ordered squid "noodle," agedashi tofu, and veggie-pork stir fry. The stir fry was pretty good, with mild taste of soy sauce. Agedashi tofu was pretty ordinary, but thankfully wasn't oily. I haven't had squid "noodle" for a while, so decided to try that. It's called noodle because squid meat was thinly cut. Mild sauce accentuated the natural sweetness of squid.
Then we ordered onigiri and octopus inside potato. The potato dish was made of mashed potato with pieces of octopus inside, then its surface fried. From outside, it looks like takoyaki. Thankfully there were more than one piece of octopus :P.
When I was working in a Japanese subsidiary company in Sunnyvale, my co-workers used this place to entertain guests and themselves. One time I went to the Sunnyvale one with a female friend. She liked alcohol in general, so we ordered some. Me being not too strong in alcohol, I got tipsy pretty quickly. Then a waitress recommended a small bottle of red wine. Without asking for its price, I ordered. While that wine was really good, looking at my bill was not. She definitely made some money for that restaurant that night :P.
There was also another occasion that I had a dinner date with a Japanese woman. She wasn't too attractive, so I lowered my guard. We ordered snapper rice. That dish has a head of snapper simmered with rice. I _love_ fish head, so both of us were eating that fish head like poor, hungry fishermen.
All in all, I have quite a few memories related to this restaurant. Hope others will, despite some shortcoming I mentioned above.
One more thing. Reservation is strongly recommended for this place packs pretty quickly.
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Just got back from the best Japanese tapas eatery since Gochi's. Food and service were geisha-like meaning very attentive to your needs. My wife and I had 3 items and they were all delicately prepared, well presented, and most importantly a hearty serving that I, a person whose eyes are usually much bigger than my stomach found every dish to be full-filling. We had the sashimi salad (plenty of sashimi and tobiko), the clam ramen (there were actually good size clams and not just clam shells! 1:1 ratio of clams to shells. That's the standard in my eatery book! And finally the Kim Chi Fried Rice (excellent dish and very, very flavorful). As close to Hawaiian style as one can get!
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Usually come here with family, so I just sit back and let them do the ordering (my aunt is a bigger Japanese foodie than I am). We're not big drinkers, so I can't say anything about their selection of beverages... but their food is savory and succulent even unaccompanied by alcohol. I have yet to be disappointed by their variety of dishes.
Their lunch isn't half bad either. Sushi and bento aren't their strong points, but they do a decent job and the sashimi I had today as part of the combination lunch was quite respectable.
Holy cow. I always thought that Japanese food meant sushi, terkyaki, and sashimi. I was wrong wrong wrong. Izakaya is amazing. We went with a couple of friends who were Izakaya pros and knew exactly what to order. The staff was extremely friendly and happy to explain the menu and give recommendations. That was a huge plus, especially since their menu is really diverse and extensive! Tons of options. Everything the staff recommended was amazing. Their Yaki Onigiri (fried rice triangles with some kind of seafood inside) was