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Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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Really? People are complaining about "no vegetarian options"?
Then GET THE FUCK OUT.
I don't walk into restaurants like Millenium (which I highly enjoyed) and get offended by no meat options.
This is a Japanese style curry place.... which means tonkatsu and chicken katsu and BEEF... YUM! Bring on the MEAT!!!!!
Don't understand the "no vegetarian options" comment. Unless that just happened recently, I saw a vegetarian curry option on the menu.
At any rate, no, this is not as good as Muracci on Kearny, downtown. BUT Volcano is open after 6pm for dinner and it is in my neighborhood.
The normal prices are extremely reasonable, but tonight even more so. I used my little Val-U-Pak coupon for $4.95 each curry. Got 2 pork katsu curries to go. It was quite a decent meal. I usually order the curry without the zucchini, as I'm not a zucchini lover.
You gotta order the curry at medium spicy at the minimum. Otherwise, it's flavorless. Both pork and chicken katsu are very decent. I've been here about once a month since I moved to the hood, and it's always decent, fast, and cheap.
I saw tonight that they've added some noodle soup option, including a beef curry noodle. Gotta try some! Good option for upcoming winter days. I asked them what type of noodle, and they said udon.
i have heartburn as i'm writing this. don't listen to the previous reviewer who said to order at least medium spicy. she must be some sort of curry ninja. medium spicy is spicy! and spicy is pretty much sweat dripping lava hot. even my friend who claimed to be kung fu curry level started whimpering after a few bites.
i like this place because
-it's clean
-service is friendly and efficient
-self serve water and ice = even cheaper cuz less tip required
-large portions = good deal
-the croquette is the best!
i'm not liking this place because
-my tonkatsu was dry instead of juicy
-the curry was watery and a tad too sweet (it's not gravyish if thats what u like), and i thought the flavor was flat.
-you have to pay extra for the pickles
i might come back to try something else...
Ok my 2nd time visiting...this time I brought the hubby. He liked it! which means we'll be back for more. We ordered 2 chicken katsu meals and 1 Katsu curry. As always Katsu is good but we especially liked the salad! It was so fresh and tasty...the dressing was impressive. Definitely something to cool the tongue off after having the curry! My daughter loves the chicken katsu dish. Overall for a family of 3.5 we all left feeling satisfied and it cost us less than $30 dollars. Oh and I had the mild curry.
I like Volcano if I'm much too lazy to cook some golden curry at home and I want it spicy and don't care that it's a little too over-priced. You can make the same kind of curry at home, with all the "toppings" that you can handle. The "volcano" hot curry is pretty damn hot though, and you do get quite a bit of food for the cash. I was a bit disappointed to hear that curry joints in Japan don't charge extra for pickles...instead they have them out on the table like condiments apparently. It would be nice if volcano offered the toppings as part of the package. It might make the experience a little less "could have cooked this at home-y"
No vegetarian options? Really? You do know that you're a restaurant in San Francisco, right?
No, pre-packaged salads don't count.
GUILTY AS CHARGED.
I came back here over the weekend for a Chicken Katsu Curry (medium spice). This time, I opted for all zucchinis in my curry as opposed to having 2 slices of zucchini, 2 slices of carrots, and 2 small potatoes. Not a huge fan of carrots or potatoes so zucchini it is! They gladly gave me all zucchinis.
Don't forget to pick up a yellow frequent buyer card!! On the 3rd, 6th and 9th curry purchase, you get a free topping! And on the 12th purchase, you get free curry & a free topping. Yayuhhh..!!
Yum! I like this place..!!
I found this place while randomly searching for "Japanese Curry" on Yelp…
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The chicken katsu curry + friendly service + affordable price + casual ambience + cleanliness = WIN!
Nice simple Japanese curry. Yes this is Japanese curry, sorry no vegetarian option required.
Ok, so have you ever been like set up by someone? They give you a picture of the person and you are like, "Thanks, but no thanks." Then for some reason, you are kicking it with your friends and you meet the person they are trying to set you up with face to face with. You get to know them and you are likee, "wow, this isn't so bad." And by the end of the end of the night, you have fallen deeply in love.
I live right by Volcano curry. When they first opened up, they took pictures of their curry and stuck it on the front window. Maybe I am photosnob, but one look and I was in in full "do not want" mode. So a few months slip by, I walk by the front each time vomiting in my mouth a little at the thought of actually eating here one day.
But fate loves to play these cruel tricks. One day, my friend randomly calls me up to go hit this place up. In my mind, I was already thinking about having a burrito at Gordo's next door. Maybe I was lonely, maybe I was temporarily blinded and I agreed. Between the hours of 2 pm and 5 pm, I braced myself for what was to come.
I got the chicken curry with a side potato croquette. It was fantastic. This was legit curry. No joke. I was blown away. I was humbled as this "ugly chick" of a restaurant actually moved me.
The only thing is their curry comes in not hot and really hot
Then they started serving sandwiches. It brought back old high school memories when the same spot was a quick Korean BBQ take out place with the best sandwiches I ever had. Now they have katsu sandwiches. Those are amazing as well.
Well done, ugly chick, well done.
i like the menu and i would say Beef or Chicken Katsu is the best on the menu. Regular grilled chicken wouldn't hit the spot in my tummy.
I like that they have mild spicy, and spicy spicy. I have tried both. And I love both. But, I do enjoy spicy, so I will go with spicy spicy.
Spicy Spicy is half bit more spicy than the mild, but both are pretty spicy itself. i also needed water for the mild, but both are delicious.
come try it! you won't regret it!!
I like curry. And volcano delivers. Portions are GOOD so bring your appetite. I've had the beef curry twice, and the pork cutlet twice. Both are a solid option. I will be frequenting this place often, so that they stick around! Dinner for less than $10 is a win.
OK since adding the KATSU sandwiches I am officially a fan. It reminds me of being on the shinkansen in Japan...I wish they had a wasabi mayo or wasabi mustard instead of the regular spicy mustard....but still....Its great!
As of late I have been skipping the curry and ordering the sandwich!!
Mmm...I am now craving a sandwich!!!
VERY reasonable!!!
I actually liked this place better when they FIRST opened.
I prefer the beef curry…
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I believe something erupted, but I don't think it was Volcano. I had noticed it driving by on Geary a couple of times and giving it the "Hmmm...I should try that sometime". I have fond memories of my mom's chicken curry on brisk evenings in Dallas, Texas. Well, I convinced Jamie W. to take the stuffed-to-the-gills 38 line all the way to 20th Avenue from the Transbay Terminal. You definitely see clear evidence of the Darwinian theory pass through the bus during rush hour.
When we finally arrived, I was a bit disappointed to find that it's really more of a lunch counter in the guise of a restaurant. It has school cafeteria-style chairs and tables that look like the remnants of a spring clearance at IKEA, and even a refrigerated section where you pick up your own Diet Coke ($1.50) and Seaweed Salad ($2.50) which was crunchy fresh. I ordered the $6.50 Chicken Katsu Curry Noodles with Vegetables and asked for the hot and spicy treatment. I even added a split hard-boiled egg for a $1 more because well...I'm special.
The chicken was plentiful and the panko nice and crunchy. The noodles were OK, maybe a bit slippery, while the fresh vegetables were on the paltry side (just one new potato?). I have to say it was the curry sauce that was the most disappointing aspect. It was spicy enough but kinda watery. The description on the site asserts that it is "thickened with a roux" and slow cooked for 8-10 hours. Well, somebody must have been running a faucet into the pot because the sauce really had little texture to it. One thing I have to say is that the service by the young woman at the counter was excellent. She courteously came to check up on us.
FOOD - 3 stars...standard curry that's been kinda watered down
AMBIANCE - 2.5 stars...unmistakable air of a fast food joint...there was a picnic cooler for you to get ice
SERVICE - 4 stars...she was terrific
TOTAL - 3 stars...just barely...I need to bring my own cornstarch next time
Pretty good.
I got the chicken katsu. The chicken was pretty good quality. Each order comes with rice and some veggies (potatoes and zucchini).
I ordered my curry hot - and pretty sure it wasn't even medium.
Service is really nice, each order is made to order and they're relatively fast.
Their curry is OK and cheap, and because they changed to regular plates... when I am in the neighborhood and want cheap meal, this is definitely one of my choices.
I ate here once , and giving 3 stars for their Katsu curry, 1 star (or 0 star even) for the paper… Read more »
Yum.
The Katsu seems to be a favorite here, but due to my avoidance of fried foods, I instead opted for the spicy version of the chicken curry. I really liked the kick level - good enough to feel it but not overwhelming. Meat was solid and was mixed with a nice bonus of zucchini and mini potatoes. The green tea they have is from a can and unsweetened, so be forewarned if that's not your thing.
As mentioned, the place feels very sterile and like you're eating at Ikea. Didn't bother me since it was clean, but a little decorations woulda been nice. Overall, it's a great addition to the neighborhood and a nice lunch option.
I went here for here for the first time last week during the middle of lunch time with my bro who had wanted to try it for quite some time. I walk in and notice none of the tables are taken yet, but there is a group of people in front ordering together. I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved that we had many seating choices or to feel worried that this place was almost empty (filled up halfway as we sat down tho).
I like how their menu is short and sweet and have some $1 addons. Dishes are abt $6.50 before tax. We both got the Chicken Katsu in spicy curry...it had quite a kick but Im used to that stuff, while my bro bit off a little more than he could chew.
Unlike previous reviews, all the food was on a regular ceramic plate, not paper plate like they have in the crappy pictures on the windows but you still have to get your own water and metal utensils which is just fine. The curry tasted good...not fantastic, but good enough and cheap enough for me to go back if Im hungry and in the area and decide to pass on the Gordo Tacqueria next door.
Friend shoved $6 into the tip jar and all he got was a half smile from the girl behind the counter. Don't expect too much is what I'm saying.
It's nothing special, just curry. Nice sized helping of food (although said waittress spilled a lot of curry onto the table while serving it) and rice. Don't you hate it when they don't give you enough rice to soak up the curry??
Curry: a little watered down but still okay. A little too spicy to be considered mild (yeah i'm a wimp , suck it). Got our own water and utensils.
Airy and comfortable, kind of like eating lunch in a cafeteria. Nothing pretentious about it.
There are very few options on the menu, which is refreshing .. the pork and chicken are great, the shrimp is kinda meager to say the best.
It's very cheap and good.
It's on the newer side. I recommend getting the potato as an extra. It's worth the extra dollar. :)
So, you don't want to spend hours making Japanese curry at home. Then go to Volcano. The sauce is a little on the thin side but you can get out of there under $10. Lots of add ons are fun - I love eggplant and think it naturally goes with curry - well add it on! It's an inexpensive, fast and fairly satisfying dinner. The katsu sandwich is huge! Worth going to.
Not many Japanese curry places in the city. Volcano is ok. I had the Chicken Katsu Curry (Volcano spice) with a potato Croquette, egg, and brown rice. I definitely like that they give you the option of brown rice. Not many places do that. The curry, however, was watery and not as spicy as I had hoped. Muracci's has a better one IMO albeit a bit pricier. I haven't found a place up here that can compare to great Japanese places like Hurry Curry in LA where the curry is nice and hearty. I would come back, but only out of convenience since Muracci's has ridiculous hours and wait time.
I really wish yelp could rate things in half intervals, because this place doesn't deserve 3 stars, but 4 is too generous.
How easy is it to be pleasantly surprised by food served on plastic forks and paper dishes? Eh?! EH?! Pretty easy for these folks actually.
The place looks like they cut a lot of corners in order to give you a meal that doesn't melt a hole in your pocket and is surprisingly decent. It felt like a fast food joint decided to get hot and sticky with a Japanese curry shop and out popped little tasty mutated children.
The service person was pretty on top of making sure we were happy and took our plates away when we were done... by taking them to the trash bin four feet away from us.
Can we give this place a round of applause for having racially diverse workers up in a Japanese Curry house?! A caucasian girl, a japanese girl, and a mexican working in all of its synchronicity to make a "curry." Yes we all had better curry indeed.. but if a 4 year old sings the national anthem out of tune.. are you going to judge the singing or the effort?
Here is my true experience: Even though my friend and I were supposed to get our own water and utensils, the cashier actually poured our water and got our utensils ready for us. Of course I was wearing a Naruto Ninja outfit on but that is besides the point..
This place shouldn't be called Volcano.
It should be called Melting Pot O' Curry.
My friends and I recently ate here for dinner. Their front door was open. It was freezing, so I had someone close it. No big deal. I guess they were airing-out the place.
I'm guessing you really aren't interested in hearing about their front door, so let me proceed to commenting about the service. Oh just about some of the best customer service someone can give considering the woman at the counter also served the food at the tables. She was courteous, upbeat, polite, positive - quite a great combo for someone working at such a small restaurant, right?
The food - divine! I always order the katsu curry over rice, medium heat. 2 sides of boiled egg and potato croquette. BTW folks, if you ever get to eat at this restaurant, definitely order the potato croquette. It is fried perfection, no joke! I'm usually not a big fan of the potato, but this thing is the bomb! Suffice it to say, just take my word for it and give this place a try if you're in the neighborhood.
i love their curry card! i tried the potato croquette as my free topping, that was pretty good! the people at work like this place too now.
i wish they gave more rice tho... but now i just bring my own brown rice from home.. yea.. i'm being cheap... but economy is bad nowadays.
i got the chicken curry (hot) + brown rice + extra zucchini.. came out to 9.25 total. i thought that… Read more »
A nice change from the rows of sushi -teriyaki places in the Richmond. My girls and I are fans of thier katsu curry. Rich brown curry with a nice kick. Served over steaming rice with just right potatoes or spurlge with extra's like eggplant or egg. Wish they would give us more red pickles.
Easy to order- chicken, beef or pork or chicken katsu- no frills-no muss just good hot "fast" food.
Service with a smile and a nice window seat - curry me over anytime!
A lot of the negative reviews for this restaurant to my mind focus on irrelevant things like the lighting scheme or the quality of the chairs (really, does anyone care where they bought them?) and where you pick out your drinks (yes they actually refrigerate them!). To me, what's the most important criteria for deciding a restaurant's quality? The food. Duh. The curry is very smooth and quite flavorful and every other ingredient in my Chicken Katsu curry was cooked perfectly, from the katsu itself and the potatoes and such.
I'm a big fan of curries, especially Japanese and Indonesian ones, and this place ranks pretty highly among the many places I've eaten excellent curries. And when you figure that two full dinners (and big portions) came out to a grand total of $16.32 who's going to complain?
I guess if you really, really care about the provenance of a restaurant's chairs, the wattage of its lights and insist that your beverage comes in an ice-cooled silver bucket than you should probably be prepared to spend many more dollars on inferior curries and put up with dismissive service as the logical price for being fashionable.
Katsu is never the same without that awesome spicy curry on top of it.
I think i was suspect at eating here at first, because it was completely empty on a Saturday night, where the parking outside was busier than the restaurant itself. But after a few plates of that awesome katsu, it made all the time spent looking for parking worth it.
A highlight of their dishes, is the variety of vegetables they offer. But dont be fooled the katsu is still king.
Stay hungry friends
Full disclosure: I'm giving this place an extra star so it'll have a chance to get better.
One of the things I miss most about Los Angeles is the Japanese curry houses all over the place (Hurry Curry is a chain that got me through college.) It's cheap, hot, spicy comfort food. So last week when we were driving up Geary and saw Volcano, I made my husband do a U so we could go in to grab a menu.
That night we ordered (for take out) the chicken curry (ok), beef curry (meh), tonkatsu curry (crispy! good!), croquets (good! I don't think I'm spelling this right. they are those potato fritter things), and pickles (LOVE pickles with my curry!).
The tonkatsu curry was by far the best (it's served with the plain curry) and with the pickles it was darned good. The one curry I wouldn't get again is the beef curry -- it was too beef stew-ish.
Is this the best curry I've had? NO. They could use some more variety. In LA, most places have more vegetarian options like spinach, pumpkin, or mushroom curry. Also, I think the veggies are cut too big and it felt like you didn't get enough.
But on nights where you want something hot but don't want to cook, this place is fast and tasty. And cheap too! Each dish is just $6.
I was hit with a curry craving and decided to try out Volcano as it is only a few blocks from my house. The chicken katsu curry definitely hit the spot. For $6.50, you get lots of chicken, and curry with two pieceseach of zucchini, potato, and carrot. More veggies would have been nice but overall this is satisfying, cheap food.
Cheap food for the hungry.
Curry is decent.
Meats is kinda meh -- well I was cheap and ordered chicken, which tasted like nothing.
Thumbs up on the chunks of vegetables (zucchini!), pickled too.
Service is kind of funky, staff seemed airheaded.
But oh well, clean place, decent food, close by.
I'm sure I'll be back.
J-CURRY IN MY HOOD!!!!!!! I'm gonna explode waiting for this place to OPEN!
But why the hell does it…
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They no longer serve the food on paper plates with plastic utensils... yes, they've upgraded to real plates and forks/knives/spoons! I guess they realized how wasteful using disposable everything was when business started to pick up.
Also, the curry is a little bit thicker than it used to be.
Yeah, so they serve the food on paper plates with plastic utensils. For $5-7 for a plate of curry,… Read more »
Would give 1.5 stars: Pickles are decent--but microscopic...
The curry is average at best--not much different than what you get at home just mixing it up with curry powder from a jar with some water. Although some people say the prices are reasonable, for two scoops of clumpy rice, a few overstewed veggies and some curry, they are not worth the $5 plus tax. With meat, they are about $7 with about 3oz of meat--cheap, stringy and dry meat to add (chicken and pork both dried out). They offer brown rice, but charge an extra dollar for it--jeez how cheap--if they didn't charge extra for the brown rice, it would almost be worth it, since most places in the area only have white rice. Oh, almost forgot, the pickles are pretty good.
In summation: the meat isn't that good nor is the curry. I'd avoid this place and hopefully something new will open up there where they serve something decent and don't nickle and dime you....
This place is decent and the portions are huge and all for very little money. In my opinion, this place is no where near as good at Muracci's, but if you are in the area and you want curry, this is good enough. I like how they add grilled zuccini to the dish. Gives it a nice texture.
And they have some good topping options. Like kurobuta sausage. YUM!!
Great curry, and very affordable at about $7-$8 per plate.
My friend brought several dishes over to my house. He said the people who were eating inside looked like they were loving the spicy curry. I'm not a very big fan of spicy, but the beef and chicken curry we ate were absolutely fantastic. It had that homemade type of taste, that's so rare nowadays to get from a restaurant.
They also have a frequent visitor card that's really encouraging us to come back for more. We're just thankful that the restaurant is closer to my house than to have to make the trek to Japantown.
Better than Muraccis in my opinion.
You're not going to Volcano for the decor or ambiance. You're going to go for some good curry served on a paper plate in what seems like a cafeteria. But who effing cares!
The chicken katsu is awesome, but I usually just get the original ($5) which has potatoes, eggplant, zucchini (maybe forgetting something else), and all served over white rice with a large portion of curry.
Parking can sometimes be a bitch if you don't want to keep running out to your meter every few minutes, but that's my only complaint.
Maybe 2.5 stars at best! I guess I don't listen too well because with all of the bad reviews so far I still mustered up enough curiosity to go inside and give it a try. The curry is not earth-moving as a volcano should be and quite weak in flavor, but if I'm ever in the area and really desperate for food I'd go back.
The place was surprisingly busy on a Sunday afternoon with every table occupied inside. You can smell the curry when you walk into the restaurant, and it smelled pretty good. After standing at the counter for quite some time indecisive about what I wanted to eat I finally ordered the chicken curry with a potato croquette added on for an extra dollar. I didn't see the brown rice or noodle option (another dollar) until I had already placed my order. They give you a number and you can go find a place to sit and wait.
It was about an eight minute wait when my number was called. This is what it looked like (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). I picked up a piece of potato and bit into it. The curry was very mild and hardly present, and there was a lot more sauce than there was rice. Someone must stand in the kitchen and count vegetables because there were exactly two pieces of potatoes, two pieces of carrot and two slices of zucchini. The chicken was moist and both skinless and boneless. I agree with other reviewers that the vegetables must be pre-cooked and then reheated. If you notice in the photo it looks like the sauce was just ladled over the potatoes because not all of the veggies were covered in sauce. My guess would be the microwave because the vegetable pieces cooled very quickly and were cold to the bite within minutes.
The potato croquette, while on the small side for a buck, was actually very good. The pickled vegetables served on top of the rice were crunchy but lacked a good vinegar and pickle flavor. The paper plate and plastic utensils don't bother me as much as it does other reviewers. When you've had as many Hawaiian lunch plates and Chinese take out as I've had you kind of get used to food served in/on disposable products. The staff was very friendly.
Came here today with my mom. There wasnt much ppl there, I think including us there were only 10 people in the whole place. Now saying that you would think that you should be able to get your food pretty fast, seeing there there is like no one there. Plus, how hard can it be to heat up the same sauce the same meat/veggie. NOPe... took at least 10 minutes to get our food after we ordered. I cant imagine it needed that much time to make that food. THATS ALL THEY MAKE.... CURRY.. THE SAME SAUCE THE SAME INGREDIENT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Anyways... the food was OK. I got the chicken Katsu with spicy curry. It was pretty good. The curry was spicy enough. The chicken was a pretty decent size. I also added a coquette. That was pretty good too, nice and smooth in the inside.
NOt sure I will come back though. nothing special....
Happy Hour Draft Beer $1.75!
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
99 cents beer & hot sake
Neighborhood: Excelsior
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