Kiwa Kitchen

Homey and healthy Asian comfort food place in Bernal heights. The staff is super nice and the place has plenty of seating available. Street, metered parking outside, but it's quite cheap for Bay Area.

We got the salmon rice bowl and katsu curry, both good portions and very reasonably priced for this day and age. Both are quite delicious and hearty, with veggies, protein with sauce, and warm rice, exactly what we were looking for - a simple, yummy, and quick meal.

Had the Chicken Teriyaki tonight !! Absolutely delicious! Thank you so much ! Always served with love and care, I appreciate it. Never fails to amaze me !!

We have now done takeout from Kiwa three times, always ordering the Tofu Teriyaki. At first I thought this was the only vegetarian option aside from the Veggie Ramen but now realize that there is at least one more (Japanese curry) for takeout and a few more on their in person menu (which you could potentially get by calling in)!

The service is always friendly when we go to pickup and I am always shocked with how fast the food is ready. If you order using their website you usually get an ETA of 20-25 minutes and they are almost always ready in half the time (~10 minutes)!

I am really looking forward to sitting there and eating sometime soon because the restaurant is quite cute. If you go in a little late for lunch (say 1 pm) you'll see a few people working on laptops or in notebooks with their lunch along with maybe a table or two of people eating lunch together so it stays fairly quiet but comfortable.

Solid lunch choice with very attentive service. Chicken katsu and BBQ pork vermicelli were delicious. Squash tempura batter was thicker than expect and less tempura like.

After picking up some things in the bayshore area, my sis and I decided to have lunch in Bernal Heights. It's a cute area with a bunch of restaurants and stores. Kiwa Kitchen popped up when checking yelp. It was only a few minutes away from where we were at. Parking can take awhile but side streets usually have 2 hr parking. Check the signs to make sure there's no street cleaning! Kiwa Kitchen has this island vibe with Hawaiian music playing in the background. Looking over the menu, it's a melting pot of different Asian dishes. We decided to share the chicken kaarage, tea leaf salad and a tonkatsu ramen. The kaarage was tasty little bits of chicken and tea leaf salad was good as well. However, the ramen noodles were overcooked and soggy. The broth was kind of bland. And the egg was not your typical ramen egg but a soft boiled egg without the umami flavor. Maybe the chef had an off day or this is how it's supposed to be? I wouldn't recommend the ramen. Maybe the vermicelli or garlic noodles would have been a better choice. I guess I'll stick to ramen restaurants for ramen.

Food is fresh and flavorful. Vegetarian options available. Servers are courteous. Seems like the same venue changes to another restaurant at night.

What a wonderful delightful surprise! Located inside Moki's, Kiwa Kitchen is sharing the space. Kiwa Kitchen does lunch and they do it extremely well. You can order from a short but robust Japanese-inspired menu! That has some little surprises too, like Vietnamese inspired delicious marinated pork with vermicelli! Edamame spicy and garlicky! Gyoza! And the teriyaki chicken was awesome as well. Next time (and you know I will): RAMEN!!

Beer and wine are available via the Moki menu. Just ask your gracious, warm server. We had the place to ourselves today and while I love a quiet lunch, this place should be hustling. So good. And reasonable price. We are like fools for around $48. Alcohol was an additional $17. Come on in! The eating is fine!!

Then take a stroll down adorable Cortland!!

I have walked by this dark, little unassuming restaurant 50 times in the past year on Cortland not knowing or realizing it is a super casual, well priced Japanese casual restaurant.
Wha???!!!!

I am Japanese so im very particular about deep fried chicken katsu over rice w tonkatsu sauce.

I like thin chicken patties, that are very crispy and crunchy on the outside.

This is the crunchiest, crispiest Panko breading of most chicken katsu places. Even expensive ones end up being dry thick chicken w soggy half crispy on on the top that falls off.

Do not know how the very last pieces even on the bottom of my takeout were still crispy AND crunchy.

***I always have them leave the cover off so it doesn't steam n get soggy wet.
***I always eat it in the car. At least start so I taste it hot n crispy.

I'll try the rest of the items the next times I visit.
Super sweet ladies.

Still well priced.
Nice work ladies!
Domo Arigatou

Careful with the tipflation when ordering takeout on your phone. Their website assumes a tip for you. The first I noticed of it is when I saw the grand total at the moment of payment when the itemized bill is not visible. The salmon teriyaki is wholesome and the teriyaki sauce is not overly sugary.

Great service and delicious food!!! I had some ramen for lunch and will definitely be coming back again.