Jiro Cafe & Bakery — Restaurant in Belmont

It is remarkable that an authentic Japanese bakery exists in the Peninsula, let alone a quaint neighborhood between San Carlos and Belmont. Don't get me wrong - nothing wrong with this. Just that you might wonder whether the demand is there.

Now imagine if your favorite friendly Japanese aunt had a hobby in baking. She's quite good. And she puts a smile on everyone's face whenever she serves bread. And one day, she decides she wants to try opening a bakery. Start small, sell it to those that's around her. I'm not sure what the backstory of Jiro's is but it absolutely feels this way.

The breads here are nothing but love. You can "feel" the love and care they've put into it. Yes, they taste quite good. Not your top notch Michelin grade but also not a factory-style super sweet sales-optimized production. They are hearty.

To judge any Japanese bakery, you must try its Melon-pan. It's the primary staple of any Japense establishment. The crust must be crisp yet gentle. The insides airy. The melon scent is the key. Jiro's does not nail this. I wished the bread was a bit more briochy and the crust didn't carry the melon scent well. Also, a hint of chocolate filling surprised me. It is definitely not your commerical "classical" recipe. But it worked. I enjoyed it.

And now... the price. $4.50 for a Melon-pan is nearing the border of blasphemy. It is like charging $20 for a burger. However, this is what you should be wililng to pay to taste bread made with love.

I'm so happy that Jiro's opened in San Carlos. Will absolutely return to try all of...

We came here when they first opened on a Saturday. They were taking orders and there was a line but there was no indication of how long we would need to wait. It seems they have one person making the hot dishes such as the gyudon and soba. So as more orders came in and the line got longer they were unable to keep up. They continued to take orders though. Something that slowed them down is when orders were ready they had to find the person who ordered it based on the content of the receipt. This ended up taking time away from someone who could be prepping food. We waited for over a hour before asking for a refund. They seemed to be confused about how to process it and it required the person prepping food to refund, slowing down the food prep for others. I get this is a small place and they may have gotten popular but there are solutions to these issues and I want to try the food. So the following are things they need to do in my opinion

1. order numbers on receipts
2. Notify customers before they purchase on wait time if it is over 20 minutes.
3. Have a way to notify people in line if you are out of stuff before they get to the counter.

I really want to like this place, it is a big improvement over the sandwich shop it replaced. They have growing pains to...

Extremely strange and confusing set up. After driving around to look for street parking, when I finally came into the place, I saw one staff completely busy with her own business - baking or something. I saw a kiosk for ordering next to the counter so I decided to help myself after making sure the one customer who stood right in the middle of the cafe did not need to use the kiosk. I asked that person if she was using the kiosk and she simply replied “I’m waiting” so I thought she was waiting for her order pick up. I then went to the kiosk and got called upon by the only staff who seemed so busy previously asking me not to cut in line?? I am sorry I would never have any motivation to cut in line at your place, this is not an attraction by the way, when you see situation like that, the only possibility is your customer is very confused. The staff/owner then asked that customer to try mobile app ordering instead, so I am guessing her “I’m waiting” meant waiting on a broken kiosk to finish a transaction maybe. How would I know. Throughout the process nobody cared to instruct me anything except for calling me not to “cut the line”. I would choose going to a standard restaurant where I don’t mind tipping and not be treated like thief...