Kirala — Restaurant in Berkeley

After coming here twice, I've got to say that the food here stand out from a lot of the Japanese restaurants I've been to. The sushi is good, but really makes them stick out is the robata grilled food. Every piece of kushiyaki (literally meaning grilled skewers) I've had has been unique and wonderfully flavorful. The robata gives everything a wonderful smoky flavor, and some of the sauces can be wonderfully tasty. I highly recommend the wasabi chicken, but if you're not too keen on the kick of wasabi, try the ume chicken (don't worry; although ume is very sour, the sauce tastes more like a slightly more sour barbecue sauce, not the extremely sour pickled plum you might be thinking of). The squid I had last night was absolutely wonderful; I'm generally afraid of ordering squid because it so frequently gets overcooked. This squid, however, was perfectly cooked; just enough chew to make it satisfying to eat, but not so much that I was chewing for any longer than I liked. I also liked that they had anago (saltwater eel) nigiri, so I can have that wonderful eel texture without feeling guilty about eating the endangered unagi (freshwater eel). Be sure to take advantage of the Yelp waitlist, which opens at 6, so if you're eating after then, you won't have to wait outside the restaurant until you're close to being seated. The only issues I've had were that they forgot one of our orders both times I went, but they were quick to...

Don't bother with cut rate sushi... Kirala is pricier for a reason - it is GOOD. Sushi should not be messed with. There's salmonella. Parasites. Strombotoxin. And, dear god, vibrio. So don't play roulette with your dinner. Just pay the money. Go somewhere that knows how to do this, because they've been doing it for a couple of generations now. So clean, fresh, and delicious. I love it every time. Highly recommend ordering at least one item from their daily menu, as these specials often shine. Ours most recently was the tempura flounder for $15 - served as an appetizer it was enough for 3-4 people.

One star off for a few reasons that are admittedly subjective and sometimes at the whims of the season/customer: they were out of 3 things we tried to order, and that just shouldn't happen. The service can be spotty - this is a very busy spot and we've have servers just completely overwhelmed and can't handle it, while others are fine. I really think it depends on where you sit. Closer to the sushi bar = better service, closer to the drinking bar = not as good. We've never had rude or bad service, just that they can't keep up. I know it's a VERY hard job!

Lastly, picky personal issue here - if you're a sushi restaurant you definitely should not be able to smell the bathroom cleaning chemicals from the dining room as that ruins the experience. No gums under the...

Kirala continues to be a favorite. The casual, friendly atmosphere and the very fresh fish is comforting. Friday 11.8.24 arrived about 7pm and the wait was short enough that we could wait at the bar inside and not in a line outside. It was lovely to see friends there dining at a table, so got to chat with them before waiting for our sushi bar seats. Once we went to the back bar to wait, it was probably only 10-15 minutes. We sat in the middle of the sushi bar, directly in front of the specials board and I noticed how sparse it was. It used to be packed with options but not so any more. Then, while ordering, I asked for ankimo, which is something I consistently ordered here for years and years. In fact I think Kirala was the first place I ever had it. Sadly, they don't offer it any more - at all. So we ordered some basic nigiri and it was all very good - especially the unagi...Kirala is the ONLY place where I know it will be warm when it's served. I appreciate that immensely. Okay...so no ankimo....let me go ahead and order their tempura ice cream for dessert. Nope. They also no longer do that. I saw green tea and vanilla ice cream (large glass containers full) be delivered to a table so they carry those...they just don't tempura it any more. Harumph lol. I'll always come back to Kirala, but I'm sad about the...