Musashi — Restaurant in Berkeley

Our last minute decision turned into our favorite meal of the month! My housemates and I hadn’t even realized that Musashi was only three blocks from our house so as soon as we saw that we booked it to the restaurant hoping there wasn’t a line. Thankfully we were seated immediately.

Ive been to quite a few Japanese restaurants in the bay area but none of them, except this spot, have ever brought us side dishes before we ordered our food! It was simple boiled sweet potatoes but it was a great way to settle our stomachs before we took a look at the menu. The menu had a great variety of things but we didn’t want anything too big, so both of us ordered one mini set each. I had the Salmon and Ikura Don and my housemate had the Tuna Poke Don. Each set came with miso soup and traditional pickled items. The best part about the mini sets is that they’re only $19 each!

I’ve had food from Musashi before, but only their premade rolls and nigiri that they sell at Yaoya-San in El Cerrito. Even those rolls are pretty good quality despite sitting in a fridge all day! But wow, we were super pleased when we tasted how smooth and buttery the salmon was. The tuna in the poke was also nice and firm, and not water-logged. I appreciate that Musashi takes pride in the quality and presentation of their food.

Definitely a new go to spot since they’re...

This is a restaurant I would return to every few weeks if only I lived in the Oakland/Berkeley area. Of the two times I've been to Musashi, the first time there was practically no wait while the second time it was more than a half hour wait. Keep in mind that I've only ever been with reasonably large groups (5-8 people). Off the bat, I took one star away because the service here is soo slow, it appears that there are only 1-2 servers. If you aren't willing to wait, or you value quality of service, I wouldn't go here.

Now for why this restaurant actually deserves five stars. Simply put, the food here is really good, and there is a large variety of dishes for reasonable prices. You can get ramen, japanese skewers, all manner of sashimi and nigiri a la carte, most varieties of sushi rolls and chirashi bowls. Highlights on the menu were the fish collars (more on these below), the chicken skin, thigh and heart skewers, and the bbq eel. I really enjoyed the izakaya ambience and the waiting staff were very courteous even though they are overworked.

Pro tip: The absolute highest value item on the menu, by far, are the salmon and himachi (yellowtail tuna) collars at $5 for 2 salmon collars and $12 each himachi collar. The collars alone add a star to my rating. The chirashi bowl is also a...

I went to Musashi with a friend for dinner on Saturday night. It's a small restaurant so we had to wait for about 15 minutes before a table opened up. We were then handed menus and were served a little while later. When we sat down they gave us chopsticks and a free round of green beans. I liked the green beans so much that I ended up getting another round! We then ordered a few different types of yakitori (nankotsu (chicken cartilage), negima (chicken leg with green onion), gyu (beef steak yakitori)). My friend also ordered some shiitake yakitori, nasu (eggplant) yakitori with miso on top, and shishito pepper yakitori. Out of all the different types, I liked the negima, gyu, and the shishito pepper yakitori the best. My friend then ordered some hamachi sushi to refresh her palate. We also ordered a few beers. Overall, the food was tasty and came out pretty quickly, but with the beers and all the different types of yakitori the total bill definitely added up. Service was great (waiters speak Japanese). I would go again but also want to try out other Japanese cuisine in Berkeley...