Katana-Ya — Restaurant in El Cerrito

"Dinner Special A" is really a meal for 2 people. 6 CA rolls, 5-6 pieces of tempura, miso soup and a bento box of teriyaki chicken and rice. WHAT?! Not sure how this humble family is staying in business, but if you want to be transported to a country style Japanese restaurant with quality tempura served by very kind people, hella bring all your friends here.

Like many smaller joints, they had a rough year. However, they survived COVID by being very clean, strict about masks/anything touched, and devising a take-out system to keep their customers safe. Though they allow indoor dining now, an online-to-go ordering system saves a phone call, makes choosing/paying for your items easy, and continues to model safe social distancing measures.

I live a few miles away and feel proud to be supporting a local business of such integrity and reserve. Thank you for...

First of all- our waitress Jessica was awesome! All of the food we had was outstanding. The sushi rolls, the spicy ramen, the tofu steaks, the udon, and the chicken Katsu curry. But something very special, that they make here ,( that we have never found at any other Japanese restarant) is the “beef rolls dinner”. Imagine 3 pieces of thinly sliced beef, stuffed with mushroom, spinach and sweet carrots -then drizzled with yummy teriyaki sauce and served with rice and their delicious kimchi. Every bite was such a treat. It’s not on the menu, since the ownership changed, but they were kind enough to make it for us. I hope they put it back on the menu (officially, ) so that others can enjoy it as...

This place does not have good food compared to any other place in the bay and the service was poor. We ordered a bowl of the House Ramen and were very disappointed to find that it tasted like chicken noodle soup. When we informed the server she acknledged that's what we ordered and then took awhile to bring us a menu to order something else. When we got a simple california roll as an alternative the avocados were blackened in parts. At check out we were charged for the ramen and given sass when asking about it. There was no concern that we thought it tasted bad just a mere "oh well your loss" attitude. Will not...