Yakitori House Restaurant — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this place!!! My only complaint is they’re always busy during dinner every weekend, so I recommend visiting during weekday dinner; especially if you want to get seated quick. I am still giving 5 stars obviously for the service, food, and location itself. Once you are able to taste their ramen, sushi, curry, and etc, you will know why this place is always busy. I think this is the only place that they serve Takoyaki? (I might be wrong) I love ordering their Takoyaki everytime I go here! You can never go wrong with that. Their ramen is so delicious and very flavorful. I can’t really compare this to Okinawa since I’ve never been there, but I am sure it is close. The atmosphere and the vibe of this place reminds me of Japan (from what I’ve seen watching documentaries). I love seating at their bar area since I can somewhat see the kitchen and behind the scene. We are absolutely coming back here especially with my takoyaki cravings! This spot is also one of the ideal date night places. Don’t miss out!

Lunch Time Feedback: Stopped by during their lunch time on a Saturday! It wasn’t that busy and we were able to get seated quick in the bar area. I was finally able to order their House Special Lunch with the vegetables yakisoba, side fried rice, and chicken karaage! I enjoyed the yakisoba since it wasn’t salty. As for the chicken karaage it was crispy and soft on the inside, it comes with yum2 sauce as well. Ordered some Rainbow roll, I wasn’t expecting that it included octopus and I’m not really a fan of octopus unless it’s takoyaki. Regardless, the rainbow roll was amazing. My husband ordered Teriyaki Chicken; he said he didn’t enjoy it since it had too much teriyaki sauce that overpowered the rice and the chicken itself. Overall, I enjoyed my meal, my husband said that he wished he ordered the same meal as I did and/or a ramen. Again, we will be back to try other stuff...

I would recommend that folks stay away from many of the sushi rolls. They are simply not good and are expensive. A ton of rice and no fillings. I tried the Philadelphia Roll, Rainbow Roll and the large spicy tempora shrimp roll. The shrimp one was almost $15 and it had two small burnt tempora shrimps inside it surrounded by 3 inches of rice. Someone then smeared spicy mayo on the top that looked like a toddler was trying to draw with a crayon on a wall....the sake was bland, the Omulet was something I tried as well, it turns out that it's an omelet stuffed with rice and pork drenched in ketchup on top and inside. Even my kids disregarded it as undesirable. I sure hope this place turns things around, I honestly want to give them another chance as I frequent the market next to them. And the glowing reviews suggests that their menu has gems in it...I just haven't found them yet I guess?

Look, I love small local shops and I support everyone trying to make it out there in this tough economy, I hate to leave bad reviews...I'd rather leave good ones. But this experience left me with a $63 bill and a...

Before reading further, just know that I probably have higher standards or different expectations going to a Japanese restaurant than most having grown up on the west coast:

The food is passable and I was a little disappointed especially for the price. I ordered a miso ramen with a side of Yakitori, The one positive note I had was that there were many toppings which is nice. Corn, Spinach, Fish cakes, scallions were all decent. However, there was only one piece of "chasu" which was more like a thinly sliced pork tenderloin and not very flavorful. The egg was plain hard-boiled and not a soy sauce egg. The soup base was fairly bland in my experience. And the bamboo shoots were on the tough side. Noodles were noticeably store bought but they were the better quality non-fried noodles.

The Yakitori was 4/5. My only wish is that it was fire grilled to give it a slight char and not just drowned in sugary teriyaki sauce.

Like I mentioned before, this is passable for take out ramen but...