Ducks Restaurant — Restaurant in San Gabriel

Friendly service. Food came out fast. But don't go close to closing time. The white rice was on the hard side abd not sticky, tho you get a big beautiful portion. We got the beef curry and the pork cutlet curry. The beef in curry was tender, which was good. And nice big chunks, also good..but..some pieces had large fatty bits. The pork cutlet dish was served with curry on the side, and I loved the red crunchy condiment (ginger??)...I take stars off because there was only half a shrimp in the tempura, the tempura appetizer was greasy, looked like the shrimp was sliced down the center the size of a straw. The other stars off for the fatty bits in the beef and off for the curry itself...while it was great we asked for mild and it was mild...it tasted like an Indian curry...which surprised me...it was dark and thick, and had some bitter notes in the same way Indian curry does. It's good if you like more bitter flavors. There were a few youngish folks dining alone so its comfortable for singletons. I liked the kitty portraits on the wall, and the Japanese kids books...loved the tiny toy ducks lining the place, so a cute quirky atmosphere. But very casual and really not...

My favorite authentic Japanese curry restaurant in SGV!

I've tried numerous chains such as Hurry Curry and Curry House but I always end up comparing them to my mom's curry, which blows them out of the water. Finally there's a restaurant that serves curry that is the perfect consistency and comparable to what my mom cooks!

I've been here twice and we usually end up ordering the combo A Set which consists of a mini Katsudon and udon noodle soup, along with a regular entree of the chicken curry to share. The Katsudon is on the sweeter side but yelpers rave about this dish, and the udon noodle soup is pretty plain (consists of broth, udon noodles, and two pieces of aburaage),but the noodles are chewy and the broth is very flavorful. My only complaint is that the food can be slightly salty but overall you know the food is authentic Japanese when there's actually Japanese patrons eating besides you and the best part is that I don't have to drive to Little Tokyo...

Run by a family, at least from what I could tell. Granny in the kitchen with granpa? Two servers on the floor with 40 seats. 6 tables and 4 counter seats. All speak Japanese. The atmosphere felt like rustic post war Hawaii without trying. Fans hanging all over the ceiling with one side of the shop windows completely covered by plant. Nothing but tungsten lights lit up the place. It's still sort of dark at 2pm. Two tone (white, pale green) finish. No TV but a radio spilling out something that I never made out what it was. Service was a bit disappointing. Long wait due to a lack of staff, and probably dinner ware. The food was good but it's pricy. I would say stick with curry. I tried curry, tonkutsu ramen, cutlet, and some lunch special. Curry was best but from the fried fish cake I had, I would say their tempura could be amazing.

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