Gaku Restaurant — Restaurant in San Jose

Wasn't impressed the first time but gave it several chances. Having dined here multiple times both before and after quarantine, I have a well-rounded overall picture of the place by now, in both pre-plague and post-restaurant-pocalypse conditions.

Back of house masking incorrectly. Pointless. Might as well not mask at all. Hope they're all vaxxed.

The menu is (and always has been) hit or miss, mostly miss.

This solidified my suspicion that most izakaya/robata joints are not the place to get raw fish. The 3 levels of bluefin sashimi (akami, chuu toro and o toro) were all fishy, sliced poorly, and the o toro was stringy and fell apart. The mixed plate of 2pcs each was not as good a deal as getting the 3 individual full 5pc orders so we went for that despite it being $85 rather than $38.50. But it was a mistake. I felt queasy from the fishiness.

I've had better and cheaper bluefin at Izaka-ya which is a much lower end izakaya-style Japanese restaurant.

Even the cooked fish here wasn't great. The steamed ankimo's texture was off. The ponzu jelly was interesting and tasty but that being the only ponzu made the ankimo really dry, and trying to scrape it off the stone plate was an exercise in futility.

The yaki onigiri was okay but the uni on it tasted like plastic. The shiso leaf overpowers most of the other flavors (but the plastic taste).

A couple of the skewers were good, while others were so drenched in sweet glaze they tasted like...

This is so disappointing to write up, but the last several low reviews ring true. This place lost it's flavor profile and sensibility for good yakitori. We arrived at 5pm opening for 2 seats. Starved as can be, we were excited to try an authentic yakitori place in South Bay as we've been to yakitori izakayas all over the bay and japan. We were ready to enjoy a full meal which we enthusiastically rattled off our favorite items off the menu. Potato salad, chicken heart, chicken liver, scallops, chicken wings, Shitake shrooms, beef kabli, and chicken thighs in that order. Everything, and I literally mean every thing on a stick was buried in salt. It felt like eating an entire bag of chips in one sitting. The kind of salty that makes your lips wrinkle and canker sores immediately form. I understand that bar food is to be bold and savory but even the ashai + water couldn't wash down this influx of sodium. It Awkwardly got so bad that we had to insist we needed to refuse the last dish, chicken thighs, and send for the check. They initially refused since the food was on the grill, but as soon as I explained the issue with the whole food experience they knew the protocol as if they have done this before. We left entire wasabi chicken, shitake mushrooms, and Kalbi unfinished ( and I'm the type to never waste even off the floor). Total bill: $127 + plus tip. My takeaway? I learn to take recent Yelp...

My cousin from San Jose recommended this to me and I'm glad I tried it out because yakitori is one of my favorite foods.

The flavors, vibes and dim lighting at Gaku Yakitori take me back a visit to Tokyo. I've been twice to Gaku in two weeks and can't wait to come back for more. For my first visit, they ran out of a lot of items, so it shows how popular they are and how loyal their customers are. During dinner, the place was packed and I could here people speaking Japanese, so I could tell it's an authentic spot.

My favorites were the chicken thigh and wing skewers of course, but everything hit the spot. They nailed the flavors here-- good quality meats, sauces, and everything was grilled to perfection. The appetizers were also tasty. Everything tasted great with the draft Asahi and brown rice tea.

I do recommend a mix of appetizers and skewers here. Japanese people eat tomatoes and edamame with beer, so I recommend those two. Shrimp karaage, gaku spicy wings, chicken wings, chicken thigh, bacon steak, meatballs, butabara, and king oyster mushroom are great. The desserts are also good. When I went there was a special dorayaki with red bean and whip cream that we had to try. The green tea creme brulee was another tasty way to...