Gombei — Restaurant in San Jose

Gombei is fast and delicious stop for a reasonable price. I've literally had 100 Gombei meals go into my mouth and out my butt.

AVOID busy hours. Around 12:30pm. Around 7:00pm. Avoid them. You'll be waiting in line that has no list. Sometimes, you get the rude customers that just walk into the front and get seated. Then you finally get seated only for the workers to forget to take your order. If you can avoid those hours, this place will be a very pleasant experience.

Cash Only

Go to the back area to see what's on the special menu. They always have 5 menu items that are special for the day.

Avoid Poke Mackerel. It's too difficult to eat. You'll be picking bones and sometimes get some bitter parts of the fish in your mouth

Closed on Sundays. You'll end up going to Sushi Maru and then realize everyone did the same thing and you'll be waiting for a long time.

Don't know what to get? Just get the Beef + Tonkatsu combo. How do you want the beef cooked? Medium Rare.

This place is very welcoming even if you are alone. Have a seat at the counter and you can watch the chefs cooking while you wait.

Other Notes The workers are generally very friendly except for their oldest waitress. They all do good work though. The guys in the back cooking are very sharp and get the food done quick!

Beef, Chicken, Pork, anything fried - they do it the best. Nice perfect rice, miso soup, crunchy fried katsu.

Salad - Salad always comes drenched in dressing so ask for the dressing on the side.

Soup - Stay away from udon, yakiniku or their tofu soups (only served during dinner). It's just not that great. The udon noodles...

I recently moved to SJ from LA and was looking for some Japanese comfort food to help with settling in to a new place. My friend who came up with me to help me move suggested we try Gombei as he found it on yelp. Needless to say, this place reminded me very much of home with the taste of a home-cooked meal.

Parking: Fortunately I live close enough to walk here, but I believe it's street parking only and finding parking in Japantown seems to be kind of difficult.

Store/Staff: The store was as clean as any hole in the wall restaurant would be. It had a nice cozy feel to it and felt home-y. It's not a large place, but is a comfortable size to seat a good number of people but a line can form outside during typical rush hours. The staff were very friendly and all spoke Japanese.

Food: I ordered the grilled fish collar and chicken nanban set which was one of the daily specials written on the board in the back. It comes with pickled cucumber, rice, and miso soup. The grilled fish was perfectly grilled and delicious. The chicken nanban is basically fried chicken nuggets (think chicken karaage) with a sweet and tangy sauce over it. It was very good and I had a difficult time stopping myself from overeating.

I very much like the ambiance and the food and will be coming back here again especially when I'm feeling homesick and wanting some Japanese...

Goodbye Gombei! Our family had always enjoyed coming to this restaurant in the past many years for good Japanese food. We came for lunch and this time we were surprised at how the older Japanese lady treated us. First, I was told to keep my arm to myself because there were another six guests coming and joining with us at the same table at the back of the restaurant. I was shocked but tried hard not to say anything. Then when she came to take the order, she told us she would take the order starting from one person and going counter clockwise and not any other way. For a moment I thought we were in North Korea. This is surreal. Third, the udon noodle was overcooked. Noodle was stuck together and the broth tasted like powder mixed with hot water. There are plenty of restaurant in the same area these days. Gombei used to be one of the best food around. The servers are all Hispanic. They are nice most of the time. Some Japanese ladies could get cranky when it gets busy. We just came back from a 2 week Japan trip and were quite shocked at the attitude of Japanese servers at this Gombei San Jose versus the ones anywhere in Japan. What happens to guest hospitality or human respect...