Izakaya Mai — Restaurant in San Mateo

My wife and I went there last night (8/15/20). Neither of us were comfortable with the measures they put related with covid19. Waiters weren't putting 6-feet. I saw that they didn't clean the menu after one table left. They didn't clean the chairs well. They cleaned the tables but then put the menu on top. They touched the menu that customers used and then cleaned the table. They should wash/disinfect their hands between collecting the plates and cleaning the table. Also, they have one table that is really close sidewalk (you can't put 6-feet). Addition to that, some tables are inside of the tent they set up on the street. I don't think it's a good idea to block the air circulation like that. One side of the tent was fully closed. They put a fan but I think the fan is just pushing the air from a few tables in front of it to other tables, which increases the risk of transmission from front tables to tables in back. I know that some other restaurants also use tent approach. I think San Mateo authorities shouldn't allow that since it's not totally "outside" if you put a tent like that.

I talked so far about the lack of safety guidelines related with covid19. Let's talk about the food now. I ordered sake toro sashimi, which was supposed to be the soft part of the salmon. I didn't believe that it was the belly part since it was pretty hard even for the typical sake (no toro). I asked the waiter whether this was a really from belly part of the salmon and expressed that it's not soft. He told me that toro is supposed to be chewy. Well, I ate toro sake in so many places, strangely enough (for him), I never ate chewy and hard one like that. If you really think that toro has to be chewy and chewy, go and eat sashimi in Sushi Maruyama. Rolls were okay, though. My wife ordered rainbow roll and she liked it.

If you're like us, going out rarely nowadays because of the virus, I suggest you to think twice if you wanna go here. If you're seasoned sushi fan, I don't think you'll enjoy eating nigiri or sashimi here. If you're worried about covid19, I don't think you'll be comfortable. I am sorry to write this bad review, I saw that many places are not very careful about this pandemic, but that shouldn't be an excuse to provide a great service with following the guidelines of CDC and WHO. You can take this as a feedback and improve your measures and the quality, or you can just ignore...

A quaint little Japanese joint with a very loud atmosphere, despite it being nearly empty when we went. We ordered a Titanic special roll and the Cherry Blossom, both of which I've never seen more obviously premade. I read good things about the sushi in other reviews, but my god, this is potentially the worst sushi I've ever had. The order came to us in about 3 minutes, the tempura shrimp in my Titanic roll was cold to the touch, and mushy as opposed to crunchy. Both dishes were very mushy and everything was the same texture, a very blatant sign that they were premade hours before, and kept in the fridge until someone ordered it.

My girlfriend couldn't eat the Cherry Blossom so I figured I'd give it a go, I legitimately gagged and had to wash it down with the sake we ordered. They substituted the tuna with salmon, which was a bit discolored with minor rips, there was no 'springiness' to it: more of a 'mushiness', which is why the roll was so hard to get down. Also an indicator that it was not fresh. The avocado was hard (not fully ripe) and would float around as a hard ball while the rest of the roll was all mushy in your mouth. Needless to say I will never be coming back to Izakaya Mai for sushi. They have a very large menu so maybe they specialize more in some other dishes?

We were also bugged about 5 times to order in the 10 minutes it took us, then when we were done we had to wait 30 minutes and eventually just ask for the check because they wouldn't come to us. At least the waiter was pleasant. The sake was good, too! Made me think that maybe that's the main point of Izakaya Mai, just get drunk on the sake and the below-par dish tastes better. I will probably be back to try other dishes, but my real love is for sushi, and Izakaya Mai has thoroughly disappointed me...

Update from my review 6 yrs ago. Parking easier with the lot, as it's impossible from the street to find parking now that they closed the main walking street. They remodeled inside now, and it's hard to get a server's attention if you're in an "enclosed" table, which meant we had to go wave down a waiter any time we needed attention or more food. It's also very dark with the gray walls, and I miss the old open, authentic feel of the Japanese decorations, and the train around the ceiling ledges. The restaurant's lost it's family/warm feeling.

Ordered the large hamachi kama, and it seems smaller than in the past when I've eaten there, and the uni my husband got was inedible. Eggplant was tasty with miso, but SO greasy compared to how I've gotten it in the past as well, so I wouldn't order it again, felt so heavy with the pool of oil at the bottom of plate. Note that their futomaki has salmon bits in it, so it's not vegetarian like other places make it.

Review from 2018: Love the food, hate the parking situation. I often only go here if I can find parking, as there are so many Japanese options around, I just go to whichever has closest parking available. But I love their menu, so...