Minako Organic-ish Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in San Mateo

Wish I could give 6 stars. My wife and I went here this last weekend for a date night. Eating out can be complicated, since we're both on the same vegan diet except for the fact that she's also very allergic to wheat gluten and some other grains (luckily, not rice). When it comes to getting sushi, our options are rarely any good, and we've mostly just given up on eating it.

After searching Happy Cow, we found Minako. It was in the right area for where we were going out, and we were surprised to find that such an establishment was able to be found outside of San Francisco proper.

ATTN: we saw a review that mentioned how allergic the restaurant owner was to fragrances, and that you can't wear perfumes or colognes if you want to eat here. Being that we were on a date night, normally we would wear such fragrances. But I also know a few people allergic to perfumes, so we decided to heed this advice (which is wrong to call advice, and more accurate to call policy).

I'm glad we did.

There are signs all over the entrance and front of the house mentioning this allergy and that the restaurant owner retains the right to refuse service to anyone right below it. This may seem heavy handed to some, and might put you off. I encourage you to see through that perception. The main reason for this is that the woman that owns this restaurant, Minako, is a WONDERFUL human being, so lovely to talk with, personally waited on us, and made our night special.

And I haven't even gotten to how great the sushi was.

IT WAS AMAZING. We ate 4 different varieties of sushi rolls, which fed us very well, had incredible green tea, and left very satiated for under $50 including tip (we tip well).

I couldn't recommend this place more. The quality of food, ownership, and environment is so worth the stop. And the mild inconvenience of not wearing cologne or perfume shouldn't be a problem for you in any way. If it is, this isn't the type of place you'd enjoy anyways.

I can't...

I've had Minako's on my list for a while since seeing the homemade, organic vegan Japanese options that they provide. As someone who loves Japanese food, it's always nice to see a place that offers more than just an avocado cucumber roll for someone like me.

We ordered three items: my mom got the Chirashi bowl, I went with their Tofu Kaarage, and a Mushroom Avo Roll. They told us it would be a 30-40 minute wait due to the number of orders, and we said we'd be okay waiting. When they realized we were dining "in," they even brought out a small bowl of rice crackers for us to enjoy while the food was being prepared.

To my surprise, the kaarage came like a set so there was rice, pickled veggies, and their daily side included. The tofu kaarage was fantastic and a nice change of pace from the standard tofu katsu I often see at Japanese restaurants. My maki roll was good too but was a bit small for me. My mom also enjoyed her chirashi but felt it wasn't a lot of food, and the wait probably made it a bit harder to justify the full cost.

Service here was great and I did appreciate talking to the owner and daughter about their business and seeing how many vegans have stopped by to share their recommendations on plant-based spots around the country. They were very attentive and kept coming out to check on us even if it meant leaving the restaurant.

As of October 2023, they are still very much take-out only but have a few small tables outside to dine on site. I recommend ordering to-go since it's not guaranteed you'll have a table and there isn't a whole lot of activity situated on a street corner with a gas...

We tried Minako with our family of 4 on a Friday evening. We had a delightful time and the kids loved the ramen (flavorful, not overly salty). I had tempura and my wife had the soba dinner. If I'm being picky, some of the veggies were slightly undercooked and our kids didn't like the miso soup which uses a darker miso base than they're used to. Minako's is a great choice for Japanese if you have vegan or mostly vegetarian diners (there's fish and chicken in some dishes). My wife recognized the owner, Judy, who had a restaurant in the Castro a few years ago; my wife and her sister used to go there quite a bit, apparently. So my wife chatted with the proprietor throughout our dinner. We learned the menu was recently downsized as they're short on kitchen staff right now, but we still had a lot of choices. There's sushi, ramen, tempura and dinner combos, so it still took us a little while to decide on our meals. Be forewarned there are signs posted about a fragrance/cologne allergy, and this has caused quite a few negative reviews. So don't apply them if you want to eat here and you'll avoid poor service from the staff. There were 2-3 other groups at the same time as us and we didn't observe any problems. Minako's is also quite a departure from the prior establishment which was a very Americanized Japanese restaurant (which is why I never bothered to eat at this...