Sumika, Los Altos CA

Amazing yakitori restaurant! The seasoning on the food was perfect and the service was great. I particularly enjoyed the frozen custard pudding desert! It can often get busy so it's recommended to reserve.

I'm very disappointed at this restaurant and feels like I wasted my money. It was about 40 minutes wait for a tiny table. Another 15 minutes of waiting for someone to take our order. However, we grew impatient so we had to pull someone over to order. The options were all bad with mainly skewers, overpriced I may add. We ordered a few and let me tell you.

The soup was literally just very salty soy sauce soup with some good clams. The skewered meats were extremely dry and overcooked especially the wagyu with apple onion sauce (that tasted horrible). We noticed that other tables started to time the staffs and getting more impatient. The moment they all got their bills, everyone paid and left quickly. We were sitting next to dirty tables for awhile until we finished.

Hopefully, the owners hire more people and get better menus. I would never come back here.

As a vegetarian I really enjoyed the sumika salad with tofu and the shishito peppers. The half portion of salad was massive - it could easily be split among 2-4 people depending on how much food everyone wants. It has some tofu on it but not a massive amount, so I supplemented with the agedashi tofu for the protein.

My only feedback is I wish they had a vegetarian version of the sauce for the agedashi tofu. I had it without the bonito broth since I don’t eat fish, and it didn’t have a ton of taste. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. The service was very kind and they have some tables for outdoor seating (though it was very busy when I went on a Tuesday around 7pm; reservations are probably helpful).

Came here without reservations around 6: 30pm on a Tuesday. While we were able to be seated for our party of 3 quickly, we waited a long time for our server to come by to take our order. Once they took our order, only half the food came out from the kitchen and there were people seated next to us that arrived after us but had food arrive earlier. After asking the server to repeat the order, we had to re-order the other half of our items a second time.

The appetizers and some of the main entrees are a really good value with delicious foods at reasonable prices. The yakitori grill items were quite expensive and is not really a good value for money although some were better than others. Would recommend the pieces of meat with cheese and sauces since they were juicer and more moist.

Some of the highlights of the meal include the tamagoyaki omelette, braised pork, short rib.

The dessert was probably the low light and wasn’t very good. The matcha panna cotta was ok but the caramel cheesecake was extremely disappointing. Frozen pieces of cheesecake with a burnt caramel taste that still had some of the butane torch taste on it.

Terrible, never coming again.my first reservation was cancelled because they had a plumbing issue.then, when we finally got to come, the waiter failed to take our orders correctly.non-existent customer service at a barely mediocre place.

Everything tasted pretty authentic. The menu has a lot of variety. The tempura was good with some interesting vegetable choices, like Brussels sprout, that aren’t normally in those dishes. Skewers were great, especially the chicken with scallion and the beef. They also have a nice house salad.

Definitely had a Japanese theme this weekend (also went to Jun-ni). Overall the found was really good for our group (included two kids) and my biggest issue was a service one. We had a 730 reservation and a few minutes after we ordered we were told it was last call and if we wanted to order anything else. For me this style of dining is best when you order multiple times as the meal progresses plus if I really like something I want to order it again. We could not do this as we had no food before last call.

Some of the highlights for me were: chashu pork potato salad - well balanced with the acidic dressing, tempura vegetables- great texture and mushrooms always welcome. I find that I like the more basic grilled items best (no sauce just salt) but all of the chicken dishes were great with my favorite being the skin.

Probably will not return as there are many options in the area.

Came here for lunch for a date and got a reservation ahead of time so would recommend doing that just in case.

Good:
I liked that the service was pretty quick! The waiters were really nice and quick to come back with our plates.
The ambiance is nice for a date too.
The portion sizes here are decent for the price too.
I also liked that some of the dishes came with little side dishes like miso soup and small veggies.

Bad:
I found that the oyaku don didn't have that much flavor - it was pretty bland to me, but the chicken was good. I didn't really taste the egg - I got it runny so might try for the medium next time.
I thought the karaage was pretty average too - it was crispy but only came with the lemon and the mayo was an extra charge.

Overall average experience - might want to come back and see if dinner is different, but felt pretty expensive for a standard experience.

Very friendly and professional service. Good food with limited choices for vegetarians. It's more on the pricier side. The pictures show the food and beverages (no alcohol) for two guys, we spend about $90 including the automatic 18 % tip.

We made reservation and came at Saturday night, sitting outside was a little bit chilly. The food was good, service was nice. Oyakodon was soft, juicy and tasty. Grilled calamari steak is very good. We also tried few skews, all of them were good.

Amazing food and the service was really nice. I felt welcome immediately. Was seated indoors very quickly and had a great time.