Iyasare

Cuisine	Japanese
Price	$$$ (31-50)
Rating	5/10
Last Visit	March 1, 2025
Location	SFBA: Berkeley + Oakland

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General Notes

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Nice Japanese restaurant with solid food, but also quite expensive and overpriced for what you're getting. The selling point here for me is definitely the ambiance; I really like the outdoor parklet area, which has a similar vibe as Rintaro. The food is consistently good but not amazing and falls a little bit short of what I'd expect given the price point. I noticed something interesting -- almost all of the Google reviews online are from non-Asian people, which is not something I've seen for a whole lot of the really good Japanese restaurants I've been to in the bay :thinking:. The surrounding neighborhood is also really nice, this was my first time going to the Fourth Street shopping area, would definitely recommend taking a stroll around.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★☆☆ Tekka Don -- 4pc akami, 4pc chutoro, served over sushi rice + some miscellaneous accompaniments. Pretty solid tuna overall.
• ★★☆☆ Iyasare Kakiage Tempura -- burdock root, onion, sweet potato, shiitake, shungiku, tiger shrimp, bonito soy broth. Served with matcha powder, togarashi, nori flakes for dipping. Apparently one of their flagship dishes, it's pretty good but not quite as good as the one I had at sumika. The breading felt a little bit too "hard" and didn't quite have the same savory feel. The flavor was very nice, though.
• ★★☆☆ Nasu-miso -- grilled eggplant, ginger, shiso, sweet miso. Not as "juicy" as I was hoping, flavor is ok.
• ★★☆☆ Mentai Potato Salad -- yukon potato, cucumber, onion, carrot, egg, spicy cod roe, tenkatsu. Pretty good dish, nothing super noteworthy though. Has a curry-like flavor.