Kiraku

Great Tapas dishes. I love their tempura corn and various meat skewers/​tapas.
The only negative is there is always a wait of 45 min+ around dinner time. They don’t take reservations unless you order 30+ dollars per person so makes it a bit pricey for bigger parties.

Can’t believe it’s my first visit! I guess I got stuck on Ippuku and Sumika, my two favorites in the Bay Area. There’s also the fusion-​y Gochi for novelty factor, Iroriya, and some of the Korean izakaya’s in the South Bay.
Compared to the others, I’d rank it highly but not above Ippuku or Sumika. With the crowded tables, simple décor and loud ambience, it feels a little more traditionally Japanese than Ippuku, which is more like fine food in a hip Tokyo club. Overall impression was that it was a little more inventive than straight izakaya fare, while still tasting very Japanese. I’ll need to give it another try to be sure of my rankings.
The particular dishes we ordered came out a touch saltier than expected — the surprise sauce brushed on the grilled rice ball, and the salty crab with broccolini. I thought all were tasty and would happily have tried more on the menu. We didn’t get to the squid, which we often order elsewhere, or the desserts, which we were too full for.
Next time we’ll make a reservation. Glad to have this place in Berkeley!

My friend and I came here on a Friday night. We put our names down around 7:30PM and were seated at approximately 8:10PM — Kiraku prides itself on creating an enjoyable experience for its customers, so slow dining is very common and the long wait is a testament to the quality of the restaurant. We pored over the menu and decided on a number of items:
Pros:
–We started off with two spoons of YUBA, ROE, and UNI. I forgot the exact name of the dish, but it was on Kiraku’s special seasonal menu. My friend and I both knocked it back in one go, and exchanged the same astounded look. I personally don’t like raw seafood very much, but the combination of buttery uni, refreshing roe, and sweet yuba was enough to make me happy
–We asked our waitress for a recommendation from the grilled menu, and she promptly pointed us to the GRILLED COD plate. The cod was soft and tender, and it came with a tasty sweet soy-​like sauce
–My favorite dish of the night was the SLOW COOKED KAKUNI PORK. I’m not sure if that was the exact name of the dish, but just ask for Kakuni pork, if anything. Four large slabs of tender pork were bathed in a mixture of oil and sauce and topped off with a perfectly soft-​boiled egg. I’m not even sure how to describe the pork in words — it was so good that I laughed for a good 5 minutes after my first bite
–I revisited an old favorite of mine, the ROCK SHRIMP TEMPURA, and it was as good as I remember. Battered, drenched in Japanese mayo, and topped off with green scallion, the shrimp was the perfect combination of sweet, savory, and crunchy
–We concluded our meal with the YUZU MOCHI dessert. The mochi itself was flavored with yuzu, a hybrid of lemon and orange, and stuffed with a sweet, creamy coconut filling. A delicious ending to a great dinner!
Cons:
–The SEA BASS CARPACCIO, also from the special menu, was very subpar. The bass was a bit too fishy, and I think I only enjoyed the dish because it was drenched in sesame oil and scallion

I never get bored of Kiraku because it delivers a truly genuine yet modern izakaya experience. The ingredients used in this restaurant are extremely high quality and are used harmoniously in all the dishes. I love the special menu items because they are always so interesting, experimental, and hard to find elsewhere. Today, I ordered a squid dish off the special menu that was absolutely delicious and novel to me. The squid and its ink were very hearty, and the fresh cilantro was a great addition to the dish. The sashimi was amazing as per usual, and the cucumbers to the moro q were perfectly crispy. They’ve started to offer beers from Coedo brewery that have banana/​clove accents, which paired well with all the different dishes we ordered. The roasted tea blanc-​manger is a must try if you like tea flavors in your desserts.
Expect to wait at least 45 minutes in line. You can entertain yourself by visiting many nearby shops, including a dispensary next door. The long wait is definitely worth it– Kiraku does not disappoint!

This pricey Japanese tapas restaurant is worth every penny spent. It’s very tiny and very popular, so either come early or be prepared to wait. The hours are a bit weird so be sure to check before you come.
My favorites are the corn tempura, uni & ikura spoon bite, and pesto udon.
Corn Tempura — crispy deep-​fried corn fritters; sweet and filled with lots of corn; sprinkled with matcha; tastes best when hot; great appetizer
Uni & Ikura — bite-​sized cold appetizer; sweet, fresh uni; salty, fresh ikura (roe) that pops in your mouth; very sophisticated flavor; tastes like the ocean!
Pesto Udon — awesome drunchies; filling, creamy, basil pesto sauce coating the udon and forming a slightly «soupy» base; al dente udon; mushrooms in the dish add a nice textural contrast
There are plenty of other delicious dishes as well, like the skewers (specifically pork belly — flavorful, juicy), various meat dishes (very tender), and the spicy jellyfish appetizer (cold, tangy, goes great with meat dishes).
Overall, this is a great place to visit only once in a while, as it can get quite pricey. They have sake tasting sampler so it’s a great place to come to de-​stress as well. ;)

It is very hard to get a table here. However, if you come 5:15 on Friday night, you’ll be able to get a table when they open at 5:30!
Great dining experience, and most of the food was great.
Food: 3.5÷5
Price: ³⁄₅
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Favorites:
* Grilled jumbo squid ($ 11) — WOW. This is definitely my favorite dish. The squid is grilled to perfection, amazing taste and goes super well with the spicy mayo. Great portion too!
* Suzuki carpaccio ($ 12) — striped bass, yuzu citrus, chive, ginger, sesame oil, shichimi spice. Love this so much! We saw the table next to us eating it and I’m so glad they recommended it to us.
* Fried Agedashi tofu ($ 6) — fried tofu in a runny broth/​sauce. SO GOOD!
* Grilled rice ball ($ 3)
* Black pork belly skewer with spicy mayo ($ 3.5)
* Warm Sake — sho chiku bai ($ 10)
Other orders:
* Bluefin tuna cheek meat steak ($ 12) — I was expecting grilled fish head with bones, but it was like an oily fish fillet.
* Ramen old style soy based ($ 8.5) — the soup was quite salty
* Corn tempura with green tea salt ($ 5) — crispy fried corn, I thought it was a little over hyped.
* Tender beef tongue skewer with yuzu miso sauce ($ 4.5) — very oily, it just melts in your mouth. Not a big fan.

This is the best Japanese restaurant I’ve ever been to in Berkeley! Everything we ordered was so delicious! The sashimi was very fresh! The quality was really good. The chicken cartilage was nice! The grilled port looked fat, but it tasted well done. And the fish was also pretty good. It was costly (we two spent $ 108 including beer and sake before tip), but it was worthy!
The service was also great. There were lots choices of sake! The waitress knew all sake there that she could explain to us the differences between each one. Btw, there are always many people waiting in line outside so it’s better to arrive there on 5:30 pm so that you won’t have to wait if you don’t have reservation.

My favorite japanese place in the Bay Area. Almost everything here is delicious. The karaage is the best I’ve had anywhere. The same goes for the whole squid — amazinggg. You can’t go wrong ordering those two and beef tongue. However I’m not a big fan of the roasted duck.

Awesome dining experience! Expect to spend $ 40/​person excluding drinks. Food quality is off-​the-​wall for that price!
Faves were the donburi and salmon carpaccio, but everything we had deserved 5-​stars. The sea urchin was so fresh… mmm… see attached pics.
Good for small groups as the restaurant is small. Wait time was 1 hr for two of us on a Friday night, but Totally worth it! and I normally wouldn’t say that about most things. After you put your name on the sign in list, you can walk around the area… Up Telegraph Ave toward campus, or get a beer or shaved ice across the street while waiting.

Eh, we waited about 45 minutes to get seated on a Saturday evening. With a 4.5 star average, I was expecting a lot more. The waitress was probably annoyed that we were trying to order everything from Unilocal photos. She kept telling us that some items were no longer on the menu.
In the end, we got 3 corn fritters, 2 pork belly skewers, and an order of premium grilled beef tongue. The corn fritters were extra oily. The pork belly skewers were average at best. The beef tongue was good but it was also $ 18. We had clearly snacked before we came here or else we would’ve spent a lot more money.

Loved the style of this authentic Japanese restaurant! However, be prepared to wait a loooong time because the restaurant itself is tiny and people take a while to eat (about 11 tables inside).
The food is soooo delicious!!! The raw fish is very fresh, and it seems like ever detail of flavor is prepared to perfection! They have a variety of small plates that suite many different moods such as corn tempura, ramen, bata kim, etc. The plum wine is also delectable and the service is very quick!
HOWEVER, don’t come hungry, because each plate is around 11 – 15 dollars and they will NOT fill you up (like most Japanese small plates)
This is definitely one of my favorite restaurants at Berkeley, but will most likely return only for a special occasion.

Kiraku is a nice restaurant. We were greeted with nice warm towels for our hands when we first sat down. However, it did take an hour and a half of waiting before we got seated, considering their policy requires a minimum of $ 30 per person for reservations and $ 15 per person for walk-​ins and the venue is quite small with a long turnover rate.
As for the food, I wasn’t really feeling the meat, so I ordered 3 small dishes: Agedashi tofu, Corn tempura (was super excited for this!), and the Butcher’s Croquettes. Each was $ 5 – 6. The Agedashi tofu was very soft but the broth was too gooey and salty for my liking. The corn tempura was really good, but make sure you eat it while it’s hot! The butcher’s croquettes were surprisingly my favorite. The outside was nice and crispy and the inside was nice and tender with potatoes and beef and onion. Lots of times these kinds of dishes can get a little too rich and you can’t finish, but these were perfect! I would come back for the corn tempura and butcher’s croquettes!
As for the other items on the menu, my friends enjoyed the roasted duck, pork belly skewer, beef sirloin with apple sauce skewer, and the bone marrow. All seemed pretty solid selections!

Kiraku est petit, mais c’est mon ami.
It’s very hard to get a table here because 1) they don’t take reservations for groups less than 5 and 2) the restaurant space is pretty small. However, everything was incredibly delicious, and worth repeat visits. It’s my first time eating Japanese tapas, and I’m already sold.
Kiraku salad: good balance of vegetables and flavors; it was a bit larger than I anticipated, and could be shared between two people.
Salmon chazuke: there are three components that come with this: the long plate with a variety of toppings (slivers of fish, furikake/​seasoning, salted vegetables), a bowl with a mound of rice at the center, and a teapot full of dashi. The number of topping combinations meant that each bite had a different and amazing flavor, and combined with rice and dashi made for an amazing taste.
Together the total was about $ 15, which was not as pricey as I anticipated. The waiters were great, and moved groups around very efficiently.
If I come back in the Berkeley area, you’ll find me lining up outside of Kiraku.

Kiraku oh Kiraku. there are few places I’d rather spend my paycheck on, and it’s dangerous that Kiraku is a few mere steps away from where I work. Lines are long, staff is friendly but understandably busy, and food is quality over quantity.
Beef tongue skewer:
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Pork belly skewer:
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Both of these skewers were seasoned well and retained the coveted smokey flavor of charred embers, but they were both a tad chewy. I liked that the pork belly skewer wasn’t overly fatty, but the chewiness of the fatty portions wasn’t my favorite.
Uni and ikura atop silken tofu spoons:
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This is one of my favorite combinations of uni and ikura ever ever ever. The silken tofu is so incredibly fresh, and if you like silken tofu skins, you will not be disappointed with this version. The uni was sweet and decadent, while the ikura provided a nice salty contrast. I could eat these endlessly, but they do cost a pretty penny.
Grilled whole squid with teriyaki sauce:
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This jumbo squid was also nicely grilled with just the right amount of smokiness, and it was the perfect texture between tender and slightly elastic. It’s one of the better preparations I’ve had, and of course it went well with the side of mayonnaise dipping sauce.
Corn tempura:
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When my friend told me about this corn tempura, I was doubtful that it would be anything special. But as far as fried corn goes, this is top of the list with just the right amount of crunchiness and burst-​in-​mouth sweetness of corn kernels. The green tea salt is a nice touch as well, although I think of it more as a novelty than a necessity.
Chicken cartilage:
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I had expected something a little different from this dish, but the thicker batter with little seasoning was surprisingly tasty with a spritz of lemon. I wouldn’t get this unless you’re in the mood to chew. a lot, but it’s a nice finger food to accompany beer or sake.
Beef tongue:
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Grilled to a beautiful medium rare, I liked this version of beef tongue better than the skewer version. The nice garlicky flavor permeated through each slice, but it wasn’t so garlicky that it overwhelmed the freshness of the beef tongue.
Kimchi and pork with poached egg on top:
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This was one of my friend’s favorites, but I was so stuffed by this time that I only had the bite. The flavoring was nice, especially the tartness of the kimchi, although the pork was a bit dry for my taste.
Sashimi sampler: salmon, bluefin tuna, toro:
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As with all of Kiraku’s fare, this sashimi sampler was amazingly fresh and beautifully presented. The toro was buttery, the bluefin tuna was flavorful and a tad firmer, and the salmon was so fresh the fattiness was almost pearlescent. I enjoyed the shiso immensely as well, especially in between different varieties of fish.
Spicy cod roe, tako wasabi, jellyfish:
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This was more of an appetizer dish, and I had mixed feelings about the combination. My favorite was the spicy cod roe, which was slightly seared and embodied a nice mealy texture. It’s not for everyone, but I personally love roe of all kinds, so it was right down my alley. The tako wasabi is definitely an acquired taste, as it’s raw octopus mixed with wasabi. It was flavorful, but the texture was rather slimey. The jellyfish was nothing too different from the Chinese version, but it veered towards the sweet side and had a nice crunch to it.
I adore Kiraku to no small degree, and I definitely think that the quality is worth the asking price. I’ll certainly be back.

The wait here can be long, long, long. So please make sure you make a reservation here if you’re not the type of person who wants to wait in line in the cold lol.
I had a reservation but I came here an hour and a half early since I’m super hungry from shopping from downtown SF. Lol. Soooo when I arrived there was already a group of people waiting for walk in. Holy, this restaurant must be damn good. So I was here around 6:30 and didn’t get seated till 8:20.
The restaurant is quite small but very authentic food. The food I had here was very much like the Izakaya in Japan. They speak Japanese and not much English here but enough to communicate. Waiters were kind of rude and we weren’t noticed till like 10 minutes after we sat… I know that they’re busy but they should atleast give us some water. They have customers from small children to elderly so I assume that everyone must love this place huh.
Highly recommend the A5 Wagyu beef hot pot style — it was so juicy and meat taste was excellent.

This place is delicious! I came here with two of my friends and we pretty much just went down the menu and tried to order at least one of everything. We ordered: uni and ikura spoons, takowasabi, corn tempura, kiraku salad, buta kim, roasted duck, saba shio, wrapped salmon, and three skewers: beef tongue, pork belly, and beef sirloin.
I definitely recommend the uni and ikura spoons, wrapped salmon, and roasted duck. These dishes had their own unique flavors and I would definitely get them again. The takowasabi was interesting as well. It’s basically raw octopus mixed with wasabi, but it was a bit overwhelming for me. In my opinion, each piece had a lot of wasabi so it was good that it came with really small pieces of tako to prevent myself from tearing up or crying. I would pass on the buta kim. The dish is made up of kimchee, an egg, and bits of pork. While looking at the dish, you can barely see the pork let alone taste it. Unless you LOVE kimchee, skip it.
It’s a bit pricey here and if you want to try a lot of different things, expect them to add up. Although the place is super tiny, they have a lot of different flavors and textures. I’m craving to come back already!

I’ve been wanting to try Kiraku for quite some time, but after reading about the long wait times, I’ve kept putting it off.
After finishing one of my final’s fairly early, me and the BF decided to go to Berkeley for dinner, knowing we could arrive at Kiraku right when they opened and not have to wait. However, we were verryy early so decided to grab drinks at Triple Rock and wait till 5:30. Our mistake, we ended up getting full off the beer. But since I only wanted to try a few dishes, it ended up working out. Going to Kiraku on an empty stomach would have been $$$$$$$$$$$$$
We ordered:
Yuba
Jumbo Squid
Daily special of scallop and toro sashimi
Foie Gras Daikon
Mini donburi
The Yuba spoons were good. I mean tofu skin, ikura, and uni?! You can’t really go wrong there. The flavors were light and went well together. The jumbo squid was super tender! The scallop and toro sashimi were fresh and delicate. I did wish the toro was fattier. The foie gras daikon was a disappointment. Its an interesting concept, and I enjoyed the flavors of the sauce with the daikon, but felt there was too little foie gras for the price. The mini donburi was very mini (but about the price of regular donburi) and it was just okay. Pretty though!
Service was standard and the food came out fairly quick.
I wouldn’t worry about the price minimum ($ 15 per person for walk in and $ 30 per person for reservations). You’ll definitely hit it. The price for these 5 small dishes were $ 85 before tax and tip. I couldn’t imagine if we came here starving!

Exotic food in an unexpected location.
Who would think that in the middle of run of the mill Telegraph Avenue would be a food-​lovers mecca? Kiraku has an amazing selection of Japanese style tapas and flights of sake. From corn fritters to grilled octopus. The selection is amazingly diverse. The prices are reasonable. There is no point in writing a long essay about the amazing fare. Visit Kiraku and see yourself.
The wait can get long, so get their just before dinner time for prime seating. There is a sign-​up sheet at the door. Reservations are available and advisable if you plan on the full izakaya experience.

I’ve had to pleasure to eat here a couple times despite its price range. I’m a college student after all! Most of the clientele are people who are already working full time, so you don’t see many students.
Below are the items I always order over again:
Items to order:
Corn tempura
Buta Kim
Fresh squid
Pork and beef skewers
Green tea Mochi ice cream
The yuzu udon was okay but it’s good to order it if you wanna actually be full here (due to its relatively larger portion size) and not spend $ 50 per person
This is on par with Ippuku in downtown Berkeley.

Short Story: A good place for Japanese Tapas!
Long Story: I came here on a Saturday evening for Japanese Tapas. The place is really small and even though we got a reservation at 7PM we waited until about 7:30pm to be seated. The menu is somewhat extensive with lots of things to try and eat. Feel free to order lots because it’ll take a lot to get you full.
The good thing is that for the most part the food does not take that much time before it comes out. We ordered lots of diferent types of food… see the pictures for details. Although what I will say is that this place like most other tapas places can be pricey… be ready to spend three digits with 2 or more people!
Verdict: Saving up more money for next time!!!