Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas

Make a reservation. I ordered the sakana iro iro, shiromaguro tataki, yamagawa pizza, and the duck breast. All were great The salad well dressed with the right pieces of sashimi in the salad. I would say it is a bit on the pricey side but not too much.

Been here infinite times! They’ve got a big menu of Japanese tapas; some traditional some fusion. Compare to Tanto, En, Dan izakaya, Gochi specialize in quality of cooking technique & materials used are a bit better than the rest.
Taste wise: are on the umami & lighter side from what they label as Japanese fusion tapas!
Ambience: super inconvenience with the shoes take off thing. And de chairs are hard wood, not comfortable. Like the ancient dynasty w/​uncivilized by using Candle lighting.
Service: Japanese style of service, not so professional, 3 ppl kept asking me the same questions! Wtf?
What I usually order was:
Fusion pizza: A+
Unagi; tasty & sweet w/​tofu, egg, gobo-​burdock, nori, Shitake, and cheese.
Salmon & ikura; creamy well balanced with salmon & salty ikura, w/​bonito flakes
Kurobuta chashu miso; w/​mushroom & cheese. Really delicious!
Mentai Kani; crab, bacon, Roe, cheese. So good!
Hamachi carpaccio: B
Some times fresh, sometimes not. But tasty ponzu oil sauce!
Risotto krokke: C
Pesto & tomato sauce was hella weird, but the cook technique was good. Don’t taste good.
Gindara (Black cod) w/​plum sauce: C
The sauce Was weird…
Kani creamy krokke: A+
Hella delicious… they only add a little of crab stuffed w/​the creamy doughy soft and it taste like heavy!
Over all, their pork stuff w/​deep fry stuff I order, I won’t re-​order it!

A super long wait, but a cute little Japanese spot with some very interesting fusion tapas.
Highly recommend the uni pizza here– definitely did not have high expectations but the thin crust was on point.

This place has been on my list for so long. Note to first-​timers: You HAVE to have a reservation or plan to be here before the restaurant opens. We got here at 5:35PM, just a few minutes after the restaurant opens, and there was already a line out the door. By the time we got to the front desk to put our name down, the hostess gave us an estimated wait time of 7PM for the next table. Luckily, they take your name and number down and call you when your table is ready. We had an hour to kill so we ended up going next door to Gamba for some spontaneous karaōke (that place must make so much money off of people waiting for a table at Gochi!).
We got seated shortly before 7PM and ordered the following for four people:
Sakana Iroiro salad (⁴⁄₅): This is a mixed green and assorted sashimi. This was good as a starter but not a must have. I’d like to try other salads next time.
Unagi Yanagawa (⁴⁄₅): Gochi offers several types of fusion pizzas; this one comes with Unami (eel), mushrooms, and plenty of cheese. I actually didn’t think you could taste the unagi very much; it mostly just tasted like mushrooms. I was also surprised by how sauce heavy this pizza was, almost in a soggy way. It was pretty good, but I’d want to try a different pizza next time.
Gyutan shioyaki (⁵⁄₅): This grilled beef tongue was sooo flavorful and well marinated. It’s a must!
Rib eye steak (⁴⁄₅): it’s hard to go wrong with rib eye but after eating the beef tongue, there was just no comparison when it comes to flavor. I’d stick with the beef tongue of the two.
Yaki onigiri with salmon mayo (⁵⁄₅): The rice was perfectly crispy; the salmon mayo is a perfect complement to the simply seasoned rice. It sounds so simple and like something you could make at home, but I loved it.
Risotto korrokke (⁵⁄₅): These were golf ball-​sized bundles of mushrooms goodness. I loved how there was a little bit of cheese in the middle and how intense the mushroom flavor was. Obviously, stay away if you don’t like mushrooms!
Tori nasu garlic (⁴⁄₅): Our server suggested this dish of fried chicken and eggplant. It came in a sauce that made the chicken soggy and was good but I personally prefer karagge chicken that keeps its crispness over this.
Buta meshi (3.5÷5): Everyone raves about the clay pot rice here and we ordered this pork belly one in a medium size. We probably could have ordered a small since we got so much other food, and we ended up not being able to finish it. I was actually a little underwhelmed by this and thought it lacked flavor. I’d like to try the salmon clay pot next time if I was going to get it again, but if you’re trying to go for that crispy rice goodness, I’d stick with the yaki onigiri.
Overall, the bill came out to $ 139.63 including tip for four people, and we were STUFFED. All of us marveled afterwards at how all the portions were surprisingly generous-​sized. This is probably the best meal I’ve had in the South Bay in a really, really long time. It made me want to cry a little inside, remembering how good restaurants are a dime a dozen in SF and LA (why does he South Bay have such a lackluster food scene??). But for now, I’ll just say, thank you for a wonderful birthday meal Gochi, and I hope to return again!

Came here once for a friends birthday. Made reservations because we had quite a group. The experience was so unique/​fun because we got to sit on the floor… traditional style.
Ordered way too many tapas things to keep track of but loved the hamachi carpaccio, salmon/​row pizza and clay pot dishes. Does get a little pricey but for $$$ it’s expected.

I came here for my four year anni with my BF (omg four years???)
On a Tuesday night, it was PACKED. We thought we wouldn’t have to make reservations since it was a Tuesday, but nope … We had to wait 30 minutes before getting seated!
The ambience is really interesting and cool since you don’t wear shoes when you walk on the wooden floor board area. It’s like being in a Japanese home I guess? And they even have those seats where you kneel and eat — we were happy to not get those though since I think it looks kind of painful and uncomfortable …
We started with the long plate of salmon carpaccio which was reeeeally truffley. I didn’t notice it would be truffley, but it just smelled like a mushroom which I found kind of strange. However it was obviously still delicious and I couldn’t stop eating. Really enjoyed the refreshing wasabi cucumber bits. Also am confused by this being called carpaccio since the salmon looked cooked?
Then we had some kind of fried risotto ball. This was sooo rich and creamy and the crunchy exterior really made it! There were three of these, about a fist size each. Very filling! I would probably re-​order this one if I ever came back since it’s nice to get something that fills you up more IMO (save money while eating delicious fatty food technique)
Then we had some scallops that came out on cut in half tomatoes. The tomatoes were soo sweet somehow. I liked to eat the scallop and tomato at the same time. Dripping in some kind of pesto oil. Very delicious.
And then some chicken wings. This tasted like any chicken wing you can get anywhere so I wouldn’t recommend it. It tastes like the kinds you get at i-​Tea. But I mean you can’t really go super-​right or super-​wrong with wings I think.
And finally some kind of really tender duck. Best duck I ever had in some kind of plum sauce.
Can’t really remember what things are called and I guess the menu changes a lot and I can’t find the menu items online. I dunno. Would recommend this place for eating a large variety of foods though !!! Under $ 100 also for me and BF! Definitely more affordable than steakhouse too for fancy food!

Not many places are worthy of 5 stars in my books but this place qualifies without any doubt.
I tried the Hamachi carpaccio which was presented like a flower with interchanging cuts of the Hamachi/​Yellowtail (belly/​toro and the non-​belly/​non-​toro). It was marinated with ponzu sauce with sprouts as a garnish which was just enough from being overpowering and still being able to taste the freshness of the fish. I highly recommend this dish.
I order Chicken karage and boy do the Japanese know how to make fried chicken. It was not oily and it was seasoned very well and the chicken meat was super moist and juicy. I would order this item again.
I also order grilled beef tongue and it was also very well good. Not too chewy and full of beef flavor goodness. Seasoned very well. I’d order this one again.
I also tried Miyagi oysters although they were kind of tiny in size, it was very fresh and tasted good. It also was flavored with ponzu sauce and it did not have any metallic taste to it.
The highlight of the meal for me was the Clay Rice Pot BBQ Pork. All the ingredients were mixed in front of you to ensure maximum flavor. There was a raw egg mixed into it to give it that extra flavor/​texture. The rice was flavored perfectly with the right amount of soy sauce and the rice closest to the clay pot was nice and crispy to give it a nice mixture of textures between the crispy and soft rice. I highly recommend ordering this but beware it is pretty filling due to the fact that it’s a lot of rice so careful on how much you order.
I wanted to also try the Foie gras/​Duck Tsukune but unfortunately they sold out which was a little disappointing but hopefully the next time I come here I can try it.

I have been on a Unilocal hiatus for quite some time… But this is definitely one of those crazy wow places that has inspired me to write a review and spew my love for this place all over the interwebs!!!
First of all, the wait without reservation was long but ultimately the wait was justified! The ambience is casual but has a great deal of Japanese flare (you have to remove your shoes to enter the seating area).
Food items:
1) fried chicken wings: yum!!! Perfectly crispy with tender meat inside, batter is not too thick, and the seasoning was just right.
2) beef tongue seared: chewy but in a good way, and seasoning was simple but spot on. Mostly flavored by a simple black pepper and salt, but if you squeeze the lemon wedge over your beef tongue the tart lemon cuts through the fatty cut making it extra nom non nom!
3) Hamachi (yellowtail) carpaccio: delicious way to eat sashimi Hamachi! The ponzu sauce really works! I’m probably going to try to replicate this at home since I love doing sashimi platters at home.
4) pork belly hot pot rice: holy cow this was the star of the night. The rice was so wonderfully crispy around the edges, but the egg gives the rice a smooth creamy texture. Then to top that of you have the unanimous flavor of the nori flakes, and the tender pieces of porn belly everywhere.
5) oysters: ahhhh I forgot the name but it was on the special items menu. Really tiny oysters for $ 3/​pc. Not worth it given the price but the flavor was very nice (sweat without the metallic flavors you get with larger oysters).

Hands down, my favorite restaurant in the South Bay. I try my best to eat here when I am in the area. I know many say they like the rice balls at Tanto better but Gochi is still my fave.
My usual fare:
Sakana Iroiro Salad — (⁴⁄₅) mixed greens & assorted chopped sashimi in light creamy dressing
Hamachi Carpacio — (⁴⁄₅) yellowtail, garlic-​ginger-​ponzu & chopped jalapeño drizzled with garlic oil
Gyuuniku Maki — (⁵⁄₅) panko crusted beef rolls with asparagus & cheese with hatcho miso sauce
Risotto Korokke — (⁵⁄₅) mushroom risotto puffs with shiso-​pesto-​tomato sauce
Yakiniku Kimchee Meshi Claypot — (⁴⁄₅) bbq sliced beef & kimchee.
Yaki Onigiri– (5/​) Crispy rice balls with salmon and salmon roe. I can literally eat 2 of these on my own.

This place is not cheap, but the food is damn good! If you plan on coming here on a date night an expect to do soft pillow talk, forget it; it’s noisy and loud as everyone is happy and enjoying the food. Of course I had to pig out and try most of their stuff (two adults and two children set me back $ 300).
If you decide to eat here, the food I recommend you can skip is:
pork ball soup (nothing really special)
Udon noodle soup (nothing special)
Unagi pizza — it’s a difference experience but nothing really memorable
Their clay pot rice is excellent and will take a long time as they really use the clay pot to make it from scratch (other places would put cooked rice and ingredients and heat it for about 10 minutes and call it clay pot rice). Ours took about 45 minutes but well worth the wait

We went for dinner last night and really love the food there. The service was awesome too. They even asked if you were allergic to anything and would remind you if any dish you ordered had that ingredient in it.
Definitely became our favorite izakaya and will go back there whenever I crave for beef tongue and clay pot:)

My friends took me here and I’m really glad they did! There are 3 booths which you can reserve if you call ahead. When we got there, we waited for ~10 minutes before we got seated. I love how the seating area is different from other restaurants. They have a big under the table opening for the legs. No shoes allowed in the dinner area.
The tapas dishes can be shared amongst your party. My friends and I (party of 5) shared a good number of dishes so we can all try them.
Salmon mushroom bacon cheese fusion pizza: Delicious! Crispy thin crust different from American style and the savory toppings are so good.
Salmon and salmon roe clay pot rice: Crunchy rice with flavorful additions to the rice.
Braised Beef Tongue: soft, melts in your mouth.
Agedashi tofu: The sauce is good. I’m not the biggest fan of tofu, so it’s ok for me.
Braised pork belly:
Salmon nigiri: I would skip. It was just some cooked salmon on top of a big ball of deep fried rice.
Hamachi carpaccio: Yes! sashimi style with sauce.
Green tea crème brûlée: YES! More of a mousse texture
Pomegrante shochu cocktail and Lychee shochu cocktail: Tasted like soda. No alcohol trace but there was some in there. I would get again. My favorite is the lychee.
I would definitely come back. This meal was around ~$ 34 each. I felt like it was worth it for the food, experience and the friendly staff.

Omg!!!
I came here with the hubby and the food was so good !
The foie gras with daikon was a little heavy for me, but surprisingly the clay pot rice is the best I’ve ever had. We ordered the yakiniku kimchi meshi. The hamachi carpaccio is also a must.
I am heading back this evening with my cousins and will update with the rest of the goodies we get tonight :)

The short: I love this place.
I’m salivating while writing this review.
Ambiance: very nice: options to sit on tatami mat with feet on the ground (need to take shoes off), at a regular table, at a mini counter bar, or a screened area. On the two occasions that I’ve been to Gochi, I’ve overheard Japanese people talking. I love it because that’s always a sign that they equally think the food is authentic and delicious!
Service: phenomenal. All the waiters are very kind, very patient, and very attentive. They were never gone for too long nor were they breathing down our backs.
Food: Amazing!!! Really fresh and the food has a lot of unique flavors that are very rare in other Japanese restaurants. I thought I had written down everything we had ordered, but I lost it :(I do remember that the unagi pizza was a very memorable dish. There was no dish that I didn’t like. In fact, there were many dishes that I loved. There’s a paper menu with daily specials and a regular menu with everyday food. There’s also a gluten-​free menu.
Thanks Gochi for the memorable experience. I hope to frequent you more often!
Tip: make a reservation.

Cute little Japanese place that I picked on a whim. We came here at 6:30 PM on a Thursday, and they informed us that we could take the 2 hour slot that ended at 7:55. Apparently, they were completely booked from that time onwards.
There is a row of sliding doors that open to private rooms, which would be good for groups. You take off your shoes and step onto a raised area with tables and pillows. There’s also a row where taking off shoes isn’t necessary, so if that’s icky to you, there’s another option. It’s a bit hard to understand the waiters/​waitresses because most of them are Japanese.
My advice for coming here is to know what to order. Because we were under some time pressure, considering that some dishes take a while to come out, we felt stressed looking at all the items on their menu. Out of the items we ordered, there were two I really enjoyed: the hamachi carpaccio and eggplant karaage. The carpaccio is amazingly fresh, and I have yet to eat at a Japanese restaurant that doesn’t know how to make good karaage. The duck steak we ordered was alright; maybe I just don’t like duck that much. I recommend the rice clay bowls because they provide the carbs to fill you up, since the rest of the portions are so small. It’s got a great crunch to it, and the salmon and roe in ours gave it a good flavor.
Also had braised beef tongue, which wasn’t that good. The meat was really tough and it tasted just like regular beef. It probably would’ve been better to get it grilled. The cooked salmon and potato balls were alright, nothing special. I wish I’d studied Unilocal more to know how to order. Still, the food came out really quickly, and I was full by the time it was all over. It was about $ 100 for six items. Considering the price, I expected some higher quality, but I still enjoyed the experience there.

Make a reservation if you want to dine here!!! I came here at 6:30pm for my reservation and already there was a wait 1.5 hour wait for others who wanted to dine here. They also serve different foods for lunch and dinner and I recommend coming here for dinner, so much more great entrees to order from!
We ordered the sakana iro iro salad, shiromaguro tataki, ungai yamagawa pizza, yaki onigiri and a few items from the special that day (fried corn and scallops, mochi and crab in dashi, duck breast, and beef tataki). I absolutely enjoyed every single dish, but especially the salad, onigiri, and the mochi and crab in dashi. The salad wasn’t drenched in dressing and there was a decent amount of sashimi in the salad. For the yaki onigiri we got the tuna mayo and salmon flavor, the stuffing is not in the onigiri but on top. I LOVE how crispy the onigiris are! The mochi and crab dish was also memorable, the mochi was super chewy and the crab was soft, the dashi added flavor and was soaked up into the fried coverings of the mochi. Yum!
This place is definitely on the expensive side, although each dish is plus/​minus 10 bucks, the portions are smaller so you end up ordering more than one dish per person. We ended up spending about 25 bucks per person.

I think this might be my favorite Japanese restaurant in South Bay so don’t be surprised if I upgrade this to 5 stars soon.
Because of the fusion theme and the English-​heavy menu, I was expecting Gochi to be owned by Koreans and not offer any traditional Japanese dishes, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Japanese staff (who were of course nothing short of polite and attentive) and the extensiveness of the menu. The standard izakaya items were equally impressive as the Americanized ones too! They may not have okonomiyaki here but you won’t be disappointed with their fusion pizzas!
The standouts for me include their hamachi (we opted for sashimi since I prefer «pure» tasting yellowtail over one drenched in ponzu sauce, but the carpaccio style looks quite impressive too), salmon ochazuke, and stewed daikon. These are simple dishes but the flavors were hearty (in the case of the stewed daikon) and refreshing (for the hamachi and ochazuke). We topped off our feast with the green tea crème brûlée which truly was one of the best I’ve had – wondrously custardy with an undercurrent of matcha flavor and perfectly caramelized without being overly sweet. Looking at the menu now, I know I’ll be back to try their claypot dishes, braised pork, and agedashi mochi. I was less impressed with their toro sashimi but I also believe an izakaya is best for cooked dishes.
Be prepared to break your wallet when dining here, but honestly, its worth it. Truly one of my most favorite meals in recent memory and I can’t wait to return!

After much indecisiveness, my family decided to bring my cousin, who was visiting from Canada, to try this place out. omgggggg this place IS SOO GOOOODD. …and tbh, lol thank god i didnt have to pay lmfaooooo
We had called earlier to make reservations, so we were able to be seated right away. Most of the tables had traditional Japanese seating, sorta. You take off your shoes before you go up the steps toward your table. Then you sit on big throw pillows, and there is a space underneath to put your feet. We had 6 people, so we had a squeeze a bit to fit everyone in.
The waitresses were very nice and patient and gave us green tea upon sitting. The menu is quite extensive and so many yummy items to choose from! We each picked a dish we wanted to try and share. We ended up ordering –
Sakana Iroiro Salad: This is basically a sashimi salad! There wasnt a huge abundance of sashimi, but when you a bite of fish, its super fresh and delicious! The leafy greens were a great compliment with the dressing.
Tako Carpaccio: sliced octopus and cucumbers atop of a nice base of vinaigrette. One of my favorites. Octopus was chewy and delicious. Really good for beginners who want to try new things
Hamachi Carpaccio: one of their more well known dishes. It’s sliced (uncooked) yellowtail with a nice mixture of tangy ponzu sauce!!! very smooth texture. Goes well with the greens that are placed on top.
Sashimi Moriawase: This was a big assortment of sashimi! and of course i love it, because… who doesnt like sashimi? There was 5 types of sashimi on that plate. Very fresh and melt in your mouth texture! I think there was octopus, salmon, hamachi… and others.
Sake Oyako Meshi (Claypot rice): We got the grilled salmon. The waitress mixed it for you and serves it in individual bowls. The sightly burnt pieces on the bottom were pretty good, but this wasnt my favorite. It was kinda bland, in my opinion, but the rest of my family liked it. Be careful because its super hot
Yaki Onigari: 2 – 3 crispy rice balls, which we ordered with salmon roe on top. This was also pretty filling. We split them amongst all 6 of us. This was also slightly bland, but the salmon and roe gave it a nice contrast.
Unagi Yanagawa (Pizza): this was probably my favorite! I love eel. The pizza is super flavorful and cheesy. It had a good salty sweet kinda taste to it. I think it comes in 5 – 6 slices. It’s thin crust so it gave it a great toasty and buttery texture.
Overall, I would most definitely come here again. My cousin also said this was one of the better asian fusion tapas shes been to too. It gets pretty loud in here, so if youre bringing a date here, make sure theyre okay with you yelling at them the entire meal LOL (if you plan on talking).

I’m really surprised by the hype. I was saving Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas for a special occasion because I thought it would surpass Tanto, but it didn’t quite hit the mark.
The little restaurant does offer both traditional Japanese zashiki seating as well as table seating. My family and I came early enough that we were able to snag a low table, and it was interesting to take off our shoes and sink into the floor during our meal. Service was initially attentive and nice, but it tapered off as the restaurant became busier. to the point where we had to ask three times for a hot tea refill.
Seared beef tongue:
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This portion was quite small for the price, even with my expectation of priciness due to the general ambiance. There were also one or two pieces that were charred to the point of tasting burnt, which I wasn’t a fan of, as it made the meat tough and dry. The other pieces that weren’t so burnt were pretty tender yet harbored a gamey flavor due to the blandness.
Fried chicken with eggplant:
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This chicken was fried well, but it was really just that: fried chicken. The breading was a little bland, but the inside was hot and tender. The eggplant was surprising because from the description, I expected it to be fried or somehow mixed in with the chicken, but it was just a few thin slices scattered around the side. This dish was also extremely oily and became too heavy after the first few bites.
Sauteed kimchi and pork:
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This version of buta kimchi absolutely did not compare to Tanto’s version. The kimchi didn’t quite have that kick of sour and spicy I was expecting, the pork was shredded into different sized pieces, and there was regular cabbage (?!) interspersed throughout. The flavor wasn’t bad, but it was just disappointing because of my high expectations.
Yaki onigiri:
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The fried rice balls didn’t have any filling and I felt like the outside layer was a little overfried (or perhaps the oil was too hot?). They were also served lukewarm, which is a huge pet peeve. Out of the three, I preferred the salmon without mayo most because it wasn’t swimming in sauce and too heavy.
Seared bass with plum sauce:
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Small portion aside, this sea bass was really well cooked. The meat was fresh and flaky, although the plum sauce veered slightly towards the sweet side. I wasn’t a huge fan of the presentation, but that comes secondary to food quality.
Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of Gochi and am skeptical of returning. It wasn’t a bad experience per se, but I would probably choose to just drive the extra ten minutes to Tanto.

Really sad but Gochi has lost its wow factor. I ordered all my favorites from my first visit and they didn’t blow me away the second time. Flavor was off and textures weren’t right.
To be completely honest, Gochi doesn’t stack up to other Japanese restaurants. How I rate a restaurant (and I believe most people do this) is how it compares to other places. Your opinion is absolutely based on how you compare it to its competitors.
I believe their Achilles heal is their huge menu. It’s littered with too many poor to decent items. They have to be smarter and only offer their best. It’s easier to perfect a few dishes than a ton. I can verify this by mentioning how our server actually advised against a few of our choices. That right there proves they need to clean up their menu.
Gochi, in my opinion, is probably the worst bang for my buck I’ve gotten since I can remember. Other than a few decent items (example: Hamachi Carpaccio), this place doesn’t have anything remotely close to what they’re charging you.
Service is still excellent. However, it doesn’t make up for the food. This place is a no-​go in my opinion and I highly recommend you stay clear of this place.