Tanto Japanese Restaurant

I really enjoyed the food here. We got there right around 6:00 PM and there were already several parties ahead of us. We waited nearly hour before we were seated. The food was worth the wait.
The rice balls were truly amazing as was the black cod braised in soy sauce. I would eat both of those every day. The pressed sushi was nothing special and I won’t get that again. We also had the sashimi platter and stirfried pork belly with kimchi. I would definitely have both of those again. I’m excited to go back and try some different things, but next time will have a reservation.

Make reservations if you come here. It can be crowded, especially off-​work hours. Parking can also be difficult at this time so also account for that when you arrive. Part of it is because of their unique variety of dishes they have that you can’t really find anywhere else. The ambience is formal, and a typical place you’d go for a date or a business meeting. They have special rooms where you can go for a meal. Though, I go here in casual clothes and typically by myself.
It’s a bit pricey, but I still come here for their salads and their sizzling beef bowl. The style is izakaya.

Overall the tastiest items were the pork shabu shabu salad and the thin sliced halibut sashimi. Beef tongue was good but only when it was hot straight out of the grill. The black cod in soy was disappointing. The flavor hadn’t seeped into the actual cod like it should have. I’ve had really tasty cod twice this month and this place is not included.
Not bad but nothing truly fantastic. No consistency between chefs. Hot items were meh. Salads were good. Daikon salad was missing an additional texture or taste but it was refreshing.

My go-​to spot for izakaya style Japanese food. Great for lunch and dinner, closed on Mondays. If you’re going for weekend dinner, make sure to make a reservation, they don’t take day-​of reservations. They have fantastic lunch specials– both daily lunch specials and a lunch menu (although they recently raised the prices significantly), and you can even request to order from the dinner menu during lunch, as long as you don’t walk in the door 15 min before closing. I’ve come here many times and tried most of the dishes on the menu. Here are my top picks:
For lunch–
SALMON SEIRO lunch special (which they have almost every day)
CLAM RAMEN, comes w a vegetarian rice ball
PORK KATSU WITH EGG. I prefer to swap the pork for chicken katsu, both are good
CHICKEN KATSU CURRY
For dinner–
SASHIMI SALAD
SEARED DUCK BREAST
BUTA KIMCHI
UNI FRIED RICE
GRILLED BEEF TONGUE
GRILLED SQUID W STICKY RICE
FRIED RICE W BRAISED PORK

Came here just to get the uni fried rice! At $ 12 a bowl, it’s a steal. The bowl looks small but both my friend and I agreed that it’s very filling. You get a copious amount of uni and a poached egg. Mix up the goodness and enjoy! We also got the karage and the edamame. Edamame is pretty hard to mess up, but the karage was very average. I could do without ordering both of those the next time I’m here, but I’ll definitely be back for another one of those uni bowls!

One of my favourite Japanese restaurant.
I love their salmon pressed sushi and their udon. Their sashimi salad is to die for! The crab croquette is the best. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft and hot on the inside. When you bite it, the crispness gives way to a soft crab tasty hot filling that melts into your mouth! Must get!!!
Make reservations for weekends otherwise the wait is long! Their salmon onigiri is nicely grilled and very tasty. YUM!!!

i ate here on a weekday with a reservation (which i recommend getting).
upon arrival we were seated promptly with no wait. sometimes even with a reservation, some restaurants still make you wait like 10 – 15 minutes, so i really appreciated that they honored our table.
We ordered 5 dishes between 2 people:
— fried chicken salad
— salmon rice balls
— unagi fried rice
— grilled pork belly
— toro sashmi
the food came out quick and i thought all of it was pretty tasty. the salad was huge, but a lot of it was just lettuce and a few pieces of chicken. still good though.
my favorites were — toro sashmi and the rice ball.
i think 4 dishes would have been enough for 2 people, i thought the portions were generous and i was definitely full from the rice.
one caveat — we were seated right next to a pole that blocked us from our servers view which made it hard to get her attention.

Called on Friday about an hour before they opened for reservation — none available for Friday or Saturday, but got a reservation for 2 on Sunday without any problem. They noted that they only hold your reservations for 10 minutes, so that you should be on time.
We arrived about 5 minutes before our reservation /​when the restaurant opened, and there was already quite a line of about 20 people outside. Most ahead of us did not have a reservation and were seated promptly. But if you are going to arrive after the door has already opened, your best bet is to make a reservation.
Service was ok. People were friendly, but we were forgotten a couple times.
Food wasn’t bad, but also nothing to write home about. We ordered:
— yaki onigiri — very greasy but tasty. I’d recommend.
— seafood okonomiyaki — didn’t taste like an okonomiyaki at all. It was served in a small circular skillet pan, and it was really soft and mushy, and the only seafood that we found were shrimp. When I asked if this was the right dish, the server gave me an apologetic look when she confirmed. Looks like other people have raised the same question.
— braised duck in simmering egg — this was delicious. I’d recommend. The sauce was sweet and salty.
— tomago with eel — this was quite unexpected. It was literally tomago rolled around pieces of unagi. This was very tasty. I’d recommend.

I LOVE THIS PLACE SO SO MUCH. Seriously, this place is heaven for people like me who are absolutely obsessed with UNI. I came here for dinner with my sister at 6pm and luckily we did not have to wait for a table! We ordered four dishes to share, Uni Shiso (Fresh Uni with Shiso), Sashimi Moriawase (Assorted sashimi), Uni Meshi (Fried rice cooked with sea urchin), and Mentaiko Pasta (Spicy cod roe pasta). Everything was absolutely exquisite. The quality of the uni at Tanto is indescribable… Fresh, buttery, bright and firm, the way uni should be! The Sashimi Moriawase was again, fresh and buttery, and the Mentaiko Pasta was equally delightful. I also enjoyed the Uni Meshi, but not as much as the other dishes since I found it a bit bland. The rice isn’t fried rice, but regular white rice. Nevertheless, still a great dish! We left Tanto around 7:30pm and there was a huge wait, so I suggest coming earlier!
Highly, highly recommend this place! Dying to come back already so I can stuff my face with more buttery uni!

Many dishes here are outstanding. A few of the lunch sets, and a few on the dinner menu. A few minor things needs improvement, like the complimentary salad, not very good at all comparing to complimentary salad in other Japanese restaurants.
But the dishes they do well are really amazing! Quality ingredients, full of flavor, very authentic!
I keep coming back and ordering the same few dishes. Can never get tired of eating them!
Lunch is recommended over dinner. Lunch menu is much smaller and simpler, with daily specials sets. Dinner menu is a large variety of Japanese tapas.
Lunch is always packed here and they close early (1:30pm). So better come earlier than later!

11÷6÷15: I see four stars above. Why? Well, I can only guess… the huge menu is definitely a plus. Lots to choose from. Plenty of bland, badly cooked, non-​Japanese, over-​priced, underwhelming stuff to choose from! I picked out 8 items to sample (and got charged for 9):
1. «Cal Water» $ 2.00: So I saw this on my receipt. I’m assuming it means «California water?» I don’t know. I’ve never seen a water charge before, ever, anywhere, for tap water. So… is this new? I doubt it. So, WTF.
2. Calpico Chu-​Hi $ 5.00: Shochu-​based drink, Calpico flavored. Well, at least that’s what I assumed it was supposed to be when I ordered it. But in fact I think it was just straight up Calpico. I taste 0 alcohol. Another WTF. ¹⁄₁₀
3. Umaki Tamago (Egg omelet with eel) $ 10.50: This was actually really good. Their eel was juicy and cooked properly. The egg itself wasn’t that well-​made. It’s not fluffy like most Japanese omelettes I’ve had, and was closer to just simple pan fried. They wrapped the eel in the egg like sushi and cut it up. Tastes good. Not worth the $ 10+ though, but does taste good. ⁶⁄₁₀.
4. Uzura Shoyu Yaki (Grilled quail with soy sauce) $ 7.50: I dunno what the deal was here, whether the quail was low quality, or their strange marinade, or just that it simply was super undercooked, but it was very chewy and hard to eat. The meat stuck to the bone and just tasted raw, though you can clearly see it was cooked fine. Tasted very strongly of wine, which I guess is okay if that’s the style they’re going for, but I’ve eaten a lot of my mom’s «drunken chicken» over the years, and this version just doesn’t do it for me. At least it wasn’t a rip off like the other dishes. ²⁄₁₀.
5. Uni Meshi (Fried rice cooked with sea urchin) $ 13.50: So… the biggest disappointment of the night. My gf and I were super looking forward to eating here, and we were STARVING. And this dish was the first to arrive. She took 2 bites and put it in my face saying, «I don’t want it.» The dish was SEVERELY UNDERSEASONED. Next to us was a table of 4 Indians I believe, and we saw they ordered the same thing, and they only ate half of it too, mostly the uni on top. Terrible. AND, it says «fried rice»… it IS NOT fried rice (it’s steamed). LIES. ¹⁄₁₀.
6. Aji Fry (Deepfried spanish mackerel) $ 8.50: I like it, but my gf thought it wasn’t very Japanese and was more American-​style. Well, it tasted good to me anyway. Yeah, standard breading and not Japanese «panko.» But the fish did taste good and wasn’t dry. I’ll call it a wash. ⁵⁄₁₀.
7. Kani Gratin (Crab Gratin) $ 9.50: So, where’s the crab? Near $ 10 there better be crab, and if you put it within 2″ of your eyes you can make out a few fiber strands of crab, but no… not really there. Can’t taste no crab. Lots of cheese. And cream. Kinda sorta like mac n cheese without the noodles. But the crab part is totally false advertising. To top it off, tastes a little bland. ²⁄₁₀.
8. Gyutan (Salt broiled beef tongue) $ 6.50: It tastes alright. Not tender, but good thickness and flavor. But there’s just some slices, and nothing particularly special. Slightly overcooked. ⁴⁄₁₀.
9. Negi Buta Shioyaki (Broiled pork with green onion) $ 6.50: Slice PORK BELLY! How can you go wrong with pork belly?! Anyway, tasted fine. Overcooked, a little dry, but okay. Nothing special here either. ⁵⁄₁₀.
Food sucks. That simple.
Come on Unilocalers, do the stars mean anything anymore? Are we to tolerate, or even reward this level of cooking?! Please, we can do better.
²⁄₅
#japanese #yakitori #japanesebbq

Great izakaya style restaurant in the area. They have a wide variety of food on their menu. Most of it is tapas style so be sure to come with some friends! Some of the dishes felt a bit on the larger side for tapas though so I’d say bring at least 4 people if you’re sharing.
Some of the things we tried were the pork belly, potato takoyaki, and the saba pressed sushi. The pork belly was fantastic, it was lightly seasoned and one order came with a lot of meat. The potato takoyaki was a bit too large in my opinion, not like the size of a typical takoyaki. It also didn’t hold that well together, the potato part crumbled. I wouldn’t order this one or recommend ordering it. For the saba pressed sushi, this is a favorite of mines when I see it on the menu, but you really have to enjoy saba which not everyone does. It was okay, I’ve had better saba, but it wasn’t bad. The shiso leaves tasted like they weren’t the freshest however.
As a whole though the place is good, and I’d definitely like to come back to try more.

I started a new diet recently, the diet where all you eat is Japanese food. Just kidding, but seriously. recently, the only food I want nowadays is Japanese and I’m not sure what’s wrong with me.
Anyway, my new diet (and maybe an hour of Unilocaling at work) led me to Tanto and I’m pretty glad that it did!
The place was packed on a Tuesday night. Thankfully, I called earlier during the day and made a reservation for 2. Highly recommend making a reservation unless you don’t mind being hangry.
They have a crazy extensive menu with no pictures, so it took us a while to order since we had to go through almost every single Unilocal picture. Eventually, we decided on four dishes to share among two people and it was more than enough to get us stuffed. They were.
— Sashimi salad: looks way bigger in person! More than enough salad for two
— Yaki Onigiri: rice balls with salmon and roe. I really liked the crunchy texture of this
— Hamachi Kama: this was my least favorite because our piece was a bit difficult to eat, but I thought it was still good!
— Hotate butter uni nose: Scallops cooked in butter topped with sea urchin over rice. WOW. I didn’t expect to like this since I’m usually not a fan of uni, but I thought the uni was really good in this case. Contrast of texture was amazing. Makes me kind of want to try the uni fried rice next time.
Tanto, my Japanese diet and I will definitely be back!

Place gets packed at lunch but it moves fast.
Food comes out fast.
Crab cakes good– crunchy outside soft inside.
Squid stuffed with rice awesome– loved the char on it– must order.
COD good but would of liked a bit of a char on the skin.
Sashimi salmon is very fresh.
Dessert is huge

Hmm not really sure what the hype is about this place. The food here is a step up from cheap and quick Japanese places, but nothing extraordinary. As all other tapas places, portions are small and expensive. But at the same time our dessert was surprisingly huge and my friend and I were barely able to finish it.
Chicken Kaarage was a bit of a letdown here. The yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls with roe filling) and crab croquettes were alright. We also got an uni/​scallop dish that was okay too.
All in all, just an okay restaurant. Even at 9pm there were people waiting for a table which I found really surprising. It’s just too bad that Tanto doesn’t really hit the spot for me for Japanese food.

I requested to come here for my birthday because I wanted something low key and this place definitely hit the spot! Instead of spending $$$ dining somewhere fancy and possibly leaving hungry, I was able to get hella food here for a lot less, yee!
My favorite items of the night were:
Black Cod in Soy — SO SO freakin’ buttery and delicious. I really loved the soy sauce this was cooked.
Buta Kakuni — BOMB pork belly. It is very fatty but oh so good. The amount was quite generous!
I also tried the yaki onigiri, sashimi salad, sashimi, uni fried rice, and seared yellowtail. Those items were aite, I could go without it — especially the yellowtail because that was so fishy. I thought the sashimi salad and uni fried rice would be a lot better based on their popularity but it’s just okay. I think my expectations were just really high from the promising reviews. :) But regardless, I’d still come back to try other items on their hugeass, overwhelming menu!

In town for work and met up with a friend at Tanto on a Tuesday night. The wait for 7:30 pm was under 40 minutes and we got the cutest mini booth for 2. Looked like they had other authentic Japanese seating in the back (could be fun with a big group).
I would definitely recommend looking at pictures here first to decide what to order and talking to your waiter about the dishes. The tapas are pretty unique and we were excited (slightly overwhelmed) about the huge variety. We settled on the stir-​fried chicken liver with chives, grilled beef tongue, pork simmered with egg, and salt broiled mackerel.
I LOVED the chicken liver with chives. Might have been too rich for my friend, but I had to stop myself from eating the whole dish because for me, this was a winner!
Beef tongue was sadly not tender enough and was a miss. Maybe just an off night since everyone else seems to love it.
The pork simmered with egg was different. The broth was rather sweet, but the egg was perfect! This dish should have come with a side of rice. Tasty!
The salt broiled mackerel– i would NOT recommend. Not a very meaty fish and nothing exciting.
When our bill came at the end of the meal, we were both surprised that we could leave satisfied and not broke. There are so many other dishes at Tanto (looking at you, uni fried rice!) that I would want to come back and try again. This is a fun place to get experimental with your order and taste some authentic Japanese tapas.

The wait for two was about 30 minutes on Friday. The place had more seats in the back next to the restrooms so the wait was faster than we expected. We got the salmon sashimi, uni fried rice, and salted red snapper.
The salmon sashimi had big pieces, we liked the texture. The fried rice was basically just uni on top of white rice in a clay bowl. My idea of fried rice usually has some vegetables, but this wasn’t like that. The red snapper was a traditionally broiled fish, so it was a whole fish and fishy. You gotta be able to handle that. Overall I don’t think it’s the best but definitely reasonable prices for the quality and the atmosphere.

I learned 2 things today at Tanto: I can’t take panoramic photos for the life of me. I don’t give a sh*t about service as long as the food is good and my stomach is happy.
Well ok, the second part isn’t quite true. I don’t want a nasty server snarling at me.
–In any case, the service here is barely passable (although they don’t give you the stinkeye). If service is important to you, please don’t come here. They won’t refill your water or check up on you other than to take your order and give you your food. They may or may not forget about you entirely.
–It looks like a tiny tool shed from the outside and is still quite small on the inside. Gets crowded and loud quickly, busy even on weeknights. They have private side-​by-​side seating spaces available for 2, which isn’t ideal for the uhh claustrophobic. You might have to convince your dinner partner that it really IS better than it looks.
ZEE FOOD (from most delish to kinda good):
1) Monkfish Liver wrapped in Halibut ~$ 11: Got this based on other Unilocalers’ recs. My oh my was this a transcendental experience. Halibut was fresh, monkfish liver was unbelievable (rich and creamy. didn’t know anything’s liver could taste this good). Eaten together, no words. A must. Surrounded by cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions. Sauce was a bit salty but good. Dip sparingly and it’s coo.
2) Yaki Onigiri (Rice balls) ~$ 7: one of the best I’ve had. Perfectly crispy on outside w/​soft, moist innards mixed w/​salmon. Kinda wish there were more fish roe on top though.
3) Tai Yakimeshi (Fried rice w/​red snapper) ~$ 22: soooothing broth. Cooked in stone pot like korean bibimbap and tastes kinda like korean gukbap. Comfort food. I’m convinced this can cure all ailments but don’t quote me on that. Prefer this to the uni and eel fried rice.
4) Braised Black Cod ~$ 11: tofu and radish were soft and perfectly complemented the fish garnished w/​green onions on top. Soy sauce of course. Yum. Cod was a little stiff on outside (not super fresh, probably frozen), but still quite good. This took me back to the Morimoto Napa days. Only a little smaller and of slightly lower quality… for a quarter of the price.
–Watch out for scales and/​or bones in last 2 dishes.
Whenever I’m hankerin for Japanese small plates (other than sushi), this will still be my go-​to. Service be damned. I’ll just bring along my teddy bear so I can still feel like a princess.

This place is pricey, but the food is truly one of a kind. I haven’t been to a Japanese tapas place before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Don’t come here on a completely empty stomach, though. You’ll leave either hungry or broke.
We decided to order 4 dishes between the two of us:
— The uni rice bowl: this was amazing! The uni was super fresh and went very well with the rice. It’s served with shredded seaweed, egg, and scallions in a hot stone pot.
— The salmon rice balls: this was really good as well. The salmon is wrapped inside a ball of rice, and the rice is crispy/​slightly burnt on the outside and cooked perfectly towards the center. I really liked the crispy texture of slightly burnt rice. Thee were parts of the rice ball that were saltier than others… WAY saltier. But that’s the only thing that was slightly disappointing about this dish. The waiter told us that this is one of their most popular dishes! And I can see why.
— Grilled quail: Eh. I wasn’t a big fan of this dish. I found it to be too salty, and there was barely any meat on the quail (I guess that’s not really the restaurant’s fault.). The quail is cooked in wine, and I found the wine flavor to be way too strong. It overtook the flavor of the quail. This was my least favorite dish out of the 4.
— Monkfish liver wrapped in halibut: Omg this was hands down my favorite dish here. I’m a HUGE fan of monkfish liver, and when I saw this on the menu I knew I had to try it! The liver tasted super fresh and buttery, and the halibut balanced it out texture-​wise extremely well! The sauce that topped off the dish was slightly citrus-​y and it went super well with the liver/​fish. Presentation was great as well! I have nothing bad at all to say about this dish.
So the total for the four dishes came out to be around $ 50? Pricey, I know. But I think it’s worth it. They have a lot of interesting items on the menu. Like I said, as long as you don’t come here starving, you’ll leave feeling pretty satisfied! The presentation and unique-​ness of the dishes is what makes this place so special.

Viel japanischer außerhalb Japans geht wahrscheinlich nicht. Voll mit japanischen Gästen und die Verständigung auf Englisch ist nicht so einfach.
Sehr gutes Essen, deswegen auch richtig beliebt. Sehr nette Bedienungen.