Aburaya

What a gem in Oakland! Best place to get your fried chicken fix and they have happy hour all day on wednesdays! In addition to sake and beer they also have bottles of wine from local wineries. I love the interior- huge stuffed hairy spider on the ceiling, chickens/ roosters along the shelves. They have fun treats and gifts in addition to their menu!There's just so much to look at - everything is visually calling your attention. So fun and vibrant! The staff is really nice too, really patient with questions and will give their recs on the menu. Looking forward to coming back and bringing more friends!

Came here at about noon on a weekday to grab lunch with my husband and I can see why this place has such high reviews. You order your food first before taking a seat. Seating here can get limited during lunch so just a heads up. The chicken here is really juicy and delicious and cooked to perfection. This place has Okinawan fusion and I totally see it. I ended up getting the 2 piece fried chicken with bbq sauce and it was so good. My husband got the loco moco with rice underneath. The loco moco was super good and the rice had the perfect amount of sauce to rice ratio. I would definitely come back here and try the other food they offer.

The taco rice is a glorious mess of chicken, rice, parmesan, taco seasoning, and guacamole. You really see the Okinawan fusion there and it is good. But it does get a bit tiring towards the end; what would help is an acidic hot sauce like Tabasco or even the house habanero to cut through all the fat.The burrito is interesting, but I'd prefer a much crispier chicken for textural contrast. Maybe hot sauce would be nice here too. The fillings are what you'd expect: thousand island, tomato, lettuce. I prefer cabbage to lettuce here, being the superior vegetable. It's sweeter, crispier, and bites cleaner.The karashi honey chicken is interesting and has good texture.The curry chicken is a bit light. I'd expected something like curry katsu, but this is a fundamentally good fried chicken.

All the rumors are true! These place is so good!!!! I loved the Oyakodon. The chicken was the best chicken I had in the area.For the price, I was impressed with the quality and taste.

Yelpers got it right again!!!Aburaya is legit! Food is incredible. Served super fast but cooked perfectly. The chicken is incredible. Crispy outside. Tender juicy inside. Seasoned perfectly. The Sansho pepper has a little surprise kick. I love it!The salad dressing is 5 star. They have a special B Side menu. Teriyaki Steak over rice was insane. Small spot but super friendly staff

One of the best places to get Japanese fried chicken. Juicy and crispy. I love that you can get it sauced or coated any way you want it. I love that cabbage with it to have the freshness with it. A must get are the tots!

Love this spot!! The service is always super kind and friendly. The food is amazing! We're still trying to work our way through the menu to try all of the different things but this time around we opted for the tater tots( not pictured), Tokyo tofu, rock and roll cabbage salad, skirt steak and 2 chicken wings with umami salt and yuzu cheesecake (not pictured). Everything was delicious!! & I want like 10 more cheesecakes. There's so much to look at around the restaurant && I had a good laugh when the skeleton in the bathroom startled me. I'll be back to try other menu items soon!

Some pieces were really dry. I like that there isn't a lot of batter, not overly seasoned, gluten free but I like my skin on. Felt 'healthier' than normal fried chicken. Super generous portions, would like an option of sauce on the side, the habanero miso was good but I prefer to dip. The sancho dry rub was barely there and I am going to go against the grain and say the dill ranch was kind of blah. Wasabi slaw needed some acid to brighten up - very one note. Liked how the chicken was on a big bed of cabbage also. Fiber is our friend. When ordering on DD - it says dark thigh meat, but there was definitely white breast meat. Dry and unappetizing. Love their logo with the BART images. Affordable, but I wouldn't order again.

*4.5*$22 for 8 pieces of fried marinated Japanese chicken thigh might have been one of the most worthwhile culinary investments I've made to date. Combined with one of the most eclectic restaurant interiors I've ever seen and a punk rock playlist to boot, Aburaya is sure to come to mind every time you come to Oakland once you try it. Waiting in their consistently long line puts you face-to-face with a wide variety of local brews, special liqueurs, and merchandise galore. I believe they've occupied the next door business for seating space because of the limited options in their main storefront, so after you order at the counter try to snag a table while you wait for your name to be called. When I placed my order for a half garlic miso, half karashi honey 8-thigh box at 6PM on a Friday forever ingrained in my memory, the girl at the counter warned me that the karashi honey was "wasabi forward". I love wasabi. This mainly applies to real wasabi and usually on fish, but I'm okay with the horseradishy stuff as well.However,when I took my first bite of the karashi honey thigh without dipping it in their miso ranch it felt like EVERY pain receptor from my nasopharynx to esophagus collectively screamed in agony and spontaneously combusted - but just like that, it was over. Confused, I did it again to the same effect. This sauce should come with a bright yellow warning sign and an affidavit written by me attesting to the pain. I can still envision myself pitifully wiping my eyes and nose between bites of steaming hot, delicious chicken. The garlic miso chicken is seasoned well, albeit a little too concentrated in different spots, but yummy regardless. Another note - both the 4 and 8 piece come with one ranch cup, which personally isn't enough, and an additional tiny cup of extra ranch will run you $1.65 - a bit high in my opinion. Regardless, I will most definitely be back to try other flavors and subject myself and my friends (and maybe try that yuzu beer I've been eyeing) to this pseudo-masochistic dining experience (just kidding!) ((not really)).

We ordered the 8 piece chicken, and it came with two seasonings. You order at the counter and go find your own table, and clean up after yourself. It's pretty much self served. The food came out relatively fast. Chicken was juicy and crunchy on the outside. For additional $3, you could add salad and rice to make it a bowl. It was overall delicious and inexpensive, will come back if I'm in the area.