Koharu Japanese Cafe

The freshest sushi I had in a while. And in such an unexpected location!! Ordered their famous treasure box! Will try their sandwiches next time!

Every so often, I get a hankering for sandoitchi, the Japanese sandwiches you could buy with ease at every convenience store in my motherland. However, it's a rare sighting stateside, so I was excited to hear this spot made both beef and pork katsu sandos. I convinced Jamie W. to head over to Alameda to check it out with me for lunch.I wasn't aware it was a shared space concept called SAGA Kitchen described ambitiously as a "pan-Asian food hall". It was actually three Japanese operations plus a dim sum spot. Koharu is the Japanese street food option with the other two being sushi and ramen. We ordered off a QR code menu and were served by one of those Jetsons-style robots (photo: https://bit.ly/3Yx28lS).It did strike us how little human interaction there was even though two people were quite visibly handling the kitchen. Of course, we ordered the $19.95 Kurobuta Katsu Sando, a bit overpriced but the deep-fried pork cutlet was deliciously juicy with just the right panko crust. The problem was that the Japanese milk bread was toasted, a big no-no in a true sando (photo: https://bit.ly/3s0eKpt).But we devoured it nonetheless. More consistently successful was the $18.95 Soboro Don with Ebi Fry, a generous bowl of ground beef donburi with diced scrambled eggs, a side salad with miso dressing, and white rice topped with a couple of deep-fried prawns (photo: https://bit.ly/3OtTMqw). Authentic enough and it came with a solid miso soup (photo: https://bit.ly/3s3GwkZ). But please don't toast the bread.FOOD - 4 stars...Japanese comfort food executed well...except for that toasterAMBIANCE - 4 stars...plenty of room when we arrivedSERVICE - 3.5 stars...well, the robot was programmed to be polite...we didn't know about the humansTOTAL - 4 stars...I could go for a sando nowRELATED - Exploring Alameda? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/2Ik8mky

Duplicate Yelp, one for each concept/business???Sorry, but I am so confused...Was I in the city (SF)? Or LA?Way too trendy for Alameda. SAGA - "Locally-owned virtual food hall"Slurp shop - Ramen Yue club - "Authentic Cantonese Dim Sum Cuisine"Koharu - Japanese Cafe Quality/Quantity - Food was 5 stars!We ordered one dish from each business concept:Kohara - Chicken Karaage, hit of the meal. Deep fried, so slightly biased... If you are following, you know I love deep fried food. Good flavor, and the sauce was the bomb. Slight hint of heat, but NOT overwhelmingly spicy. SAGA - White Tiger, smaller than expected, but the flavor was on point, better than expected.Slurp Shop - Meyer Lemon Shio, flavors were good, including the broth. Expected serving size for the quality and price, but more than enough for a single meal.Yue Club - Beef Ball Dumpling, plating could have been better, but again the flavor was spot on. Additionally, the quantity was expected for the quality. Atmosphere - Food hall concept??? Virtual food hall concept??? First time here, but the lady that greeted us did not seem to care. Was told to NOT move chairs around and order through the app on the table. Normally it is pretty easy, but since there are 4 concepts/businesses here, it was not as user friendly as one would expect. Small local business or businesses, not sure how many businesses are here.Cool decor.Robot to deliver our food, which was NOT necessary??? So other than the entertainment value, no additional service. We also watched a couple other customers NOT know how to "finish" their service with the robot, etc. Plus one customer ordered ramen and it spilled on the robot.Street parking, no problem as we came late at night.Numerous to-go orders, very consistent, congrats.Kitchen staff working hard, and plenty of kitchen staff. I saw at least 5 team members. Not sure if that is due to the 4 concepts/businesses. Open 5 days a week from 11:30am to 8:30pm, closed Mon & Tue. Service - N/A, self service. Had to get our own sauces, utensils, and napkins from a self-service station.The phone website where we placed and paid for our order predicted our food to arrive 29 minutes after ordering.After 30 minutes, our food started to slowly arrive. We got our last dish almost an hour later. And it did not come in the order of appetizer and then entree. It came as it was made. Price - $54 + tip. Owner Comment - Congrats on your success since 2020. We will be back for the food. Can I suggest adding some human customer service? At least say hello and smile as customers walk through the door.

Fantastic food with great service. The robot delivering the food made it even better. Sushi in a well lit dining room . Take out order came really fast on a night when I was tired and just wanted to go home. Having a delicious meal and going to sleep fixed the bad day for the better.

My family was in town and my mother was eyeing this place as she was planning for the trip. We weren't sure about outdoor seating, so they drove by to make sure they had outdoor seating (everything for the doggo). Once they saw that there were a number of chairs and tables (about 8-10 sets) we set a date and a time to eat at Koharu.We arrived a little after noon and there was a small party waiting for their food. We went in to peruse the menu and order. Our order included: garlic teriyaki chicken, curry rice, and kurabota katsu sando. My family also ordered a CA roll from the sushi kitchen in the same storefront. They also weren't offering cups of water, so we added a couple water bottles to the meal. The cashier quoted a wait time of 25-30 minutes, and I wished I had ordered ahead. However, in the end, it was fine and the food was worth the wait. The garlic teriyaki chicken was very good and GARLICKY! I really appreciated the robust flavor and the lack of gloppy sauce. The tskemono and cabage salad were also very tasty compliments. The curry rice was also delicious and also had good flavor. My aunt who typically is a light eater ate everything! I enjoyed the sandwich, which had a good amount of kewpie and tonkatsu sauce. I saved 1/4 for later. The cabbage and tomatoes were a nice garnish. Overall, glad I tried this establishment and looking forward to visiting again. They had a deal for people who downloaded the SAGA app, so will definitely consider it next time :)

{Covid-19 Review}On Saturday, March 13th, I ordered the Kurobuta Tonkatsu Bento Box. I used the SAGA App, and picked up the food myself. The Bento Box consisted of breaded pork on a bed of rice, and some veggies. It's intended to be a quick meal. I thought the food was delicious and well prepared. The sliced pork was breaded and fried, but not oily. It was lean, and easy to eat. It laid on top of a generous serving of rice. Much too much rice for me to finish. There were raw veggies and pickled vegetables on the side.

Koharu Japanese Cafe is one of 3 menu options that is available at the former Alice's Bistro. offerings: curry, sandos, karaage, teriyaki, dons, gratin, japanese hamburgeats: curry rice (9.95) -spicy curry with a 1/2 carton of steamed short grain rice.probably from a commercial brand (S & B?)-doesn't come in round container pictured, square plastic container insteadcurry can easily leak out if container doesn't stay flat. 2nd plastic wrap stops it.-curry is ok, has a lingering aftertaste.-food cools quickly. doesn't travel well. note: pre-ordering didn't work. got notice order was canceled as i was waiting for Koharu to open. was able to order in house they opened.

The short lady front her attitude isn't that good. I ordered a beef sando and there was a big bone in it. Thank god I was using my chopsticks that instead of my hands or else I woulda chipped my tooth. Look at how big the bone is. I'm pretty sure that there isn't suppose to be any bones in a sando. The pricing is super taxed for the type of food because their standard isn't up there. The chairs were nasty. It was literally dark blackish

came for lunch around opening time--clean facilities (there is even a separate eating area for folks with pets, which was great since we had my friends' corgi with us) and good service. this sandwich was thick and fatty, so I ended up taking half of it home. would come try something here again!

Delicious food and excellent customer service.The robot will deliver yr food order to your table, very cooleasy street parking and causal clothes, over all good ambiance and good for friends and family