shaomai
Not my cup of tea, but could be yours
I was really looking forward to eating here, b/c I’ve been trying to find a Japanese restaurant in the Bay Area that served chicken skin yakitori ever since I had some really awesome ones in NYC. In 5 years of keeping my eyes open, this was the first restaurant I’ve heard of, so I was very excited to go.
The restaurant was a little difficult to find with the maze of one way streets and the fact that Plaza Central is actually kind of just a parking lot. I would suggest calling the restaurant and getting directions, b/c I think the ones we got via google maps were wrong. the restaurant however is very cute inside — it’s very small and intimate, and i liked how the front portion of the restaurant was all bench seating – i felt like we had plenty of room at our table. The wait staff was also very nice and helpful.
Since I came with 4 other friends, we were able to order quite a few things off the menu. unfortunately, i didn’t like most of it. the salad was great, and the bacon wrapped asparagus was pretty good. i think that the food was ok, but i realized that i just didn’t have the taste for most of it. however, if you like chicken organs, you might like more of it than i did.
Overall, I felt like they did everything well for what they do, I just didn’t like a lot of it.
Dishes Tried:
Kobe style beef yakitori
Not bad, but not great. Tender, but just not awesome. Not worth $4.50 to me.
Oyako-don
Chicken and egg over rice and soup – this was actually pretty good. rather small for $12, but a good size if you’re sharing lots of small plates.
Enoki mushroom rolls wrapped in a slice of black pork
the black pork is kind of like bacon, but the enoki mushrooms are so thick and tightly wrapped it’s really hard to bite into. people solved this problem by just putting the entire thing in their mouths in one bite
asparagus wrapped in a slice of black pork
imo, much better than the enoki mushrooms. asparagus done perfectly, and very tasty with the pork.
Chicken Skin with ponzu
i was really excited about this dish b/c i love ponzu and i came for the chicken skin, right? WRONG. it’s raw chicken skin (i was expecting fried), with gelatinous ponzu. i don’t like slimy, chewy things, so i thought this dish was nasty.
SUMIKA's famous Organic Fried Chicken
Pretty good. Nothing negative to say about this, juicy and well-seasoned.
Fresh chicken spring roll with wasabi mayo
this dish was just kind of boring. it didn’t have very much flavor, even with the wasabi mayo, which didn’t have much wasabi flavor.
SUMIKA Salad
Loved the salad. Tasty, fresh, crunch… I prefer cabbage over lettuce, and i love peanut-based dressings, so I thought this salad was superb.
Momo yakitori (chicken thigh)
juicy and good. I think i would have liked it to be a little more flavorful, but the chicken had good texture and moisture.
Hatsu yakitori (chicken heart)
i knew i didn’t like hearts, but i ate a bite of this thinking it was liver. i had to spit it out… i guess i just really, really don’t like chicken hearts.
Channing
Went here for lunch and had the bento. Also...
Went here for lunch and had the bento. Also tried the Oyako Don and the teriyaki special. The food was okay and the organic chicken was well friend in the bento, but it was nothing super special. Service was average, but not particularly good. I want to try this place again for dinner instead of lunch.
liksani
nice intimate restaurant but a little pricey
Actually wanted to give it 3.5 stars but that isn’t allowed. Had been wanting to try a Japanese yakitori place for a while, but never got around to it until now. It’s located in downtown Los Altos with somewhat confusing driving directions and as a side note, downtown Los Altos is absolutely creepily dead on Sunday nights.
Restaurant is small like many Japanese restaurants and very nicely decorated. It’d be a good place for a small groups of friends or couples to go. Not sure where they would actually seat large groups or if they can even handle that.
I found the food to be fairly good, but expensive for what you’re getting. I would come back here again in the future since I don’t know of many yakitori places and it was nice. Just it wouldn’t be a regular occurance.
Dishes Tried:
Oyako-don
This was one of the best oyako dons i’ve had. The egg was a good still somewhat runny consistancy which nicely contrasted with the tenderness of the chicken and the rice.
Momo yakitori (chicken thigh)
For some reason, I really liked this. But what’s not to like about chicken pieces on a stick? It is grilled perfectly as the chicken is still juicy but not undercooked. It was lightly seasoned with salt and really that was all that was needed to bring out the flavor of the chicken. Quite delicious.
Tomato Salad
I was quite disappointed by this. =( I ordered it expecting it to be tomato with something else, but it was just a tomato sliced up arranged artfully around some raw onion curls. Quite beautiful and to its credit, the tomato was quite good. But, 6.50 for just a tomato and some onion slices… Not really worth it in my opinion….
Agedashi tofu
Mmm agedashi tofu. It was beautifully presented and actually quite good. Nice light sauce that perfectly matched the lightly fried pieces of agedashi tofu.
Best Dishes at Sumika
View all dishesThese dishes from the Sumika menu are contributed by Menuism users directly, as part of a restaurant review, or as part of a photo upload.
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asparagus wrapped in a slice of black pork ()
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SUMIKA Salad ()
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Momo yakitori (chicken thigh) ()
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