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: 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: 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: bit.ly/3OtTMqw). Authentic enough and it came with a solid miso soup (photo: 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: bit.ly/2Ik8mky
Joanna L.
The website and Yelp listing have incorrect hours. Please update so customers aren't disappointed.
Patrick L.
Amazing food and the service is wonderful. Super clean... I came back twice after my first visit the food is that good. Very reasonable too!!!
Lee D.
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.
Adam G.
Not much to say about the sando. But it was made well nothing bad to say about it. Maybe a sauce on the side would be nice to compliment the sando
Grace T.
Came on a Sunday evening and it was pretty empty. The interior of the restaurant is filled with supreme photos and items. It felt like a very clean and warm environment. There are 2 indoor sitting areas. Parking was pretty easy, found a spot right in front of the restaurant. There are 4 restaurants (Dim Sum, Ramen, Sushi, and Bento Box/Japanese Curry) inside one. Very simple menu. We ordered: 1. Tonkatsu Curry Bowl (2/5) 2. Kurobuta Katsu Sando (3.5/5) The Tonkatsu Curry Bowl was not too flavourful and the curry felt watered down. The tonkatsu was pretty good. The katsu sando was pretty good, with a thick slice of meat in between the bread and the sauce was good. It was definitely a bit pricy for the amount of food you are getting. There were also no veggies (which was shown on their photo on yelp). Wait time for food was longer than expected.
Kristen I.
I ordered the kurobuta tonkatsu curry rice. Not a huge portion but you'll be full after eating it. I'm always weary of ordering katsu curry when I can't find many pictures of it on Yelp, but I was slightly disappointed when I received my dish only because I thought there would be vegetables in the curry based on the pictures I did find. The veggies weren't necessary, the dish was pretty tasty any A well seasoned, well cooked, thick and juicy cutlet with a crispy panko breading. A flavorful curry sauce was ladled over top with delicate fresh shredded cabbage and a slice of lotus root underneath, all over a bed of rice. The pickled veggies on top are like a palate cleanser, helping to cut through the salt and fat of the pork. They add just enough curry so that the cutlet doesn't get soggy under it. Overall a good dish, though I wouldn't mince time on the overly salty miso soup.
Benjamin
Awful service, takes forever for mediocre food, just stay awayAlso watch out for the reviews, this place throws regular influencer events to generate positive reviews. I know because I was in the middle of one and they had no tables left for real customers.
Ben H.
Be wary of the other reviews, as this place often run influencer events to generate positive reviews. I know because I was stuck in the middle of an event and my food order was completely forgotten and then it took nearly an hour and a half to get my food. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEIR WEBSITE, use doordash instead. They can't seem to manage orders from the site properly across all the restaurants/menus. I get it, my family used to own a restaurant, the kitchen gets slammed some times and wait times a long. But the attitude and service of this place is completely ridiculous. First, they completely forgot my order. They then told me it would be roughly a 15 minute wait. After waiting 30 minutes, I was told it would be another 5 minutes. I watched them placed my katsu sando on the counter, before waiting nearly 30 more minutes before my donburi was done. I told them I no longer wanted the sandwich because its soggy just sitting there covered and they lied and told me it was just finished 5 minutes go. I called them out on their BS and they gave me a bunch of s*** for it. They treat people horribly, especially the doordash delivery drivers. I told them their issue was that they were not setting expectations properly, that my 15 minute wait turned into over an hour. They also told people quite a few orders after us that it would be 10 minutes even though they knew it would take 30+ minutes. The cashier didn't care because they were not customers, just "doordash delivery", not being considerate that people are making a few bucks waiting for an hour. Food was somewhat okay, as we ended up eating just the donburi that was decently hot. It was missing sauce, utensils, napakins, and topping because they were in a rush. This place is a mess, I don't recommend coming and I certainly won't be back.
Vincent L.
I came across SAGA Kitchen as part of a Yelp Elite event in January and, despite inefficiently manual service and extraneous frills like pointless name-dropping décor that does nothing to enliven a drab venue at the core (really, folks can see right through these things but will also give you the benefit of the doubt as long as the food is good - plus, in response to the owner, there's no need for passive-aggressive shade-throwing at someone who's had quite some experience with the brand names and art themes displayed inside), was intrigued enough by the several concepts here. One of these is Koharu, which serves Japanese-inspired sandwiches and fried fare like tonkatsu. One of the items I'd had at the January Yelp event was a mini-tonkatsu sandwich that was served cold, so I wanted to see if the full Kurobota tonkatsu bento ($14.95) was any better. So I came back in late May, on my own dime. As other Yelpers have pointed out, you really need to get the tonkatsu - or anything fried - exactly at the moment it comes out of the kitchen, otherwise the enjoyability factor decays at a certain half-life. This time, the results were decent. The pork was fried to a nice, fresh crisp on the outside while remaining fairly juicy inside. A side of crab cream croquette (3 pieces, $5.95) was also a satisfyingly delightful burst of artery-blocking fat and carbs. As other Yelpers have also noted, service times are highly uncertain here. Not only are you quoted a fulfillment time far in advance (53 minutes in my case), but they might still miss the pickup time by 10-15 minutes even though it's not busy. Again, if you've ordered anything fried, you'll want to arrive early and thereby risk waiting an extra long time just to avoid having the food sit out there any longer than it has to. Perhaps multiple order screens - one up front and one in the back - plus a walkie-talkie system would help eliminate any manual shuffling back and forth that might still be happening, even though they've had almost a year to work out the kinks.
On my first visit to SAGA Kitchen, I ordered sushi from Sachi Sushi, which is one of the three restaurants here. While waiting for my order, I checked out Koharu's menu and I would plan on ordering some food from Koharu on the next visit. For my next order I ordered sushi from Sachi and the Kurobuta Tonkatsu Bento Box from Koharu. I used the SAGA app, but wasn't sure if both items could be combined on the same bill or if I had order separately. Yes, you can combine and get you 20% off as one transaction since your first five orders qualify for the discount. The Kurobuta Tonkatsu Bento Box consisted a generous piece of Kurobuta pork over a large bed of rice with shredded cabbage and some carrot slices, two stalks of broccoli, a grape tomato, picked cucumbers and a container of tonkatsu sauce. The panko breaded pork was fried golden brown and was moist and tender. Very tasty. I will be back to Koharu for the tonkatsu again.
Allyson U.
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 :)
Irene C.
I love having options for easy takeouts, especially during the pandemic. I have been eyeing their Kurobuta Katsu Sando, which initially I thought was a little pricey. But it comes as a set of 4 and can easily be two meals in one. The bread was nice and soft which contrasted with the crispy katsu. It also had a lovely sauce that fully enhanced the flavor of this sandwich. I would definitely return for it!
Caroline L.
The whole sando's flavor was good and flavorful. But I think the sauce was a little too much, so the katsu was not crispy and the bread was soggy. The beef, like other reviewers said, was too dry.
Rachall L.
Beef and egg were quite dry but ebi was tasty even after being in the box for the 15 min drive home. This is the second time I've had the soboro don, the first time (few months ago) the beef wasn't as dry and jerky-like. I don't really know what's going on in terms of quality control... I wouldn't order again this again but it's edible so three stars.
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: 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: 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: bit.ly/3OtTMqw). Authentic enough and it came with a solid miso soup (photo: 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: bit.ly/2Ik8mky
The website and Yelp listing have incorrect hours. Please update so customers aren't disappointed.
Amazing food and the service is wonderful. Super clean... I came back twice after my first visit the food is that good. Very reasonable too!!!
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.
Not much to say about the sando. But it was made well nothing bad to say about it. Maybe a sauce on the side would be nice to compliment the sando
Came on a Sunday evening and it was pretty empty. The interior of the restaurant is filled with supreme photos and items. It felt like a very clean and warm environment. There are 2 indoor sitting areas. Parking was pretty easy, found a spot right in front of the restaurant. There are 4 restaurants (Dim Sum, Ramen, Sushi, and Bento Box/Japanese Curry) inside one. Very simple menu. We ordered: 1. Tonkatsu Curry Bowl (2/5) 2. Kurobuta Katsu Sando (3.5/5) The Tonkatsu Curry Bowl was not too flavourful and the curry felt watered down. The tonkatsu was pretty good. The katsu sando was pretty good, with a thick slice of meat in between the bread and the sauce was good. It was definitely a bit pricy for the amount of food you are getting. There were also no veggies (which was shown on their photo on yelp). Wait time for food was longer than expected.
I ordered the kurobuta tonkatsu curry rice. Not a huge portion but you'll be full after eating it. I'm always weary of ordering katsu curry when I can't find many pictures of it on Yelp, but I was slightly disappointed when I received my dish only because I thought there would be vegetables in the curry based on the pictures I did find. The veggies weren't necessary, the dish was pretty tasty any A well seasoned, well cooked, thick and juicy cutlet with a crispy panko breading. A flavorful curry sauce was ladled over top with delicate fresh shredded cabbage and a slice of lotus root underneath, all over a bed of rice. The pickled veggies on top are like a palate cleanser, helping to cut through the salt and fat of the pork. They add just enough curry so that the cutlet doesn't get soggy under it. Overall a good dish, though I wouldn't mince time on the overly salty miso soup.
Awful service, takes forever for mediocre food, just stay awayAlso watch out for the reviews, this place throws regular influencer events to generate positive reviews. I know because I was in the middle of one and they had no tables left for real customers.
Be wary of the other reviews, as this place often run influencer events to generate positive reviews. I know because I was stuck in the middle of an event and my food order was completely forgotten and then it took nearly an hour and a half to get my food. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEIR WEBSITE, use doordash instead. They can't seem to manage orders from the site properly across all the restaurants/menus. I get it, my family used to own a restaurant, the kitchen gets slammed some times and wait times a long. But the attitude and service of this place is completely ridiculous. First, they completely forgot my order. They then told me it would be roughly a 15 minute wait. After waiting 30 minutes, I was told it would be another 5 minutes. I watched them placed my katsu sando on the counter, before waiting nearly 30 more minutes before my donburi was done. I told them I no longer wanted the sandwich because its soggy just sitting there covered and they lied and told me it was just finished 5 minutes go. I called them out on their BS and they gave me a bunch of s*** for it. They treat people horribly, especially the doordash delivery drivers. I told them their issue was that they were not setting expectations properly, that my 15 minute wait turned into over an hour. They also told people quite a few orders after us that it would be 10 minutes even though they knew it would take 30+ minutes. The cashier didn't care because they were not customers, just "doordash delivery", not being considerate that people are making a few bucks waiting for an hour. Food was somewhat okay, as we ended up eating just the donburi that was decently hot. It was missing sauce, utensils, napakins, and topping because they were in a rush. This place is a mess, I don't recommend coming and I certainly won't be back.
I came across SAGA Kitchen as part of a Yelp Elite event in January and, despite inefficiently manual service and extraneous frills like pointless name-dropping décor that does nothing to enliven a drab venue at the core (really, folks can see right through these things but will also give you the benefit of the doubt as long as the food is good - plus, in response to the owner, there's no need for passive-aggressive shade-throwing at someone who's had quite some experience with the brand names and art themes displayed inside), was intrigued enough by the several concepts here. One of these is Koharu, which serves Japanese-inspired sandwiches and fried fare like tonkatsu. One of the items I'd had at the January Yelp event was a mini-tonkatsu sandwich that was served cold, so I wanted to see if the full Kurobota tonkatsu bento ($14.95) was any better. So I came back in late May, on my own dime. As other Yelpers have pointed out, you really need to get the tonkatsu - or anything fried - exactly at the moment it comes out of the kitchen, otherwise the enjoyability factor decays at a certain half-life. This time, the results were decent. The pork was fried to a nice, fresh crisp on the outside while remaining fairly juicy inside. A side of crab cream croquette (3 pieces, $5.95) was also a satisfyingly delightful burst of artery-blocking fat and carbs. As other Yelpers have also noted, service times are highly uncertain here. Not only are you quoted a fulfillment time far in advance (53 minutes in my case), but they might still miss the pickup time by 10-15 minutes even though it's not busy. Again, if you've ordered anything fried, you'll want to arrive early and thereby risk waiting an extra long time just to avoid having the food sit out there any longer than it has to. Perhaps multiple order screens - one up front and one in the back - plus a walkie-talkie system would help eliminate any manual shuffling back and forth that might still be happening, even though they've had almost a year to work out the kinks.
Restaurantji Recommends
On my first visit to SAGA Kitchen, I ordered sushi from Sachi Sushi, which is one of the three restaurants here. While waiting for my order, I checked out Koharu's menu and I would plan on ordering some food from Koharu on the next visit. For my next order I ordered sushi from Sachi and the Kurobuta Tonkatsu Bento Box from Koharu. I used the SAGA app, but wasn't sure if both items could be combined on the same bill or if I had order separately. Yes, you can combine and get you 20% off as one transaction since your first five orders qualify for the discount. The Kurobuta Tonkatsu Bento Box consisted a generous piece of Kurobuta pork over a large bed of rice with shredded cabbage and some carrot slices, two stalks of broccoli, a grape tomato, picked cucumbers and a container of tonkatsu sauce. The panko breaded pork was fried golden brown and was moist and tender. Very tasty. I will be back to Koharu for the tonkatsu again.
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 :)
I love having options for easy takeouts, especially during the pandemic. I have been eyeing their Kurobuta Katsu Sando, which initially I thought was a little pricey. But it comes as a set of 4 and can easily be two meals in one. The bread was nice and soft which contrasted with the crispy katsu. It also had a lovely sauce that fully enhanced the flavor of this sandwich. I would definitely return for it!
The whole sando's flavor was good and flavorful. But I think the sauce was a little too much, so the katsu was not crispy and the bread was soggy. The beef, like other reviewers said, was too dry.
Beef and egg were quite dry but ebi was tasty even after being in the box for the 15 min drive home. This is the second time I've had the soboro don, the first time (few months ago) the beef wasn't as dry and jerky-like. I don't really know what's going on in terms of quality control... I wouldn't order again this again but it's edible so three stars.