GREAT FOOD! We got the brussel sprouts to share and the smashburger. Highly recommend this placeread more

Another place that I have passed in Coolidge corner a bunch of times when I'm in the area. Esmai's…read morequietly opened up a year or two ago and I was always wondering what was inside. From just looking inside it looks like a very nice American bar and restaurant. For a space in Coolidge corner, it is definitely one of the biggest restaurants in the area since FuGakyu is closed (The OG ). It has two floors as well as a patio space they recently opened. This is an asian fusion restaurant with more emphasis on the americanized side if that makes sense? The patio area was so nice especially once it cools down in the evening with a nice view of brookline. The staff were great at bringing everything and making the food and drinks the focus rather than themselves. The menu is kind of small but mighty with a lot of delicious options. You can choose from salad to a ban mih to pasta to curry to a Hawaiian dish,loco moco! The drinks, though pretty small in size, are all really interesting combos. I got the extra 99 which had scallion, oolong and szechuan pepper infused oil. It was such an interesting savory taste.. One of my friends said it reminded her of the smell of ramen.The Loco moco was delicious. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a burger but it essentially was but just swap the buns for rice. I'm not a fan of egg but it was perfectly balanced with the egg and beef patty. They do have a couple of GF options YAY but apart from the two entree items on their brunch menu it's essentially veggies, fruit and salad. The brunch menu looks delicious so I would definitely come back to try it out. $$ Food 8 Atmosphere 8 Service 7 Loco Moco Extra 99 Blush hour Chateau spritz Summer thyme You can sip with is

This restaurant was a nice change up to traditional sushi, restaurants…read more They have the usual sushi and Chinese options, and a good selection of sakes on offer. The beer and wine selection was quite good.

Food was very fresh! Makes sense cause we saw them making dumplings from scratch. Very nice decor…read moreand service relative to standard Chinese places. Would def come back.

I've been to KungFu Kitchen two times now and it's been consistently great. I've ordered the Pork…read moreXiao Long Bao, Pork and Shrimp Wonton Soup, Scallion Pancake with Sliced Beef, Shanghai Pan-Fried Pork Buns, and Cucumber Salad - all were amazing and would order again. The pork and shrimp wonton soup was brought a perfect balance to the flavorful meal and it's broth was super yummy. The cucumber salad was seasoned perfectly and was a nice balance to the otherwise heavy meal. My favorite is probably the pork xiao long bao, but honestly, you can't go wrong with anything you order. Service was great. Both times we were a party of two and were seated quickly, if not immediately. Food came out very fast. Will 100% be returning.

Xiao long bao a little over steamed and MSG heavy, but nice thin wrapper and flavor. Best I've had…read morein Boston so far. Knife cut noodles also pretty tasty with good soup but too salty for me. Sheng jian bao was a bit of a letdown, not as crisp as I'd like. But still not bad, with a good ratio of bun to meat. The space is nice and open, and going with a toddler is easy due to clean high chair and bathroom changing table.

Busy casual dining Resturant but worth the wait. Enjoyed the wings, soups and veggies. My tequila…read moredrink was perfect. Staff friendly and accommodating. We will go back! Denise Patnod Cambridge

Server was friendly & gave suggestions on what to eat. They were out of one drink that I wanted but…read morenot a big deal at all. Food came out hot & portions were large. When something is stated to be spicy on the menu it definitely means spicy. Great location for people watching but will need to find street parking that you pay for. Has a kids menu which is always a plus!

First time here and it was great! We did the AYCE all-you-can-eat on a Monday (they only do it…read moreMonday and Tuesdays) - got there around 7:30p and even though it was very full, we got seated quickly with a table for 3. It's $50 for the regular AYCE or $80 for the Premium AYCE. We opted for the former, and it was plenty great. We have done lots of AYCE sushi and I will say this is the BEST of them - I think it's because it's the same grade sushi as they would normally do Ala carte on other nights. The $50 menu had plenty of sashimi and regular nigiri (sushi with rice) options and some Thai too. We had mostly the sashimi Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, Octopus, a few rolls, some edamame, gyoza, shumai. My favorites were the salmon, as the cuts were large, thick and amazing silky, and the gyoza, as it was perfectly crispy. The Pad Thai was bit way too sweet for my taste - a skip for me next time. The decor is very nice - reminded me of a dive Tokyo bar. Service was quick and very attentive. We will be back!

Have been hearing about their Mon & Tue AYCE, so went on to try it a month or so ago. With what…read moreseems to be a recent price increase, now $50++ allows access to a good variety of sushi/sashimi, on top of apps, ramen, poke bowls, and cooked rice/noodle dishes. Whereas $80++ offers diners a set of amount of uni, plus unlimited amount of everything else, wagyu included. Sounds like a good deal, especially when one can eat a lot. Even as we are no longer Team Eat Till You Burst, we went for the premium, mainly for the nicer cuts such as toro and wagyu, and because uni!! Jumping in shortly after 5pm, we were promptly seated, marked a bunch of stuff on paper, and soon after submission, we got food brought to our table. It was a decent meal overall, so why 3 stars? Let's recap. Menu variety is fantastic, though of course we didn't get "one of everything", coz that's simply impossible. While the premium did cover a lot of grounds, it would have been nice if they also included anago (sea eel) which is currently only available on the a la cart menu, and maybe even offer couple lesser-known items such as monk fish liver app, sea grapes, off-the-beaten-path fish cuts, what have you. Would be happy even if we only get an allotment of those like we do with the uni. Now, service - great overall. Servers circulated around and were alert of customers' needs. Approached at appropriate times to take our order sheets, refill water, provide new order sheets, and ask if we wanted more food. So kudos on that. Their denotation of serving "regular portion" of cooked food had us hesitant in ordering, since we didn't want to be wasteful (or use our limited stomach space for dishes we can easily get elsewhere). But from other tables' orders as well as the one noodle dish that we ended up getting, it seems that the portion size was what I would like to see at AYCE places -- about 50-60% of regular Asian dish size, where 3-4 people can each have a couple bites "just to try". However, to think if that is what they call "regular portion", then it is definitely "Brookline pricing" on a la carte, which I would not recommend one to do such things on these items. Food is fantastic in general; we got a variety of stuff, and everything was really of top quality and taste. The meal would have been a "highly recommended" if they didn't serve the uni that we got. Out of the 12 pcs of uni sushi, all of them were... while not "foul" to a point where one cannot safely consume, they were definitely more sub-par than "ok but not great". Colors aside (which I understand there can be a range depending on origins and such), the uni was a "splat" of yellow stuff on rice, without distinct shape of the flesh. On top of the fishy smell (I'm talking about slightly ammonia-ish), the presentation and taste-texture upon them hitting our tongues... really left the ENTIRE room to be desired. In retrospect, we should have sent them back even if they weren't going to replace them. But instead, we stupidly forced ourselves to shove them all down in cowardly silence, then ordered another round of wagyu just to make us feel a little better about it. Yes, we weren't smart as customers. But if the restaurant is going to charge $100++ per person (after tax and tip), someone from the kitchen should have known better than pushing this thing out for customers to deal with. In their defense, yes, the uni itself was still "edible" in a sense that it didn't make us sick, but I'd maintain that better judgment should have been made. Once the shell was cracked open and you see this pale-gray yellow mush, it should have been decided that it is better repurposed, than be served straight to your customers as your star/featured product. As seen in other diners' experiences, it could just have been a one-off mishap, so I'm not knocking them entirely. But I do hope the restaurant would improve on their QC accordingly. It was such a disappointing low point in an otherwise wonderful meal.

This was my second time here and it was just as good! The service, food and ambiance are all…read moreamazing! The chicken rice was my favorite dish but the toffee cake was a close close second. I'd highly recommend Merai!

We went here for late night eats the day before Marathon Monday. The food was more small bar food…read morebites but still shareable. We went with another friend and we all really enjoyed the food. The chicken and rice was a big surprise as it came out as a chicken wing with the rice stuffed into it. The baguettes were perfectly buttery and went well with mussels and red curry. We all enjoyed the spare ribs as well which were so flavorful and smokey. The calamari was crispy with a creamy dipping sauce. As an aside the bathroom was a total trip and way different vibe from the restaurant. Very clean but we all came out and we were like whoa! Totally worthwhile to check out, very enjoyable to chill and have some late night bites!

I've been to Genki Ya a few times, and it's one of my favorite sushi places in Brookline. The fish…read morealways tastes fresh, and I've never had a bad meal there. I usually try a different roll when I go, and everything I've had has been really good. The restaurant is clean and relaxing, and the staff have always been friendly whenever I've visited. I also like that the menu has a lot of options, whether you're really into sushi or just looking for something simple, you'll find something. I've ordered both takeout and eaten in the restaurant, and the quality has been consistent every time. There are a lot of sushi spots around Boston, but Genki Ya is one that I keep coming back to. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're in the Brookline area.

I have been a die hard fan for several years now and order from here at least twice a month. But,…read morethere have been a few instances that are getting hard to look past. I ordered from there last night and ended up having some leftovers, pulled it out of the fridge to see GREY tuna (see below). I regularly cook sushi and work with raw tuna myself and not once has this happened. I did also have an incident a few months ago where there were small bits of hair in my roll. It's so sad because I genuinely love it here and it's so close to me but I can't bring myself to keep testing faith if they're keeping their quality so low.

每次有朋友来波士顿都首推这家，今天来了又有新菜。味道一如既往的好！This is the first place I recommend whenever friends visit Boston…read more I came back today and found new dishes on the menu. The taste is as excellent as ever!

The food here is excellent!! Everything we got was very yummy…read more We ordered: - twice cooked pork (has more oil but very tasty) - fish with chili (comes with lots of vermicelli at the bottom) - garlic pea shoots - beef appetizer - cumin lamb Would want to go back and try more! The service is great too.