I'd also give this one " 3.5 " stars if I could. It is what it is. (A Japanese/sushi express little place). .... And I'm glad to have one nearby because paying full price for expensive Japanese food all the time gets old!! The food is inexpensive so you have to factor that in when you try it. It's good, but I wouldn't eat here routinely. I know, though, that I've made a mental note to return here and get the eel roll again, because boy was that delissh. On a side note: I wouldn't recomment the spicy tuna roll, or anything tuna for that matter (you can tell it isn't fresh tuna they use (probably canned or something)). (= Enjoy! read more

Its not much of a place to sit down and eat. Seems like a little family run restaurant and sometimes there are little kids of the employee/owner running around. It like a little cheap restaurant but it has excellent food. Everything is decently priced and is good. If you want cheap food that is good, especially sushi this is the place to get it in alameda. Also is far better to call and do pick up since it takes a little time. Btw if you go here get the lion king roll, it's really good!! read more

There's something magical about their California Rolls. I can't put my finger on just what it is that makes it so great, but two orders of California Rolls and a hand roll and I'm good to go. Downside: don't wait inside when ordering to-go. You'll walk around wearing Chicken Teriyaki perfume/cologne all day long. Wait outside. Or call in an order and pick it up. read more

I love this place, it's cheap, fast, and you can call in early for pick up (to dodge the lunch chaos that Alameda High provides). I am dissapointed that their kobe-ya at the Athletes club went out of business. Anyways, this is NOT a place to get sushi, rather it's a place to get Japanese meals. It would be perfect if only Kobe-Ya had curry on their menu. read more

This is the go-to place if you are in a hurry and want something incredibly healthy, flavorful, and quick. I used to go here weekly to treat myself to a few rolls. I'd grab a section of the Chronicle, get a cup of tea (free) and take a few moments to enjoy my meal before heading back out to my busy day. It was truly the highlight of my week! It's super small, so grab a table if you see it. It's incredibly reasonably priced, and the service is instantaneous. Overall, a great place, and the best place I can think of if you want something fast and healthy, which is incredibly hard to find. read more

This place still rocks. Even despite the ownership change. The food is identical and the prices are still super cheapo. Everything that is to be said about K-Y has already been said. On another note, things I hate about K-Y: parking can be can require some tenacious perseverance and they are closed on Sundays. The Sunday part really bugs. This place gets 4 stars from me based on being a local place to get quick decent japanese food for a really good price. This is not a foodie joint. read more

Excellent takeaway service, so easy to call and it's all ready in the ten minutes it takes me to get there. I never remember to have their number on speed dial, but they are listed on GOOG-411. Their teriyaki boxes are favorites of my family, and I almost always get chicken, and the salmon is excellent too. An order of California rolls serves as a great side dish, but the portions are usually generous enough that I can never finish much more than half a box. read more

I ordered sushi New York avocado and shrimp roll the 12 piece. So about 7 pieces in something didn't taste right. I'm also about seven months pregnant. Then I decide to open one of the Sushi's cause it tastes weird. Upon opening one and taking a look at the shrimp. It looked old!! At least two to three days old. Or maybe it had been left out. I don't know. So then I proceeded to open all the sushi that was left and the same thing. The shrimp looked old and smelled a little weird. At that point I just got up and walked out. And I've been sick ever since. Diarrhea while your pregnant can be severe. It now been going on two weeks since and I was also hospitalized 2 times already with dehydration. I urge you all not to eat at this restaurant!!! I know I will never return to give this place my business. If you do eat here, good luck on not getting sick! read more

This place is the best place in Alameda for a quick snack of sushi (not the best sushi that belongs to Sushi House). It has a small limited range of the basic sushi rolls, has the teriyaki meat over rice combos and a variety of complements. It's by far the cheapest in Alameda and it shows in the small confines. As there is only street parking available, it's recommended that you get a takeout and also because it's quite cramped and you'll leave with that greasy smell in your clothes. Recommends off the menu: California Rolls, Alaska Rolls Teriyaki Chicken/Beef Tokyo Noodles (cold salad type noodles v. good!!) read more

I've been ordering the chicken katsu at Kobe-Ya ever since I can remember. While Kobe-Ya might not offer the best Japanese food in Alameda, it's a local favorite for a reason. Everything on the menu is pretty decent and comes out in sizable portions at a very reasonable price. The restaurant is tiny, which can make it difficult to find seating, particularly during lunchtime on weekdays. I would highly recommend Kobe-Ya to anyone looking for a cheap bite. read more

Great little mom and pop place. Very good price, decent portion, good quality! Recommend Katsu curry, cheap CA role too read more

Never in a million years did I ever think I would be giving one of my favorite restaurants a 2 star. I've been eating here for close to 20 years. I don't live in Alameda anymore but I come back every now and again to eat. I generally eat my bento box so fast, I'm left feeling mad that it's all gone. So, I usually order 2 bento boxes. One for now, one for later. I got my normal order, 2 chicken teriyaki bento boxes, an order of gyoza and an order of combo tempura. (It hurts me to say this but..) I was so disappointed. The chicken was so dry it was like jerky. Super dry and flavorless. May be the other one is better...nope! I moved the chicken to the side and ate the rice and the green salad. The tempura was good but even that was a disappointment because there was no sweet potato like it use to be, all carrots. The sweet potato is the reason I get tempura from there. And the gyoza, it was nice to have more (8) than the 6 I remember in an order but the flavor was weird. Too peppery. Had I not been so far, I would go get my money back. Worse thing is, I have 2 orders to throw in the thrash and regret that I go to the taqueria or just have cereal. At least the cashier was nice. read more

The foods pretty good but the problem I have is how long you have to wait to order, but they make it earlier is that's cool.

I wouldn't necessarily say this place has bad food, but I most definitely would not say this place has good food.. Anymore, that is. 7 years back when I was still in high school they had really good teri bentos, the chicken was always very lean and cooked to perfection. About a month ago I returned for some lunch and, perhaps it was the change in ownership, but the chicken was very fatty. the mac salad tasted kind of like throw up, you know that sort-of spicy in your nose taste? maybe it was wasabi but it was really gross. for some reason the gyoza was tasting a bit off as well, and then i realized they deep fried it, instead of pan frying it. the miso soup was very watered down and was almost clear, that was really weird... hands down the best part of the meal was the canned drink i bought from them. I wouldnt go back to kobe ya, simply because when there is so much food that i dont like, i probably wouldnt be happy with anything else from them. to each their own, right? two stars. read more

i cant complain about this place!! why!?? because I always get good portion for cheap price!! For my diet, I always order Chicken Teriyaki no rice, all salads and extra white noodle, and 1 california roll for 8.70 :) it s too good to complain PEOPLE!! read more

I was looking for something Japanese, warm and comforting on a rainy day trip to Alameda. It was warm, and thats about it. I grew up on Japanese food. It's almost all my mother cooked. I know what it's supposed to taste like, and this isn't it. I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry. The chicken katsu was served in a thin coconut based curry soup with sweet potato and carrots. The flavor was great, but not Japanese, nor what I was craving. The katsu chicken pieces were floating in the broth and made it overwhelmingly greasy. Not at all what I expected. The miso soup was watery, not rich and had way too much seaweed and not nearly enough miso paste. My husband ordered the udon. The udon was cooked for too long and rather than being al dente was served in a bland chicken stock and seemed very mushy. Poor quality chicken made my husband stop eating half way through, which is where I stopped eating mine. The only saving grace was the unagi roll which was decent, albeit a little dry due to the rice being on the dry side. Service wasn't necessarily friendly, seemed distracted. Unfortunately, I will not be back. I like my Japanese food traditional and tasty. Maybe they're trying to do fusion? Definitely not my idea of good Japanese food and falls flat. Everything seemed to have a thin layer of grease and dust on it too. Not very appetizing. Next time I'm craving Japanese I'll head over to Yellow Tail, Kamakura or my favorite tiny upstairs sushi place that I will not disclose the location of because it's way too good. :o) read more

Got the beef teriyaki and crunchy roll it was good came from out of town maybe I'll stop by again soon thank you read more

Kobe-Ya - Japanese Near Me - Alameda, California

I only came here because Side Street Pho was close, I came on a a Wednesday! Ordered a beef teriyaki (menu clearly stated NY steak) but instead I was served spoiled flap meat which was undercooked! We have been eating meat long enough to know the difference, so if you are going to charge a steak price; then I expect steak and not flap meat! Not a place I would ever consider again! read more

I am a fan of Japanese cuisine .... & have searched a while for exceptional tempura ... this my friends is as good as it gets ... awesome portions ... incredible prices ... even better service ... Kobe Ya is the sh*$!!! Love Ya!!! A. Ferris read more

The chicken teriyaki and chicken katsu are good but I prefer the ones at Kai's. The salad that comes with the bento is not as good either but its a matter of sauce preference I suppose. The noodles that come with it are pretty good though. I do not get the impression of this place to be a place for sushi because all you see is bento since it is more of a to-go restaurant given its small space. I cannot give it a 4 star but I would say 3.5. Chicken: B House Salad: C read more

This isn't the same Kobe-Ya that I used to know. The previous owner was ran by a Japanese family but took over by a non-Japanese who can't maintain the same quality and price. As a result, the quality gone down and prices gone up. Portion size is about 1/5 less. Definitely not going back. read more

I love this place because it has been the spot to order for lunch during the high school years when all i had was $20 a week to spend on food. imagine how limited that was and is nowadays. that being said, i still come by here and the lady is always nice and gets my order ready quickly. it's just a little shop in the corner that makes good food at cheap price. more of a togo place than dine in but its affordable, reasonably priced and you dont have to deal with waiting for tables and extremely long lines. read more

Yum, my friend told me about this and Ziva really enjoyed the sushi. I ordered the California roll. Delicious!

I order take out here a lot. eh sometimes they squeeze the sushi together really fast and make some look deformed/smaller than the rest. der chicken katsu and terriyaki chicken are gud though *-*. read more

Used to go here like almost everyday for high school. I am occasionally here anyway because the one thing I order is still my favorite item on the menu. It's the Crunch Roll. Back in high school they used to be cut thicker and the same length but nowadays I notice they are cut much thinner (which is kinda great because it fits in your mouth perfectly) so it's bite sized and still the same length. I wish I had a photo comparison but I don't. Their katsu is real good and the lunch meal with mac or noodles is fantastic. Pretty decent prices so that's awesome too! read more

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. SUPER busy during school lunch place. You get alot for your money and the lady's there are super nice. :]

Jamie M. and I came here after a yoga session and weren't expecting anything fancy, or even for the place to be open circa 8:45pm. But it was open and we were able to get 3 rolls (they tend to run small) and 2 miso soups (tofu and generous amounts of greens) for less than $20. I'm definitely not a sushi connoisseur, but it was fairly clear to me that this was rather simple stuff, perhaps a step or two higher than Safeway sushi because it was freshly made, but at about a comparable price, maybe a one dollar markup. I gave Kobe 4 stars because their restaurant child (maybe the daughter of the owner) was there playing with three different colors of play-doh and being eccentric/hilarious. As we waited for our take-out right around the time they were closing, she entertained us with random one-liners like "You can't touch this play-doh" and finding some fun in throwing small to-go plastic bags at me and my girlfriend. It was delightful and we had a good time killing ten minutes during our wait as one of the workers mopped the floors. Funny enough, it was a cold night, and the little girl turned on the fan with the door open. I asked her if she could go ahead and turn it off and she threw the book at me--- "We need it on to dry the floors after mopping". Man, 6 year olds are getting smarter and smarter. read more

Take away places, take note. Kobe Ya kicks your butt in take away, really. The folks are fast and the food is perfect for those on the run. Kobe Ya is pretty small so bring a tight group of friends and ride sharing is preferable since parking is street only. Portions are good and the price is right. I don't know what took me so long to drop by but I'm glad I did, and so should you. read more

Was in the mood for quick sushi & remebered Kobe Ya. My brother used to frequent this place back in high school. I didn't expect the menu to have as many options as it did. Nice affordable prices for the bentos and rolls. I was amazed by the portions that were bring served, I saw almost everyone there order chicken teri over rice and that plate was packed. From what I noticed on the menu it was all for just under 6 bucks. I myself had already ordered the salmon teri bento that was just under $8. Next time I'll give the chicken a whirl. All in all this place is not bad for your basic rolls & filling bentos. I'll have to remember this place more often when I'm looking for a quick pick up! read more

My boyfriend took me there for the first time 3 weeks ago. He was telling me it is amazingly cheap like 5 bucks for a bento box. I was like...no WAY! I had to check it out. I went there and it was pretty much a hole in the wall..BUT it was cheap and good! I got a bento box that actually filled me up. I got a chicken teriyaki bento box 2 rolls, and an order of seaweed salad for 10 bucks. Awesome right? Oh man, I am a life long fan. read more

Can I give a negative review?? Service was slow.. food tasted old... real sushi is at yokohama..

Don't ever come here! ....I've had bad experiences at restaurants but this one was really the worst, I actually had to get an account here to advise ppl not to come here. I love sushi and this was the second time I come to this place, the first was a to go order so we didn't have time to interact with the people as much, this time I had some friends come with me and I was expecting great service and great food. Instead I got a lady that looked like she hated life, she was incredibly rude! I got the most horrible meal! They gave us dirty cups to drink our sake and they gave us dirty PAPER cups to drink water...how can paper cups be dirty??!? When I walked into the restaurant I was not greeted, my friend and I were asked what did we want instead of asking if we were ready to order, we asked some questions about sake she just ignored us and answered the phone, she then hung up and went to the back, then we saw more ppl coming out asking us what we wanted and we just wanted to know the portion they served! Anywho, we ended up ordering the sake and my two friends got their food first I ordered 3 rolls and it took them 25 min! For 3 rolls!! I've gone to places and have ordered 4-5 rolls and it takes 10 min with only ONE chef! And the place is packed in the moment and I still get my food on time, this place was horrible! When they gave us the sake, I asked for two more little cups I wanted everyone to try it, they give us the cups but they gave it to us incredibly dirty and sticky!!! How are we to drink like that!?!? That's disgusting!...I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt so I went up to the lady taking orders and told her if she could give me clean ones she rolled her eyes and went to the back, I got the cups again and they were clean but I had pissed her off or something because she just looked at me really angry. I received my food and I thought well it looks ok so I began to eat it.... I only ate about 4 pieces of the 3 rolls that contained 6-7 pieces each. Then I started feeling nauseous! I've been eating sushi for years! This has never happened to me! Well...I didn't want to eat it anymore and I just wanted my money back it was around 25 dollars, I didn't eat the full plate, I felt sorry for the waste of food but I was getting sick, I just wanted to get out of there, never once did I think of giving this place a bad review I just didn't want to come back....but what pushed me to the review was the managers...they have no knowledge of hospitality! I asked to speak to the manager, I told her calmly that since we got there we had a bad experience, the person helping us was rude and that we received dirty plates and that I just became nauseous I asked for my money back and she just began to throw a fit and yelled, these ppl do not know how to handle a business I've worked for several restaurants and this is most certainly one that definitely is not customer friendly , this place shouldn't even be in business!! I did report them to the Alameda county department of Environmental Health. And this isn't the first time they get a review like this and it sure isn't the first time that they are being reported by someone else about this place being unsanitary, too bad I found out too late about this place.... read more

If I could give them 0 stars I would. Ever since ownership has changed the quality of food, service, and condition has gone down drastically. Heres my awful experience: So me and my friend go in looking for a quick bite to eat after 18 holes. We walk in and quickly notice while in line that the person behind the counter is a 6 y/o girl. After about 5 minutes of the little girl not understanding the order infront of us she finally asks someone in the back for help. The lady that came out looked as if she came out of hell and treated as if so also. So finally after ordering the next thing was finding a table. We looked around and noticed that every single table in the place was dirty with old food scraps laying on them. We ended up settling for the table with the least pieces of rice, noodles or liquid on it and asked the old lady from hell to clean our table. A couple of minutes later the 6 year old girl comes out and tries to clean our table with a dry towel. Finally we end up cleaning the table ourselves. Now im finally getting our food and the 6 year old is the one serving us. I open my chicken teriyak to find that they put chicken katsu (breaded chicken) covered in teriyaki sauce. Like I wouldnt notice lol. So I go up to the front and complain but the only person I can find is the 6 year old girl. After I talked loudly for someone to come help the lady from hell arrived and began to talk to me like I was crazy. After I took out the chicken and let her know how I felt she finally went back to her layer to make me another serving. So now im waiting for my second plate (my friend still hadent recieved his vietnamese sandwich and the 2 rolls he order) and I notice the water container is empty and ask the 6 year old if she can get the devil lady to get more water. After about 10 minutes theres stil no sign of our water or food so my friend goes up to the counter to find nobody. He looks behind the door to see the devil lady and her cook just standing there doing nothing, not cooking, not getting water. After a couple seconds complaining hes back. About 5 minutes later the devil lady comes out and gives all our food and a big pitcher of yellow water with things floating in it (we didnt drink it). I eat my food and its okay at best (Kai's around the corner is so much better) but I have no major complaints. But my friends portion of food is tiny. The vietnamese sandwich looked like half of the meat and condiments fell out in the kitchen (all bread). His 2 rolls are 6 pieces each (supposed to be 8). Once we eat and are done we decide to never come bacl and leave with a bang. So we go up to the front to find the 6 year old by herself (surprising lol) and start asking loudly to talk to the manager. The devil lady comes out and we begin to let her know how terrible their sercive was. From a 6 year old running the restaurant to the poor quality of their food to the cleanliness of their place. And tp our suprise she begins to yell and scream at us. I couldnt understand half of what she was screaming at us but what I understood is that "what were we to expect. Go to mcdonalds or jack in the box and see what you get for your money". Yes she really compared her restaurant to mcdonalds and jack in the crack (high standards huh). After we clearly out intellectualized her she stopped rrellying to us and just said "thank you!" Repeatedly till we were fed up and left. I grew up in alameda and have been going to kobe ya since I was a highschooler but wow this place has really fallen off. Sevice was terrible, conditions was terrible and the food was very mediocre. I will safely say I will never go back. Such a terrible business. read more

First off, Kobe-Ya is not an authentic Japanese place.. It is owned and operated by Koreans. The restaurant is not sanitary, the floor are disgusting and tables are wobbly and dirty. The sushi is something out of a factory, the seafood is not fresh and I highly doubt anything else is. The miso soup and udon noodles are out of a package. If you would like soy sauce, you have ask for it along with chopsticks, napkins and anything else to eat a meal. Do not go during high school lunch.. unless you want to wait in a line out the door. Service? What service? The women here are mean and give dirty looks. There are much better Japanese restaurants, with better food and better prices. I suggest Yellow Tail around the corner. read more

I waited for 40 min to get 2 rolls and there were no other customers in the place. The spicy tuna roll was so gross. I definitely would not recommend this place. read more

Had a yellow curry of some sort, but it definitely wasn't Japanese style curry. It was pretty sweet. Portion was pretty generous though, but not sure if I'll be back...at least for that dish. read more

Small place good alameda food right next to alameda high good price point good katsu good sandwich good everything

Japanese fast-food sushi. It's a cute little corner spot perfect for lunch. There's no raw fish here, though. All smoked salmon or cooked. Great prices. During the weekday lunch hours, you may be bombarded with hungry high school students. read more

Much better now they addressed the problem with the outdoor garbage smell. A good bargain - we always get the chicken teriyaki bento box

If you have a hankering for popular, mainstream, Japanese food and your wallet is feeling less than heavy, then Kobe Ya is the place for you. My family and I used to come here often when I was a kid for an easy, weekday evening take out option and it has still maintained the same quality and speediness I remember. There is nothing outside of the box about the menu here, but if you need it fast and you need it cheap, this is the place to go. read more