I came with my girlfriend at night and was able to try out their large happy hour menu. There's a good variety of food on the happy hour menu and we were really hungry so we ordered a lot of food...
The best thing I ate was definitely the Chicken Yakisoba ($9.99). It was fresh and hot, so flavorful and delicious. Full of really saucy noodles and tender chicken. For only $10, this was a really fair price and I would come back just for this. I don't think there's any other place in Ventura that sells yakisoba! If you're unfamiliar with what this is, it's basically a Japanese stir-fried noodle dish with vegetables and chicken. It basically tastes like teriyaki with chow mein.
The teriyaki chicken bowl ($7.99) was also a good deal, but I didn't really enjoy it as much. It came with the same delicious chicken as the yakisoba with the same teriyaki flavor too. There was a lot of rice in the bowl and not enough sauce to go with it so after eating the chicken on the top, there isn't a lot left other than white rice.
The server insisted that we try the Grilled Garlic Pork Belly ($9.50) and said that it's very popular. We were pretty disappointed in this dish honestly. It's four pieces of charred pork belly on a skewer. For $9.50, this was not worth it at all. Albeit the pieces were pretty big at about an inch each, but it was just not worth being $2 a piece.
The mixed tempura ($6.95) came with two pieces of shrimp tempura and a few vegetable tempura pieces. I thought this was a very fair price for what it was. This dish was alright; I wouldn't order it again. It just tasted like vegetables fried in batter, but the batter didn't have much taste.
The server also recommended that we ordered the rice cake with sausage ($4.95). This was pretty good but it was really expensive for what it was. Two pieces of korean rice cake and two slices of sausage covered in sauce, all on a skewer. If this came with a few skewers, the price would be justified but this just too much for how little it came with.
My girlfriend ordered a few of the hand rolls and sashimis. She really liked it and would give the sushi a 10/10. She recommends the hand rolls over the sashimi. The hand rolls are slightly cheaper but she thinks it actually came with more fish than the sashimi! Great deal and delicious sushi. The sushi here is top notch. There's a Japanese sushi chef overseeing all of it as well.
We also ordered the chicken katsu off the regular menu for $17.99. They actually forgot that we ordered this and didn't give it to us until I asked where it was. They were quick to resolve the problem and asked if we still wanted it. I wish I had said no, tbh. We had already ordered a lot of food and the katsu wasn't really too good. What I liked about it was that it was very fresh and crispy on the outside with a really good crunch. However, the chicken inside was very thin and some pieces were literally only like 5 mm thick. The chicken seemed tough too and was chewy - not as tender as I would have liked. It comes with rice, miso soup, and a side salad.
Overall, would come back for the sushi and chicken yakisoba, both of which are amazing at this place. The service is extremely good and I was very happy with the attentive servers. The vibes are nice; the place is always busy with a good environment. read more