Koharu Japanese Cafe - Alameda

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