Kaita - San Jose

Great prices. Great Food. Awesome Service! Kaita will always hold a place in my belly. A humble restaurant with quality meals. I kinda feel like gatekeeeping it. Feels like a home away from home. Get your grub on!

Family owned authentic Japanese restaurant. It’s our favorite local restaurant. The owner/chef and every staff is very sweet. We like to sit at the bar and talk to the chef from time to time.

I've been living in Japan Town for a few years, and Kaita is arguably one of the best izakaya-style Japanese restaurants in the area. They offer excellent specials, but I recommend going with the flow and trying their fish dishes. One area where they could improve is their table registration system; despite the restaurant being more than half empty, I had to wait over 15 minutes for a table for two. I also gave it 4 stars because some of the beef and pork dishes I tried were just average.

We usually order two items from the daily special menu, which they write on a whiteboard (definitely take a look!), and we often get some sides like sashimi, tempura, uni (when it's available), or grilled fish. While their regular menu offers a variety of delicious options, I highly recommend trying the specials. In my recent visit, I ordered the pork tofu hotpot, which came with sashimi, while my partner had the rib and karaage. Both dishes were absolutely delicious!

It hasn't received much attention yet, but I believe it has the potential to become one of the most popular Japanese restaurants! We ordered the Kaita sushi set, stir-fried pork mentaiko (spicy cod roe), and chicken karaage. The sushi set included "otoro" nigiri, which was a delightful surprise! The pork mentaiko was incredibly tasty as well. The only aspect I think could be improved is the chicken karaage—the pieces were large and flat, which resulted in them not being juicy enough inside. Smaller, thicker slices might be a perfect solution!