Takara Japanese Restaurant

Even one star seem much. Go anywhere else for sushi. Yes it’s eatable. That’s it.
Service on rude side. Food on lame. Seem clean. Good air condition.

I love Takara. Their lunch specials and happy hour specials can’t be beat. The fish is so fresh, and the service is almost always very good. I love the Nutty Shrimp roll with cream cheese added, and the Spicy Tuna roll!

Best Sushi — atmosphere and service! We’ve been regulars at Takara forever. It’s our go to place for dinner, special occasions or just to grab a quick bite. Everyone has their favorite sushi place in town and this has always been ours. Love the special rolls, fresh nigiri and the geisha roll if fantastic. Fresh and large portions. Great happy hour deals and professional service and great bussers too! Big restaurant so you rarely have to wait for a table. five star!

Favorite restaurant.
The staff is great with my daughter, usually little to no wait, the food is always great and prices are good.
We come here at least once a week!

Everything I ordered lacked in flavor the sushi, the miso soup, even the rice horrible never coming back

There are like eight sushi restaurants between our house and here, but Takara has something that keeps me coming back again and again no matter how hard I try to stay away. I tried to quit, but alas– I continue to be a slave to the almighty Geisha Roll. From the moment she touches your lips, you will become a puppet of the Geisha. She will be all you think about night and day until you can finally be with her again. She satisfies me in a way no man has ever come close to. I have a tattoo of a heart and the word «Geisha Roll» on my chest. Their happy hour is indeed the happiest of hours, when my sweet Geisha can be with me on a cheap date. It is hard for me to finish this review because I will never be finished eating Geisha Rolls.

I came here two days ago with my boyfriend and honestly, I would come here all the time if I lived in Santa Cruz. We were in the area and stumbled upon this place and decided to get lunch here (in the end, we got dinner here too!). When we walked inside, the décor was very authentic and there was also a bar area, which is really cool. This place is ENORMOUS, so there is always a place to sit!
Before we decided to come here, we read the previous reviews and was a little concerned because there were a lot of complaints about the service, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Let’s just say we had an amazing time and will be coming back soon! (:
pros: BIG parking area, service was good, very generous portions of sashimi, and FRESH sashimi (what more do you need?)
cons: price is a little expensive, but for the quality of the fish, you basically get what you pay for.
I don’t really have any complaints about this restaurant. The service is definitely a lot better than what we expected and the food is delicious! Also, their salad dressing is AMAZINGGGGG!!!

This place is a hidden gem. I would go the Capitola mall and see ads for this place but never went that is until last year when I decided to drop in with my loved one for dinner. We were going to get the dinner special but then decided to just get rolls. The rolls were yummy especially the monster roll. It is well worth the price at $ 14.95. It is huge and surrounded by lots of sauce. Definitely a must try! The staff is friendly and the atmosphere inside is pretty especially if you get a booth.

Good service but really horrible food… Very low quality food. The presentation was awful… I asked to deep fried the salmon skins but it can out cold still. Would not come back.

The food was mediocre and a bit pricey, but more concerning is the stale urine smell that seems to be wafting from the kitchen. It definitely has potential if they cleaned up a bit.

So we decided to go see a movie in Capitola — a place we love for the beach but never went to before for a movie but it was the closet to our place in Gilroy that was showing The Big Short.
We got there about an hour before the show so we had time to get a bite to eat, but not much time to make a decision. So there it was, Takara, right across the street from the theater shopping center. One quick check on the google rating showed a 3.7. OK, not great, but it probably wont kill us either — and we were pressed for time.
From the outside, and upon entering, it was apparent this place was stuck in a time warp from the 80’s (or the early 60’s). The bamboo décor, pagoda style faux roofs, etc. were everywhere. OK, let’s give it a shot. Who knows I thought. So we took our seats at the Sushi bar.
Waitress came. We ordered up some sushi and and a tuna avocado sashimi plate and waited.
The waitress POS terminal station was right off the end of the bar and immediately we were treated to a little show as two of them were discussing the particulars of guests sitting at one of the tables. Classy.
The first rolls come over the bar. A spicy tuna roll, another tuna roll I cannot remember, and these things called «flaming lips» I thought I would try.
First bite — hmm — this is not like most spicy tuna rolls — the tuna is not chopped up and mixed with the spicy. The spicy is in the mayo. Then it hits me — the tuna is pretty pale and the texture, even in a roll, showed it was sub standard, ‘sashimi-​grade’ frozen tuna. The taste was not clean and fresh and the texture was a bit mealy.
The same was on the other roll.
The flaming lips was interesting — basically eggs on a split ebi, on rice, with some flavored cupie mayo on it. Not bad, but nothing I would ever order again.
Then came the tuna sashimi appetizer with avocado and Ikura (salmon eggs). This confirmed my thoughts on the tuna. Definitely freezer stuff you would find in the fresh counter at the market that is really just defrosted. The avocado was not ripe, the much of the ikura were not round and glossy, and the sauce was meh. 40% of it we left on the plate.
In the end this place may be great to go to if you want tempura or teriyaki, but if you are jonesing for sushi, keep driving.

I have been here two times for a date night. The employees are always friendly and smiling. If you are unsure of what you want they will ask what you like and make a recommendation. They are a very clean facility and by Target, easy to locate. The sushi is pretty good, which it is very hard to find a good sushi place

We weren’t pleased from the beginning. We walked in a nearly waited 8 minutes to be acknowledged and seated. Waitress said they were getting a table ready for party of 6. A group of us were standing just waiting for a hello but restaurant was barely full.
FINALLY we were seated. Menu selections were abundant. When food came, we immediately noticed they were larger from the miso soup (it came with a Chinese soup spoon ???), green salad with huge cucumber coins and drowning in salad dressing. Food portions wee huge and thought sushi roll lacked in flavor and looks. Tempura was over battered and tonkatsu was over breaded and meat was tough with a capital «T“i
Wait staff was a bit inattentive. For example I asked for extra ice for my water request. It was poured from a pitcher with barely any ice (no mention of offering more ice) we asked for sugar for ice tea but had to ask two different servers, sushi did not come with little saucers to place soy sauce. As a customer we shouldn’t have to ask a number of times four items that she comes standard with any Dining experience
It was not a good evening. We walked out thinking did we just spend over $ 60 for that moment. We left disappointed.
Sorry but it was quite dim while pictures were being taken. Maybe it’s dim to hide the food?

Oh my god get the geisha roll! I keep going back just for that! Happy hour prices are also great. I’ve taken visitors here and it makes a great date right across from the movie theater.

This place is really awesome. My housemates and I were those customers that came in 30 mins before closing with a big party… I know, I’m so sorry. But they still sat us and took our orders. Our waiter was really nice and fast, so we gave him a huge tip.
The food was amazing! They have really generous servings. I had the Charlie’s special and the exotic tuna roll. They were both super super super delicious (¹⁰⁄₁₀). Other favorites were the crunchy roll and the monster roll. The fish is fresh at this place & definitely worth the price.

I’ve come here once or twice before and had decent sushi. However, this last time was the last time. Came for lunch and sat at the bar (which I like to do, as I enjoy watching the sushi chefs work). Was totally ignored by the chefs, who were not busy. My appetizer came after my rolls, which was okay but odd. The real kicker for me though was that the sushi rice was not seasoned! I make sushi at home frequently and eat it out enough to know the difference. It was plain steamed sticky rice with no flavor. As with other Unilocalers, it seems like the quality of this spot is going downhill.

Japanese cuisine is one of my favorites and Takara was one of our favorite places to go when it was at its original location. I had a couple mediocre meals there and haven’t been back since. Until, we went there last night for my brother’s birthday dinner. It was great company, service was a little slow but very courteous once we got on the radar. My combo plate was barely passable and to be honest it was disappointing.
Miso soup and salad was okay, but my entrée’ tempura and salmon teriyaki was dismal. Tempura batter was thick and heavy, think tough pancake batter, vegetables were cut thick which made them more raw than cooked. I would have preferred 2 slices of carrot and squash rather than one thick piece. The shrimp tempura was okay. The salmon was over done and a little dry, I almost sent it back but looked for moisture in the teriyaki sauce mixed with rice to make it edible. I know that doesn’t make sense but I just wanted to celebrate my bro’s birthday and not disrupt the flow.
I won’t be coming back anytime soon. I wish the cooks at Takara would at least bring up their standards but in the meantime I’ll look elsewhere.

We did not have a good experience at Takara. Which was so disappointing because I have been coming here with my family for years. Do not come here to have a party. I made a reservation for a 12 person party on my Birthday. It ended up being a true disappointment.
First disappointment: We were not able to get the specials because we were a party. Which did not make sense. I feel like we brought in a good amount of business with our party. Only to not get what we came for: the awesome deal!
Second disappointment: The worst part of my night was when the server did not bring me my dinner on my Birthday. She brought everyone their food and I just figured she was comming back with mine. When she came back she asked who needed to go boxes and I asked her where my food was. She instantly became defensive but when I reminded her that she had corrected the way I had pronounced the roll… she then said she had forgotten to write it down. She offered to have the roll made then on the house. Which was nice but everyone was done eating so I declined.
Third disappointment: The server was rude and obviously irritated by the large party. Which was such a disappointment because I was so happy to be there together with my friends and family for the special occasion.
Takara has great food. But HORRIBLE SERVICE. We have been coming here for years. But this visit was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sadly we will not be coming back to Takara again.

LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEE THIS PLACE!!!
Love the food, the service, the ambiance, and how clean it is! I bring everyone here. Been coming here for years.

When I come to a sushi restaurant on a date night, I expect good sushi. I think the only taste I can remember was the miso soup! The service was great and super friendly but the sushi is just not satisfying at all! If you believe this is real sushi, you need to go to Japan! However, for this place I give it two stars based on the food itself.
My boyfriend and I ordered three rolls which all had no yummy sauce of any kind! I ordered the shrimp and crab rolls which were filling though the taste was very bland. My boyfriend ordered the most expensive roll on the menu called the Rainbow Roll, which was also tasteless! This place would be great if they would focus on the taste and not the title. I get it’s reasonably priced sushi but common!