Gokaku: Japanese Tapas & Sushi

The bestie was craving takoyaki, and this was the best we could find in the area. We got the takoyaki, a bunch of sushi rolls, the gokaku pork, and squid fries. Everything was delicious, but wow was it expensive. $ 100 for 3 people!
The highlight was the pork. It was tender and melt in your mouth, fatty, and flavorful.
Otherwise, they do fill up. Reservations are recommended. Parking should be ok.

My go to sushi spot. I’ve been going here with my family for 3 years and I’ve introduced my friends to this place.
Bonus points because it’s open relatively late and the wait is not that long.
Here are my faves…
They have really unique appetizers:
–taro chip (parents fave)
–seafood nachos (my fave)
–uni sampler (take your time with this one)
Salad:
–sashimi salad (love this)
Rolls:
–tropical crunch (if you like a little sweetness)
–salmon lover (self explanatory)
–firecracker roll (super spicy)
Soup:
–negima nabe soup (really light and fresh)
The sashimi is good.
The service used to be really good, but the last time I went, I noticed there were some new servers.
I waited 2 hours for one roll… kind of sad because that’s never happened before.
I used to see the manager every time I went, did something happen? Every time I’ve gone recently, I never see him anymore and the service hasn’t been quite the same.
Hope it picks up again.
Seriously though, what happened

I came here because the revolving sushi was way overpacked. I bookmarked this place because I saw the salmon lover roll and I was all for that. This place is expensive and cost $ 16 for a roll. It wasn’t as spectacular as I had hoped. I also had the chefs roll and it was fried. Couldn’t really taste the flavor flave. I had the tuna nacho appetizer as well which was good in its own way. Bloop

+.5+
The odd menu items like garlic fries is fascinating. You add the garlic buttered squid and there you go! The salmon or tuna green salad bowl was just scrumptious.
The service is weak. The waitress texting and they give you the supplies necessary to package your own remains to take home. I hate when expensive places do this… and Yes! This place is expensive! The food however is gourmet! And I will probably go back and try something different. The soup lacked tofu but noodle soup with veggies, fish and tempura was yummy! I’d opt maybe for food to go from here!

Exceptionally slow service for mediocre food. Took half an hour for an appetizer and was served a horribly made roll.

No matter how good the food is, there is no service at all. Servers stayed behind the counter to play phones most of the time. Had to look for the servers every time we need help — ordered a hot pot but not bringing bowls and spoons. Need to look for a server to get them to us. No one checked in with us of how we are doing. Again, need to look for a server for water refill. Of course, no one gave us the bill. If you don’t mind self-​serve but still paying tips. Go there.

Went here for lunch on a Friday. No wait. Ordered the lunch special donburi with kitsune udon with salad and tsukemono and a warriors roll.
The lunch special was decent in taste and a good deal cost wise ($ 12.95).
The warriors roll was ok. The softshell crab seemed over floured/​breaded and also over fried. When it arrived it almost looked like fried chicken! However the salmon and scallops on top were good.

Was here with a group of 6 on Wednesday. The menu is biggggggg. Take your time to read the menu. The speciality rolls were mediocre so I suggest skipping that and going straight for the izakaya dishes. The notable yummies from our night were:
–Takoyaki ³⁄₅ good crisp on the outside but it could use more octopus in it. Came with 5 – 6 pieces
–Fried small squid 3.5÷5 an Asian twist to calamari. Great texture!
–Uni sampler from both Japan and Santa Barbara. ⁴⁄₅ Glad the uni was fresh! The Santa Barbara uni was creamy creamy.
–Sushi trio with salmon, yellowtail, and scallop 3.5÷5 nice large cuts and fresh but pricey. Around $ 10 for 3 pieces
–Yellowtail collar 3.5÷5 awesome crisp, flaky fish, and it came with a tasty sauce
–Chirashi 3.5÷5 straight up good but nothing special
–Yuzu sour (alcoholic) ⁴⁄₅ this is a fabulous cocktail. It is not overly sugary. The Yuzu tastes unique and fragrant.
Now the service 2÷5… Could use some help. I noticed that gratuity was automatically added for our group, which I thought was off putting, especially since the waitress did not even wait on my two friends who joined us after we ordered the main dishes. No one came to offer them water either. :/​the same two friends had to leave early too. Although the food is tasty, I don’t think the value is there. For about $ 40 per person. We can do better.

Overall, the food here is pretty good — authentic, average price. However, their service needs a lot of work depending on who your waiter/​waitress is.
Their udon is pretty good — their noodles are the right chewy consistency and the soup base is strong and flavorful. Their rice bowls are also pretty good for the price with generous toppings and a generous amount of rice. Sushi rolls are the same price I’ve seen at all other Japanese restaurants, but the quality is a hit or miss. Sometimes the rolls look a bit weak — small, minute amounts of fish, falling apart — but other times, they’re beautifully plated and with plentiful toppings.
My recommended dishes: hot stone sukiyaki rice (not on the dinner menu, but you can ask for it), niku udon, oyako don, katsu don, and seafood nachos.

I love the rolls of Gokaku. They are very delicious and plenty. I recommend their grapefruit and green apple sodas, too.
It is my favorite sushi restaurant, so far.

Had a lovely dinner here with very very fresh and generously cut sashimi, an artistically arranged plate of pickled vegetables that was crisp and tasty and an all ways salmon roll (spicy, cooked, avocado and roe. Sadly the crisp salmon skin was a small quantity just decorating the plate (it was good!) The Buta Kimchi was just okay although the shiitake mushrooms in it were very nice. After dinner we sat for quite awhile, unable to get our bill. Had to flag done another server to get it. The only reason for the 4 stars was slow service just at the end of the meal. Would love to love me back again soon!

We venture to Gokaku on a Friday evening with a singular desire in mind… CHIRASHI!
Beautiful bouquet of fresh seafood (salmon, tuna, prawn, hamachi, fish roes and uni) served a bed of tangy sushi rice and wrapped with sliced cucumber — definitely one of the most uniquely crafted chirashi I ever come across. But sadly, that’s about it. Nothing outstanding. Bonus point for textural diversity, and the uni was especially fresh. But priced at $ 27, it’s pretty expen$ive for chirashi platter and portion was tiny as heck.
We also had the unagi-​don to share. Thin slices of the unagi, which were overpowered by the huge amount of white pepper. Yuck. Since this is tapas place, I understand that portion is on the petite side, but for a dish that consist hefty amounts of rice, paying $ 17 is definitely NOT worth it!
Other side dishes we tried are the Yaki onigiri. Which was grilled rice only, garnished with very skimpy pieces of salmon, which tasted very bland. Their tempura shrimp, was also poorly executed — overly fried and hard batter… not a fan!
Apparently, reservations are recommended here. However, I’m not sure if it’s needed, since throughout our entire meal, the restaurant was mostly empty. The service was not the greatest either, slow and impersonal. Overall, we left feeling disappointed with our experience. Safe to say, we won’t be back.

They have pretty good lunch specials if you’d like a platter of sashimi. I wouldn’t say this is the best Japanese food I’ve had.
The service was good though.

I have been here multiple times before and have always loved their food! I am Japanese and have been here with a group of Japanese folks that like izakaya style and they all really enjoyed it. There is a mixture of traditional Japanese food, staple items that you would see at an izakaya in Japan, and also creative, fusion plates.
The sea urchin was so fresh; it was sweet and melted in my mouth as uni should be! I tried their uni shooter and it was DELICIOUS! I actually had two. The daikon salad was really tasty with bonito flakes on it. I finished dinner with ikura yaki onigiri (baked rice ball) and it was very satisfying. Not a lot of Japanese food restaurants have yaki onigiri. They do have a decent size selection of shochu and sake.
It did get a little busy but Jessica was very attentive. We will definitely come back again! Maybe with a bigger group so we can try more items.

I came here with my family on a Friday night — we had a reservation but it was clear when we walked in that we didn’t need one, since the place was empty at around 6:30 pm. Since I was craving something light, I ended up ordering the sashimi salad.
All in all, the sashimi salad was a bit disappointing. When the dish first came out I was super excited because the plating was so nice (as you’ll see in the pictures). Unfortunately, the sashimi wasn’t so good — the fish didn’t taste very fresh and the texture wasn’t the melt-​in-​your-​mouth kind that’s one of my standards for «great» sashimi. In fact, you could actually feel your teeth going through the sashimi, which I don’t think is supposed to happen. I will say that the mixed greens, tomatoes, and particularly the seaweed salad were all very good though. However, because this dish was «sashimi» salad, I’ll have to rate the dish, on the whole, as subpar.
Overall, I probably wouldn’t come back. The sashimi (which is what I go to Japanese restaurants for) was disappointing, and the service and ambience weren’t great either — at least not enough to make up for what the food lacked.

Not too impressed by this place. Prices are pretty high for the quality of food that you get (in my opinion). Came in at 6pm with a reservation on a Friday night, but it was pretty much empty when we got there so I don’t think we really needed one.
I was super excited to see ankimo (monkfish liver) on their menu! So I got that, and the chirashi. Service here is super slow. Took at least 20+ minutes to get our food. When the monkfish liver came out, I was extremely disappointed. The serving size is very small, and they chopped the liver into cubes. I’ve never seen it served like that before, so already I was a bit skeptical. It didn’t taste very good either. Wasn’t fresh, and the texture was nowhere near the buttery goodness that I feel like ankimo should have.
When the chirashi came out, my hopes were slightly lifted after seeing how wonderfully it was plated. At $ 26, it’s definitely on the pricier side for a restaurant like this, and I wasn’t impressed. The fish didn’t seem fresh, much like the ankimo… and I only liked the tuna. I was surprised that it came with uni, but the uni didn’t taste fresh either. Besides the plating of the chirashi, the dish was only okay at best.
Overall, I think there are better options for Japanese tapas and sushi around here. Gochi is 100x better than this place, although it is slightly more expensive. I probably won’t be coming back, although I might return just to try their creamy udon.

I wish I could give a zero star on Unilocal — if so, this would have been a zero star.
This has been the worst dining experience we have ever had. We don’t usually care about service much if the food is excellent. But in this case, both were bad.
FOOD:
We ordered four dishes in total — Taro chips, Kakuni, Duck steak, and Gokaku rolls. All of them were their signature dishes. The food did arrived quickly. The first two were alright — Not impressive but OK.
Then came the Duck steak and Gokaku rolls. It’s like what one of the previous customers said: «When the food arrived it looked beautiful, but tasted like hell.» Indeed. The duck was so salty that I finished almost the entire cup of ice water to just consume a couple of slices. The Gokaku rolls, topped with sashimi, were not fresh tasting. They tasted like something that have been refrigerated for a few days without any cover.
SERVICE:
We tried our best to eat the two dishes mentioned above — but eventually gave up and decided to tell the waitress that these two dishes were quite off. She asked another person to come — who may or may not have been the owner of the restaurant. This person immediately became visually upset at me once I started talking about the rolls were not very fresh. She denied it, claiming that no one else had complained so I must be wrong. That was rude, so I just asked for the bill. She came back with the bill, but then suggested that if I hadn’t gotten so upset, she would have ‘done something for me’.
Where did that come from? I paid the bill and asked for a pen. She asked me why. I explained that I would like to leave my unfinished feedback on the back of the bill. ‘No, I listened to all of your feedback. If you want to continue to make a scene, I will call the police!‘
No thanks, and I’m never coming back!

Delicious mix of fusion food and authentic Japanese dishes too. Great, extensive menu — something for everyone, whether that’s salad, sushi, noodles, rice bowls, or grilled meats and seafood.
Zig zag roll was delicious — crunchy and creamy and oh soooooo good.
Tempura was light and udon was chewy — perfect.
Seafood nachos are good but not worth the hype or price.
No complaints about the service from us — they were prompt and smiley and patiently let me practice my Japanese with them!

Good food. Not so good service.
FOOD: sushi was fresh and generous slices, see photos. Eel was super soft and tasty. Gyoza was burnt on the bottoms, which was too bad because the inside was good at least. I liked my salmon lion king roll. It wasn’t as saucy with dressing as what most places do so if you prefer a lot of dressing then this one doesn’t. Miso soup was in a pretty big bowl and had generous pieces of green leaves and tofu.
SERVICE: we made a reservation at 9pm for two on a Fri night but it wasn’t that busy we were seated right away without needing to necessarily tell her we had a reservation. She didn’t give us any menus so we sat there doing nothing. My fiancé tried to ask a girl cleaning a table next to us for menus either she didn’t hear him or ignored him. Guy came by asked if we were helped yet. Brought menus. Came by and asked if we were ready. My fiancé was trying to quickly look at the menu to decide on the spot and the server said, «Is it yes or no?» How rude! Most servers will say, «It’s ok I can come back.» Or «I’ll give you a couple more minutes.»
SERVICE ON FOOD: miso soup did not come out until AFTER all our appetizers AND after main dishes came out. It should’ve came out first or if it was going to be delayed we should have been informed. We were about to cancel it. We asked for to go boxes, which the guy boxed up for us. We didn’t ask for the check nor did he ask if we were ready for the check nor did he ask if we wanted any dessert. Lucky for him I didn’t want dessert but if I had wanted dessert I would’ve been more irritated. A girl walked by our table three times and didn’t clear empty plates. I noticed other tables went a long time with dirty empty plates in their tables. And you can see from my photo the tables aren’t big so everyone could’ve used the extra space by having empty dishes cleared away. The girl who wasn’t serving our side of the room seemed nice she at least said thank you for coming.
OVERALL: food was good, but service wasn’t all that. I mean I understand working as a server isn’t the most glamorous position but it’s what you agreed to do. Or maybe there is a lack of training or maybe servers don’t get the tips so they have no incentive to be attentive. I don’t know for sure but this was my experience here.

It’s the best Japanese restaurant in Silicon Valley. I ordered calpico (a type of yogurt soda), Uni pon and Chirashi. They have the best Uni I ever had. It doesn’t have the ocean flavor. And it’s so creamy. I totally loved it!
It’s crowded, so the service is a little bit slow.

Must try items:
Volcano — I was pleasantly surprised, but make sure you love spicy. This has sriracha in it, which I hate, but still enjoyed this dish. It is literally like a giant volcano. Never had anything like this before.
Average items:
Kamo Nanban Udon — Udon with seared duck. Nothing special.
Seafood Nachos — Smooshed spicy tuna on 4 fried wonton chips, thought it was overpriced and flavors were not unique.
Don’t try items:
Carbonara Style Mentaiko Kimchi Udon — Apparently this is one of their «most popular dishes», but can I just say that the «broth» is basically CURDLED heavy cream? It was wayyy too thick. This may be good for a large party if you just want a taste, but I would not recommend ordering this by yourself.

One of the better tasting sushi I’ve had in San Jose. I don’t know too many places that offer such a robust and fresh menu.
Pros: sashimi was super fresh and extremely soft. I was impressed by the searing action done on the salmon. The sukiyaki rice was pretty than expected. Is it me or does it remind anyone of a Bi Bim Bap bowl? The décor was cool. I liked the «blinds» style divider to separate (lunch and dinner parties).
Cons: the only con to this place and I am reluctant to say this is the service. I don’t know if they are under staffed, hired a new guy, or just plain bad. Granted, we did come during a lunch rush around 12pm however we waited 35 mins for our first dish to come out and it was the main entrée. They skipped our first 2 appetizer. 60mins after seating our appetizer comes out. It was extremely difficult waving down a waiter or waitress to get some water. Took 2 hours for everything to come out.
Overall: the service was not on par in terms of timeliness. HOWEVER this is a testament to how good the food is. Will be returning. Recommended. Kinda pricey.

I came here with my family for dinner. I’ve been here the past two years a couple of times, and I will say that the quality seems to decrease each time but I still consider it one of the top sushi spots in Cupertino.
The Food — We ordered a couple of their specialities that were recommended:
1. Seafood Nachos: Quite an innovative concept. First time I’ve seen seen this done before and pretty nicely executed. There are fried nacho chips on the bottom, seafood, and then topped with some seaweed salad on the top.
2. Zig Zag Roll: One of their most highly recommended rolls. We’ve ordered this every time we come to Gokaku and aren’t disappointed. The outside is wrapped not with seaweed, but rather some type of green material. I’ve never actually asked them what it is, but quite an interesting twist to traditional seaweed.
3. Maguro Poke: This is a really cool seafood salad which actually reminds me of poke salads you can get in Hawaii. There are large chunks of tuna interspersed with seaweed salad, other dark greens and wrapped with two long pieces of sliced cucumber. A great presentation and nice blending of flavors of sesame oil and vinegar.
4. Tropical Crunch Roll: Albacore in the middle and salmon on the outside with mango sauces. Smooth roll with interesting textures within the roll.
5. Carbonara Style Mentaiko Kimchi Udon: Hot stone udon with pork, kimchi and cod roe. Different from some f the heavier Japanese udons that I’ve had and also a touch of spice as well. Really thick and creamy soup that I quite enjoyed.
Service: A couple of complaints about the service. I think part of it might be due to the fact they’re understaffed. It was nearly impossible to get any waiter or waitress’s attention when we wanted to pay the bill or do order.
Overall, I’d still recommend a visit as they have authentic Japanese cuisine. At the price point though, I would have expected slightly better service.

Très bien. On reviendra pour goûter les sushis :)