Teriyaki Experience

I only ate here because everything else seemed be closed on Saturday at 4pm in the area. What the hell SF? I was priming my taste buds to try Best-​O-​Burger, maybe that affected my impression of this place, also.
When I walked in the door, it smelled great, but I guess smells can be deceiving, too. The ‘experience’ gives you several options: rice, noodles or noodle soup bowls with your choice of beef, chicken, veggie or shrimp and a choice of sauce.
I ordered the noodle soup. The udon noodles they used tasted doughy and the soup was bland (the menu said authentic Japanese broth… pfsshh). I knew I shoulda got the stir fried noodles.

PLEASE NEVER EAT HERE… unless you like crappy food. My girlfriend and I have been trying to find a good teriyaki place, so we though we’d give this a try… we should have checked Unilocal before we ordered.
It tastes like it was straight from the freezer. The chicken was shredded — teriyaki is not supposed to be shredded. It was more stir fry than teriyaki. The beef was so disgusting that my cats food would have tasted better. One bite of that was all I could take. The gyoza wasn’t any better. Limp and doughy; I swear it’s from Sisco. Last but not least, their teriyaki sauce was just super sweet, over powering soy sauce. I still have the taste in my mouth. I felt like I was eating the food from a beginning cooking class being taught by someone who had never cooked before. Their rice didn’t even taste good! I mean how hard is it to toss some grilled chicken on rice and put some decent sauce on it!
As tempted as I was to just toss out two full bowls of so called teriyaki and be extremely wasteful, I decided to leave it on the sidewalk so a homeless person can have some food to eat. It was so bad though, that I probably should have tossed it.

Another new addition to the financial district lunch haunts (well, they were closed for a while, and are now open so whatever). For a japanese tepanyaki place, do you find it odd that all the employees are indian? I gots nothing against indians (refer to DOSA review), but it kinda takes away from the overall experience. Anyway, the folks were nice enough so who cares. On the the food review…
Lots of veggies. Suspect looking chicken in the terriyaki (they pride them selfs in cooking the meats oil free with water only, except they pound the hell out of it with metal scrapers… and chicken after it’s cooked shouldn’t look like a brown cauliflower floret… ick) Brown rice as an option? Nice choice. The food was plentiful and i think overall healthy. I’m not sure if I’ll go back… the terriyaki is better a couple of doors down at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. mmmmmm… hawaiian macaroni salad.

This was a terriyaki BAD experience. I never thought in my whole life that anyone can mess up teriyaki but today I was proven wrong.
I ordered a chicken teriyaki bowl over rice and with my $ 1 coupon, it only came out to $ 5.42 including tax. I should have known that for a cheap price, you were going to get a cheap (and small) meal.
Instead of getting teriyaki chicken, I got teriyaki rice with ground chicken (literally). It totally didn’t even look close to the picture on their advertisements. The chicken was really, really, really chopped up into little tiny bits (think bacon bits) and the sauce seeped to the bottom so the rice had all the sauce and the chopped chicken was dry and bland. And sadly, I think I only got about less than half a small chicken breast.
After finishing it, I was still really hungry. Even a Jamba Juice fills me up more!

The décor looks clean and inviting but it’s misleading. The food was really nasty. I ordered the chicken teriyaki bowl since their name has «teriyaki» in it. O boy was I in for a major stomach ache. I saw the cook heat up my order and everything was filled with MSG.
…yuck!

The reviews are pretty spot-​on.
The service is friendly and the place is clean, otherwise they’d get a single star. But the food is basically airport fare. Like, not a swanky airport. More like Bush Intercontinental. In other words, it insults you by serving something technically classifiable as food, and you leave feeling utterly unsatisfied. I think this is what they served from the recycled food carts in Judge Dredd.
Anyway, don’t go unless there are food riots and this place hasn’t yet been looted. I feel really bad for the starry-​eyed owners who sunk their savings into this ripoff of a franchise.

Not bowled over. I’ll probably give them a second chance though, just in case. I ordered the noodle bowl with beef. The portion size was decent. The noodles were kind of mushy and bland and the beef pale and skimpy, but the bok choi had some crunch and tasted fresh. I wish there had been more of it. I selected the orange-​flavored sauce and it was too sweet. Plus, the little container they give you isn’t enough for the dish; if I were to do it again I would get a mix of the orange and the chili to lend some depth to the sauce, and throw in some soy sauce to balance out the sweetness. One star for being close to work and another for reasonable prices.

DO NOT EAT HERE.
I’m sorry to insult all the other 1 star places, but i can’t give no stars…
This place was really terrible. I’ve eaten many a fast food, teriyaki joint and it usually pretty straight forward. Chicken thigh, fried over very high heat, teriyaki sauce, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and serve over rice. It’s a formula that has worked for a long time. They, use only what I can describe as the chicken equivalent of steak’m. This stuff was gritty and was obviously reconstituted from some sort of chicken like waste. I mean, seriously, this is like 2 steps down from low-​end chicken nuggets.
The sauce was bad too. The rice was cold. Veggies quite soggy.
The scariest part is that this is a franchise! People buy into this thinking they are getting an established, successful business plan. I’m so sorry to those poor investors. YUK!
NEVER EAT HERE!

YOU ARE PAYING FOR RICE AND VEGGIES!
YOU ARE PAYING FOR RICE AND VEGGIES!
YOU ARE PAYING FOR RICE AND VEGGIES!
Those old enough to remember recall the Wendy’s commercial which would have the grandma yell «WHERE’S THE BEEF!!!» (Some of these videos can be found on youtube.) That sentiment couldn’t be echoed more loudly than here at Teriyaki Experience.
I ordered the ever popular chicken teriyaki dish with rice and veggies. What you get is a five inch circular bowl. Half of it is immediately filled with rice. The other half is filled with sprouts, miniscule amounts of celery, and approximately 2 small broccolis. Bear in mind this teriyaki bowl costs $ 6.50 with tax.
The next part is horrifying to watch … get your «Psycho» the movie scream expression ready. Are you ready now? I see the cook pull out a small dab of chicken. So I’m watching it sizzle and cook after they douse it with water trying to parse out how many ounces it could’ve been.
Considering I measure my food out quite often and consider a handful to be an ounce … it was obvious there couldn’t have been more than 1 STINKING OUNCE OF CHICKEN BEING SERVED. The chicken was no more than a handful with a few mushrooms also cooked on top. Allow me to repeat:
No more than one handful of chicken
No more than one handful of chicken
No more than one handful of chicken
So you can understand why it’s low cal and why you feel full after you eat it. You’ve just filled up on rice and veggies and will be ridiculously hungry again in 1 hour.
I demand and hereby petition that the Wendy’s lady come out of retirement and
let me hear it just once …
that’s all I ask …
avenge me …
and declare …
«WHERE’S THE BEEF!!!»

I don’t know that this place classifies as a «teriyaki» experience. (What the heck does that mean, anyways?) I do know that this place does classify as a mediocre, fast, pseudo-​Asian food experience.
I’ve had their rice bowl and their combo rice/​noodle/​veggies/​tofu bowl. In and out in about 5 minutes. They cook your food on a grill in front of you. Veggies include bean sprouts, shredded cabbage, mushrooms, green onions. Cost is just under $ 6. Quantity, decent amount. In a pinch, this place will do. But, with so many authentic and good Asian restaurants within such close proximity, why eat something so mediocre.

Teriyaki Experience is the epitome of a 2.5 star experience, but since there is no ½ star option, I will round up. While it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great either. It gets mixed reviews from my co-​workers (one said it was really bland while the other really liked it). I figured I would try it for myself since it’s barely half a block from where I work. Plus, I had a coupon for 2 rice or noodle meals plus 2 small drinks for $ 9.99. So I grabbed a co-​worker and off we went.
We arrived at noon and it was empty inside. I did notice it was spotless and very neat and orderly inside. The cashier is very smiley and friendly. They also take credit cards, which is a big plus. The menu posted on the wall was huge and easy to read. We placed our order and the cooks behind the counter proceeded to cook right in front of our eyes. The set up is pretty basic — you can choose rice or noodles and they grill the meats and vegetables right there with water and teriyaki sauce. I got the shrimp yakisoba while my co-​worker got the chicken teriyaki rice meal.
Taste-​wise, I see what people mean about it being bland. The only flavor comes from the teriyaki sauce, but if you put too much on, your meal becomes way, way, too salty. The dish has a very homemade taste and I guess the point of all this is to eat healthy. I do have a complaint about the vegetables. It basically consists of a huge handful of bean sprouts, two broccoli florets, and a sliver or two of green pepper. I guess for $ 5, it’s too much to hope that you would actually get a pile of greens. But, I do like that there is an option close to work where I can get fresh meat and some vegetables that aren’t drenched in grease and artificial additives. The prices are decent and the taste really isn’t bad at all — just really light. Sometimes you just need a break from burritos and burgers.
Would I go back? Not on a regular basis. I just hate eating out someplace that makes food taste like I made it myself. But the portion size is decent, the food is fresh, and I don’t feel bad about myself after eating it.

I was dumb because despite my instincts saying «no don’t go in there» I decided to be adventurous. Well there’s nothing adventurous about this place. Just watching them prepare this horrible excuse for food was enough to make me realize I was in for a crappy lunch. It was like the McDonalds of Teriyaki food… except it had no flavor. And no amount of hot sauce or teriyaki was going to bring it back from the dead!
R.I.P. Teriyaki Experience… I’ll wear black on the day you die… =)

As I was walking past this place today, a fellow out front handed me a menu and a dollar-​off coupon, so I thought, what the heck.
I don’t know how they do it. The chicken teriyaki bowl was utterly flavor-​free. No flavor whatsoever other than a lingering hotness. The chicken and vegetables were sparse and lackluster, and the rice was swimming in liquid. I can’t recall when I’ve had such an unsatisfying meal, and I’m pretty easy to please – AND most of my diet is light on meat, fat, and carbs, so don’t give me the «you’re just used to a fat/​sodium/​sugar-​laden diet» argument. I feel like I’ve eaten air, dammit.
The staff seems nice enough, and perhaps their other fare is tastier. I may stop in again in a couple of months if they’re still there to see if they’ve gotten their act together.
I’m disappointed – I really wanted to like this place.

Ok, someone has to step in and stop the madness … I just tried the chicken teriyaki here and (1) I am seriously full, (2) I did not die from taste boredom, and (3) this place is no more expensive than the other lunch stops in the area.
Its important to note that they put an emphasis on low fat and low calorie dishes … you just can’t run in here and compare it to your favorite msg-​infused take out.
Now, that being said — maybe they have been reading the previous reviews and improved … who knows … and for the record, this is by no means the best chicken teriyaki that I’ve ever had but for a bowl as big as my head at 523 calories and 2.5 grams of fat … it works and anyone that has ever been on a diet where you’re paying attention to these sort of numbers will likely appreciate this guilt-​free alternative to what probably would have been a burrito or burger stop when you’re kill-​a-​man hungry and a rice cake just won’t do.
my point — if you’ve never been one to tolerate low cal/​low fat meals because you find them bland, then yes, you will hate this place and resent every penny spent … however, if you are like me and often too lazy to pack a lunch but still get frustrated that your only food options will likely land you a heart attack, give it a go.

A true culinary miracle. How DO you make food with zero flavor? I even added hot sauce to my chicken teriyaki. I mean, a lot of hot sauce. The food seemed to absorb the flavor and hide it somewhere where my mouth couldn’t find it.
+1 star for big portions, –1 star for all the food making no impact on my hunger.
Oh, and it definitely isn’t «Made in Japan», I saw them make it right there in front of me. Liars.

I have those days, I definitely do. Where I can’t stop eating. In the last 3 hours, I’ve eaten a dan tat (egg tart), a stack of oscar meyer turkey sandwich meat, a string cheese, and a bowl of special K with red berries.
Sure, I eat when I’m stressed or bored, but this is ridiculous. And why did this happen? I ate lunch right before that at Teriyaki Experience. I have never been so unsatisfied. Bland, substance-​less, and totally unremarkable. Redefines empty calories.

Wow.
I thought, «Great! Another option for lunch near work! Teriyaki is good. Yakisoba is good. Maybe this will be good.»
Wrong. Very wrong. Horribly tragically wrong. I should have known from the pictures of the food up on the wall. Who makes yakisoba with flat Chinese noodles? First you order your food. They put it on a flat grill and squirt water on it. So I thought, okay, maybe they are softening up the noodles and will add the sauce as they cook. Nope.
They put the soggy mass of vegetables and noodles into a bowl and then pour sauce over it. The sauce isn’t thick so it just oozes down to the bottom and doesn’t even stick on the noodles. Unless you douse the mass with hot sauce and extra sauce it’s gonna taste like soggy bland food. Ramen yakisoba tastes a lot better then what I paid almost $ 7 for.
If the quality of the food is any indication, these guys will be in business at most a few more months. I’d be surprised if they lasted through June. There are too many other options around to compete with this bland soggy mess. It’s not the people. It’s the product.

I MIGHT have liked this place two years ago, when I still lived in Ohio.
Sorry, but this just won’t do in SF. Way too many other places to get better Japanese food, not to mention the fact that it took 20 Min’s! Sauce is too sweet, veggies taste like they come from a bag, and not much food for $ 7.00. :o (

This place opened last week.
I’m going to start off this review by giving it 1-​Star because this meal was comped. I went by last week to look at the menu but I didn’t order anything because there were a lot of people. However the manager chased me down and gave me a coupon for a free chix teri meal.
I came in today to cash in and also order 2-​gyozas ($ 1.99). The wait was about 15 minutes because they cook the food on the spot. So if you’re in a hurry, don’t come here cuz there’s a wait.
The gyozas were overcooked because the skin was broken. Major no no per my mom! I didn’t get any sauce w/​the gyoza so it was very bland and the filling was on the thin side (Ling Lings does it better!).
Chicken Teriyaki meal– Comes with rice, all breast meat and some bean sprouts with assorted veggies. Their main hook is that they cook the food using water instead of oil so it’s suppose to be healthier for you. Well the water cooking method makes for a bland tasting chicken. It’s like chicken boiled over. Sauce wasn’t that great either. I’ve had better teri sauce.
This is a Canadian franchise trying to break into the US market. Food is ok. I wouldn’t say I’d make this a regular spot to dine.

I agree with the earlier post. The food here was unpalatable. It compares with the food I was able to make in college, only at three times the price. The signature sauce (which was the main claim to fame on their billboards) was the nastiest part of the meal.
Do yourself a favor an just go to sushi bay across the street. The food is slot cheaper and waaaay more authentic.