March, 2009

Rating : 10 out of 10

Tariff : Lunch for 2

• 1 sandwich
• 1 individual pizza
• tip
• $25

Atmosphere

From the outside, Taki is another restaurant in a strip shopping center. However, once you enter you are in a serene, soothing Japanese world with bamboo and lanterns, several private rice paper screened rooms with floor cushion seating to the rear, comfortable booths, a sushi bar, and a koi pond and waterfall at the entrance. It is fancy but still family friendly.

Service

Service was attentive from the host to the waiter. Questions were answered cheerfully, drink orders were quickly delivered, our tea was refilled several times, and a mix up in one sushi order (not their fault) was changed most pleasantly. One note : the nice touch of being served oshibori (warm finger towels) before our meal was countered by their smell of bleach--I'd prefer lemon, thank you! Also, our dinners were served at different times, with the 2 tempura dishes coming out 10 to 15 minutes before the 3 sushi orders. As it happened, we were chatting away and didn't mind sharing bites, but the timing could have been better. No one rushed us as the five of us girlfriends wiled away the evening talking.

Food

We tried a variety of dinners : selections from the regular sushi menu, the special sushi menu, tempura dishes, as well as a combination tempura and teriyaki chicken dinner. I will start with the combination platter since that was the largest and most dramatic presentation. A rectangular black lacquer tray held huge portions of the tempura--both shrimp and vegetables, the teriyaki--sweet sauced, tender chicken strips, rice, a heaping mound of lightly dressed Japanese coleslaw, and miso--wow! The special roll was "rock and roll," an inside out roll with unagi and avocado--very large and tasty--and dynamite roll, which included prawn tempura. For the 'regular' sushi selections we had California roll, unagi, and nigiri-zushi with cooked shrimp--all very fresh and good.

Dessert

None of us had room for dessert, having shared and tasted just about everything we'd ordered between us! So we chatted some more while we sipped our tea and finished our drinks.

The freshness of the food, large portions, friendly service, and lovely atmosphere of our private back room all lead me to highly recommend Taki in Novato.

Taki
452 Ignacio Blvd.
Novato, CA 94949
(415) 883-2423