Takaya Yakitori Izakaya

THIS PLACE IS THE FREAKING SHITTTTTTTTTTTT. WHY did I not discover this place sooner?!
This is in the same plaza as Kitakata, Manpuku, Kitsch bar, etc, so you can imagine how horrendous it is to find parking. PRO TIP: Kitakata is closed on Tuesdays so you might want to come on a Tuesday like I did because parking was fairly easy to find.
Back to Takaya… The service was amazing. We were greeted by this very polite and attentive server who took care of us from beginning to end. Happy hour is 3−6pm which gives you 3 yakitori and 1 alcoholic beverage for $ 10!!! Also, if you check in on Unilocal you get a free house sake. We barely made it at 5:58pm but our server was nice enough to let us do the happy hour deal. Between my coworker and I we probably had like 30 yakitoris!!! Bahahaha #Fatties. ALL of what we ordered was extremely tasty. I can’t vouch for anything else on the menu because all we had was yakitori but that alone is worth coming for. I can’t wait to come back and try other items on the menu. Some yakitoris that stood out were… grilled okra, grilled chicken livers (mmMMmmMmm), garlic chicken w/​cloves of garlic (so good!), tender beef tongue, chicken wings, fried skin, liver, and so much more! This is my new favorite yakitori place.
Be right back guys, I need to go wipe my drool.

What a wonderful «find»!
Everything was fresh, made to order, and delicious. Staff was very friendly, service was top notch, place was clean and very comfortable.
We’ll be back… very soon.

Once again, I was too impatient to wait for Kitakata, so we wandered next door to try this place out.
There was no wait on a weekday night. They offer a decent happy hour special from 5−7pm that includes 3 skewers (from a limited list) and a drink (alcoholic or soda) for $ 9.99.
Between two of us, we tried a few skewers (garlic chicken, green onion chicken, pork belly, wing, asparagus wrapped w/​bacon) and the Tempura Dinner ($ 12.50). The skewers were okay. The garlic chicken was probably the best one. The wings were also tasty, but not cooked long enough. The tempura dinner came with a very basic miso soup and salad, nothing too exciting. The tempura was also on the greasy side.
The servers here seemed a little inexperienced, but very nice. It’s a decent place to get a bite, but there are better places if yakitori is what you crave.

I wanted to try a new izakaya restaurant, so I Unilocaled some places and decided on this restaurant. We came here on a Saturday night and only had to wait about 15 minutes. Mostly everyone waiting outside was waiting for the ramen restaurant in the same plaza. The restaurant is pretty small inside with probably only about 12 tables. However, they could easily separate the tables for groups of 2. I like having the extra room for food though.
The menu has a good variety of different foods. We ordered the salmon skin salad, nabeyaki udon, pork belly, black cod, and some garlic chicken, cartilage, and fried skin skewers. It was a lot of food for 2 people. My favorite was the udon. It came out hot and was perfect on a cold day. The skewers were only okay, but good enough if you’re craving it.
I would definitely come back here. The only downside is that it is hard to find parking at night.

Think of an Izakaya almost as a Japanese tapas (small plates) bar.
So many good vegetarian options to recommend:
Green Pepper skewer
Mushroom skewer
Asparagus skewer
Inari (rice wrapped in tofu skin)
Plum rice ball

Stumble upon this restaurant because manpuku had a wait. The food was decent. Their yakitori was decent. The nice thing about this place is that they have a little bit of everything! So it’s perfect for a group of friends since they have a lot of options. Service was good!

I instantly fell in love with this place. Everything we ordered was great. Assorted tempura, spicy tuna rolls, beef udon, onigiri and bacon asparagus yakitoris were all very delicious. Service was excellent and super fast! No complaint at all. We’re definitely coming back again.

This place is perfect whether you’re wanting a quick bite to eat, a relaxing dinner out, or a small dinner with friends. The place is pretty small so it’s nice and cozy. Whenever I’ve gone, there has never been a wait!
The food selection is quite large actually, not just yakitori, they have ramen and sushi and other entrees. I personally have only tried their yakitori, which is pretty good. It can be a bit pricey as it adds up fast. I highly recommend the fatty pork and garlic pork.
Service has always been amazing there. It’s usually the same 2 people working and they’re very attentive and friendly.
Other places have a fairly long wait (e.g. Kappo Honda or Honda-​Ya), so this has been my go to place if I am craving yakitori.
The plaza is always packed and busy so. tip for parking:
Park at the school district lot across the street.

It’s been a long time since I went to OC. Me and my friends went shopping and we needed to get some food to replenish our energy.
We got here just in time for happy hour. We got 3 yakitori of our choice plus a bottle of Sapporo for only $ 9! It’s a great deal! Their yakitori was awesome! We ordered sushi and Pan Fried pork ginger to share. And it’s super delicious too!
After we ordered, i checked Unilocal to check in and then I found out that they give sake every check in given you buy an entry (entrée). The waiter was so nice to get us our sake even after we ordered our food and ate some of it. I can’t remember when is the last time I talked to a very polite server/​waiter. It was a very great experience! Im definitely coming back here when im in OC/​Santa Ana area.

This restaurant is in a very busy plaza. I think mainly it’s due to the customers for the ramen restaurant next door as we can see a long line of customers waiting outside. Therefore the parking is a little challenging to find if you come here during peak hours
The restaurant is small and I agree with the other reviews, it’s clean and tidy. The service can be a little slow during peak hours.
The food itself was standard. Judging by the amount of Japanese food competition around the OC, this place didn’t really standout too much for me.
I thought the sashimi were fresh and easy to eat. The yakitori was pretty good. I’d say mainly the chicken wings were quite tasty. The pork, gizzard, and meatballs were ok. Not really to die for per se.
What I really liked was the takoyaki. It’s soft and nicely flavored. It’s a difficult item to perfect as the outside needs to be somewhat crunchy and inside to be soft and tender. Often times other places would kind of undertook the middle which makes it too soggy. Here they do a fine job with it.
I think overall it’s a standard yakitori place. Given the plethora of Japanese food choices in OC this places doesn’t quite stand out.

I had lunch at Takaya Yakitori Izakya which is located in a small strip mall. The restaurant is small & quaint. We were greeted by a lovely lady with smiles and sat at one of the tables. The restaurant has so many choices from yakitori (with and without sauce), bento boxes, sushi, ramen, etc. I checked in and we received free saki … very nice!
We ordered the following
(1) Miso Soup
I luv, luv, luv when my miso soup is very hot in temperature. Full of flavor and very delish!
(2) Yakitori
+ 3 Chicken Livers — OMG, the liver just melted in my mouth. Fresh & grilled perfectly and the sauce just made the dish.
+ 1 Chicken Meatball — Very moist and yummy!
+ 1 Fatty Pork — Seasoned & grilled well which made my palate
happy!
+ 1 Chicken & Green Onions — Very moist and grilled perfectly.
+ 1 Garlic Chicken — Full of garlic flavor and was very tasty.
+ 1 Chicken Thigh — Grilled and seasoned very well!
+ 1 Grilled Okra & Grilled Asparagus — My veggies were great with my yakitori !
(3) Fried Oysters
5 Battered and fried oysters with a deep soy sauce dipping sauce. The batter was heavier than I would prefer but the oysters arrived piping hot and were relish!
(4) 2 Item Bento Box
Hubby ordered the teriyaki chicken, CA roll, & miso soup bento box. He said he really enjoyed his entrée selection.
I enjoyed my lunch at Takaya Yakitori Izakya which offers numerous lunch selections with great service. I’ll definitely be back and my lunch experience definitely earns 4 Stars!

We randomly stumbled into this restaurant with our hungry toddler after failed attempts at eating at other restaurants due to long waits.
We had a great experience here. It was clean, quiet and service was great.
We were greeted with salted edamame, which my daughter devoured. Portions were fair and the food was good.
My husband got a bunch of skewers to try and liked most of them. I had the eel rice bowl and was pleasantly surprised by the generous amount and flavor of it all. My daughter loved the udon noodle soup.
Thanks so much!

Not very much yakitori selection for a yakitori restaurant. Also 2 things we wanted to try on the menu were unavailable (black cod and fried udon) at around 7pm on a Saturday night. Bummer.
But great, attentive service and nice tapa style dishes. Yakitori we ordered was hot and tasty. We ordered an albacore sushi roll and it was actually pretty good and fresh. Cheap too. Ground chicken/​egg rice was delicious.
I appreciated the friendly attentive service but this is a very mediocre Japanese yakitori restaurant in comparison to such an extensive selection in the OC.

Great little yakitori joint with friendly and attentive service. Reasonably priced too.
Pros:
Green salad — Two can share this. Wonderful salad with generous toppings of egg, corn, tomato, sprouts and a lovely ginger dressing.
Chicken liver — smooth pâté like and full of flavor
Chicken and green onion — lovely char on the chicken and onion. Good meat quality too.
Bacon wrapped asparagus — perfect! not over cooked.
Pork Belly — Wow! Delicate flavor and pretty tender for the short cook time. Not fatty either.
Cons:
Chicken skin — I need it totally crispy without uncooked areas without any skin bumps.
Quail egg — Very plain to me. I used some extra bacon to wrap one in and that did the trick!
Parking lot is a freakin’ nightmare.

I felt like eating something light for lunch and decided to try yakitori again when this is the 2^nd time I had this type of food. I ordered the ponzu salmon roll, quail eggs, pork belly, beef, chicken with green onion and chicken heart off the yakitori list with salt was really good. The pork belly was really greasy so I don’t recommend it unless you’re ok with oily foods. Chicken heart was more chewy too. I had a green tea ice cream for dessert and a white peach chu-​hi to drink that was very delicious. I felt full after eating most of the ponzu salmon rolls with a few bites of the yakitori I had to pack it to go when the rices in the rolls is what filled me up.
This is a small clean restaurant. It does feel a little dark inside maybe they’re trying to make it feel more like a Japanese style restaurant. Food was really good. I would dine here again. It’s a good place to have a quiet lunch during the week. This plaza may get busy at night or weekends when there are some other restaurants there too. Parking is limited even a bit tight here so go when its not busy or park far away then walk.

I was in the mood for some yakitori and this place seemed decent based on the reviews. Ehh… I’ll pass the next time around. We got a variety of yakitoris to try and nothing was good besides the chicken cartilage. We ended eating maybe a quarter of the food. Everything was under seasoned and seemed like it was almost borderline undercooked. We decided we’d just drink to make up for the food but even the beer was a disappointment. It was barely cold when it was brought out but we drank it anyway. Service was okay because we were the only table inside the restaurant but I’d skip this place.

Solid 4 stars. Delicious food but nothing stood out though. If you’re in the area craving some Japanese yakiniku and udon, I’d recommend this place.
Do not confuse this Japanese restaurant with the other two in the same plaza. This place does not serve ramen! That’s the mistake we made haha, we were initially going for the ramen place next door… We lucked out that this place serves decent food.
We had the nabeyaki udon, ponzu salmon roll, yakiniku including beef tongue and garlic wings. Everything was delicious. Beef tongue was flavorful, juicy and tender. Garlic chicken was as good as it gets! Love the whole roasted clove of garlic! Service was quick as the place was not too packed on a weeknight. They were playing One Piece on a small screen as entertainment while you’re eating.
Tight parking, no bueno. Good luck with that!

I really like this place not only because there was no huge crowd outside waiting for the doors to open at 11.30am, but because the food was actually really good! Seeing how most other popular Japanese restaurants have crowds forming way earlier that the doors opened, I kind of surprised as I showed up here at 11.20am today, and there was no one there. The parking lot in this little strip mall was fairly full, but still had plenty of spaces, which was good.
At 11.30am sharp, they turned the Closed sign over to Open and the lady came out with the samples of the special lunch of the day for display. She looked over at me and greeted me while I just stood out there reading the menu posted on the window. I said hi, and she said come on in! I was still waiting for a friend, but went inside anyway as it was getting rather warm outside.
This is a pretty cute little Japanese Izakaya/​Yakitori place with some old Japanese décor charm. It kind of felt like this was a hidden gem that only regulars knew about. I was quickly seated and the friendly server asked what I’d like to drink while handing me the menus. I took a look at the menu and after 5 – 10 minutes I still really couldn’t decide. There were so many really yummy looking offerings on the set lunch menu, Yakitori menu, and the sushi roll menu. To try and get a taste of as much as I could, I ordered the set lunch with mixed tempura, sashimi (tuna, salmon, and yellowtail), and this came with a small salad and rice. I really wanted to try the yakitori and so ordered the chicken meatball, chicken and green onion, and shiitake mushroom.
I was really impressed! The set lunch was very good… sashimi fresh, tempura delicious, and yakitori perfectly tender meat… and oh so well marinaded and grilled! It then crossed my mind that this would be such a perfect place to come for their happy hour with yakitori and drinks.
The service was very good and friendly, the food came out very quickly, the quality of everything was excellent, prices were very reasonable, and best of all… no waiting when the doors opened! :) The place eventually filled up with people at around 12.15−12.30pm, and I also noticed that there were lots of Japanese customers here which usually means the food is very authentic.
Will definitely be back.

My husband was craving some udon, so we came here on a whim. There was a line at the ramen restaurant next door, so we didn’t want to wait and came here instead. :)
We ordered:
(1) Nabeyaki Udon $ 12
Shrimp tempura, half boiled egg, chicken, fish cake, shiitake served in hot pot
He actually enjoyed the udon here and said it was good. :) That’s rare!
(2) Some yakitori including:
Gizzard — yum! nicely salted
Pork belly — yes! who doesn’t like this?
Gizzard skin — yum again!
Tongue — uh, husband ate this, not my thing
Cartilage — husband ordered this, not my thing
Overally, this place served decent food. We also got complimentary «house sake» just for checking in. Woohoo!

I came here back when it first opened, and the restaurant showed signs of great promise. I felt like all of the yakitori skewers were perfectly seasoned and chargrilled. The chicken karaage was also a standout, as well as the salmon collar. Everything was reasonably, if not cheap, priced for Japanese yakitori. I thought, maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have to endure the long waits at Honda Ya or Kappo Honda again.
Fast forward past its infancy, and Takaya has gone from a starter to a benchwarmer. When I really, really crave yakitori, Takaya is just good enough to satiate that craving. I think the big thing for me is that the meat skewers may look more generous in portion, but the quality is subpar. Lack of flavoring. Less of a charcoal finish– leaves less to be desire. I sometimes throw in a sushi roll for good measure, but meh.
One thing Takaya has going for it is its happy hour — which I believe goes from 5 – 7 Monday-​Friday. At happy hour, you can select three yakitori skewers and select your beverage of choice (a small bottle of sake/​large bottle of beer) for $ 9.99.
If you are looking for a quick, easy meal + cheap drinks in the area, come to their happy hour. It’s just good enough to leverage their very okay food.