Fred is awesome, and so are his sushi chefs! Stace & Josh
Nick G.
Place rating: 5 Corte Madera, CA
Have been dining there for years — never disappoints, the food is always fresh and the staff is terrific.
T R.
Place rating: 5 Sausalito, CA
Very nice and comfortable atmosphere. Great food. Wonderful service. I had Robata roll and seaweed salad with a glass of chardonnay.
Deborah H.
Place rating: 3 Oakland, CA
went here tonight for the first time as I’m new to the area. I thought it was pretty pricy for what it was. I got: seaweed salad(good portion & taste) hamachi sashimi 5pc($ 15) and a white tuna poke salad($ 15) and miso soup. $ 50 bucks w/o service tip — so if you stayed there and had a beer or two that would be easily $ 75+. I’ve been to great sushi places in the Bay Area and expect to pay $ 50 for a good meal for one person, including a beer or two. I saw quite a few rolls in the $ 15 range, which I think is pretty steep. The booths look nice and the lights were appropriately ambient, but the sushi bar didn’t beckon me. I went to Sushi Ran in Sausalito recently and it definitely has a much better, hipper vibe and while definitely not less expensive, the prices compare to Robata and the experience and menu were far superior.
J S.
Place rating: 3 Belvedere Tiburon, CA
Called to reserve a table. Said at time of reservation that it was birthday, told them when I came in it was a birthday, told waitress it was a birthday, and then the time came for a little celebration and I was told they dont offer any birthday celebration services. The manager is not a warm person. The food and service was good.
Elizabeth F.
Place rating: 2 San Francisco, CA
We’ve been frequent customers at Robata over the past decade and had many decent meals here. I was torn between giving 2 or 3 stars, but c’mon, the service is terrible. The last time I went, the waitress didn’t bring the food– an assistant brought it without saying a word. They took a very long time to bring our drinks– only brought after I asked again, and never offered a refill on tea. One dish was never delivered. The waitress seemed very impatient to take our order quickly, and the servers did not ask us how we were doing nor how our meal was, not even once. This is just one example of many unsatisfactory service experiences. The food is good, not excellent, but consistently good. The salmon last time however seemed fishy and fatty in a way that made me feel a little nauseous. Usually the fish is pretty good. The portion of wakame salad has been reduced over the years. We’re now slowing way down on our Robata visits. I plan to take a long break from Robata and give them some time to improve and train their employees better, and I’ll give then another try later on to see if they’re taking the critical feedback seriously.
Nuno V.
Place rating: 4 San Rafael, CA
Sushi sushi sushi! I recently found joy in drinking and appreciating sake. I find it refreshing and easy to digest. I am new in loving sushi due to an insistent with too much wasabi. However, I tried sushi else where like Robata and I must say it is delicious. This place has other dishes than sushi and their sushi are little bigger. I like the atmosphere of the place and its surrounding. You must try this restaurant, but with reservations… This place gets packed!
Aaron L.
Place rating: 1 San Rafael, CA
I can’t believe this used to be our go-to sushi spot 10 years ago. Largely because we lived within easy walking distance. I knew there was a good reason we stopped going… and we were reminded the other night. When you charge as much as this place charges — for nigiri, for rolls, for anything — you better damn well give what the customer is paying for. Well, this place doesn’t. They overload you with rice and skimp on the fish and everything else. I couldn’t believe it! The accumulation of left-over rice on our plates was mountainous; we were choking on the stuff. When our waitress asked how everything was toward the end, my wife said«wow, that was too much rice» — and the waitress actually had the nerve to say«you can ask for less for rice — it’s just that some people like a lot of rice». Are you friggin kidding me? So this place tries to justify screwing their customers by pretending they’re being thoughtful? lol! Yeah, well let me just say: they really put the ‘rob’ in Robata here. It shouldn’t take a sushi aficionado to recognize that what they’re doing here is pretty effed up. Our current go-to place(Sushiholic in Novato) as well as a few other spots in Marin all deliver quality AND value. This place certainly gave no value, and the quality was lackluster as well. Apparently they think because they have a great physical space and location that they can get away with fooling all the dumb nouveau riche morons in southern Marin. And they clearly do, since they’re still in business all these years. Well, let this be the beginning of the end! At least the end of their«highway robata-ery»! To the owners: seriously, shame on you. You want to charge a premium for your food? Great. Give your customers some VALUE for their hard earned money. Don’t worry about us — we’ll not be back ever again.
Genevieve G.
Place rating: 4 Colton, CA
Drove by here on my way back home from mt. Tam. This place is cute. I love the booths and the decoration. Food is excellent because they use real crab for the California rolls. There’s not much selection and the rolls had too much rice. Quite pricey for the little food that you get.
Tianna L.
Place rating: 4 Mill Valley, CA
Great authentic Japanese food! I frequently visit this restaurant, as a lot of Mill Valley Japanese restaurants don’t really hit the spot. The menu is expansive and many kinds of sushi, sashimi, and combos are available. The tea is hot and fresh, and always freshly brewed. The staff is friendly and nice. I always order some form of tempura while in here, since their tempura is hard to beat! Their fish is fresh in their sushi, and if raw, sliced beautifully and looks amazing. There are some amazing lunch deals and lunch combos that won’t completely break the bank, too. Only con is that sometimes their rice bowls are a little dry, but other than that, this is a place that seems to be packed every time I’m there! This is the only Japanese I thoroughly enjoy in Mill Valley. Go Robata!
Sam K.
Place rating: 3 San Diego, CA
We come here often, my credit card statement says 2x per week over the past two years. There are a couple of great servers, but the owner always treats us like we’re fresh off the street. For take out, good luck. No matter when you call it in if a bigger order is in front of you, tough luck. It’s happened now three times in a row. Last time I waited an EXTRA45 minutes. Called at 6:50 today 30 minutes turned into 50. Normally I wouldn’t care but it’s so consistent and they are so rude when you ask them how long it will actually be that I think I have to be over it. Robata get your ducks in a row we spent $ 5200 with you last year.
Sheila D.
Place rating: 3 San Francisco, CA
Three stars because the prices on the menu do not match the quality of the food. Stopped by this place after a Sunday afternoon at Stinson Beach. I had the dinner for 1 special, which included miso soup, wakame and hijiki salad, 4pc Hella roll, 2pc salmon sashimi, 2pc white tuna sashimi, 4pc tempura, and salmon teriyaki with broccoli. Pretty much a huge bento box. Oh and one piece of mochi. Absolutely no substitutions… So I decided to just not eat the tempura. Ok, I had two bites of one shrimp tempura. Overall, it was okay. Sashimi was okay, sushi was okay, salmon teriyaki looked sad. Will check out Sushi Ram next time.
Chris C.
Place rating: 4 San Francisco, CA
Been here a few times. Quality of the food is usually pretty good… I mean, it better be considering the price. However, what makes me come back is the excellent customer service(when it is not super busy). Keep up the good work team.
Bruno S.
Place rating: 4 San Francisco, CA
I’ve been eating at Robata since 1999. Quality has been always steady. You know what you gonna get: good food. Not fancy, not creative. Good solid recipes. Truth to be told the rolls are extremely rich. Yes a lot of rice, but also a lot of fish in them.
Eric A.
Place rating: 1 Austin, TX
Stayed at Acqua Hotel next door. The hotel restaurant list includes this place for some reason… proximity. They should rethink it. Wofe and two kids walked over. We were not made to feel welcome. Food was mediocre, at best. Disappointment. Such a pitiful waste of what could have been something nice.
Sandra P.
Place rating: 3 San Francisco, CA
This is an «ok» place. I love sushi and when I start jonesing for it, this is not my top choice. However they do have a nice waitstaff and are very fast and efficient with their service. Their teriyaki chicken is excellent! My favorite sushi is the shrimp tempura roll. Yum! That being said, Robata is my second or third choice for sushi. I gave it an extra star for cleanliness.
Marie b.
Place rating: 4 San Rafael, CA
Better than I thought it would be! Hadn’t been here since 1988. Not sure why I never bothered to go back, as I remembered it being very good. Friday night after Xmas was very busy. No tables, lots of people waiting at the door, so we sat at the sushi bar. They had a great $ 22 special that included sashimi, sushi, miso soup, seaweed salad, tempura shrimp and tempura veggies, mochi ice cream, and a BBq’d salmon piece. It was all so good and plentiful. Family had assorted sushi and sashimi, and we all thought the fish quality was great. Loved how real Japanese people were working, which is pretty rare nowadays. The ambiance is so pretty at night. Brought me back to my trips to Japan. Made me want to go back to Japan and eat more Japanese food!
Kevin B.
Place rating: 3 Mill Valley, CA
Maybe it’s the winter weather, but I’ve been craving Asian food as of late. I hadn’t dined at Robata Grill in years. But I always remembered it being a nice place with solid food. However, since it’s situated in an office plaza, it kind of fell off my radar. And then a few weeks ago, a Unilocaler was raving to me about their lunch. So I decided to take my friend’s advice and revisit Robata this afternoon. The Good: — There’s plenty of free parking. No need to worry about feeding your meter or getting towed. — The friendly hosted seated me right away. She gave me the option to sit at the counter or at a table. I chose the table. — They offer a very reasonable lunch special. Choose a combo of items(one grilled or fried item + sushi rolls) for under $ 15. The meal includes miso soup(perfect for cold weather!), a small salad, and a generous side order of steamed rice. I wound up ordering the pan-fried Gyozo(4 pork potstickers that come with a yummy dipping sauce) and the spicy tuna rolls(6 rolls/order). The Not-As-Good: — While I thoroughly enjoyed/devoured my Gyozo platter, I found the spicy tuna rolls a bit on the fishy side. While I’m no sushi expert, I don’t think this was the freshest fish. But then again, if you’re only paying $ 6-$ 7 for sushi rolls, I guess you can’t expect the moon. That being said, I may want to try another roll/fish next time around. All in all, Robata Grill remains a solid lunch destination. It’s conveniently located off the freeway; has plenty of parking; it’s reasonably priced(my entire lunch + sparkling water cost me $ 16.75 without tip); the wait-staff is friendly and efficient; and it will certainly fulfill your Asian craving. «Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Robota.»
Nena L.
Place rating: 3 San Francisco, CA
9÷14÷14 **Disclaimer I know now that sukiyaki means soup but let’s face it I’m not Japanese and we aren’t in Japan so for us Americans that don’t have knowledge of all Japanese words please someone explain in the menu description area*** thank you. End rant. I should never say never again! I’m taking a star away. So tonight we went to Marin for a family members birthday expecting great service and amazing food. My dinner was great. Great black cod, crunchy hamachi. The birthday boy no no and no. Service no. Management no. Here’s the scoop, the birthday boy wanted to try something new so he ordered the chicken sukiyaki not speaking Japanese and just reading the menu you CANNOT tell that this is Stew! And it doesn’t say silver noodles, broth, soup, stew, fluid anything it just says what the menu reads I’ll post a pic. So I went and asked the host/manager, owner I don’t know what he really does but he’s always there. I asked what is this? On the menu it doesn’t say it’s soup it’s not in the soup section it doesn’t say broth or anything. His answer? Really what he said, «we don’t call it soup it’s stew.» AREYOUKIDDINGME!?! I said calmly where does it say on the menu that it is stew? And to boot it’s in the entrée section! He asked if we wanted something else I said yes because not only was it stew but it wasn’t good. It wasn’t horrid but it wasn’t good.
He put in a rushed order of generic teriyaki chicken. Because I said we didn’t want to wait another 30 min since we all had our food already. Honestly the thing he should have done was make something new and offer some kind of compensation for the fact that the entire table had it’s food and now the birthday boy does not. I usually don’t want any kind of «let us get that for you» but tonight I did! It was a birthday dinner! The menu is misleading! Rghh I’m mad. Will I go back maybe, did I leave the server more than 20% tip yes because unless you FAIL as a server I always leave that much even when I’m mad. Will the birthday boy come back he said not unless it’s for a revenge meal. I don’t know what that means but he was upset we all were.
Yee Gan O.
Place rating: 3 London, United Kingdom
I popped in here for lunch while visiting a friend in North Bay. Located just off 101, it has convenient parking I selected the sashimi lunch special, trying to enjoy as much fresh bay fish as I could before returning back to London, where the Japanese food is of lower quality To be fair, I have to judge restaurants against their peers and in the Bay area, I found the sashimi at Robata to be average. There was a nice variety on the plate and I walked out feeling satisfied but I’ve had better in the Bay area