Nomikai

Sake Bar anyone? They have bottled beers too here, but they specialize in Sake. There’s also a DJ on Friday/​Saturday nights, but not much room to dance. Actually… not much room in general! The place is pretty small and you’ll be lucky to have a spot to sit. There are cozy little tables/​couche-​like benches off to the side, but it looks like you need to either 1. Come super early, 2. Reserve or 3. Get Bottle Service. This is a nice spot if you want to find a sippy drink, not recommended if you plan to take shots of hard liquor as their bar does not offer much.

This place is actually super nice a little bit small and the line for the men’s bathroom was ridiculously long (no toilet seat on it either didn’t need it but something to mentioned) that why 4 stars people there were friendly though maybe It was just that night but don’t think so seems like a good crowd that goes here

We came late at night after being at a few bars already. Some other’s on this street were too packed or not our style.
The drinks were good and the DJ was mixing some serious perfection. Bathrooms clean and atmosphere chill.
Next time we’re in town, i’d love to come back and try the food!

Appetizers are ok, the food menu is minimal – mostly flatbreads. There’s a lot of pork belly in the various appetizers and dishes. They have a decent cocktail menu and the drinks are ok. It’s not a large place. They have TVs to watch sports. Service can be slow b/​c the hostess was a waitress and also bussing the tables. It’s not my first choice but A-​Ok for happy hour.

I came here on a Saturday night to meet up with some friends for drinks. I didn’t know they serve food also but the pictures look good and I’ll be back to try it out! As a bar, the area was a bit packed but it added to the good vibes of the place. The music was great — probably the best I’ve heard in DTSJ for a while. The DJ definitely knew how to read the crowd. Drinks seemed standard. I would add this spot to the rotation when hitting up the bars in downtown.

I came here for a birthday event on Saturday night, it was crowded as expected. My friends and I ordered drinks at the bar and then we found open seat right away. My friends and I chilled and hung out with a few drinks.
The music was good.
I would definitely come back again, very chilled.

***This review is for their ‘after hours/​club’ set up only***
Had a night out with some friends here recently. The staff was friendly and the music was popular with my friends. The venue itself is rather tiny and it seemed at times it was overcrowded. Luckily, I did not have to use the restroom so I did not have to navigate through the crowd to get to the back of the establishment. Drink prices are fairly reasonable too. A vodka soda well is $ 6.
My friends had fun but I tend to prefer larger venues and varying types of music. I did not try any of the food but they got there early enough to order some and they seemed to enjoy it. I would rate it higher but it’s merely a personal preference on size, music, and crowd control.

Sooooo yummy! The pork belly is off the chain! Mac and cheese with chicharrones is to die for! And the Chinese sausage was good except it had whole cloves of garlic which was just too much and not needed.
Happy hour drinks are a great deal also

I don’t like to give five-​star reviews but I just could not think of a reason to knock this place.
THIS is how «Asian Fusion» is supposed to be. It’s not a hodgepodge of poorly executed dishes from around Asia, and it’s not just putting Korean BBQ sauce on an item and calling it a «bulgogi» something.
Banh Mi Pizza? That seems weird. My less adventurous companion went for it though and I was so glad that she did. So I wouldn’t necessarily call it a «pizza». It’s more of a flatbread, but it’s not really a flatbread either. Think of it almost as a doughy nan with all the ingredients of a banh mi on top. The «doughy» may make you think «undercooked», but that’s not at all how it comes out. It’s just really good. You have to try one.
We also had the kimchi fries. I liked the kimchi, but some may find it too garlicky. But I like garlic… A lot. And the base — the fries — was actually really good too. Somehow the kimchi worked with the nacho cheese. Who knew?
Then there’s the alcohol side. The happy hour does not include the taps, it seems, but they have really good taps. They had an Avery, an Oskar Blues, and a few others that seemed interesting to me. The bartender said they change them out quite a bit because they get small kegs, which is great. Then, randomly, they had a pretty good whiskey selection, including some Japanese whiskey, which is very good if you’ve never had it, and plenty of good scotches.
Oh, and the happy hour? Until 8:30… WHAT? Yeah, in this wonderful little beer triangle of SJ, you can pay a lot for a really good beer next door and then come here and get a $ 3 bottle of Lagunitas IPA and some cheap but interesting eats.
Service: people were over-​friendly. They weren’t that busy, and I think they mostly appreciated us coming in, but they all seemed to be excited to be there and happy that you liked it. From the look of the interior, I sort of expected snobby, so maybe I was just a little surprised that was anything but.
I’m so glad that a place like this exists. Worth checking out, at least, even if it is too weird for you.

The Good:
The cocktails we eventually got were on point.
The Portuguese sausage pizza tasted pretty good and the kimchi fries were decent.
The Bad:
At 7.30 in the evening there was a VERY strong stench of liquor in the place. The air was significantly heavier as compared to the cool breeze outside. It wouldn’t bother me beyond lets say 10 pm, but I was definitely taken aback.
We were told thrice that the cocktails we wanted to order were not available. Again, beyond 11 pm that may be makes sense but not this early on a Sat. evening.

Having gone to the nearby San Jose State University, it’s no surprise that many of my weekends comprised of visits to the Barmuda Triangle… aka Temple, 55 South, and Nomikai.
Not too sure when Nomikai started becoming the ‘it’ place, but I definitely always have a good time whenever I come here. First of all, like many places in DTSJ, there’s no cover nor dress code. This is a huuuge plus if you’re a broke college student or just used to having to pay an arm and leg just to get in anywhere. The money saved from not having a cover goes to a better cause anyway… aka to the alcohol. I’ve tried a variety of things here, from just a plain beer, to the cocktails, to the fishbowl, and oddly enough, even the bottle service (so random). Probably my personal favorite would have to be getting rounds of sake here, not only because it’s fairly affordable BUT because of the cool cups that come with it! The sake cups they have literally have an indentation just for the sake, while the rest of the cup holds the beer so they don’t mix until you pour it back. I really wish I had a visual to accompany it, but for now just take my word for it that it’s awesome lol. The fishbowl, while only offered on Wednesday’s…I believe, is a bit pricey at the $ 40+ range, but is always fun to drink and split amongst friends and comes complete with gummy sharks too! Lastly, the bottle service is surprisingly pretty good here as well. We decided to get some on a whim after seeing that the line was super long. I liked that there was no limit to how many people were in our party, as far as I was aware. We had ~20 people in our party so we got the big table near the entrance. Typical pricing for bottles here, when we went we got 3 bottles of Hennessy for $ 180 each. They were attentive and for the most part, constantly kept our carafes full with pineapple juice, orange juice, and coke.
The dj’s alternate often but the music playing is almost always something you can vibe to. I like that the atmosphere is versatile enough where you can dance if you want to but you could also just drink and talk as well. The way that I see it is that it’s like the best of both Temple and 55 South. Overall, the solid drinks and dope music make this place a go-​to in SJ whenever I’m lucky enough to be in town.

Great place for light appetizers and drinks with friends!
Came here around 7 on a thursday night and it was basically empty but it seemed to pick up later on in the night after we left. Their menu isn’t very big but the items we got were pretty good! Their happy hour has a bunch of great deals like $ 5 starters and $ 3 beers.
I ordered the «Fruit Ninja» drink which is an alcoholic boba drink with some multi-​colored fruit jelly pieces. This was a little too strong and too sweet for my liking and my friends agreed.
As for the food, we ordered the Mac and cheese topped with Spicy chicharrones (3.5÷5), pork belly with ginger jalapeño (⁴⁄₅), Sweet chili chicken wings (3.5÷5), Kimchi cheese Fries (3.5÷5), and the Chinese sausage pizza (4.5÷5). The pizza was delicious with a soft egg on top and slices of Chinese sausage, and the pork belly was cooked to perfection!
On Thursdays they offer punch bowls (huge bowls of alcoholic punch for 3+ people) so I will probably be coming back with a big group to try that next time! Great find in dtsj!

This review is just for the late night bar on a Saturday night. This place is super small and only a certain amount of people are allowed (which is good since it’d be crazy if it was a free for all) It’s dumb how it’s a $ 20 limit (unless you keep your tab open)
The bartender needs to learn how to make an AMF because that seriously tasted like straight patron. Didn’t even finish it because how strong and disgusting it tasted. The Long Island were good though, tasted normal.
The place itself was a cute little lounge to chill and drink, nothing too crazy.

Here you got some Japanese fusion food, as well as interesting alcoholic boba drinks.
As for the alcoholic boba drinks, I would pass on the Fruit Ninja and get the Thai Tea with bourbon instead. The thai tea mixture with bourbon is good, but the boba being with alcohol kinda threw my friends and I off. The Lychee Martini is also good and an easy drink, but it’s not strong.
For food, my friends and I had:
Crispy Pork Belly w/​Ginger Jalapeño: I’ll pass next time. Nothing special.
Nori Fries: Average fries nicely paired with nori seaweed seasoning.
Kimcheese Fries: Good, but nothing above average.
Mac & Cheese: Again… really average.
Flavored Chicken Wings: Pretty good, but you only get a few pieces per order.
Pork Belly Pizza: Yummy! Very unique and something I would definitely order again.
During their Happy Hour, all the appetizers and a few of their specialty drinks are $ 5! That’s why my friends and I splurged a bit.
For the food, I’d probably only be back for Pork Belly Pizza. They also have other delightful sounding pizzas such as duck, banh mi, etc. Everything else was just average and had a better spin off of it elsewhere. Fun to try new food though!

I just celebrated my 29^th birthday last weekend at Nomikai. Having been here several times before, I really like the place and decided to have dinner/​drinks here. The service has always been friendly, music is always great, and the food and drinks are good. This time around we ordered several bottles of hot sake/​beer, bottle of patron, pork belly bites, kimcheese fries, Chinese sausage pizza, Banh Mi pizza, and regular cheese pizza. I really enjoyed the Pork Belly Bites and cheese pizza. Their other pizzas are creative and great, but were just a little too much for me that night since my stomach wasn’t all that happy.
Overall, I had a great time. This is a spot that I love coming to to get drinks. Music is always fun and the vibe is chill. A good spot for drinks, prior to going out, or if you want to go somewhere but not necessarily stand and dance all night.
I (heart) Nomikai!

I love that Nomikai doesn’t shy away from bold flavors in their food! I love both subtle and bold flavors and everything in between, but I am not one to shy away from spicy, sweet, salty, tangy when done right and Nomikai does it right.
How this for bold? Mac and cheese with a generous topping of spicy chicharrones! We had to order another after we finished the first bowl. I love how how every bite was cheesy, crunchy and spicy. I’m going to add pork rinds to my Mac and Cheese from now on!
We also ordered the Crispy Pork Belly with Ginger and Jalapeño. The pork belly pieces were indeed crispy without being dry and so flavorful with the jalapeño relish.
It wouldn’t be HH without chicken wings, so we had some of the Sweet Chili Chicken Wings with the aptly named Dynamite Sauce. The sweetness of the wings was nicely balanced by the spiciness of the sauce. You must get it. Our companions ordered this and were nice enough to share with us!
Oh and if you do get the Kimcheese Fries (kimchee and cheese on top), eat it while the fries are still warm. They’re better that way!
For drinks, my husband had the Watermelon Beer (21^st Amendment) and I had the Yuzu Crazy cocktail which was nice and refreshing. It’s not too boozy, so it’ll allow to have more than one drink on a work night!
We were there for HH around 7 pm and it’s just amazing to me that HH lasts until 8:30 pm. We will have to go back during HH and try their pizza and have some more of that Mac and Cheese! Thanks Unilocal friends, Gio and Kenny, for introducing us to Nomikai!

As I waited in line to get in, I wondered what Nomikai means. A quick Google search enlightened me: Nomikai=drinking party. Count me in!
We came in for happy hour which runs every Tues-​Sat from 5:30 — 8:30. It’s 5 for drinks and some food and 3 for beer. I appreciate any place that does HH on a weekend. Snagged the free edamame with check-​in while my friend ordered nori fries and pork belly.
The crispy skin on the jalapeño garnished pork belly quickly won me over. Some were a little on the salty side, not enough for me to complain though. I contemplated ordering the pork belly pizza but did not want to risk suffering through my intolerable pork belly-​belly gurgles on the drive home. Next time!
Service was a bit slow since we were the only customers at the time and our server parked himself at the bar after taking our order. The sleek décor and enjoyable music more than made up for it. Overall solid happy hour.

Food: 3 stars (half good half meh)
Drinks: 4 stars
Service: 4 stars
Happy hour 5:30 — 8:30! No discounts on pizza though.
5 Spice Duck Pizza ($ 14) tasted amazing! The Pork Belly pizza ($ 14) though was very greasy and heavy. Would not recommend.
Pork Belly appetizer ($ 5 during happy hour) was meh. I mean, you can fry any piece of fat and it’ll taste heavenly, this came with 4 pieces of nicely fried pork belly, but nothing that stood out.
The wings ($ 5) was not worth it. 4 wings? Come on.
Kimcheese fries ($ 5) was a pleasant surprise, large, shareable portion. Fries done perfectly.
I didn’t have any drinks but at $ 5 a piece, they kept my girlfriends happy, hence the 4 stars overall experience :)

Hopping around the area and stopping into different places, we stopped into Nomikai. The place was completely empty, so we head over to the bar and ordered up a complete round of drinks.
At this point in my night, that Manhattan completely changed by night from «light happy hour fun» to «partying on the town». We were ready for it though, so we left after the one drink and head out for a fun night in downtown San Jose.

I was meeting up with my sister and friend and we Unilocaled to find a good happy hour. The happy hour here is Wednesday-​Saturday from 5:30 — 8:30 so it was perfect for after work.
I got a Lychee martini based on everyone else’s reviews it was light on the alcohol but good. My sister got a Coco berry which was strong in the coconut flavor. My friend ended up coming a bit earlier than us and started with a Sangria. It was pretty good!
Here’s what we got:
Fries
Free edamame because of the Unilocal check in
Duck pizza based on everyone’s review
Mushroom pizza
Overall, good experience! All of it was absolutely delicious. I personally liked the mushroom pizza more than the duck one but both were pizzas you wont get anywhere else!