Kiraku - Japanese restaurant in Berkeley - 2566B Telegraph Ave, USA

Went to Kiraku for dinner with friends and had a great time! You can pick your own Sake glass and we had a carafe of a sake recommended by our server. Everything we ordered (including the special of the night, tuna collar) was amazing! Would recommend to anyone

I’ve been save this restaurant for 2 years and finally I made it here last week. The food is so delicious and the price is reasonable. We order 8 dishes and include tax and tip is less than $150. The restaurant is very small but the server and vide are good. Also, the food comes out pretty fast. Love it!

My partner took me here for my 21st birthday, bought me my first beer (Sapporo), and we had one heck of a night! The food is absolutely amazing. Like, prepare to get your mind blown. The best part of the menu in my opinion are the desserts. We had a sweet potato crème brûlée, and a fruit ice cream that was absolutely phenomenal. I don’t even have the words to describe the ice cream; Fruity, fresh, balanced, perfection!

The restaurant and their table is tiny. So do not order too much at first. They have great sake collection. The food is tasty. I like yogurt grapefruit ice cream.

Wow - thanks Kiraku, I’ve been living in the East Bay +10 years and didn’t have a “favorite” Japanese spot until last night! Be warned, this place is rightfully popular and if you don’t want to wait up to an hour for a table, get there at least 20 minutes before opening and put your name on the wait list. We did that Sat evening and was seated 5 minutes after opening even though the system said it could be up to a 45 minutes wait (it might have helped because there were just two of us). By 6pm, there were probably 10 people waiting in front, and by the time we left at about 630pm, there were still about as many waiting outside (see picture). Space inside is small and tables are inches from each other - besides a small counter area that might seat 4, there are about 15 2- seater tables that could be joined for large groups. 5* great service & friendly staff, order was accurate and food came out without much delay. The pictures of the ten dishes we enjoyed are uploaded in order my fav - top is the grilled squid! It was so so good, smoky, great dark soy sauce, the meat was tender and sweet. This is a must have and I noticed both tables, to our left and right, also ordered the grilled squid! Miso cod was very good, made me think of miso butterfish in Hawaii. The corn tempura is unique and a must if you like fresh corn. The grilled rice ball had a crispy salty and mildly spicy exterior and moist on the inside. The steam egg was smooth and tasty but a little salty. The yuzu cheesecake was rich and flavorful. Definitely a spendy but worthwhile spot, great to take a date or to celebrate an occasion. Keep up the good work Kiraku!

The food is first off amazing and would highly recommend coming. The staff are super nice and make the experience that much better. This is a fancier restaurant. If you’re on a budget you can prob get away with spending 30-50 a person and still get to enjoy a good ammount of foods. But if you want to experience their sushi or A5 you will be probably spending closer to 100 a person. Staff are super friendly and would highly recommend going. Hint try their corn!

Hope the takeaway menu can have more items from the house, but it’s understandable. A long line on the dark street in the chilly windy winter night. I picked pesto udon instead of the raw seafood I crave— never seen this combination. It actually had much vegetable (cabbage and mushrooms) in comparison with the less than handful tiny bits of octopus, and somehow the bonito goes well with pesto. (I’ve done yaki spaghetti at home before so now I’m intrigued to recreate this one :3 Beef tataki tastes good. The meat is tender and the ponzu sauce is refreshing and not too sweet. Some pieces are rather small. The red onion underneath is surprisingly not very pungent. Overall, a nice but not necessary choice. Price is relatively high, but this seems to be the only posh place nearby. Even with takeout the bill can easily get up to the minimum spending for seated customers. The interior is rather simple, though people seems happy. Maybe I’ll come back if I have a larger group to share the small plates and wait together.

Thank to one of the stuff, service is really good. Food is generally ok considering it is Berkeley. The monkfish mousse and the appetizer is flavorful, but might be too salty. The a5 skewer is something that you could find in every similar restaurant, nothing interesting. The ceviche is also so mediocre. The risotto is a disaster I would say. It is like a porridge. I would rather only have the scallops.