Ippuku - Berkeley

So interesting... i love the food. Sat at the round table bar in the back surrounding the kitchen. Cool place to eat... this story is good and not so good... The food is awesome, and the bar is so cool... yet it is difficult to understand what is being ordered and the staff is not helpfull. To avoid confusion, this is a tapas style venue... I love small plates to try different things... The good: food is awesome , try as much as you can, it will not disappoint. The questionable: I don 't care for chicken, yet when I ordered, the staff said if you don 't want chicken with did u come??? Lol, the menu is diverse beyond just chicken.... fish, wagu, pork, mushrooms, house made pickles... I could go on. From the bar order the RIHEI GINGER SHOCHU... hidden on the menu. This single-distilled, one of a kind shochu is made from ginger local to Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture. Named after the distillery’s founder, Rihei Ochiai, this 4th generation, family run distillery honors the traditions of their 100-year-old past while taking on a modern twist for the 21st century. Rihei Ginger was born after local farmers came to the distillery requesting he craft a new shochu made from their amazing quality ginger The bad; service stinks... smh...sad. lol I almost walked out when they asked, If u don 't like chicken, then why are u here. What! All this said, expect to drop 100 per person. I would certainly go back! YMMV!

Wow. I thought I had a one-off experience at Ippuku but based on recent reviews, service has been rough as of recent. My partner and I have been coming to Ippuku for years. Despite mistakes and slow service being common as of late, we still keep coming back because we enjoy the food. We came on a Sunday a little after opening, the restaurant was full and a few groups were ahead of us. The hostess Sierra/Ciara told us that the wait would be approximately an hour, which was fine, the food is worth the wait! To be courteous, we didn’t want to take up space sitting in front of the restaurant for those wanting to take advantage of the bar. As the wait time was supposedly an hour, we walked around downtown Berkeley and came back less than 30 mins later to check our position, only to be told by Sierra in an annoyed voice that she called our names over 20 mins ago and we weren’t around. I understand that wait times aren’t accurate, but 10 vs 60 mins is a far off estimation. From past experiences, the owner would take down our name and phone number, perhaps even jot down the time we arrived to join the “wait list”. However only our names were taken down this time, and if you weren’t in front of the restaurant by the time your name was called, you were crossed off the list. As it was a special occasion, my boyfriend kindly asked if she put us back at the top of the list since we weren’t given a grace period to return. He was told by Sierra with emphasis, that we would be put back at the bottom and was rudely shooed away. After witnessing how he was poorly spoken to, I returned to speak to Sierra to express how disappointed I am with her service and attitude, only to be gaslit and belittled. Although the food is good, this experience has probably deter me coming back in the future. Staff appears to be elitist and expect you to kiss their feet to dine here, umm no thanks.

This spot is cool, its gets kind abusy by the bar, def make a RSVP before coming . the menu is good , The black pork belly was my favoite

Not what I had expected, not bad, but definitely had an arrogant vibe. As if you don't read Japanese or like raw chicken then maybe one should try somewhere else. My wife and I often dine at very nice restaurants, with that the meal and drinks were So-So but not SoHo or SoMa ready.

Best yakitori in the Bay. Non-yakitori dishes were superb as well.