Aburaya - Oakland (CA)

4 /5 Arlo: Really great place, super conveniently close to my office! Staff are amazing and fast, seating is plentiful and comfy. Food is 90% amazing, my main complaint is with the Okayu sando. Its really gross. Like its floppy and the egg salad I sent look right. The sauce is spicy wasabi in a way that I do not enjoy. I also think Im not the only one because the person taking my order literally clarified if I had it before and seemes to warn me not to get it. Its not good in a way thats genuinely surprising since everything else from here is great. I literally got indigestion. Literally all the other good Ive had here, like the fried chicken and salads have been great! Definitely recommend for every except the Okayu chicken sandwich.

3 /5 Phuong Luong: I wanted to love this place and I do love some aspects of it (the decor, music, Asian goodies) but unfortunately found their fried chicken super underwhelming. The breading is uneven and thin which makes for pretty soggy coating on the chicken (if youve ever been on a diet and got the Just Bare frozen chicken bites, its kinda like that). I was hoping for a shatteringly crisp crunchy coating, and this just wasnt it. The actual chicken is a random mix of dark and white meat, and the pieces that are white meat were a little stringy. Also felt like the flavors were good, but lack depth (habenero miso and shichimi). The seasonal fried oyster mushroom was extremely tough and chewy, 1/10 do not recommend. The miso ranch was good though.

5 /5 Baxley Emily (Wendland): Everything is SO GOOD!! I eat gluten free and am so glad to know this a GF kitchen with truly delicious food. I had their chicken sandwich tonight- it was comically large, probably half a pound! The GF bun held up very well, the chicken was juicy, and the slaw and pickles were SO tasty. I love coming here!

5 /5 David Smith: Good option for a quick meal, and I mean quick seriously. From order till I got my food was likely less than 4 minutes. I went with the 4 piece fried chicken with side salad, splitting the flavors on the chicken between BBQ(sauce) and General Tso(dry rub). Of the two the BBQ I personally preferred more, the flavor was deeper and the slight spice to it added more, it had a slight crisp but not as significantly as the the General Tso due to the dry rub. The general Tso was good as well and had a better crisp but the flavor was as exciting. The interior of the restaurant was a bit dim which is easier on the eyes but made my pictures come out a little dark. Not much else to say, happy with good fried chicken