Title: Ta-Ke Sushi, Oakland (update)
Author: GCS
Last saved by: Owner

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: February 26, 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

Good news: Ta-Ke has yet another new owner (we think).

We've lost count as this is perhaps the fifth or sixth change of ownership. Well, the (new) waitress said the cook was the same, and it's always possible. But all the staff we've seen previously is gone, although the menu remains identical. We took a chance on some of the dishes we had stopped ordering, and...surprise! They were, for the most part, pretty good. Which they haven't been over the last two years, so something has definitely changed.

We brought Inez here for her favorite Ta-Ke roll. It was smaller in the sense of being thinner with less rice and more slender slices of avocado and BBQ eel, all wrapped around a pair of tempura shrimp. This is not a bad thing, as her appetite continues to dwindle as she ages. 

One negative was there was no drizzle of teriyaki sauce underneath the roll, which is her favorite part. She loves that sweet goopiness, so next time we'll have to remember to ask them to drizzle some on the plate for her.

I couldn't get my usual sesame chicken lunch bowl special, as we were going to Abura-Ya pop-up for dinner. So I was going to be eating nothing but fried chicken. I took a chance on ordering the Spicy Pork, which I had fallen in love with a few years back, only to watch Ta-Ke dumb it down and ruin it by putting a thick layer of potatoes and onions underneath the pork. Chunks of starchy Idahos soaking up and muting the excellent gojuchang, Korean chili sauce, with pallid pieces of pork marooned on top, was not my idea of a good down-home Asian dish.

But the original concept has thankfully returned, albeit with the gojuchang diluted with what tasted like some salty teriyaki sauce. But I had asked for spicy, and in fact received a tasty heat of about 6/10 on our personal chile scale. I also ordered the wakame salad, and we received a nice-sized portion which we all shared.

Carlos decided to try a group of the appetizers, so we shared those as well, although Inez would only eat one of the crab croquettes. These are surimi, fake crab, and thus a little mushy inside although nicely breaded and greaselessly deep-fried. Because they were soft inside she liked them. I thought even the fake crab flavor was so muted one could hardly tell what the filling was. 

The best were the fried oysters. Topped with flying fish roe (my favorite) and some excellent genuine tartar sauce – you could see the capers in it – these are good quality and not overfried. In recent years we have been disappointed in how Ta-Ke's cycle of chefs have handled them, but these are back on top again, as close to the original owners as makes no difference. The tartar sauce may not be traditional, but neither Carlos nor I are fond of tonkatsu sauce, which the Japanese (but not the Koreans, thankfully) use with oysters and pork.

The gyoza are deep-fried but always tasty. Carlos said the shrimp shumai tasted the same, which I suspected would be the case as I'm fairly certain these are purchased commercially.

Neither scallop dish impressed us. The scallops are small and weren't especially fresh or flavorful. The tempura was more a panko crust than a wet batter. The grilled scallops were dabbed with fresh chopped shiso, which was pretty but Carlos disliked it with the shellfish. He said he wouldn't order either of these again.

Although not a 100% success, Ta-Ke showed better this time than at any meal during the last two years, no small achievement when you consider we bring Inez here at least once a month, sometimes twice – every month. The current cook and owner, new or old as the case may be, seem to have finally inherited the spirit of the original owners...at least for the cooked food.

For the sushi and sashimi, we'll have to wait until next time to see if there's any improvement. For Carlos, that will be the important test.

Three people, lunch: seven appetizers/sides, one lunch plate special, one sushi roll, with tip was $114.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: Jan 16, 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

I don't do a review every time we come here, as we hit Ta-Ke at least once a month with Inez. It's always been her favorite restaurant, ever since moving to the EBay to live with us. The food at Mercy Care is very good but never has any sushi rolls, so this is her lunch of choice when we go out together.

Carlos decided to try two of the appetizers. For a long time Ta-Ke didn't have any fried oysters, although they never left the menu. We were pleased to discover they have finally found another source, and the six breaded oysters were good-sized and fresh. They're served with commercial tartar sauce, and topped with a touch of flying fish roe, which is one of my favs. 

The grilled squid, ika yaki, however, was bland, boring and despite some grill marks, utterly tasteless. The Korean owners serve it up with a lovely smoky gojuchang that frankly deserved to accompany something much better. The squid was so tasteless, Carlos left over half of it even though he normally hates wasting food.

I ordered my usual – the lunch special of a fried chicken cutlet over rice with a drizzle of teriyaki sauce and a quartet of vegetarian gyoza, deep-fried Japanese potstickers, as a side. It's innocuous and simple, and they execute it adequately.

Carlos and I shared the oshitashi, pressed spinach in a weak dashi with a generous amount of toasted sesame seeds. Ta-Ke does a good job on this, which makes it all the more frustrating that they fail on the most important factor – the freshness of their raw fish.

We have been very disappointed at the low quality of Ta-Ke's sashimi over the last year, and this decline continues. Carlos got the Lake Merritt roll, which is tuna, seabass and salmon draped over a roll stuffed with a shrimp tempura. He said it was barely acceptable, not worth ordering ever again.

Inez was very happy with her Ta-Ke roll, however, which is shrimp tempura inside a rice roll with BBQ'ed teriyaki-glazed eel and slices of avocado on top. As long as she's content, we'll keep coming here.

Three people, lunch: two starters, one side, three mains, with tip was $82.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: June 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

We brought my MIL Inez to her favorite (not ours) Japanese restaurant, Ta-Ke Sushi near Lake Merritt. She loves their Ta-Ke roll: tempura shrimp in the middle of a rice roll, topped with slices of avocado and BBQ eel. It's lightly drizzled with teriyaki sauce, in the now-common "wet roll" fashion.

Carlos and I stick to the lunch special rice bowls, which are determinedly average but at least have the advantage of being cheap. A panko-sesame crusted chicken is drizzled with teriyaki sauce in a bowl of rice, and you have an option of a small starter with it. Carlos chose the shrimp shumai, and I chose the vegetable gyoza (potstickers). Neither is remarkable, but both are innocuous.

Long, long ago under the original owners, Ta-Ke made their own teriyaki sauce. That light savory sauce is a distant memory, buried under the gloppy overthickened bottled commercial stuff the current owners use. Still, the rice was okay, and an order of oshitashi, cold pressed spinach in sesame sauce, cut through the excessive sweetness of the teriyaki sauce.

Service is good, for whatever that's worth. We come here to please Inez; as her dementia slowly increases, she clings to the familiar and change upsets her.

Three people, lunch: one specialty roll, two lunch specials, one bowl of miso, with tip was $59.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: March 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

Inez still loves this place (sigh). Carlos has discovered he likes the yosenabe, however, and since he's almost always up for soup, he's okay with this. I stick to their lunch special rice bowls (donburi) now: the salmon teriyaki rice bowl is decent and generous.

Fortunately, we can still take her out for dim sum or "American food" places, so we aren't stuck with coming here weekly any longer. It has really gone downhill under the current owners, and if it were up to us we wouldn't come here at all any longer.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: January 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

Now that Inez has moved to Mercy, we take her out twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, for her Tai Chi classes. They are at different centers, different hours; so on Friday we take her out to lunch.

Unfortunately, her favorite lunch is the Ta-Ke Roll at Ta-Ke Sushi. So that's always her choice, leaving Carlos and I to decide if we feel like a teriyaki donburi again. 

This time we both opted for tempura – a combination for me, a seafood mix for him. The tempura has generally been reliable, but not today. It was abysmal; light, crunchy, and greasy as an oil slick in the Gulf. A film of oil floated in the (very weak) dashi dip after dunking only a two pieces. 

These were large plates (the combo had three shrimp, not the usual two most places give). Carlos had a generous mix of seafood, including scallops. But who cares, if the food is so poorly prepared it's almost inedible?

Bleh. I couldn't even finish half of the extremely generous amount of vegetables (zucchini, onion rings, potatoes, broccoli, yams). It was nauseating, like swallowing crispy oil balls. 

I'm starting to feel desperate to find somewhere else that's nearby, where the Japanese food is at least adequate. Ta-Ke is becoming a disaster of major proportions.

Three people, lunch: One wet roll, two tempura, with tip was $48.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA  - update, lunch
Review date: May 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

From bad to worse: lunch today produced….bad rice! The bowl of rice that came with my tempura was awful: cold, lumpy, and chewy. This means they are skimping by serving sushi rice, which is always undercooked slightly. I think it's the first time ever I have had to send a bowl of rice back and ask for fresh rice. At least the replacement bowl came hot, although still slightly underdone.

The ika tempura is just awful, panko batter that is grossly over-fried. The huge rings taste of nothing but stale oil and batter. Although oyster tempura remains on the menu, it is no longer available (so why can't they cross it out??).

Ta-Ke is on its fourth or fifth ownership. Previous owners have kept up the good fight, but it looks more and more like the battle is lost. We'll come back only because Inez loves that Ta-Ke roll, but everything else is just disappointing.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA  - update, lunch
Review date: March 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

Quick update: we came for lunch and I ordered my favorite spicy pork teriyaki, dinner style (comes on the teppan and without the stir-fried beansprouts). To my shock, the dish now has diced carrots and russet potatoes! This ruins the dish for me, as the starchy potatoes soak up all the gojuchang, leaving the stir-fry dry; plus, the onions and pork sat on top of the carrots and potatoes, so they never caramelized.

Not all the waitstaff speaks good English and the owner, who does, wasn't there. I wrote my comments on the back of the bill and expressed serious displeasure at how the dish had changed. 

Carlos said the hamachi sashimi hasn't been that fresh the last two times he's had it. Sadly, cost-cutting under the new owners seems to have dropped Ta-Ke down a full level. Inez still loves their Ta-Ke roll and it doesn't seem to have changed, so Carlos and I will continue to bring her here. Their tempura is still well-executed although the salmon teriyaki is arriving a little too well-done (but that's common in most Japanese restaurants).

However, we no longer recommend Ta-Ke. They are now just average; no better or worse than most of the Japanese restaurants in Oakland.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA  - update, lunch
Review date: January 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

We come here so regularly, I don't even bother to report any longer unless we try something new – which we did this time, through a misunderstanding with the waitress. Carlos tried to order the spicy pork teriyaki, but somehow a miscommunication occurred and she put in front of him – a plate with a 4" ball on it. The round was covered with thin avocado slices and sat atop generous swaths of gojuchang, Korean chile sauce (the current owners are Korean). 

It turned out that they had thought he ordered the "spicy ball", not the "spicy pork". It's terrific if you like tartare – hand-chopped tuna, mixed with some chile sauce, covered with the avocado and more of that excellent sweet-hot sauce to mix in if you desire (which Carlos did, happily).

At $8.95 it's a very generous amount of a poke-type dish. They didn't charge us for it, but we reimbursed them anyway by adding it back in.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA  - update, lunch
Review date: November 2012
(previous reviews appended below)

Our usual lunch. Inez loves Ta-ke's Ta-Ke Roll, with all of her favorite things: tempura shrimp wrapped in rice and seaweed, with a topping of sliced avocado and BBQ eel (unagi). Carlos had the Lake Merritt this time: different sashimi slices over a tempura shrimp and rice roll. 

I had the spicy pork teriyaki, which was awkwardly ordered by my request as "extra spicy but not too much". When we got the bill that's just how the waitress worded it. LOL! But it was about the right heat level, maybe a notch under what I can withstand but fine as it was. Interestingly, most of the sweetness came from the well-sautéed onions, not from the chile sauce. At lunch it comes with the stir-fried beansprouts/mixed vegetables on the side. However, I prefer ordering the cold pressed spinach with sesame seed sauce, oshitashi, which I think is tastier and a better match. 

Fortunately Carlos likes the veggie side, so they don't go to waste. This surprises everyone including him, as beansprouts are not well-regarded by him or any of his family. He won't even touch them if they're in a noodle stir-fry (e.g., the old-fashioned American style chow mein, not the crispy Hong Kong style). Why he likes them in this modest veggie stir-fry is incomprehensible to me, but I won't argue. The more veggies I can get into him, the better.

Reasonable prices, good service, and tasty food – Ta-Ke is one of our favs and we hope the current (Korean) owners stay around a long time.

Three people, lunch: One side, two rolls, one entree, with tip was $55.

Ta-Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
Review date: October 2012
(previous reviews appended below)

Just a quick lunch for Carlos, Inez and me. Inez had her usual sushi roll, which looked a little bigger than it usually does, but she finished it all.

Carlos got the beef teriyaki and sounded disappointed. I'm not sure what he was expecting, as it seemed the usual plate. The beef teriyaki is smaller at lunch than at dinner, but still comes with a side of the sauteed bean sprouts with a few shredded veggies mixed in. I got the bento lunch of salmon teriyaki and tempura, which was satisfying.

Three people, lunch: Three entrees, with tip $46.

Ta Ke Sushi in Oakland, CA – update, dinner
Review date: August 2012 and September 2012
(earlier reviews deleted due to change of ownership)

Compared to Kakui/Oakland two weeks ago, Ta-Ke gave Carlos an exceptional mixed sashimi dinner tonight. He got 16 pieces of sashimi for $19.95, and said all of it was amazingly fresh, especially the ika (squid). Kakui's presentation was a work of art, but Ta-Ke's was just as fresh, and Kakui's 10 pieces for $22 doesn't quite measure up to Ta-Ke's more generous offering.

Lunch a month later was excellent on all counts. Carlos got the chicken donburi, which I added to by giving him a third of my spicy pork stir-fry. This time the pork was a little on the fatty side, which I like but some people might not. Inez's Ta-Ke Roll was good, as always.