Ganko Sushi
1131 Cherry St., San Carlos, CA
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/Ganko_Sushi_Menu
Review date: April 2014

We stopped in San Carlos to have lunch with our friends Rob and Beth, being on the way to Monterey to indulge ourselves in great French food at (what we consider) bargain prices. Rob took an hour from work to meet us at his favorite nearby-the-office sushi restaurant.

This is a modest neighborhood restaurant, with the traditional menu enlivened with some updated touches and a whiff of Hawaii. The Island touch comes from the poke on the menu, which is the Hawaiian version of sashimi: ahi tuna, diced and served with a dressing. Ganko makes a really spicy version, as some places do (but not all). Rob is fond of this, and Carlos took a bite. He rated this one an easy 6 on our scale of chile-heat 10 and said it was very good.

Rob had a couple of his favorite sushi rolls, and Beth chose a bento box. Carlos and I both ordered starters to try. He ordered the gyoza, potstickers, which were listed as pan-fried and came precisely that way, which pleased him as he loathes the deep-fried version which many Japanese restaurants have begun offering as a time- and money-saver. It's a mild savory filling, with a nice soy-green onion dip lightly spiked with red pepper.

I ordered the takoyaki, which was a very soft version with cubes of chewy but tasty octopus (tako). I would have rather had it without the mayonnaise squiggle on top, but they topped it all with plenty of katsuobushi, bonita flakes, which are always tasty.

Carlos chose the assorted sashimi for his entree, which he said was a very good quality, better than we are usually able to get in Oakland's pathetic sushi joynts. He asked for rice, but said afterwards Ganko does what many of the sushi restaurants are doing these days, using sushi rice as their regular rice, instead of making separate batches. We're not happy with this trend, as we're firmly on the side of the softer, the better; sushi rice is always slightly underdone. This is because if you're going to press your rice, having it slightly undercooked means the grains will remain distinct, rather than getting smashed into the sticky wallpaper glue known as mochi.

Still, Ganko is merely following the trend, and in view of an ever-narrowing bottom line for small businesses, it's understandable from an expense standpoint. The majority of diners at a Japanese restaurant aren't Asian, and in general customers don't eat enough rice for it to be worth making two separate, large batches of rice when it doesn't keep very well at room temps.

I ordered the oyako-donburi, which came with a nice absence of green onions, a small amount of mushrooms and carrot, shreds of chicken thigh and a fried egg. The gravy was a little on the sweet side, but the serving size was perfect and I was happy with it.

Ganko is a nice little place, friendly and unassuming. One noteworthy item is their housemade iced green tea, which is excellent. It's not a destination restaurant, but our interest was more in catching up with our friends, not looking for the next four-star meal. It says a lot about the pathetic state of Oakland's Japanese restaurants that Ganko, which makes no pretensions to being anything more fancy than a two-star restaurant, would rank above than every Oakland Japanese restaurant that we've tried in the last two years (which is why we are going to start traveling to Berkeley for Carlos' sashimi fix).

Rob picked up the check, so we have no prices. Thanks, Rob!