New Piedmont Ave. outpost of Geta?

Question

So the nice people at Geta told me that they're opening a new place on Piedmont Ave., either near or directly next door to the Mr. Green Bubble. I was just picking up a takeout order and it was really crowded, so I didn't have a chance to get a lot of details, but from what I could glean:

- It's going to be an izakaya.
- Their sushi / donburi shop will still be open at its original location.
- The new place is tentatively slated to open sometime next month.

Anyone have any information beyond that? I'm pretty excited about this - I think, given that the price point is so reasonable, Geta is somewhat underrated on this board. The donburi (especially the "katsu don") are in my regular takeout rotation, and it's the only place I ever get takeout sushi from. It's simple, honest food.

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Geta Japanese Restaurant
165 41st St, Oakland, CA 94611

Answer

Wow, this is big news. Geta is always so crowded because it's so small, so it'll be nice for me to get my takeout without having to squeeze in. Wondering if the prices will be around the same?

What's odd, too, is that there was a Japanese restaurant that opened across from Mr. Green Bubble awhile back and while nice-looking, I thought the prices were high and food just average. So with Geta opening it's new spot so close to this one, I can't imagine two Japanese restaurant surviving within yards of each other.

Answer

B-dama's 2nd day was today. according to the sushiman from geta (he's at the front counter at B-dama), it was hectic yesterday. they are now in the soft opening mode. only announcement was made at geta's. the sushiman recognized me as "regular" at geta and comped me a few samples from the white board. 

foodnotes:
-10ish seats at the counter, 10ish small tables in the lst room, think there's a 2nd room also. 
-no sushi, rolls, nigiri, curries, bento boxes, donburris, nor ramen etc. here.
-only overlap may be salads and appetizers. not sure. haven't looked at geta menu in ages.
-good service, few people dining, waitress(s) recognized me also.
-menu: isakaya (grilled), appetizers, desserts, salads, nimono (simmered), deep fried, marinated items, white board specials, (pan fried tongue, salmon takiki, beef takiki, yakitori), udon. 
-drink menu (15 names): a few beers, usual ozeki sake, some junmai, a few ginjo, a few daigingo (all from upright bottles). 
-recommed chicken karaange (6.50), ebi skewer (3.5) new caledonian blue shrimp, heart skewer, maybe the the salmon takiki(10.50)
-portions here are small unlike geta. prices comparable to other similar biz.
-complete review up in a few days (elsewhere) 4 1/2 stars..

Answer

Enjoyed our meal tonight. After years of getting take away from Geta weekly, it was nice to come support them in their new endeavor. The karaage was great, as it is at Geta. The fried veggies were very nice too. The grilled items are offered w/ salt or sauce. I favored the salt, while my husband favored the sauce. The salted chicken with green onion skewers were especially nice. My son killed off the chicken skin skewer before I got a shot at it, so I know it met his approval. We received a few comped dishes, and really enjoyed the tuna w/ spring onions in a miso dressing and the salmon. I liked the texture of the zaru udon, but think that the dipping sauce could have been more flavorful.

Service was attentive and friendly, though they're still working things out. It's definitely a family affair. I got a kick out of seeing the kids trying to lend a hand. I've never seen them at Geta (where I think they'd be underfoot), and I thought they were sweet.

Answer

We were there tonight also and had a nice meal. I thought the food was possibly as good as (and, to me, at least as interesting as) Kirala's - but the clincher is that we got out the door, stuffed, for $20 or $30 less than what we would have paid there. 

I don't think anything on the regular menu was more than $8, and most of the yakitori items (on a separate checklist menu) were in the $2.25-$2.75 range, and the skewers weren't as skimpy as you might expect at that price point.

For me, the highlights were the simple but very well-executed chicken thigh skewer - nice smoky char from the charcoal grill on all the yakitori we tried - and the butananban (batter-fried pork, from black pig) recommended by our server. The latter was served cold in a bowl of thin, slightly-sweet vinegar sauce. Also enjoyed the karaage. A pretty light touch with sauces, when present - nothing too sweet or salty. The karaage was served with just a lemon wedge.

A stew of beef tongue was tender and quite tasty (would have been great with rice), but strangely didn't seem very tongue-like to me. Maybe I've just never had tongue prepared that way?

They do need to work out some minor kinks on their menu - for example, the nutaae, described on the menu as "market fresh vegetables mixed in a miso vinegar sauce", came with shrimp and fairly large chunks of raw tuna. For me, this was a welcome surprise, but for my wife - who wanted more of a salad - not so much. 

Anyway, that hardly qualifies as a complaint. They also comped us a tomato salad to try - all organic, we were told, with shiso and slices of onion.

Chef came over and said they'd be adding more and more new items as they go, so I'm excited to come back.

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Kirala Restaurant
2100 Ward St, Berkeley, CA 94705

Answer

Tried B-Dama last week. We had:
Yakitori: chicken cartilage, hearts, skin, thighs, gizzard. Tried both the salt and sauced version of each. They were out of pork belly unfortunately. I don't usually get the cartilage and gizzard but the ones we had were cooked perfectly - crunchy but not too crunchy. Thighs and hearts were great. The skin was also good but would have liked it to be a little more crispy. I like that the sauced versions are lightly sauced and not smothered.
Pan fried beef tongue (gyutan?) with bitter melon was good but tongue could have been a bit more tender. Maybe I'm just used to cantonese style beef and bitter melon.
Butananban - deep fried pork belly chilled and served with sauce. This was recommended by our server and was very good, the sauce was perfect, light and not too salty.
Nutaae - this was chunks of tuna in a miso sauce on green onions. Good.
Karaage - pretty good, it's fried chicken. Like the karaage at Get-A.
Kakiage - deep fried vegetables with a dipping sauce. Good.
Rice
Dessert - I forget what this was called, cubes of some sort of sweetened root vegetable puree. This was refreshing but I probably wouldn't order it again.
Total with a beer and tax/tip was about $80. A bit pricy for two but we ordered too much. Definitely will be going back. It's a pretty small space, just a little bit bigger than Get-A. Was there at about 9 on a Friday and there were only a few people in the restaurant. They're still in stealth mode I guess. I wish they would stay open later though, 10pm is a bit early to close for an izakaya even if it is on Piedmont Ave.

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B-Dama
4301 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA 94611

Answer

Tried a few more things I really liked:
- Boiled beef tongue- marinated in red miso, sliced thin and served cold. Excellent. Love all their cold preps.
- Onsen tomago- their take on a "hot spring" egg, not really cooked in a hot spring, but gently poached and served cold in a soy and dashi based sauce. Really refreshing. (Rocky should have just downed a couple of these in the morning before working out.)
- Ebisu- like wakame-su (the classic seaweed-cucumber salad), but with two plump (and sweet) shrimp added. I believe one of the two was a blue "angel" shrimp.
- Kamo- duck breast yakitori, off the specials board. Chef recommended getting it with the salt option (rather than the sauce) so you could really taste the meat. Tender and tasty.

The only duds we've had were on the yakitori menu - the chicken meatball was pretty bland, and the chicken skin skewer wasn't grilled long enough (or hot enough?), so the skin was chewy and rubbery rather than crispy.

The second time we went they had some sushi available for that night only - brought over from Geta, I presume?

This place is great.

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