Delicious. Well presented. Reasonable priced. Good service. Most importantly, a rare Japan-western cuisine intrigues you to wonder how the next plate is going to taste.

The mentaigo pasta was probably the best of everything I ordered. Clam ramen was not bad, the short rib steak was alright, beef tongue was a bit disappointing, it was overcooked. Sweet shrimp sashimi is my favorite. Overall it’s great value for what you pay for. It’s definitely a hidden gem of a good Japanese restaurant in Santa Clara

This was the second time we visited TANTO. Their rice ball, ramen, sashimi, and pasta were all above the average quality of most of the Japanese restaurants in the area. Really recommend this restaurant!

The dinner was amazing. We ordered the Ita wasa (fishcake with wasabi), Ikura oroshi (salmon roe with Daikon), karaage chicken and did a takeaway of Ishiyaki butameshi (rice with braised pork). Highly recommend the food. We have done takeaways in the past but our first dine in experience was equally good.Theres a 40min wait period and they dont take reservations over the phone so I suggest arriving as soon as they open for dinner at 6pm, logging your name and number, then head off to do something close by.

Came here a few times and got a variety of food. Would say your experience here depends on what exactly you ordered. Getting anything off the grill is wonderfully delicious, but would say the other things Ive ordered that did not fit in with those were a miss. However, would recommend for some good Japanese food.

Recommend the grilled onigiri, daikon salad

An excellent dining experience every visit. Tanto offers a wider variety of Japanese dishes not often found in basic sushi eateries. Each dish is prepared deliciously and plated cleanly; just as one would find in a similar restaurant in Japan. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an authentic experience.

Tasty japanese dishes...always love it here parking situation a bit tight.

Better than Burger King.Seems like prices have gone slightly up and portions have gone slightly down.

I love Japanese food. It took me while to finally find a great Japanese restaurant in Sunnyvale, close to Santa Clara where tons of great Korean restaurants are. You have to try the fried rice ball, it is not on there regular lunch menu, but we saw a lot of tables ordered it so we asked the waitress for it. It has very nice texture. Their sushi is very fresh. Unlike most of the Japanese restaurants, their portion is big. Their price is reasonable based on the quality of the food and the large portion. I strongly recommend Tanto to all Japanese food lovers!

Really amazing dishes!Resos are hard to get or otherwise You have to wait for a long timeI went 15 min before they opened for dinner and the walk in queue quickly filled up behind mePrice point was surprisingly not bad ( though some dishes can be carb heavy from the rice fillers )Def will return and try more menu items

Yes, this place is expensive, but it’s so goooood!! Sashimi was fresh, and the platter is so good too!!

I have been coming here for 20 years when they were authentic Japanese Izakaya located in a smaller location further down El Camino. They served authentic Japanese tapas to accompany drinking and mingling with friends and colleagues. They have shifted their clientele now to serve non-Japanese customers, and their strategy is paying off with lines out the door (before the New Normal) and the menu is also catering towards the local preferences.During SIP, Tanto is offering a good selection of set meals for families to enjoy at home. Keep up the good work, I shall return when this is all over.

Great diversity of plates, loved the family style. Service was pretty fast. Liver and tongue were my favorites. Dont forget to taste some of their sake. The place is a bit noisy so not the place for a date.

The food was good but expensive. Service was attentive. My only complaint was the short haired hostess behind the table. She had such a poor manner with a grumpy face and a rude gesture. I hope owner replaces her with someone more pleasant to interact with. If she is the owner, I am not returning.

This place was buzzing on a week night, loud atmosphere but lively, tight seating but cozy, smaller dishes but theyll fill you up so good!

This 4 stars is based on CP, prices are reasonable. Unfortunately, flavors and tastes earned 3 stars. The ika meshi probably was the better dish, interesting sauce, fresh ika. The sashimi on the salad was not very fresh. The eggplant gratin tasted strange, think it was the cheese. Beef tendon was too sweet. Omelette with eel was so so. The rest very so so. Dishes all came very fast. Service was okay.

Awesome delicious food! Be sure to come around 5:40 in order to get a table at 6pm.

We reserved through phone call in advance. The service is good and quick. Overall, the taste is excellent.Salmon sashimi is very delicious and fresh with decent amount. Grilled beef tongue is also recommended.

My go to spot for solid Japanese food. Tanto has generous portions for a Japanese restaurant, and the food is amazing. I love their uni meshi, mentaiko pasta, and the beef tongue. There’s usually a line on the weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday seem to be the best days to go.

Everything was so good!!!! The fishes are very fresh and reamy. The oysters are very good. We love everything here 😋

We ordered Onigiri and uni fried rice, the two most popular dishes on google reviews, and omelet with spicy roe. The omelet turned out to be very creamy and tasty. But we were very disappointed by the other two - uni was very bitter, and you never knew whether your next bite of the onigiri would be too salty or no flavor at all.We ended up ordering a 4th dish hoping for better luck - the chicken kaarage. Nope, it was so plain that I finished the mayo half way thru the kaarage and kept adding red pepper flakes. There were also pieces that were too skinny to be chicken meat and were straight up fried flour.In the end we were very glad that we only waited 5 minutes for this place. The good parts about this restaurant:1) we were very full after all that rice2) there’s a clean and bright korean market across the street that you can wander around and digest all that rice

Drove here all the way from Berkeley. It was quite the drive in rush hour traffic, however, it was well worth! We waited for about 30 minutes for a table for 2 on a Thursday night. Once we sat down and ordered, our food literally all arrived within 10 minutes. On top of all that, everything was delicious! If it werent for the wait, this place would have been a 5 star restaurant, the wait took one of the star away. Make a reservation, and thank me later. 😁

Amazing and authentic Japanese tapas. We had the pork belly, scallops with salmon roe, squid stuffed with rice (sauce on side), and the beef tongue. Everything was delicious and that was the perfect amount for 2 people.Will definitely be back here and will make a reservation next time to avoid the 30min wait!

This place never disappoints. Best grilled/yaki onigiri, mentaiko potato au gratin, and karaage!

My third time here and it is still one of my favorite place. The crispy Salmon rice ball is so good. There so many choices on their menu both cooked and the typical sashimi/sushi. a small place so either go early to stand in line or call for reservation. If you call one week ahead you will have a better chance of getting what you want. Make sure to save room for desert!

Food is unique and there are a lot of Japanese there. Recommended.

So delicious! Every dish was unique, and offered an interesting set second flavours for the epicurean appetite. My favourite dishes were the Hotate butter uni nose, Umaki Tamago, and the Kani Gratin. Also good were their oyster dishes and the Uni Shisho sashimi dish. The uni was not quite as creamy or delicate tasting as hoped, but the portion size was decent for the price. Last, we tried their ice cream dessert - beware, it is a lot to share and we could barely finish it after all the food we ate.

Excellent food. Busy but efficient restaurant.

Our favorite japanese restaurant! A MUST! We order takeout 1x/month from here!! The takeout is beautiful! Food delicious.

The menu, containing perhaps a hundred different dishes, is a bit overwhelming for someone like me who is not too familiar with Japanese food. Each dish is described in around three words. The waiter was helpful, but there was only so much he could do. I was happy with my selection, but it may have been mostly luck on my first visit. On my second visit I had sashimi, which was excellent -- especially considering how cheap it was.

Great izakaya spot! Def worth checking out. Get there early in case its a little busy as there may be a wait. Some highlights on the menu:Gyutan (grilled beef tongue)Kaki fry (fried oysters)Mentaiko pasta (spicy cod rose pasta)Sashimi was also very tasty 🙌🏼If youre into Japanese food, just get here and enjoy yoself.

This place has been in my radar for a while and I got to try their bento lunch set for dinner. The quality was very good and the combo was a steal at $13. I will definitely go back for their dinner menu which is their main draw.

The crispy rice ball is amazing. My favorite Japanese restaurant in the area. The seafood is so fresh and has high quality. Good place to hang out and chat with friends.

Every dish we ordered was delicious and definitely going to be back!

Perfect izakakaya experience right here in South Bay. Tanto stands out from the rest of the izakayas around here not in terms of food but more in terms of the atmosphere it creates. The food is top notch too. But the friendly folks who wait on you here made the experience for me.

The wait was a little long, but worth it.The salmon and white tuna sashimi was excellent.The pork salad had shredded cooked and lightly vinegared pork and was very goodThe halibut sashimi was only ok to my taste.The butter enoki and shitake mushrooms had surprise bacon and were good/ok.The black sesame ice cream tasted like smoky sesame oil and I didnt care for it.The ice cream with red bean was delicious and is a mountain of ice cream with a swirl of red bean paste on the side surrounded by little rice-only mochi balls.Very interesting and authentic menu. Looking forward to coming back to try more!Second visit:Salmon sashimi was again fantastic.White tuna was very good. Next time will try another fish though.Garlic steak was good but wouldn’t reorder.Minced miso pork wrapped in lettuce cups was literally a head off price in a cup and tasted very fermented. Would not order again.

Good food and not very pricy.Rather long wait time and ok service.

We waited almost an hour for a table at 7 pm on a weekday. We just wanted a light dinner/snack. The food came out almost alarmingly fast? The miso pork lettuce wrap came almost immediately after we ordered. The takopotato was pretty good but I think I prefer takoyaki.. it was like mashed potato balls with sparse pieces of octopus. The agedashi tofu was very good. I would rate it a 3.5.

Best Japanese Homestyle Cooking in the Bay Area. We drove 50 miles from San Francisco just to have dinner on a weeknight. Awesome restaurant!!!!!

Best Japanese izakaya in South Bay. Go to dish is Temaki Set. Take and make sushi at its best. But pretty much everything there is good. They have a huge menu.

Love this place, food is super delicious

Beef tongue

One of the best Japanese restaurant in south bayarea. Didnt order sashimi this time. Love their unagi + yamaimo. So goooood!

Fusion-japanese cuisine with good quality fish. The scallop and uni plate was really fabolous.

This restaurant is pretty good. Service was awesome, food is great!

Always top quality food. Some dishes are less than inspiring, but most are.

The best value and place for lunch when craving for Japanese food. My favorite is silver cod lunch set and littleneck clam salt ramen noodle soup. There usually are additional three lunch special sets that you can choose from. Even though the prices have increased a lot like other restaurants in the bay area, it is worth it!Sadly, they dont have my favorite silver cod today.

Delicious eel grilled chicken n wine

Great food, high quality, nice atmosphere. The seafood was excellent & very fresh - especially the sashimi.

Nice, authentic place. Good food. I wish youd have pictures in the menu.

Excellent Japanese food, and good presentation. Usually, there are three lunch sets to choose. If dont like the lunch sets, there are many other dishes on menu to select. This place is always crowdy at lunch, so try to arrive early if you do not want to wait.

Oi shi!! Gochisou sama deshita!Get the beef tongue and the sashimi!! Leave the seared O Toro (fatty tuna).Great great place!!

Love this place, spittle pricy but the quality is always good.

If I could give 0 star I would. It’s Valentine’s Day and we’ve waited for 2 hours in the cold air for our pickup order, which supposed to be ready at the appointed time 2 hours ago. This is not acceptable, as this place set time slots for pickup on their website when customers place orders, but they do not follow it AT ALL. There were several couples waiting outside as long as we did. But we waited until the very last when people arrived a lot later than us got their orders. Completely nonsense. The wait completely ruined our V Day.

This is one of the fav places in whole bay area. If we talk about mediterranean food, no place is near to them. There fresh pitas are awesome.

Wonderful Japanese food. Long wait at lunch time but worth it. Portion is big. Price is affordable.

Tanto is a mainstay in great japanese dining in Santa Clara. They offer delicious izakaya dishes that pair wonderfully with their beer and sake selection. We’ve been here so many times over the years and look forward to returning as things go back to normal.

6:45PM pick up, but with 10 people in line waiting for their orders. So pick up time is meaningless. Would prefer a call when the order is ready, so not to have to wait 30 minutes in line. And when I get to the front of the line, my order is not ready.

This excellent restaurant is completely out of place in its area, where it is surrounded by fast-food restaurants and uninspiring store fronts. We went there twice in a week, and there were guests waiting for tables at all times. We waited 10 minutes the first time and 2 minutes the second time.

Excellent taste. Fresh and delicious sashimi. AND they have room for 1 person!

A cozy real Japanese restaurant. There are always queue but it worths to wait. They also serve pretty fast especially during lunch. Eel bowl was very good and their lunch specials are pretty good too.

Our go to Japanese comfort food, if there is such a thing, its here!

Not sure why this plave is so popular. Sashimi is not amazing quality and lumch bento boxes are below average. Dinner time might be different, but lunch time is just chaos.

Great yakiniku spot, love it! Usually very fresh fish

Great place for ramen. Staff is super cute and friendly. We went there and made a surprising birthday for my friend and staff helped us to set up cake, dishes. Ramen was really good. Good price as well.

My friend recommend this restaurant to me. It is wonderful! The sashimi test wonderful. Sashimi salad is kind of oily, but well flavored! I ordered hamachi Kama, too. It was great one. Low oil and low salt. The ice cream is my favorite! And when I sit done I saw my Japanese friend in the other side. They recommend this restaurant again and mention this is one of the best Japanese restaurant in the Bay Area!

A+ must go for Japanese food. It’s a Japanese chef family own restaurant. The menu offer are superb with some food that aren’t available at any other restaurant. Great portion that will definitely satisfy your hunger.

Got the takeout onigiri sampler tray which was big! Came with 4 onigiris and noodles and fried ebi and karaage. I didnt realize itd be so much food so I had also ordered the cod and buta kimchi fried rice. Everything nicely packaged and right on time for pick up. Giant delicious feast of rice back at home.

Went in for lunch and had chazuke set menu. Lunch menu was limited but very interesting options. Waiting to go for dinner next time.

Great food at reasonable price.. 5 star

This site is my preferable restaurant. Of all restaurants I know I favor it most. I always suggests to my friends to go to visit this place. Whenever I I need a decent lunch, this place comes straight to my head. very good and food and a rich menu.courteous staff members, and nice vibes. Not less important, the pay is reasonable. I praise this place with no doubt.

Amazing food al8ng with great services ~

This is not the first time that My order was not ready at the scheduled pick up time but the experience I had last night was unprecedentedly disappointing. My two persons dinner set was scheduled for pick up at 5:50pm. Upon arrival, I was told it would be ready in 10 mins. I returned in 10 mins and was told they were still working on it and would call me when ready, and it was another 8 mins of wait in the cold winter. I noticed that there were at least 3 couples were waiting for their scheduled orders like I did but come on, whats the point of scheduling if you have been consistently unable to deliver on time? I rarely give negative ratings but I think Im obligated to flag others just in case they want to order from them. For sure I will not be going back. There are still plenty of choices out there.

Great food

Be prepared to wait up to an hour without a reservation, though I must say the wait was well worth it. Tanto has a wide variety of tapas from the familiar to the utterly unique. Some of these unique dishes have been the reason for my friends and I frequenting this location. Secondly, the pricing when compared with the level of food is unbeatable and the sake selection is wonderful. Bring and appetite, you wont be disappointed if you love Japanese Tapas.

Reasonably good Japanese

Decent food and price.

The food is good. I wish I had more time to order other dishes.

Tako potato is nice

One of my favorite Japanese restaurants!! I live in San Francisco and I drive to Tanto for my Izakaya fix.

The dishes are delicious and authentic Japanese style with modern twists. The portion is very generous for a tapas and it makes difficult to try many dishes at one visit. They need to be creative something like a smaller portion with lower price. Service is very quick and friendly, but needs to be a little more attentive.

The ambiance is pretty low key, with dim lighting. Its a popular place but you dont really need a reservation - I went on a Friday night and was able to get a table pretty easily. Food itself was pretty decent and we enjoyed it. Their selection of beers is pretty sparse though, since they have Sapporo on tap and only the large bottles of Asahi. Still a nice mellow Japanese restaurant experience.

Go here

I love authentic Japanese cuisine. Ive been going here for years. Its always delicious.

Takeout is really bad quality. Very disappointed.

This shop doesnt look impressive from the outside, but their food more than makes up for it. Give the beef tongue a try! Its amazing.

The food was worth the wait. My friend ordered sushi, but I dont care to eat raw items much here. I loved the grilled and braised preparations. Sharing with a friend with rice was perfect. Even with many orders of food and rounds of drinks, our bill was only ~$110 for a satisfying dinner celebration. The interior is small, almost bordering cramped, but in a booth, it was intimate and cozy. The service was attentive, though they seemed a bit overwhelmed; sitting at a corner table made it challenging to flag for some help. Cant wait to have an occasion to come back.

Love Tanto. Pretty much everything weve had from the extensive menu has been delicious. Every time we have people visit from out of town my wife insists we take them there and I am totally cool with that. We usually gorge ourselves and drink plenty of warm sake and it works out to be about $100 for two. Book if possible and they dont take bookings the day of the booking.

My favorite dish was the spicy tuna bowl, which reminded me of poke. A great place to go share sashimi with friends. Plenty of sake choices, noodles, grilled and fried choices for those not into raw fish. My servers were thoughtful and attentive.

Long line before opening at 6...good sign. Got an ice cold pitcher of Sapporo on draft. Yum! First two orders were good...fried rice ball with salmon roe and wasabi octopus. Rest of the food was average... grilled mushrooms, grilled chicken, and chicken meatball.

Scheduled pick up 645pm, order not ready till 745.

Very nice food!

We tried to eat here at about 9pm on Saturday night -- Google said they were open but they stop seating new customers at 8:30pm. Blah. Restaurant has a good reputation but we didnt get to try this time. Went to En down the road instead.

Was here for a birthday celebration. The food was good as ever and the service was effective and efficient. Just wish they could add some sound dampers to deaden the noise a bit.

Big portion and really good quality food!

Good vibes and decent food. Would recommend to anyone.

Good quality cooked dishes and fresh fish. Not fancy, but tasty. Good, although limited lunch specials. Very efficient in managing the lunch crowd and getting you food fast. I admit, the oolong tea is odd and disappointing for a Japanese restaurant.

Japanese style tapas restaurant. A bit expensive but the food is good. There is quite a bit of rice in every dish though

Try the kimchi fried rice in clay pot! Its very good. We had several tables ask us what it was when it arrived. In general all the food we tried was so good and the portion size is worth the price. The three of us ordered 6 dishes and had over stuffed ourselves and had some food left over. Staff was very friendly and quick! A few cons, it is very noisy when its full and the air gets a bit stuffy (low ceiling). If couples want privacy, there are more private seating available.