When it comes to a style of food we love, the winner has to be Japanese cuisine. The problem is usually the price. We have several favorite places in the Santa Cruz area and one we frequent is Takara, located in Capitola. On our last visit we were surprised to find an addtional menu tucked into the regular menu. At the top it said, "Dinner for Two $25", and it didn't say "each". So we confirmed with our server that indeed for $25.00 you get; an appetizer, two soups, two salads, two order of rice and two entrees. Now usually on these kinds of specials we've found the selection to be limited, but here we found the listings to be extensive. There were four different appetitzers, nine entrees and nineteen different rolls! This list doesn't exclude vegetarians either from that list; three apps, three entress and seven rolls were listed as vegetarian. So I'm guessing from that list you should be able to satisfy everyone in your party. One nice thing is you can substitute the entree for two sushi rolls. This give you a lot of options. Two main entrees or one main entree and two roll or four sushi rolls. The selection of rolls is like a "Best of" list of their best rolls. There are two additional entrees that you can choose for $2.00 extra; Broiled Salmon or Salmon Teriyaki. Whew!
For our visit we chose the Chicken Wing apps, Sesame Chicken with Lemon Sauce and Beef teriyaki. Our soups and salads arrived quickly and were very tasty. I'm especially fond of the miso based salad dressing that's used here. The Chicken Wings arrived shortly thereafter and were a treat. I'm not a fan of Chicken Wings at all, but I'll make an exception for these. Six small wing pieces fried crispy with a not overly hot sauce cooked into the skin. The skin was crunchy and I liked the subtle sauce. The chicken inside was moist and tender. They come with a Blue Cheese dipping sauce, which I found unnecessary as the wings were plenty tasty on their own. We were starting to feel pretty satisfied at this point, but there was more to come. When the entrees arrived we were very happy to see this were not scaled down portions at all. We have the Sesame Chicken quite often when we dine at Takara and this portion was exactly the same size as off the regular menu, two large pieces of white meat chicken, deep fried in a light Tempura batter. This comes with a lemon dipping sauce on the side, but I like the chicken plain or dipped in Soy Sauce. The Beef Teriyaki was to die for. I'm picky about my teriyaki and I don't usually order any beef dish in Oriental restaurants. The Teriyaki because I'm not fond of overly sweet sauces and I more often than not disappointed with the quality of beef used in sauced dishes. Well this dish changed my mind in a big way. The beef was a very tender piece of sliced steak and the Teriyaki enhanced the flavor without overpowering the dish. My wife doesn't usually eat red meat, but this time she claimed her fair share of the dish. Rice rounds out the meal.
For $25.00 I haven't found a meal to equal this in quality or quanitity. We had enough left over for a late night snack or light lunch.
We talked with one of the owners who told us that him and his wife had spent over six weeks coming up with this meal deal. He said they debated, coupons, percentage off deals, etc. and even brought in staff suggestions before deciding that what they wanted to do was offer a real honest deal that was difficult for people to pass up. And in my book they've done just that, my hats off to them.
They haven't decided how long to keep this deal available, so I'd suggesting checking before you go down there to make sure you're not surprised, but I definitely suggest taking advantage of this offer as soon as possible.
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Takara Restaurant
41st Av and Capitola Rd.
Capitola, CA
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