Izakaya Mai is a Japanese Izakaya or Japanese drinking establishment that also serves food. They are more small plate oriented restaurants. This restaurant has an extensive drink menu.
This restaurant is located in the downtown San Mateo area that has Japanese restaurants on almost every block. Japanese people run it so it must be authentic. The menu is full of translation errors.

Decor, Vibe - Pretty small cramped restaurant with sushi bar, traditional seating, and regular seating. Pictures all over the walls. Most asians in their 20’s to 40’s were eating. Some families. There were people waiting most of the time for tables.

Menu Pictures

Dinner Menu

Fried & Boiled?

Grill menu?

Specials Board

Picks:

Hamachi Kama ($10.50) - Classic yellow tail collar was tender and delicious. Came with dipping sauce.

Pork Sausage ($5.50) had 6 small hot dog like sausages that looked terrible but tasted good. Includes a Japanese mustard that looks like peanut butter.

Oden ($6.50) had several kinds of fish cakes and an egg. Home style delicious dish.

OK:

Kushi Yakitori ($4.50) was 2 skewers of chicken with teriyaki sauce. Average, nothing special here.

Chicken wing ($4.50) was 3 small pieces of grilled chicken. It was flavorful and tender but pretty burned

Homemade Stewed Pork ($5.75) had 3 pieces of pork that were stewed and then grilled. Fairly average dish.

Baked Squid Tail ($5.75) had lots of quantity but was a little salty and very chewy.

Tekka ($3.95) had pretty fresh tuna in the middle.

California Roll ($3.95) was a pretty average implementation of the classic.

Pans:
None

Izakaya Mai had fair service, slightly above average but the server did not come by that often. The food was fair, not great, but the diversity allowed us to try a lot of different dishes.

This is better and more authentic than O Izakaya Lounge in San Francisco’s Japantown area. It is a welcome change to the usual Japanese fare that is served elsewhere. Frankly nothing wowed us, this place might be best for a quick bowl of Champon noodles and an adult beverage. It is also open late. We have to try Saizo in Sunnyvale and Gochi sometime.

As with most other small plate places, prices can add up quickly, but the fun is in trying different items.

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Prather Ranch Meat Company raises cattle in North California’s Mt. Shasta area. The cattle are fed grass and are pastured.

They have a shop in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. They produced certified USDA organic beef that is free of hormones or antibiotics. They dry-age their beef 14-21 days. They sell their meats in their shop and also at various Farmer’s Markets.

Decor, Vibe - Prather Ranch has a stand at the Ferry Building Farmers Market (Tuesday, Saturday) and cooks hamburgers among other items on the grill. They sell cooked $7 breakfast sandwiches, $8/$10 griddle cakes and sausage, $7 hamburgers, $5 Bockwurst sausages during the Farmer’s market. $5 Cooked Hot dogs are sold inside.

Menu Pictures

Picks:

Cheeseburger ($6) - On a fresh Acme Bakery bun with cheddar cheese, this burger was slightly juicy, over cooked, and had lots of beef flavor. We have had it cooked better before, the line cook’s consistency varies. Pretty simple grilling and good meat achieved this result.

OK:
None

Pans:
Buffalo Burger ($6) - Too dry and chewy when compared to the regular burger. Much leaner but who’s looking for healthy stuff in a burger?

Service is not the best in the world and it takes about 10 minutes to get your burger.
Prather Ranch Meat Company sells some of the tastiest meat around, making their burger one of the best around. We ate sitting down by the railing as did others, not the most comfortable location.

Restaurant Serpentine in San Francisco also serves a burger with their meat. You can also buy some meat, bring it home, and roll your own. We have bought their steaks and lamb in the past. They were both excellent quality meats.

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Little Star Pizza is a popular pizza place with 2 locations in San Francisco. We visited the Divisidero location and ordered deep dish pizza. It took about 30 minutes to get our pizza.
Decor, Vibe - This place is in the middle of the Western addition, not the best of neighborhoods. The place is dark and feels cramped. Hipsters in their 20’s were mostly eating here and drinking Pabst and listening to the jukebox. Wait times can be long from 7-9pm.

Menu Pictures

Website Menu

Picks:

Classic ($17 for 9in, $22 for 12in)- Sausage, mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions would feed about 2 people. The pizza was full of chunky tomatoes to a point of being sour and strong. Sausage was not spicy nor was it flavorful. Corn mealy buttery crust was best part. Lots of toppings but not a lot of sausage. A good pizza but we like Zachary’s better.

Mediterranean Chicken ($18 for 9in, $23/12in) Chicken breast, artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, green olives, onions, feta had lots of chicken and dark olives. The Classic was better than this one as this was a little more soggy and less filling.

OK:
None

Pans:
None

Little Star Pizza had friendly service that was about average. Cheap $10 corkage. Limited dessert menu. Cash only.
This restaurant serves decent deep dish pizza that is a cut below Zachary’s in the East Bay. Of course it is just a matter of personal preference with this level of quality. It is worth visiting if you are in the area and do not feel hitting the East bay. CASH only

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