Where to eat in San Jose Japantown

San Jose's Japantown is one of only three historic Japantowns left in the United States, along with those in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is also the smallest and the most like a neighborhood. Low buildings line Jackson Street and the cross streets around it, with family restaurants, a Buddhist temple, a museum and grocery stores that have served the same families for generations. Lunch here is part of the visit.

This guide names only places we confirmed on their own websites in late October 2026. The neighborhood site jtown.org lists more restaurants, but several long-running ones had websites that did not load, showed old notices or blocked our checks, so we left them out rather than guess. For the neighborhood's history, monuments and festivals, see our San Jose Japantown guide.

How Japantown is laid out

The center of Japantown is the corner of Jackson and North Fifth streets, close to the Japanese American Museum of San Jose at 535 North Fifth Street. Jackson Street holds most of the restaurants within two blocks of that corner. East Taylor Street, one block north, adds the oldest market and a tea shop. North Sixth Street has a few more family restaurants. Everything on this page is within about a five-minute walk of Roy's Station. Street parking near Jackson Street fills quickly at lunch on Saturdays, so allow time to circle.

Japanese restaurants

Kazoo

Kazoo at 250 Jackson Street opened in 1989. It serves sashimi, nigiri, rolls, bento boxes and lunch specials. It is best known for sushi boats, large wooden boats loaded with an assortment for the table. The website lists lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, with all-day service on weekends. It also takes online orders and caters. A sushi boat suits a family or a group of friends.

Sushi Maru

Sushi Maru at 262 Jackson Street runs a sushi bar where you can order from the chefs or pick plates from a conveyor belt, according to the neighborhood directory. Its own site lists lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 p.m. most days, with one weekday closure. It sells take-out bento boxes and takes online orders. Our sushi guide covers counters closer to Palo Alto.

Hawaiian plate lunch and poke

Hawaiian food has deep roots here, because many Japanese American families in San Jose have relatives in the islands.

Hukilau

Hukilau at 230 Jackson Street styles itself as a small-town Hawaii plate-lunch spot. The menu covers Spam musubi, fresh poke and loco moco, with mai tais and other island cocktails at the bar. Its site lists lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 4 or 5 p.m. most days. Monday is dinner only. It takes online orders for pickup and delivery.

Aloha Fresh

Aloha Fresh at 225 Jackson Street is a poke shop with 14 recipes, poke rice bowls and salads, poke by the pound and platters for parties. It says its fish is never frozen and never treated with carbon monoxide. Hours on its site are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For poke near home, see our poke guide.

Korean food

Omogari at 154 Jackson Street serves traditional Korean home cooking: grilled short ribs, stone bowl bibimbap, japchae glass noodles, kimchi stew and seafood rice bowls. The neighborhood directory notes a spice legend on the menu so you can judge the heat. The website lists lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, all day Saturday and closed Sunday. Our Korean food guide lists restaurants in Palo Alto.

Markets, coffee and tea

Santo Market

Santo Market at 245 East Taylor Street has served San Jose since 1946. It is a family-run grocery for Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian foods, with a deli counter, poke, coffee and espresso drinks and a house line of Japanese pickles and prepared foods. Staff speak English, Spanish and Japanese. Its site lists hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, so plan a weekday or Saturday visit.

Roy's Station

Roy's Station occupies the Mobil gas station that Roy Murotsune's family bought after World War II, at the corner of Jackson and North Fifth. His daughter and grandchildren turned it into a cafe. It brews Verve coffee and Satori teas and gets croissants each morning from Firebrand Artisan Breads. The site lists 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends.

Sinceretea

Sinceretea at 392 East Taylor Street makes handcrafted tea drinks and sells loose oolong and green teas. In fall 2026 it announced that the cafe would become mainly a do-it-yourself boba workshop, while still selling grab-and-go drinks to walk-in customers. See our boba and tea guide for shops nearer home.

Festivals and busy days

Food stalls are a big part of the neighborhood's two main festivals. Obon at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin takes place every July, with dancing, taiko and food booths run by temple volunteers. The Nikkei Matsuri brings a spring street fair. On those days restaurants fill and parking is scarce, so arrive early or take light rail. Palo Alto has its own summer celebration; see our Obon festival guide.

Planning your visit

1. Pick your day. Tuesday to Saturday is the safest window, since Santo Market and Omogari close on Sunday or Monday.
2. Go at lunch. Many family restaurants close between lunch and dinner. Kazoo and Sushi Maru reopen in the late afternoon.
3. Bring a cooler. Santo Market's pickles and poke travel well for the drive home.
4. Ride the train. Caltrain to Diridon plus light rail to Japantown/Ayer avoids parking hunts on festival days. Our San Jose day trip guide pairs Japantown with downtown museums.
5. Stay downtown. If you plan an evening in San Jose, compare San Jose hotels about two miles south.

Openings, closings and checking ahead

Japantown's family businesses do not always update their websites. While checking for this page we found one longtime restaurant whose site still showed a past temporary closure notice and others whose sites would not load. We left those out until we can confirm them. Some may well be open. A call before a special trip is the surest check. The neighborhood's Instagram account also posts frequent updates.

Frequently asked questions