Hayatobi - San Gabriel, California

Keanan Block

Casual Japanese restaurant with great quality and authentic flavor. Good pricing. This is the type of neighborhood restaurant that is worth a visit even if you’re not from the area. Nothing is particularly fancy here, interior, service, presentation, but the food speaks for itself!

Benson Hsu

There are not many Japanese owned Japanese restaurants in the SGV, but this is one of them. Chef Mark Hayashi has quite the resume and he's a very nice guy. If you have the opportunity, sit at the sushi bar and ask him for his recommendations. While he's making your sushi, ask him about his past life as a drift racer in the early 2000s!

The nigiri is fresh and expertly made. The portions are large, and we regularly order the tofu salad, chicken katsu, curry. There is a good selection of sake and beer.

Mary Ann Tuzon

We live in Pasadena, yet even with the abundant options in the city, we make the drive down for this spot. The premium sushi set (with bluefin, hamachi, belly, etc) is the best deal in town and the various options on the menu, from sanuki udon, to curry, to the donburi makes this place our go to for a great Japanese meal.

Katie

Ordered the chicken katsu curry to go, which came with miso soup and the salad pictured.
Can’t say much on the service as I just picked it up but it didn’t have any utensils in the bag so that’s the only reason I docked a star. A large portion of food and decent.
Wasn’t very crispy and lacked a little bit of flavor but overall was enjoyable.

Yuki Mano

Came here last night and left with full satisfaction. Food was amazing, both sushi and Kushikatsu, which I think is unique to have both to be so good. To top it off, the service was on point, especially with the owner Mark who has a great charisma and love to make sure that his customers are satisfied with the whole experience. He can also speak fluently in both English and Japanese, so that’s a great plus for some folks. Definitely planning to come back again

Audrey

Chef was awesome, food was delicious, fresh and priced reasonably. The restaurant itself is fairly peaceful and the inside was nice. Servers were friendly and helpful. Maybe my new favorite sushi spot (and I’ve tried quite few in this area!)

Jose Baldonado

You can tell this used to be a Chinese restaurant. I knew it had been, but once inside you can still tell. The interior could use a remodel, but that’s ok.

The service is on point and friendly. It wasn’t very busy as we went for an early dinner. The food came out quickly and was fresh. The sushi was good. I made the mistake of ordering the curry and rice without the chicken katsu. I thought there would be some chunks of veggies or something in the curry but there wasn’t. It was just the curry sauce. I won’t do that again.

They currently have some 1 year anniversary specials for dine in that are pretty good.
There is parking on both sides of the establishment.

Chris Yu

$5 dine-in deals!? With inflation causing prices to skyrocket, it's an amazing deal and better than what you can get from fast food restaurants' $1-$3 menu. This restaurant's location has had high turn overs ever since the original store from the early 2000's was here but I hope this sushi restaurant stays for the long run because their food is worth it.

Both my friend decided to walk here since we live nearby, plus their parking lot isn't that big. We both ordered different rolls and some beer to enjoy. For a weekend evening, it was packed and there was a wait to be seated. Compared to other sushi restaurants nearby, I prefer this place because the chef is actually Japanese so you know the food is authentic, whereas other spots may have a non-Japanese owner/chef. Everything is what you'd expect and well worth their price range. Like I mentioned earlier, their $5 dine-in deals is a bargain if you're on a budget and the options that they have aren't too shabby.