Reviews for Taro San Japanese Noodle Bar in Palo Alto, CA

The meat quality was really high. I was impressed by the short rib and the sliced beef. Udon was fresh and the texture was good... too. However the broth is so boring. Based on the price, I was expecting way better broth. Read more

It?s a great place, a lot bigger than it seems from the outside, the service was quick and very kind, our waitress was really... helpful with our questions about the menu. The portions were huge, we underestimated and ordered a lot lol. They have the bestseasoned edamame I?ve had but the real mvp was the udon 5 stars ?? it was amazing. Read more

We ordered the chicken karage and the salmon tips for appetizers and both were amazing! The chicken was delicious! It was crispy... on the outside, tender on the inside, and not too oily. This was my first time having salmon tips and I really enjoyed it. Thefish meat was very well-cooked and the salmon skin was super crispy and yummy. I ordered the niku udon and it was by far thebest. It was a huge portion for the price (especially for Palo Alto). I believe the udon was hand-made, and it was so good. Itwas really chewy, almost like the Q texture of mochi, in a really good way. The broth was great, the beef was so nicely cookedand tender, and the spinach had a nice slight crunch. Overall, definitely one of the best places in Palo Alto! Read more

Walking by I found this cozy small Japanese restaurant in the Stanford shopping center. Just in time for happy hour, ordered... spicy salmon roll and kaki udon, they were so affordable and tasty, decided to order one more item, California roll. The noodlewas house made, it was perfectly cooked chewy and delicious, I was surprised to see that California roll was made with realcrabmeat instead of imitation crabmeat. Very friendly staffs! Best of all dog friendly, they let me sit with my dog indoor whiledining! Read more

My rating is 3.5 The dining environment is great except a light on ceiling flashing all the time. They need to fix it. The... Niku Udon is good. There two types of duck udons. The menu is not clear for their differences so it is easy to order the wrongone. The $16 duck tsuke udon comes with COLD noddle. This information is totally missing from the menu. Only the $17 duck andJapanese mushroom udon is not cold noddle. Hopefully this helps. Read more

Not sure why this place gets bad ratings about anything other than service, and our service was fine for the most part. Food was... great, while the prices are high, the portions are good and the ingredients are excellent. Just be smart and don't order thebento box at an udon place... Uni ikura risotto - delicious also came with some mentaiko. Needed a tiny bit of shoyu. Ducktsuke udon - Really good broth, noodles were great consistency for it, duck was good, but broth could a been hotter Niku udon -Solid staple nothing special about their broth but still fine, the noodles were what made this stand out, thick as hell. Deepfried soft boiled egg - while I've had better, this is still really good and a hard to find optional add-on. Read more

We had the truffle mushroom cream udon and the uni cream udon. Both tasted good, the flat style udon they used was nice. I also... really liked the chicken karaage, takoyaki, and bacon wrapped mochi. The karaage was super crispy on the outside and juicy onthe inside. For dessert we wanted to try the creme brulee but both flavors were out of stock. We tried the mochi donut holesinstead with the 3 different dips. They were alright but nothing crazy, I think I prefer just regular mochi donuts. My favoritesauce is the caramel one. Also recommend the yuzu lemonade drink, it was very refreshing. Read more

This is a gem. Great udon, great chicken (crispy and not oily), great sushi, great tempura, great salad. This place is all... around good. The food is good and the servers are fast and attentive. We ordered a variety of food here and it was all aroundexcellent. We were shocked at how good it was, especially because the place had great prices and great value. I highly recommendeating here. Read more