Tokie’s settles into San Mateo location

And close to six months after owners Victor and Diane Onizuka opened the restaurant’s doors at its new location on East Fourth Avenue, Chiang is ready to call the transition a success, with several new customers bolstering the restaurant’s dedicated following.

Chiang said several of the restaurant’s some 30 staff members have worked there for years, which he credits with retaining the vast majority of its regular customers despite the move. He said the restaurant has long been popular with families and has also been a favorite spot for generations within the same family to reunite.

“We were pretty much like the ‘Cheers’ of Foster City because everybody who came in there knew somebody,” he said. “Even here we have a huge following … they would come in just like old times.”

Chiang said he worked closely with the Onizukas and an architect to recreate the restaurant’s atmosphere, even using wood paneling and elements from its former location to construct lanterns and other wooden features in the new space. Formerly the location of Block 34 and Pasta Primavera, the space was equipped with a bar, which Chiang is setting up as a prime happy hour spot where patrons can find Japanese whisky, beer, sake and other spirits they may not easily find elsewhere.

Chiang said Victor Onizuka’s mother, who is also the restaurant’s namesake, immigrated to the United States after surviving the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. He said she started her own catering business in the late 1970s and opened Tokie’s restaurant in the Foster City location in 1981 in the hopes of serving customers Japanese comfort food like sukiyaki, a hot pot dish that can include noodles, meat and vegetables served in a hot broth.

Though the menu has grown over the years to include sushi and bar bites, Chiang said the staff has remained committed to making almost all of its sauces from scratch, even making the filling for its gyoza dumplings by hand and assembling them in the restaurant. He knows from experience that customers have come to expect menu staples like tempura and calamari, and said seeing customers who were once children return as adults and seniors has been especially rewarding for the owners.

“We’ve very important to them and it makes us feel good that we haven’t changed the menu or the way we’ve done anything since day one,” he said.

Chiang acknowledged the clustering of Japanese restaurants in San Mateo serving some of the same dishes, such as sushi, but he welcomed their presence and noted Tokie’s fills a niche for large parties and families.

“People who were raised on Tokie’s come in and bring their kids,” he said. “As much as there are Japanese restaurants here, there aren’t very many that can accommodate large families.”

As a San Mateo native, Chiang has been encouraged by the number of small businesses that have been able to succeed in the city and hoped the downtown atmosphere bodes well for future business owners. Though he noted there are relatively few restaurants on the stretch of East Fourth Avenue where Tokie’s is located, Chiang was hopeful for more eateries to open nearby to draw more customers to the downtown’s southwestern edge.

And as he sets his sights on developing a weekend brunch menu and updating the restaurant’s facade for its upcoming grand opening, Chiang is looking forward to celebrating the both the old and new with the restaurant’s customers.

“Anyone who went to Tokie’s will walk in and automatically recognize this as just an updated Tokie’s,” he said.

Tokie’s Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 34 E. Fourth Ave.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106