Review B-dama - Oakland

Hitoshi Hokamura

The casual version of Delage with creative Chef Chikara-San who is from Oita prefecture originally. Regular menu is all stable and good with reasonable price, but if you do special order well in advance you would enjoy variety of Wagyu dish, tuna head grill as we as Nakaochi scraping from huge tuna bones. Great combination of Hokkaido Uni and fresh Nakaochi, and you can make a hand role.

Mo rt

I love B-Dama with all my heart, been a customer of theirs since their restaurant on Piedmont Ave opened. If I could have them cook for me everyday, I'd be in heaven. The set lunches/dinners are some of the best deals around, with a generous portion of fish or other protein, a little salad, a bowl of soup, a nice serving of steamed rice, and another little side of veggies. If you manage to eat the whole thing like me, congratulations on joining the glutton's club! I'm also a big fan of their tofu salad, with a creamy miso sesame dressing, seaweed, and a brighy hued, spicy oil that brings out a nice contrast to the coolness of the tofu and salad. Their hand rolls are made to order so everything arrives fresh, delicious, and beautiful to boot. Their udon or nabe hits the spot on a chilly day. My husband rotates his meal choice whe we come to Swan's Market, but I'm always in the mood for B-Dama!

Nang’s Thai

Teriyaki chicken to go but I ate at the market. The chicken and rice was great, the miso soup, salad and beans were not so good-the miso soup is always amazing, just not this time. Plus so many sauces between my plate and my coworkers that we didn’t know what sauce went with what dish lol She ordered (FYI) veggie tempura lunch, well rang up as shrimp but no shrimp add extra veggies (wish I had a pic) because barely any veggies and still charged the same price. I’ve definitely had better experiences from this spot. Maybe it was an off day or just too busy.

anne elaine price

I always enjoy eating at B-Dama for lunch. The food is light, fresh and so full of flavor. Everything I ordered has been delicious.

Ken Wong

Tried the vegetable udon for dinner. Was really tasty with the dashi broth. Very mildly flavored and hearty. Would get this again.

darius kraus

I just became a fan of chicken wings!!! Not usually my favorite dish but they had me sucking the meat off the bone. Everything else was excellent also. Dining is in a shared seating area with three other restaurants so it does have a market feel. Although their sushi menu is not huge it is always a pleasure to eat.

Steve S

Don't understand what the big hype is about this place. The rice on our spicy tuna roll was a bit hard, which meant, it was old and not fresh. My kimchi beef rice bowl was so bland, I had to add soy sauce. You know it's really bad when an Asian needs to add soy sauce to the rice. Furthermore, how can this place be a single $ rating, when group of 4 were still hungry after spending almost $60.

Ethan Byrom

For me this is the most authentic Japanese food in Oakland. Inside Swan's Market, the B-Dama counter serves up quality dishes at affordable prices: fish collars, nabe pots, sashimi platters, chicken karaage, fish and meats grilled over traditional charcoal hibachis, and an ever-changing menu of daily special menu items, as well as a wide selection of Japanese sakes and a couple beer and wine choices. They also have several very nice bento lunch sets. If you want a more upscale setting and an intimate and amazing 7- or 8-course omakase-style meal, check out their Delage around the corner from B-Dama.

Morgan Courtney

Consistently good. Usually get the sushi set but have ordered the karaage and a soup- always huge portions!! Great sake selection, too.

Yoshika Hedberg

As a native Japanese, I highly recommend B-dama. If you are looking for non-authentic "value" Japanese food, then this is not the place for you. If you want the real taste of Japan, then wait in the line if you have to for their real flavors of Japan. Sushi I tried were great, as well as Yakitori, but what I really loved was the ability to take the traditional flavors and meld it with local ingredients, and take it a step further. It's not fusion. This is a true evolving Japanese cuisine.

Jo Lem

Today I has the chicken karage lunch set To Go. The chicken was tasty. However I got two wierd pieces out of 4. They were the chicken backs. Which means there is no meat just bones. I feel a bit cheated out of what started to be a great lunch. Since it was to go I didnt have time to go back.

Carole Ching

Friendly, fast service, tasty food in portions that were satisfactory and filling. Would definitely recommend and return!

Christian Petke

My goto Japanese place! great food, friendly staff - amazing value!

Swazerre L Dean

I was an ardent fan of B-Dama for approximately a year however as of July 16' I was very pissed with the service. My routine was simply to get a salad from the neighboring Coescha then B-Dama for whatever grilled fish was available... One day I did the routine and B-Dama took 40 minutes for my grilled halibut... So I'm thinking "OK that was just a fluke"... The following weekend same routine...40 minutes later the same results! Two weeks later I took my fiance and IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! That time I went to the cashier and voiced my concerns... A server came and apologized also stating I would get a refund AND the person on the grill offered a free grilled mackerel for my inconvenience.... Well being the person I am (not hard to please and a foodie) I graciously accepted! Guess what ??? I waited 40 for minutes for said peace offering and it NEVER came !!! B-Dama I'm done its a wrap ! I've never been so pissed with a good restaurant for such horrible service and inconsistency.........

Joyce Tang

Flavors are really good, love the agedashi tomato. Sushi however is only ok. Go for the hot food, not the sushi.

Masako Kalbach

ビー玉がOldtown に来てから、職場に近くなったのでお昼にちょくちょく行けるようになりました。日本食好きな職場の同僚も連れて行けるので、パーフェクト。でも、今日はちょっと残念なlunch experience。ビー玉に行ったことのない同僚二人を連れて、今日ランチに行きました。I learned that tsukune lunch is off the menu!! I am so sad! Please bring it back! Both my colleagues wanted that (cuz I've been talking about it so much), but they couldn't. Soooo disappointed. Also one of my colleagues ordered karaage lunch -- and it came with tempura that were sitting in the dipping sauce all soggy & sad... Such a off-day for B-Dama, I thought. Was kind of embarrassed that I had bragged so much about B-Dama to my coworkers. I hope this was just a rare bad day at B-Dama.

Sergio M Seki

オークランドにここまで本格的な居酒屋があるとは・・・もともと半信半疑で行ってみたんですが、かなりレベルは高いと思います。もうちょっとメニューがあったらいいのにな～