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Note - We have heard reports that this restaurant closed and then re-opened having completely changed the menu and other things. We have not yet been back to determine this for ourselves. This review therefore may be out of date.

Name Of Establishment	Teriyaki House
Address:	1341 Pacheco Blvd. Los Banos Ca.
Phone Number:	209-827-8889
Website:	Unknown
Prices:	Low / reasonable
Date Of Review:	June 2006
Check out the Official Merced County Health Inspection of this restaurant - If that link isn't working try this link (note: these links are slow to load)
Our Overall Numeric Rating
Summation Opinion: Food court style Japanese and Chinese food

We went to Teriyaki House in Los Banos on June 24th, 2006. The Teriyaki House claims in their advertisement to feature Japanese and Chinese fast food that is healthy , fast and reasonable. We ended up with mixed opinions; I liked them just fine but my husband was not very impressed. If we go back, it will probably be at my urging.

The Teriyaki House looks like a hamburger diner that was converted into a Teriyaki place. There are booths and tables that look like your typical 50's style diner. The big difference though are the paper lanterns hung from the ceiling and other decorations that are typically "oriental" such as lucky cats, etc. There is a big grill area where the food is prepared and you can often hear the cook happily singing (kind of a fun and happy thing) along with the sizzle of meals being fried up.

To our eyes the place isn't as clean as it could be. They seem to lack air conditioning and so have a very large fan blowing constantly. This of course creates dust, which streaks the ceiling and hangs heavily on fake plants and fruit draped here and there as a decoration. There also appears to be some sort of grease on the ceiling. It's kind of tacky in our opinion and should be addressed. In addition the tables were not wiped down to our satisfaction. They were not filthy, but there was just enough residue to be noticeable left on them.

The Teriyaki House offers lots of food choices at very reasonable prices. If you are having a hard time choosing, you can look at the pictures posted across a half wall. Everything looks so delicious, it's hard to choose! I finally settled on a # 12 combo and my husband a # 7. This is a place where you go up to the counter and order. After the meal comes up, you're on your own. Still the behind-the-counter service was very friendly and efficient. Teriyaki House appears to be the type of family owned and operated business which we always prefer to patronize.

My combination ($4.95) came with fried beef, noodles, sweet and sour pork and an eggroll. My husband's ($3.95) came with fried rice, an eggroll and green salad. The portions are quite big. We both ordered sodas, but there are some non-fountain items to choose from as well.

I really liked my meal (and had enough left over to take home). The noodles were cooked just right and the eggroll came in a crispy, delicate shell. The sweet and sour pork had a sauce that was flavorful. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was that the fried beef was really chewy. It tasted good, but took forever to get down.

My husband commented that his food tasted like shopping mall food court style Chinese food. He wasn't really all that thrilled and didn't seem to like his meal all that much. He had left overs that he didn't bother to take home. In fairness however he noted that for the price he was probably being a bit unfair.

Teriyaki House, in my opinion, lives up to what I expected it to be. This is FAST food, not "fancy" food. It truly is quick, it is very reasonable (compare to other fast food like Mc Donalds) and is nice for a change. If you don't like this type of fast food, you may not like it (as my husband felt), but I think it's a good value for a good (not great) meal.

Specific Opinions By Reviewer One
Overall Rating:
Food:
Service:
Decor:
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:		Not Observed
Romance Factor
Family Fun

Specific Opinions By Reviewer Two
Overall Rating:
Food:
Service:
Decor:
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness		Not Observed
Romance Factor	This is fast food... and dusty paper lanterns don't do it for me.
Family Fun	Kids will enjoy the friendly atmosphere.

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Reviews in this section are simply personal opinions. We are sharing these, our experiences and opinions as a means to further discussion in our Los Banos Forums section not to promote or discommend any particular business. In fact we absolutely encourage our readers to make a personal visit to each of the restaurants we review and form your own opinion which (if it is respectful and honest) you are encouraged to post on the Los Banos Bulletin Boards where you are also welcome to discus OUR reviews.

More About Our Los Banos Restaurant Reviews

In this section, the staff of Our Los Banos .com shares our personal opinions on the restaurants that we patronize in the City of Los Banos. We would like to stress that we are not professional reviewers, that we have had little or no training in the food arts, and that we are simply expressing our own personal views and opinions on particular visits that we made to the establishments under consideration.

Subjectivity. We make no pretense of the fact that we are not objective. As with art, food is a subjective experience subject to personal opinion and even whim. Some people love a particular artist's work while others can not stand what is put on canvas. Picasso comes to mind. Similarly people's appreciation for a particular chef's abilities are uniquely their own. While our tastes are very eclectic and we enjoy a tremendous variety of different types of food, we do not expect our readers will agree with all of our opinions and views. We DO encourage our readers to try each of the places that we have reviewed and then you can discuss (politely and in a positive fashion) your experiences and opinion of our review in the Los Banos Forum section.

Merced County Health Food Facility Inspections Site

Finally, we strongly encourage our readers to make use of a truly wonderful online resource we discovered last year. Merced County has put together a very cool Food Facility Inspection website which discloses the results of the County Health Department's last few inspections of each restaurant. The results are sometimes quite fascinating and are always interesting. Beware however you may not want to eat at certain places once you read some of the more dramatic entries. We at Our Los Banos .com very much appreciate and support the county of Merced putting these Department of Health food facility inspections online for the public to see.

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