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Given the plentiful choices of cookie-cutter Japanese restaurants in the neighborhood, convincing diners to stay loyal to one is a challenge that this dingy take-out and delivery specialist is not quite up to. On the menu is chicken teriyaki; katsu don, breaded chicken or pork cutlet over rice; and gyoza dumplings—all inexpensive and none particularly well-executed. Sushi rolls hit similarly low points: Salmon skin rolls are unpleasantly cold and chewy, and eel cucumber rolls lack enough of the requisite sweet sauce to render them more than mediocre. Nevertheless for a meal in a flash, Saji's delivers. Delivery orders arrive in minutes, and if you order strategically you can have a decent meal. Drown shrimp shumai, steamed shrimp dumplings, in their accompanying vinegary soy sauce, and they're relatively pleasant. And don't let the picture menu deceive you about gyu don, paper thin slices of beef in a sweet sauce over rice—it's tasty despite its pictorial representation as gray-brown slop. More proof that pictures lie: the Sumo party platter for four looks like it would make a real party. And it would, if it were any good.  — JJ Goode

Gyu don, $5.99