New Asian restaurant in Clovis combines homemade tastes with fast-casual style
If young children are the most honest and blunt critics, then a new Asian fusion restaurant in Clovis already has passed one of the most challenging taste tests.
Soon enough, customers might feel the same way.
Teriyaki Time, a fast-casual restaurant, opened last week at the corner of Clovis and Shaw avenues, next to the Planet Fitness gym. A grand opening is roughly a month out.
The restaurant is already receiving rave reviews for its dishes. Its platters of teriyaki chicken, perhaps as expected, and fried chicken having been drawing praise from children and adults for their flavors and textures.
“My son tells me all the time: ‘This is making my stomach really happy,’“ said owner Mai Thao, whose son is 7 years old. “It’s really important for us to ensure that every bite that you take is really good and makes you happy.”
Thao and her team ate at various Asian restaurants throughout the Fresno area to gauge what they liked about each establishment and especially evaluate the teriyaki chicken.
When they came back, Thao and her team came up with an approach that they believed would stand out from others.
At Terikayi Time, their teriyaki chicken is marinated 48 hours in advance to ensure flavorful bites even without someone adding any sauce.
The fried chicken is lightly battered to provide a fluffy but also crispy texture rather than an overwhelming crunch in which the taste of the chicken is almost hidden.
There’s also a beef teriyaki dish, orange chicken, teriyaki shrimp and tofu teriyaki, along with six appetizer options such as potstickers.
“We put a lot of effort into this,” Thao said. “You’ll see that it’s very different from any other place.
“We don’t do skillet. We don’t do pan (fried). It’s actually fire grilled. That really makes a big difference. We make it how we’d want to eat it at home.”
In addition, the sauces at Teriyaki Time are homemade, from the ones that go in the marinades to the ones that go on the side or used as salad dressings.
“We make everything from scratch,” Thao said. “In doing that, it comes with a lot of love.”
For the past 10-plus years, Teriyaki Time operated as a pop-up, food tent and food trailer for special events around town, including the Hmong New Year celebration.
After feedback from customers to open a restaurant, as well as Thao’s desire to remain in one central location, she decided it was time to open a brick and mortar.
She also liked the concept that eating from food trucks provided, with customers essentially getting their food to go and enjoying it elsewhere. So rather than a full-service restaurant, Thao elected to maintain a fast-casual approach.
“We try to make our food as homemade as possible and get people in and out of here as fast as possible, too,” Thao said. “We want to make sure (you) make the most of your 30-minute lunch.”
Thao and her family live in Clovis.
“We love the city,” Thao said. “We love the small town feel. For us, it felt like there was a need to open one here.
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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 11:52 AM with the headline "New Asian restaurant in Clovis combines homemade tastes with fast-casual style."
