Dine Date: May 6, 2011
@ 8:30PM
Address: 3369 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110
SushiYo! Quicksheet:
| Look and Feel: | Dimly lit, trendy, non-traditional atmosphere, filled with a talkative crowd. The sushi bar takes up the main area of the moderately small sized restaurant, where two noticeably large sushi chefs command the ship. |
|---|---|
| Service/Staff: | Ok. Only saw two waitresses attending to the customers, so seems like they were short handed. |
| Sushi: | The food here leaves you feeling something to be desired. The quality was good for some dishes, but others were a new, and a bit uninviting, experience. |
| Price: | Moderate and typical for these trendy-ish sushi spots. |
| Sushi Highlights: | Hirame |
| Sushi Downfalls: | Sake Kawa Roll, Kasu Hamachi Kama, California Roll |
| Recommendation: | 
Maybe worth a try, but be careful what you order. Stick to the nigiri or sashimi, I would say. |
Review of ICHI Sushi
:
This is a sushi place that feels like a trendy bar, minus the music. It is quaint enough for couples to come and have a date, but casual enough for people to come chit-chat and get their sushi fix. You know this is a non-traditional place when you see a wall shelf of wine behind the sushi bar.
The place on the whole is small sized with small tables. It was mostly tables of two that were placed close to each other, so it felt a bit cramped.
Their menu had some interesting items on it as well as specials that the waitress told us about. The dishes are small portioned and some oddly tasting.
This is one of the few sushi places that you’ll find that don’t use disposable chopsticks, so that’s a good thing. They even had little cat figurines used to elevate the chopsticks off the table.
Let’s order the sushi yo!
Shiro maguro, Hiramasa, and Hirame. These all sort of tasted the same for the most part. The Hirame was a special, in which they had marinated, I think. The fish quality was good, but the rice for the nigiri was on the cold side.
California roll and sake kawa roll. I always expect California rolls, or most rolls in general, to be rice-on-the-outside style. Putting the rice on the inside means you will have to get through the seaweed, which can be chewy at times. I also didn’t like that they put cucumbers in the California roll.
I think this was my first time having the sake kawa roll, and boy was it tough to eat! First of all, I don’t like any rolls that have carrots in them. I feel that people will put carrots and cucumbers in rolls just to fill them. I don’t like that! Secondly, the sake kawa was so crispy that it was like eating shells! Yikes! Maybe it’s suppose to be like this, but I would NOT recommend ordering the sake kawa roll.
Kasu hamachi kama. This was my first time trying this as well. In my opinion, this was way too burnt! This is basically a huge fish bone with some burnt meat attached to it. Although it looks burnt, the meat inside was surprisingly tender. Even though, I wouldn’t recommend this. They really burnt the heck out of it.
Uni. Not bad, but not as smooth as I’d like. Taste was ok.
So if you want to try this place out, I would stick with the sushi items only, as the fish quality is pretty good.
Here’s the additional info about this dining experience for those of you who have read this far:
| Category | Rating | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Parking Availability: | 
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Bad. Took forever to find parking in this area on a Friday night. Had to drive around several times before I finally just parked way up on the hill in the residential area and walked down 3 blocks to Mission St. |
| Wait Time To Be Seated: | 
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Slow. Had to wait 20 minutes for a table. There's not really an area to wait, so went across the street to Safeway and then came back. |
| Accommodations: |
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Small. Tables are small and close together. Felt a bit cramped. |
| Cleanliness: |
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Ok. It was dimly lit, so couldn't really tell, but seemed fairly clean. |
| Hotness of Wait Staff: |
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Ok. The waitresses were not bad looking. They were white. |
| Other Patrons: |
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Trendy, talkative, loud young crowd. Fair amount of couples, as this seems like a trendy date place. |
| Wait Time To Order: | 
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Fast. They were ready to take our order right away, so we had to hold them off until the menu was reviewed. |
| Wait Time To Be Served Upon Ordering: |
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Slow. Food comes out very staggered. You could finish the first plate of sushi and wait for 5 minutes before the next one came. The uni took a long time to come, and finally came last after about 10 minutes after the other sushi arrived. |
| Chopsticks: |
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Excellent. Non-disposable hard wooden chopsticks were provided. |
| Dishware: |
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Good. There was even a cute little cat figurine to elevate the chopsticks off the table. |
| Rice Quality: |
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On the cold side. Perhaps because we were seated near the door, but the rice on all the sushi was colder than room temperature. |
| Soy Sauce Quality: |
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Typical. |
| Wasabi Quality: |
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Normal. |
| Water Quality: |
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Ok. No ice provided, but a tall flask is left at your table so you can refill yourself. |
| Tea Quality: | Did not get tea. | |
| Restrooms: |
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Single restroom. Fairly clean, doesn't smell. |
| Wait Staff Check In: | 
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Nice. The hostess came to check in on us a couple times. |
| Paying Process: |
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Good. Our waitress asked how the meal was as she brought us the check. They also accept American Express. |
I travel a lot, including Japan and have been to all the “it” places in Tokyo. Sushi in the US is different than in Japan, but for here ICHI is great, japanese fish prepared in a way that allows you to taste the fish, with some of the Chef’s influences thrown in. Your comments show that while you may like sushi, your perspectives are limited to what most US sushi restaurants serve, bland fish that is over sauced to impart flavor. The comments on the placement of the nori (the proper name for “seaweed”) in the CALIFORNIA roll, major objections to variation of vegetables and characterization (upon your first try) of the kama as a “big bone” illustrate your need to broaden your horizons. Sushi preparation varies in Japan as well by the way. Also, your reviews would be better served sticking to the food and not the race/demographics of the staff.
Thanks for your input. This was intended as a first person experience of my dining experience. And being such, I like to have the SushiYo project comment on a variety of things that come with the experience. I’m glad that you have traveled and tasted a lot of sushi. I have not. I don’t try to be a sushi snob and nit-pick at details. My experience is similar to the majority of people, who like some things and not others. Therefore, I try to lay down a more detailed explanation and reasoning behind my review of the food and of the restaurant, which you won’t find on Yelp.
I have not traveled around much, or tried any sushi outside of San Francisco, but I don’t think your reviews reflect the views of the majority like you said they do. The rack behind the bar holds sake not wine, just like most sushi restaurants. Also, yes sake kawa roll is supposed to be crunchy it’s fried skin. There is no carrot in it. That’s a pickled root that most places have in it. You should not review things that you don’t know about.
lol Sushi nazi wannabe much? Lam, have you been to ICHI? If not, then you should not talk about what you don’t know about.
This place serves wine, and the rack behind the sushi bar has both wine and sake, mostly wine. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions. And since I have been to this restaurant and ate their food, I can write about my experience all I want. One person’s “crunchy” is another person’s “crispy” is another person’s “soggy”. So what? Cheers!
Who you calling sushi Nazi mr I have a blog to rate sushi restaurants? I have been here otherwise I would not have said anything. I was here last week. Take another look at the rack smart guy. It’s mostly Sake. There are two wines only in top corner. I’m just saying if you can’t even differentiate between wine and sake then you should act like you know what you are talking about. You have a whole blog about sushi but you know nothing about it.
Haters gonna hate. Lam, take a chill pill please.
So youve decided to not post my comment? Is that because you don’t want people to be able to describe their own experience while reading your site?
Which comment? I approve all comments unless they’re inappropriate. Did you retract your previous comment? I know I approved your previous one over the weekend.
Your previous one was posted in the Ino Sushi post. It’s still there.