Dine Date: May 13, 2011 @ 8:45PM
Address: 776 Arguello Blvd San Francisco, CA 94118
SushiYo! Quicksheet:

Look and Feel:	A small hidden place. No sign outside. You could walk pass the place and not notice. A standard, basic, traditional, and simplistic look on the inside. Quiet customers inside, very little ambiance.
Service/Staff:	Excellent! There was just one lady doing service and one sushi chef. The waitress was very hospitable. The sushi chef spontaneously thanked customers at every table!
Sushi:	OK quality overall. I'm not sure what kind of herb leaf they used (seemed like mint), but it was interesting and strange to find it in a few nigiri pieces. A couple of the selections were not very pleasing and should be avoided.
Price:	Very affordable.
Sushi Highlights:	Maguro, Tekka Roll, Uni, Quail Egg
Sushi Downfalls:	Saba, Smoked Shake
Recommendation:	Yes, this place is not bad and very affordable.

Review of Okina Sushi :
Okina plays the role as a mom and pop, hidden gem of a sushi establishment. If you didn’t look up this place’s address, you would likely never have found it. Even with the address in hand, you may drive or walk by without knowing it was a restaurant. There are no fancy signs or displays outside. In fact, even their hours of operation is simply hand written and tacked upon the door!

This is an interesting looking place on the inside. The sushi bar area is setup with walls, windows, and roof overhangs to resemble a structure within a structure. The sushi bar area has several seats and a few tables are positioned at the front of the restaurant. There was just a waitress serving and a sushi chef working behind the bar.

Accommodations and decorations are simple, right down to the menu and chopsticks. The menu is a single page of nigiri fish selections, a sashimi option of the same fish, and drinks.

Get on with the sushi yo!

Daikon radish, ginger, and pickled radish was provided promptly with tea. This was nice to provide these garnishes for customers to nit-pick at before the food comes. Pickled radish is a plus!

Beyond the decor, non-matching dishware and basic disposable chopsticks are just some of the indications that this place doesn’t worry about flash.

Here is the spread, served on a large designed platter! This certainly isn’t usual for sushi, but sure, why not? The formation of the nigiri and rolls was interesting as well. Instead of placing them in pairs next to each other, as most sushi places do, it’s lined up symmetrically.

Sashimi salad with ikura. Nice touch!

More views of the nigiri line.

A large slice of lemon garnishing the nigiri. A bit unusual, but again, sure, why not!

California roll, Amaebi, Uni with quail egg. The california roll was pretty skinny and standard tasting, prepared home-style (rice on the inside).

Amaebi, Uni with quail egg. Amaebi wasn’t very sweet. The uni was decent and the quail egg is nice to have with uni.

Amaebi, ok.

Saba, it’s not on my list of favorite fish. This tasted pretty fishy to me and partially cooked it seems. Not recommended.

Hirame, on the chewy side. It was served with a leaf of herb (mint I think). It was interesting and definitely drowns out any fishiness.

Maguro, pretty good. Served with green onions and some sauce.

Maguro, with lots of green onion.

Hamachi, OK, could be more tender.

Smoked Shake, I think this was my first time having smoked shake. I didn’t really like it. Too salty for my taste.

Kanpachi, not much taste, but ok texture.

Look at the nice handwriting on the bill! Not many places take care in writing down an order like this. Usually, they just scribble it down and/or have it punched into a computer for a printout. So the nicely written check was impressive to me. Again, this place isn’t fancy and is a mom and pop kind of place. So, no credit card machines here, they only accept cash.

Okina is a small secret sushi place. The quality isn’t great, but it is not bad either, so considering the affordable prices and homey appeal, it is worth it. If I lived near by this place, I would come here often!

Here’s the additional info about this dining experience for those of you who have read this far:

Category	Rating	Analysis
Parking Availability:		Street parking only. This is not a highly commercial area, so that's good, but residential parking meant parking a couple blocks away.
Wait Time To Be Seated:		Just a quick wait while the waitress cleaned up and setup our table. There were even a couple seats by the window for people wait to be seated.
Accommodations:		Good. There weren't a lot of people, so we got a table that normally seats 4.
Cleanliness:		Looked clean to me.
Hotness of Wait Staff:		There was just one waitress that was peppy and happy. Gotta give points for service with a smile.
Other Patrons:		It was a quiet young crowd mostly. A few people at the sushi bar. A couple at another table. And one guy eating while reading at another table.
Wait Time To Order:		Waitress was ready to take our order right away.
Wait Time To Be Served Upon Ordering:		The sushi was made promptly and we were surprised that our whole order came out at once on a big plate.
Chopsticks:		Generic, non fully enclosed, square shaped cheap disposable chopsticks.
Dishware:		The sushi came in one large round decorated plate. It was strange, like something you'd see more at a Chinese restaurant than a sushi place. There was a separate plate provided to eat the sushi as well as a larger than usual soy sauce dishware.
Rice Quality:		Not bad, average.
Soy Sauce Quality:		Standard soy sauce.
Wasabi Quality:		Standard wasabi.
Water Quality:		Did not get water.
Tea Quality:		Hot green tea provided, and it came often.
Restrooms:		Did not use.
Wait Staff Check In:		Excellent, the waitress came and checked in on us a few times as well as kept our tea cups filled.
Paying Process:		Cash only here. But I was impressed by nice handwriting on the bill that was clearly written up.