I stopped by The Shota in San Francisco during a short trip to the States. I’ve been following them closely since their opening in 2018, and I can safely say they are my favorite sushi restaurant in the city.
The menu has evolved significantly over the years. Chef Son has tinkered with his preparation style and the current menu is a fun, unique mix of kaiseki dishes with a modern, California twist and straight to the point sushi. His aging has come along quite nicely, and several of the neta (particularly the kohada) showed stark improvements since my last visit. In fact, the kohada duo I tried after the meal (one aged 7 days and the other 18?) rivaled some of the tops shops in Tokyo. He has also been adjusting his vinegar ratio for his shari. If you like your shari with an akazu punch, you will really like it here.
Service is impeccable. I was taken care of very well. I gifted a few bottles of sake from my favorite brewers in Japan, and we ended up sharing them with the staff over the course of a very long meal and post-meal catch-up. They returned the favor by opening a few new bottles they wanted to share.
I was happy to hear they are working on opening a second restaurant in the city (in the old Trou Normand space for the locals). They didn’t share many details other than there will be a focus on Japanese whiskey.
Brief summary of photos…
1. Kasugodai (kombujime)
2. Akami
3. Chutoro
4. Saba Maki Prep
5. Saba Maki
6. Sake – Iwa (first time having)
7. Tenbi – Usunigori (brought from Japan and shared with staff)
by m046186
7 Comments
What a name💀
This place looks amazing! We’ve been looking for an exciting sushi restaurant in SF! Thanks this is a great review.
Consistently my fav sushi spot in SF for the last several years. Top notch food, service, and overall experience!
Sake Iwa 🍶! Did you enjoy it?
Yeah, good luck googling that at work.
Cost?
When you get Son, it’s genuinely a good experience – I still prefer the other three places on the guide but its def worth skipping Katsu and Shin just given how far they are out of the city
The apprentices folks are def a lot worse than normal apprentices are, even including sushi places outside of japan imo