Food

My Omakase Experience at Omakase SF – Omakase Review!

February 25, 2023 / Comments Off on My Omakase Experience at Omakase SF – Omakase Review!

I love an amazing omakase and I’d enjoy one every day if I had the financial means to do so. There’s a restaurant in San Francisco that has Omakase (Michelin Star!) that’s literally called Omakase – located 665 TOWNSEND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. 

How I Came About Omakase SF

It’s one of the first results on Yelp when searching for Omakase around the area. My brother loves the finer foods in life and he got a promotion at work and decided to give Omakase a try and he treated me to this wonderful Omakase experience!

They acknowledge the special occasion, whether it’s a promotion, birthday, anniversary, etc. Very neat! Also pictured is their drink menu.

Reservations and How Things Work

Reservations are made and you prepay for the meal. They also add a 20% charge and another 6% or something (health mandate?) charge as well so everything really adds up, especially if a person is over $200. At the restaurant, you get to order your drinks or go with the sake / drink pairing. The meal is prepaid so you’ll just pay for any extras at the restaurant after your meal. The menu is pre-set and you enjoy whatever the chef has for that night. Now, get ready for a photo heavy post with captions that describes my omakase review / experience!

Started with some sparkling ume with seedlip citrus botanicals. This was a sweet-ish sparkling plum drink, non-alcoholic. Nice way to get ready for the actual food!
The menu for the night - 2/20/23
We got a carafe of sake. We had no idea which one to try so we went with a recommendation of a dry one.
Tossaki- tuna hand roll. Really good. None of it fell apart. It was hand-held quite well!
Shirako Tachikama - fish tempura. You can pop a whole piece in your mouth and it wouldn’t be burning hot. The warmth was perfect. How did they do that? Not my fave course, but the perfect warmth portion was pretty cool
Kanpachi & Kinki - a couple types of sashimi, plus some ikura. All of it was good in terms of flavor and texture. The cucumber was a bit overpowering and I would have enjoyed the ikura in a thinner vessel or a traditional nigiri format. There was also some ginger on the side.
Savory Egg Custard with Japanese Snow Crab & Shaved Truffle - so good. I love a nice steamed egg dish. Good amount of crab in here as well. Unfortunately I had trouble tasting the truffle. Nice and hot, perfect placement before the nigiri starts!

Nigiri Time!

The above dishes were pretty good, and afterwards comes with 12 nirigi which we were so excited about! Some kinds we’ve had at other places and others are new to us. YAY!!!

1st Nigiri - Madai (Sea Bream) - Wow, they have the rice with perfection here. Good texture and temperature. I’m so amazed how they get temperature so right here. Not hot, not cold, and each grain is a medley together. The fish texture was great too and the flavor was nice as well. I did wish the fish was cut thicker to get more of it since I felt that there was a bit too much rice.
2nd Nigiri - Tairagai (Comb Pen Shellfish) - first time having this that I’m aware of. I love how it was with seaweed too since the fish, rice, and seaweed was a great combo. Not my fave piece, but was a good try.
3rd Nigiri - Sawara (King Mackerel) - fancy high end sushi places does mackerel so wonderful. The flavor and texture, all of it!
4th Nigiri - Ankimo (Monkfish Liver) - first time having monkfish liver in this form, and I loved it! It was one of the BEST bites of the night. So smooth, creamy, rich, etc. I could have gone for a second or third piece as it was that amazing.
5th Nigiri - Buri (Giant Yellowtail) - OMG this kind of yellowtail was SO GOOD too. Nice fattiness to it and it was super smooth. No idea what they put on it, but yum yum.
6th Nigiri - Akami Zuckerberg (Lean Bluefin Tuna) - I’m not the biggest lean tuna person, but this one was alright. Definitely better than standard maguro at other Japanese restaurants, but not my fave.
7th Nirigi - Chu-Toro (Med Fatty Tuna) - YESSSS, now we’re getting to the good tuna. So darn good, almost melt in your mouth. I love the fattiness of this stuff.
8th Nirigi - O-Toro (Fatty BlueFin Tuna) - HELLS YASSSS the ultimate fatty tuna. Mmmm so smooth, can tell it was much fattier than the other tunas. Chef Jackson said that a lot of people prefer the medium fatty one more, and I did like that one more here, but I’ve enjoyed o-toro over other types at other places.
9th Nirigi - Masaba (Japanese Mackerel) - oh cool, a different type of mackerel. This one was good as well in terms of flavor and texture. Similar to another piece, I did wish the fish was cut thicker since I felt there was too much rice with this one. One end looks great cut, but the other side is pretty thin.
10th Nigiri - Nodoguro (Blackthroat Seaperch) - I don’t recall hearing about this fish before. This nigiri was torched, and I think that was the best for this fish. I wasn’t too fond of it, but the torched portion and flavoring brought it together.
11th Nigiri - Uni (Hokkaido Sea Urchin) - I love uni, especially when it’s fresh and well… good. There’s plenty of bad uni out there, but you really don’t know if you really do like/dislike uni until you’ve had the fresh kind. This was really creamy and has that sea/ocean-ness of it that wasn’t bad. Could always go for more uni.
12th NIgiri - Anago (Saltwater Eel) - Yeah, I’m really not an eel fan unless it has a bunch of the eel sauce. The eel itself was dry and this could have used more sauce in my opinion, but could just be me for not typically enjoying eel. Most of the nigiri pieces were amazing so this was kind of a sad way to end the nigiri portion of the meal.

12 Pieces Nirigi Thoughts

That was definitely the highlight of the meal and why most people come to Omakase I believe. I was so impressed with the monkfish liver and was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. There were a couple disappointing pieces, but that’s more of me not enjoying those types of fish. The flavors were great all around and the rice was amazing too. Extremely consistent.

A5 Wagyu from Bushu - the Wagyu was torched in front of us and it smelled so good. It was topped with uni and caviar, all topped over some rice and seaweed. OMG, so amazing. Each component was great on its own and all together as well. I’d love another one of these. It wasn’t the best Wagyu I’ve had, but it was a darn amazing bite or 2.
Lobster Atsuyaki Tamago - the classic egg with a twist. There’s lobster stuff within the egg so it gives it a different texture and flavor. The top / side of it had a good caramelization going on. The texture and taste was more like a dense sponge cake.
Asari Adadashi Red Miso with Asari Clams & Mitsuba - This red miso has a deeper flavor compared to other misos I’ve had and it was pretty good. There were a couple clams in there with shells as well. Nice way to end the meal before the actual dessert.
Miso Panna Cotta, Yuzu Granita, Seasonal Fruit - This was a really interesting panna cotta. The yuzu granita has the tartness and has a shaved ice like texture, but mixes really well with the panna cotta. The fruit was pretty generic, but the grape had a nice bite to it.

Overall Omakase Experience @ Omakase SF

Ahh my omakase review… pretty good! I definitely had a great time here. We had owner Chef Jackson make and serve us so that was a great honor. There was another chef on the other end that seemed to talk a lot more so that would have been cool too, but perhaps the customers he was assigned to asked a lot of questions. We enjoyed the food and some new stuff here. The consistency here really amazed me. So lucky to have tried Omakase @ Omakase! 

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