Tag Archives: San Francisco Japanese restaurant

The Personalized Touch at Ju-Ni

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The hand-roll filled with every fish you've had earlier that night at Ju-Ni.
The hand-roll filled with every fish you’ve had earlier that night at Ju-Ni.

The name of San Francisco’s Ju-Ni restaurant means “12” in Japanese. But nowadays, it might as well be called Ju-Roku or “16.”

When Executive Chef Geoffrey Lee and business partner Tan Truong opened it in 2016, Ju-Ni indeed featured three sushi chefs for 12 guests (or one chef per four guests). But with its popularity, the omakase restaurant, which held a Michelin star for four years, decided to add one more sushi chef to now accommodate a total of 16 guests.

If you dine in a foursome as I did recently, it’s ideal because it means you get your own sushi chef for the entirety of the meal, whom you can converse with easily.

At Ju-Ni, one sushi chef serves every four diners.
At Ju-Ni, one sushi chef serves every four diners.

The 14-course omakase is $198 per person, and it must be prepaid when you make your reservation online. When you arrive at the restaurant, you can add beverages and any additional items on offer.

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Izakaya Rintaro — Spot-On From Start to Finish

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Ribeye (back) and King Trumpet mushroom (foreground) yakitori at Izakaya Rintaro.

Ribeye (back) and King Trumpet mushroom (foreground) yakitori at Izakaya Rintaro.

 

Rare is the restaurant where you sit down to an entire meal and never experience one mundane bite.

Izakaya Rintaro in San Francisco’s Mission District is such a place.

That was my experience a week ago, when I tried the Japanese small plates restaurant with my husband, where we paid our full tab at the end of a delightful dinner.

Izakaya Rintaro was opened two years ago by Chef-Owner Sylvan Mishima Brackett, who was born in Kyoto. Early on in his career, he was Alice Waters assistant at Chez Panisse. When I was a food writer on staff at the San Jose Mercury News, I would call him incessantly, in need of quotes regularly from Waters, which he remembered.

The front of the restaurant.

The front of the restaurant.

Chef Sylvan Mishima Brackett manning the grill.

Chef Sylvan Mishima Brackett manning the grill.

At his izakaya, you’ll find the usual staple dishes and more. What truly sets them apart are the top-notch ingredients, detailed techniques, and flat-out care with which they are executed.

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