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Sushi Hunter
Categories: Restaurants Sushi Bars Restaurants Japanese Restaurants Seafood Sushi Bars, Japanese, Seafood [Edit]
1701 Powell St(between Columbus Ave & Union St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Neighborhood: North Beach/Telegraph Hill
(415) 291-9268
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 5 pm - 10 pm
Fri 5 pm - 11 pm
Sat 1:30 pm - 11 pm
Sun 1:30 pm - 9:30 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Validated
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
314 reviews for Sushi Hunter
Review Highlights
"They have an all you can eat menu; so come hungry."
(in 37 reviews)
"There is also an all you can drink Sake that is the bomb."
(in 25 reviews)
"probably my favorite miso soup of any restaurant."
(in 18 reviews)
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314 reviews in English
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Review from Slim S.
Alamo, CA
11/6/2011
I give this place 4 stars because it really is good sushi! I grown with this place before they were that popular and they changed a bit. Prices have gone up (bad) new sushi rolls have been created (good) but service was always a bit slow.
I do the all you can eat sushi because its the only way i can actually get full and not spend over $100. I do eat a lot of sushi so i constantly have to reassure them i know how many pieces i'm ordering. This would be a familiar convo:
Waitress: What do you like ?
Me: 4 Orders of the Seared Tuna, 3 Orders of the Albacore Tuna, 2 orders of the New York Roll, Um, I will also have the .....
Waitress : You know each order has more than one sushi right ?
Me: Yes i know that missy - keep writing! "One order of the rainbow roll"
But hey for the average bear - you'll get your free parking validation! (I think they validate for 2 hours)
So next time your in North Beach and get stopped by the Italian restaurant owners every 12 seconds...Tel them your going to Sushi Hunter to fill your stomach will all you can eat Mercury!!! -
Review from Jane N.
San Francisco, CA
1/20/2012
Heard this place had AYCE sushi and thought...yay!
They have a lot of stuff on the AYCE menu, not just sushi, such as fried chicken, egg rolls, fried tofu, salad...list can go on. Personally though, I think the non-sushi items on the menu were better than the sushi. The sushi didn't taste very fresh and the other stuff they combined with it just did not go together. I couldn't stop binge-ing on their salad and fried chicken though and we had a good amount of sushi left.
Also, our sushi orders came out veryyyyyyy slow. And a few rolls never came out at all. They weren't especially busy when we came in so I'm not sure why service was so slow. The fact that the check could only be split into 2 cards max and didn't tell us until the end was annoying also.
In the end I spent $40, which included one beer. I would've much rather have went to a normal sushi place and spent the $40 on better quality fish. AYCE was NOT worth it here. -
Review from Becky K.
Riverside, CA
10/30/2011
This review is based on the bento box on a to-go order.
This is the closet sushi restaurant near the area I am staying, so I decided to try it after getting off work since it is near the bus stop at the Washington Square park. I ordered the bento box to go. I ordered the pork cutlet, vegetable tempura, and tuna rolls. It came with miso soup and salad. My pork cutlet was pretty small. Probably 4 inches long, and 2 inches wide, 0.5 inch high. The salad and soup is mediocre for japanese restaurants. The worst part about the meal was actually the vegetable tempura which was basically tasteless. The sauce did not help whatsoever. The tuna roll is decent, nothing special.
I have yet to have a dine-in experience and to try their actual rolls. -
Review from Cathy L.
North Las Vegas, NV
9/24/2011 Seated via OpenTable
HARD TO FIND, SLOW and AWKWARD!
Well we get there for a 730 reservation, and we didn't get served until 9pm. The guy sat us down at about 8pm, but didn't take our drink orders until 830. The waitress was not attentive and I was offended when I told her that we're NOT all doing AYCE. She said, "its either you all do or dont because there's no sharing". The AYCE is $28 a person, for just the basic stuff then they charge you $4 extra each specialty item on the menu. That's misleading I think, considering they advertise AYCE for $28 and then you get there and all these exclusions and what not are all over the menu.. The food took forever to get to the table and the waitress I think made sure she didnt ask if we wanted any more..
If i ever go back to SF, I wont be going back to this place.. its just not worth spending 3hours and still be hungry because they dont want to feed you..Listed in: Sushi
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Review from Karena Q.
San Francisco, CA
9/6/2011 2 Check-ins Here
All you can eat sushi that doesn't make you sick (granted, they're pretty boring/basic rolls, but when you have a serious sushi craving and are strapped for cash, it's a freaking deal).
All you can drink sake on top of all you can eat sushi for a mere $12 more? Trouble.
FYI, during our last trip, we found out that they now have a 2 credit card max for splitting. Anything over 2 and you get charged $1 extra a card. WTF? -
Review from Miran C.
San Francisco, CA
9/21/2011
Service was perfectly fine. With a coupon printed on the back of a Safeway receipt from Bay St, all-u-can-eat is $20. Decor is a corny, dated attempt at futurism, but good effort!
Nothing remarkable and nothing offensive about the food. For the deal, I wasn't shocked by the higher rice to fish ratio. After all, wtf do you expect from all-u-can-eat??? Simply put, just shrug and go to another joint to pay more for more fish. But if you're in the mood to sate a sushi fix and want to try some fun sounding, ultra Americanized rolls, this is the place to be.Listed in: North Beach
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Review from Erica L.
San Francisco, CA
8/8/2011 1 photo
Oh my god oh my god oh my god sushi hunter was amazing!!!
Just came back from a TON of deliciousness with my boyfriend. $25 for all you can eat, $28 on Fri-Sun, $18 for kids.
Check my picture for a glimpse of their all you can eat menu. There's a large variety of stuff you can get.
Ok so my advice: go in a huge group, maybe 4-6. Order everything on the menu, share it amongst the group. I feel kinda bad ordering a lot when it's just me and my boyfriend. I peel off the rice and eat the nigiri as sashimi to conserve stomach space.
The appetizers:
The edamame's really good. Nice and warm, nicely salted, good portion, 1 order is enough for 3 people.
Fried tofu's not as good. They should've used egg tofu instead of the gamey tofu. The sauce for the fried tofu could've been more savory too, it's very watered down. Nori and fish shavings would be a nice touch to it too. The horenzo's yummy! It doesn't have the tart feeling on your tongue after you eat normal spinach. The sauce is nice and not too sweet.
The wakame salad was amazing. Loads of sesame, nice tangy taste, just the right amount of sauce and chili. We had 4 orders of it. The funny thing was the order portion got bigger and bigger as we got them.
Miso soup was amazing. Lots of tofu, lots of seaweed, and the sprinkled spring onion makes it perfect.
Sushi:
Nigiri's come in 2 pieces per order. Rolls come in 6 pieces per order. Salmon, tuna, ika, eel were yummy. Don't get the seared tuna, it's just tasted like a lower quality tuna, seared, and powered with pepper. The white tuna wasn't nice either, it was very fishy, gamey, and didn't taste fresh at all. The rolls are nice. Small portions but it's nice cuz you can order more. Philadephia was better than San Francisco, the cream cheese adds a nice tangy taste to it.
Other stuff:
Udon was nice. Good portion for 1-2 people. Broth is clear, noodles were chewy. The crunchy stuff (i forgot what it's called) is really nice in it.
Teriyaki beef was yummy too. The sauce was tangy.
The tempuras weren't my favorite, but my bf liked it. They were missing the raddish stuff that goes in the sauce. The shrimps were teeny and it was over-coated with batter. I'm not accustomed to broccoli and carrot tempura, so that was a bit weird.
The curry tonkatsu was nice at first, but it was too much for a person. But it's nice and crispy, the curry wasn't bad either.
Their plating on the appetizers and other stuff is nice and decent. They do a good job plating it like delicacies.
Also note their bathroom signs (the boy sign and the girl sign) are a decapitated boy and a decapitated girl. I thought that was really funny.
Overall it's a nice, clean restaurant. The ambiance is nice and relaxing, service was really good (didn't take long to bring our food out, waitresses were cute and on top of their stuff) and bathroom was really big (at least for the girls) and clean.
I would come here over a normal sushi place like the sushi boat because it's soooooooo much cheaper this way. And you get more choices of food. I'll see you again soon Sushi Hunter! -
Review from Rich B.
Atlanta, GA
8/8/2011 2 Check-ins Here
All you can eat sushi, $25 and $18 for kids.
This was the best deal in town!!! The sake list is a little light.
Quality of fish was great for the price, although you can find better sushi. I don't think I would order a la carte. -
Review from Monelle P.
San Francisco, CA
7/18/2011 1 Check-in Here
All you can drink sake + a big group is a dangerous thing. When the sake shots start going and everyone starts egging each other on, it's easy to lose track of how many shots you've done. Trust me, it's happened to me on one special occasion here at Sushi Hunter and my bf has never let me forget it.
With that said, the AYCD sake makes SH a fun place for groups. I've been to SH three times now, all with large groups of 10+, and I've had a good time at each occasion. Reservations are easy to make and they're great at accomodating large parties in the small space. The AYCD sake is an additional $10 on top of the $25 AYCE sushi. If you're not a fan of hot sake, you might be better off buying bottles. Personally, I prefer chilled, unfiltered sake, but I can't pass up the value of the AYCD sake so I let the hot sake chill to room temperature and chase it with some cold Sapporo.
The quality of the AYCE sushi has gone down over the years... Or maybe I was alot more sober on subsequent visits. I used to think that the AYCE sushi was really delicious, but something about the temperature/flavor of the AYCE sushi was a bit off. The temperature seemed a tad warmer than room temperature, which didn't do wonders for the flavor/texture of the sushi. I took a few bites of sushi and stopped eating. Luckily, the AYCE list involves many cooked items. My gf and I shared tonkatsu, assorted tempura, gyoza, beef teriyaki, and chicken karaage. Those cooked items went a long way towards prepping my tummy for AYCD sake.
The interior recently underwent a major renovation. Gone are the yellow walls and garrish lights. They now have white padded panels lining the walls and dark, blue mood lighting. It's amazing what lighting can do to make a restaurant seem 10x classier.
Overall: Sushi Hunter is a fun place for groups, but don't go expecting the best sushi. I only come here for group occasions and for AYCD sake. -
Review from Jj M.
San Francisco, CA
12/3/2011
Food besides sushi is actually better. The $28 AYCE is a bit pricey for what they offer.
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Review from Jeremy S.
Sunnyvale, CA
9/23/2011
We were in fact "hunting for sushi" at sushi hunter.
This place used to have an Epic all-you-can eat deal. Now, apparently all-you-can eat means pay up, then go get some pizza down the street.
Was at the restaurant with a party of 9, waited 3 hours for a few plates of sushi, left hungry. Management needs to improve! -
Review from Michel A.
San Francisco, CA
9/11/2011 1 Check-in Here
The fish seems to be of good quality, and service is nice.
But PLEASE, what is it with the amount of rice on the rolls??? It tasted like a drop of fish in a bowl of rice!! Not necessary... Just charge more, and give a decent sushi roll.
If you're into rice bowls, order 2 rolls, put it in a bowl, and you'll be happy.
Definitely not worth it... -
Review from Dj e.
Antioch, CA
Great place to eat unlimited sushi for $25 a person. Service was great, interior decor was very nice, and they play your favorite top 40's music while you eat!
As far as food: decent portions (although it is truly unlimited or shall I say limited to you stomach's capacity.) Can't describe what I ate since we went up and down the list! What I can say is.. JUST GO THERE! -
Review from Colin P.
Seattle, WA
5/13/2011
I was pretty excited to try this place since I'd heard it was lively, fun and had decent sushi. Have to say we fell short on all counts although the wait-staff wasn't impolite.
I ordered the AYCE on a whim, which apparently is code for the chefs to include as little actual meat on a roll as humanly possible.
By the second order, I was finding pieces with so little substance that I had to send the 1/4 of the plate back.
If a restaurant is so reluctant to serve something that they refuse to do it well, for everyone's benefit just leave it off the menu. -
Review from Jess k.
Corvallis, OR
5/15/2011 1 Check-in Here
My friends and I came here on a Sunday night for all-you-can-eat sushi, a rarity in this economy. This was one of the few places we could find that still has all-you-can-eat and is still open.
We ordered the Sho Chiku Bai Creme sake, and it was great! Well worth the $13 a bottle.
The waitresses were on top of our orders in the beginning, and the food came within about 10 minutes of each order. The waitresses were super friendly and attentive.
We ordered almost everything on the all-you-can-eat menu. However, beware of the Kentucky Fried Chicken roll and the Hot Angel roll. We didn't particularly care for either of these rolls. The KFC roll is fried chicken karaage, lettuce, and ranch in a roll. The Hot Angel roll has fried salmon and cream cheese with spicy, sweet thai chili sauce. We ate them because we had to.
The fish was fresh and well prepared. This place is definitely worth the $26 for all you can eat sushi. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone. -
Review from Alison H.
San Francisco, CA
4/28/2011
Woah buddy, that's a lotta rice!
This place is an obvious pick for large groups (the all you can eat and drink specials are really REALLY good and they are quick with service), but the sushi is seriously lacking content. Fact. I have had a bday party there. Fact. I have been to many a bday there. Fact walking distance to North Beach bars.
Fact. They have re-designed the place and it's a little nicer, but my gawd...
Skip it, SF has such bomb sushi, don't bother unless you like rice balls. -
Review from Niya Y.
San Francisco, CA
5/30/2011
My boyfriend and I ordered dinner from Sushi Hunter two weeks ago. It's our go-to sushi place because it's close to our apartment, decently priced, and makes deliveries. They also have an in-house all you can eat menu for $25 per person, which I have taken advantage of more than once.
We ordered two miso soups, the Large Sashimi Plate, two pieces of Ikura, the Spicy Scallop Roll (spicy tuna and cucumber), and the Spicy Tataki (spicy tuna and cucumber topped with seared white tuna and garlic). The Large Sashimi Plate contains 25 pieces and costs $33, which is the best deal we've ever found and the reason we get it every time. The only drawback is that you can't request specific types of fish, so if you're really picky, you're probably better off ordering individual sashimis.
Per usual, everything tasted good. The salmon sashimi could always be fresher, and there could always be more mackerel in the sashimi plate (this time we got none), but at the end of day, sushi of any kind makes me happy.
Per not usual, they were late in delivering our meal. They told us it would take 45 minutes, but we waited for an hour, and when I called them, they told me that we had wait an additional 10 minutes because they were understaffed. As apology, they gave us a 10-ounce bottle of nigori (cloudy) sake, which I mixed with orange juice and which more than compensated for the extra wait. -
Review from Linda L.
San Francisco, CA
4/19/2011
Came here for my boyfriend's birthday. We chose the all you can eat option that's $26 per person. It had items from appetizers, entrees, sushi rolls, and nigiri. We definitely ate more than $26 worth of food each! Good portion control and variety of items. My favorites are the sushi nigiri and beef teriyaki. Usually restaurants serve beef teriyaki well done but they serve it medium rare which is definitely juicier! What I love the most is that everything is fresh made to order, and you can keep ordering as you eat as long as you eventually finish everything. My boyfriend is a fan of sushi rolls which I thought was just ok but totally worth the price. We ordered a 6 sushi rolls, a total of 17 items from their AYCE menu.
The restaurant atmosphere is very hip and cool, age range mostly around mid 20s to 30s. Pretty good service, they even gave my boyfriend a free nicely arranged mochi dessert for his birthday! And sake bombs are apparently a popular drink there, we kept hearing people around us yelling sake bombs throughout dinner.
We are definitely planning to come back to try their regular menu which has an even more variety of entrees, combos and specialty rolls. -
Review from stacy b.
San Francisco, CA
6/21/2011 1 Check-in Here
I order from here about once a week, we usually have it delivered. The food comes fast and made to order. If you are going to order for delivery I wouldn't order anything cooked. It usually comes a little cold when you want it to be warm. The best thing about the delivery is they have you on file so you don't have to give them your address and credit card number every time you call.
I have also dined in and the wait staff is very nice and attentive. And Guys, they are easy on the eyes. They have a happy hour menu with drink specials and sushi specials. The sushi come is a smaller portion so I'm not sure how much of a deal it is. The fish is always fresh and they have a variety of rolls to choose from.
With the limited options in North Beach, this is definitely my first choice. -
Review from Felix L.
San Francisco, CA
6/10/2011
The Food: The Nigiri consist of a PAPER THIN slice of fish over a huge lump of rice. The rolls were rolled up pretty sloppy and the inners were about the size of a peanut. This place is really stingy on the ingredients other than rice. Shashimi is NOT part of the all you can eat deal. Well why not just pick the fish off the Nigiri? NOPE they require you to eat ALL the rice that is in the rolls and Nigiri. Okay, there's no way they can go wrong with the Gyoza and vegetable tempura right? Wrong.... even though the outside was fried up the Gyoza was still cold inside! The tempura potato was still RAW!
The Service: There were about 6 tables on a "busy" Friday night. But the order took nearly forever to come. And whats worse is the order that comes isn't even what I ordered. But by that time I was too hungry to
complain and just took the food anyway.
The Price: I've had much better Japanese food for the amount I paid and I wouldn't go back to this place again. -
Review from Cindy L.
San Francisco, CA
Updated - 5/2/2011
I take back everything I said. I came back a second time with my boyfriend, and the food/service quality dropped a bit. That's okay, I still really liked the place. But when my sister and her husband came for a visit (their first time to the West coast), I thought I'd bring them here for a nice dinner.
We got AYCE sushi. It wasn't very busy, but service was extremely slow. When I told the waitress we were getting AYCE, I immediately got the stink eye, a big sigh and "fine." Uh okay, grumpy waitresses happen. As long as I get good food it'll all be good.
But then our first order of rolls came in. Most were alright, nothing special but decent. But some rolls...Thick thick slices, some as big as a slider. Yeah, three big bites to eat a regular sushi roll, and these weren't one of those western sushi rolls with a bunch of stuff in them. Ridiculous.
Then the deep-fried rolls. They were delicious the first time I came here, just okay the second, but this time... a big mouthful of batter. A batter so thick it wasn't cooked all the way through, I could peel off the skin to reveal
creamy white watery dough. Nasty. But maybe it was just a bad day for the chefs too.
After our first two orders, nothing. Empty water glasses for about 20 minutes, trying to get a waitress as they made a huge obvious circle around our table. When I said we'd like to order again, our waitress, who had just finished chatting about clubbing with another table, rolled her eyes. Up until this point I just thought the rolls were hit or miss, and maybe everyone was just tired. I was tolerating everything pretty fine 'cause hey, shit happens, but this annoyed me. A lot.
I finished up ordering for my sister and her husband. Thankfully they didn't have any good experiences here to compare to, so it was just so-so to them. Plus they left the ordering and stuff to me so they never had to interact with the waitress. All in all just another slow mediocre out of state restaurant to them, a never-come-back again place for me.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/7/2009
I'm not sure what's up with all the mediocre reviews for this place.
I usually cringe at the idea of… Read more »
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Review from Tyler L.
Daly City, CA
12/28/2011
I went here last night with my buddy and I must say, it was well worth the journey! We got the all you can eat and we most certainly ate all we could eat! The options for it were extensive and it was all super tasty. We mostly got nigiri which is my favorite. For $25 all you can eat Monday-Thursday, i know i will be going back. The service wasnt amazing, but it wasnt bad at all. They are really friendly, and if you make basic eye contact, they know your still hungry and want some more. Definitely worth a try if your looking for an all you can eat
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Review from Jeff S.
Mission Viejo, CA
11/9/2011
Barf.
Worst sushi I've had in SF, but I usually only go to places I've had recommended to me. I would've given this place two stars but they just sort of disappeared for a 1/2 hour without giving us the check.
Sushi fail. -
Review from Athena S.
3/29/2011 Seated via OpenTable
I concur - this place is pretty good for the price - all you can eat $27 a person *MADE TO ORDER sushi, not some nasty California rolls that have been circling the dirty sushi boat water for hours. How easy is it to drop $30 on sushi. This is a no brainer if you're craving pretty good sushi.
Service was nice too.
Note: Make a res if you're going on a weekend night or be prepared to wait and be forced to listen to 'sake bomb' shouting from loud attention deprived adults. Yes, it gets loud so don't think it's a great place for a 1st date unless, of course, you don't mind yelling over the music and crowd. -
Review from Valeria R.
San Francisco, CA
1/16/2011
Sushi hunter is not bad, but it's not write-home-about-it great either.
The interior is a bit of a surprise. It's a lot sleeker than I imagined it from the outside. And no complaints about the service.
My nigiri was adequate, but not necessarily memorable. The size and quality were commensurate with the price, which was reasonable.
My kid's bento box was also adequate, with the stand-out being the tempura. Very crisp and not at all greasy. I stole a few pieces and considered ordering more.
When the check arrived, I felt satisfied that I had gotten what I paid for. But I most likely wouldn't return. Again, not because it was bad, just not...great. -
Review from Russelle A.
Millbrae, CA
10/24/2011
Sushi Hunter is a good Sushi spot by North Beach! Food was good, Sushi was good and the people and atmosphere were good! Our server (Alyson) was awesome! I already have my favorite Sushi spots and Sushi Hunter just got added on my list!
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Review from Hailey P.
San Francisco, CA
1/7/2011 1 Check-in Here
I don't care how cheap it is, or how much you can drink for 10 bucks....I cannot stomach the sushi. And, well, it's a sushi restaurant so that should be the main concern. Right? Kinda like King of Thai (don't you dare call them a sports bar.. ha)
I just walk by and my stomach turns.
I'm rarely a hater on yelp... but the sushi is dare I say old and of poor quality.
My roommate and I have coined a phrase "NO Sushi Hunter" for when things are just bad. Nuff Said. -
Review from Meg N.
San Francisco, CA
8/14/2011
This place is amazing! If you like sushi then Sushi Hunter is a must. I love sushi and I'm so tired of restaurants that serve overpriced, mediocre sushi. When I moved to North Beach and discovered Sushi Hunter around the corner I was amazed by their unbelievable fresh sushi, reasonable prices and wonderful service.
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Review from Cathy Y.
12/17/2010 1 Check-in Here
A third location to defy the "dirty overhang + sketchy neon signs = avoid" rule (the other two being Bamboo Hut and Chili Cha Cha)
All you can eat sushi: $26 on weekend nights and $24 on weekdays. They have an extensive AYCE menu, where you order the food and the waitresses bring out what you order. And not only sushi, either, the menu included appetizers (edamame, wakame salad, agedashi tofu) and entrees (tempura, donburi, katsu) as well.
But, of course, we must stuff ourselves full of the sushi to get our money's worth! The rolls weren't top-of-the-line (for example, the spider roll did not include tobiko) and the nigiri didn't cause me to make my O face, but everything was very tasty and fresh. And, I feel it's important to add, I didn't feel like they were trying to overstuff me with rice on rolls or nigiri.
So, put aside your worries about the sketchy storefront, and enjoy unlimited tasty sushi! -
Review from Ngoc N.
San Francisco, CA
3/23/2011
sushi here is comparable to any other ayce sushi joint. the only reason why I would consider coming here again is if i had the urge to drink ridiculous amounts of sake. Granted it is crappy sake, but for an additional $10 to your meal, it can't be beat.
come here thirsty, not hungry. -
Review from David C.
Chico, CA
9/30/2011 1 Check-in Here
Waitress was super rude, food was bland, we tried to chat her up and get her out of her mood but she stuck to her jerk ways.
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Review from Danny S.
San Francisco, CA
10/2/2011
This place is cool. Not as cool as the decor would propose, but what can u do. We went for a buddies birthday and everyone in the whole place sang and drank with us. It is definitely a place for the younger crowd as the food wasn't above PAR and the service wasn't either. It's your typical college town sushi/booze place, but we aren't in a college town...the thing is because it's that kind of vibe, it is cheep so younger kids can go get their jollies there for the dime on the dollar.I got the Dragon roll, which is a safe bet at any sushi joint, which didn't dissappoint.
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Review from Joey S.
11/11/2010
I went here ready to get my grub on because I heard a lot of people talk about this restaurant. Wow... was this place a big letdown.
It was some of the worst sushi I have ever had. It was EXACTLY like that cheap Chinese buffet sushi. You know what I mean... the kind that sits under that lamp next to the soft serve ice cream machine and soda. It is technically still slabs of raw fish that constitute sushi but of such low quality that it is a bastardization of everything that real sushi stands for.
Service is sporadic and the language barrier is damn near impossible to get through. Sushi orders are straight forward and simple but the staff either: 1. just does not get it or 2. scribbles down something and you are left sitting there worried that they just nodded with a blank stare and won't deliver your order.
Parking is impossible by this place. My advice: take a magic carpet.Listed in: SushiReviewsFromSomeoneWh…
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Review from jason g.
San Francisco, CA
9/28/2010
It's all you can eat for 24 dollars. Lets just leave it at that.
It kinda reminds me of all the all you can eat sushi restaurants in the City. Quality is never as good. You just kinda want to stop eating after a while but you can't because you don't want to get ripped off by not ordering. After you finish eating you say to yourself I will never do the all you can eat ever again.
The highlights were the chicken karaage, curry katsu, white tuna, and the croquette.
The lowlights........the rolls......something about the rice. It was very mushy.
The service, on the other hand, was excellent. Very fast, efficient and friendly. There is absolutely no complaint in that department. The food is probably 2 stars but an extra star is for their service. -
Review from Alyssa G.
8/29/2010 Seated via OpenTable 1 Check-in Here
Yikes. No wonder this place has 60% off http://restaurant.com certificates...I'm surprised they're still open!
I made reservations, and when we arrived, the place was half empty, yet our hostess told us we "needed" a reservation. Hmmm, really?
There were so many (too many) things wrong with Sushi Hunter, I apologized to my friend for bringing him here, although the company actually made up for a pretty horrible dinner.
First off, they charge the same amount (around $4.75) for nigiri, and only give you about 2/3 of fish. I'm the kinda sushi fan that believes fish should "drape" over the sides of the rice for a decent nigiri. Apparently SH doesn't share that same belief. Their motto? More rice!
I think over 1/2 of what I ate was rice, which is very disappointing. The Hotate nigiri was also disappointing...I'm guessing they use bay scallops instead of the bigger sea scallops, which is why the scallop pieces were chopped up rather than placed over the rice without seaweed.
Our waitress didn't know simple questions when we asked her (such as what fish they serve that are sustainable, or whether the salmon is fresh or farmed, etc.).
What I can say is that the decor is alright, very "aquatic" themed. And overall, I have to admit that my favorite nigiri here was the red snapper, pretty damn good. Unfortunately, that's about it.
Why spend $80 here when you can literally go right across the street and have amazing paella and wine at Iluna Basque?Listed in: Sushi-dom
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Review from Anne Marie B.
Manhattan, NY
12/14/2010
I never thought I'd eat here because dingy looking sushi places scare me. Well, I obviously should've looked inside because the inside is nothing like the outside. And thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I finally ventured in for their all-you-can-eat option. I give it two thumbs up!
The only AYCE sushi restaurants I've been too involve buffet style platters where you can pick and choose a roll here and there. Well at Sushi Hunter you place your order with the waitresses and they bring you the food. So if you just want to try a bite of a particular roll, you're locked into 6 pieces. They all taste good, so it's not a huge problem, but towards the end of the experience, when you're getting so full that you can't possibly eat anymore, you maybe just want one or two pieces of sushi, rather than six.
My problem is I'm all about getting my money's worth (and believe me, we did), so I of course ate to the point of pain...because I could. Be careful. It's tempting, but it's already such a deal for the price that even after 2 or 3 rolls you're breaking even. I managed something like 42 pieces of sushi and some seaweed salad. Next time I'm going for 50, but boy I didn't realize how full I could get.
My biggest problem at sushi restaurants is being able to consume more sushi than everyone else, and thus going home hungry so as to not break the bank. Well, here I don't have to worry about that. I will be back, and I will have trained for a week to be able to make it to 50. -
Review from Larry B.
South San Francisco, CA
1/18/2011 1 Check-in Here
BEST ALL YOU CAN EAT (AYCE) SUSHI IN THE CITY!!! This isn't crappy buffet all you can eat sushi, this is MADE TO ORDER!
BEST when enjoyed with a large group, as you can't try too many things with just one or two people, and you would get charged for individual plates if you don't finish 95% of what you ordered them to bring out. You can get away with having 1 or 2 people NOT get AYCE, but otherwise, as people mentioned, $24/$26 M-Th/F-Su. Check out their website for their AYCE menu.
This place is pretty creative with your orders too. If you order 3 "Devil Rolls" (our favorite!!) they will arrange it accordingly to make it decorative if it's not too busy (which it often is). They do occasionally (almost once every visit) bring you something you didn't order, so try to remember what you asked for. If you forgot, eat it anyway, you know it's going to be good!
The only down side, and i think i get their strategy, they are slow to come take your next order of refill sushi. I think they do this so you don't eat too much, because the longer you sit, the more the rice will expand in your tummy, hence, the full feeling will come out easier! Nice try Sushi Hunter, i'm on to you! :-) No, they do not over stuff their sushi with rice however, so good job on that Hunter!
Please be polite to the servers, they are working hard and so are the chef's! Good job Sushi Hunter, you've got me hooked and through me, at least 10 others!
GET SOME!!! (sushi!) -
Review from Rubeno M.
San Jose, CA
9/21/2011
Very good, you wouldn't think so from looking at it from the outside, all you can eat all day!
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Review from Timothy b.
San Francisco, CA
12/27/2010
I used to come to this place every now and again, but I definitely won't be back for a while. Katsu just down the street is a much better choice for sushi in north beach.
The happy hour was new and looked enticing. I started off with the salmon tartare with seared tuna salad for ten bucks. It was really good so I chose a few more items. This was a mistake as the dishes got progressively less appetizing. The salmon unagi rice balls were ok - cant complain too much since they were only 5 bucks.
I didnt want to gamble any more, so I steered away from happy hour and I inquired about specials. There were none. I asked what was the best sashimi and both girls told me they were new and didn't really know. So I just went with the hamachi toro. It was inedible, like stiff rubber and bad flavor. I informed the waitress that it wasn't very good. Still hungry, I decided just to go with the basics, spicy tuna roll and honey wings. Neither were good. The wings were undercooked, but I was ready to go and didn't want to complain. All in all it was a pretty bad experience and I would not recommend this place. -
Review from sandra C.
San Francisco, CA
9/5/2011
ok... this place's service was bad. They were very friendly but they took ages to bring the food out, and once they did they had us waiting 15 minutes for utensils so we could eat the salad standing right in front of our faces, they forgot our plates, they did not bring wasabi or soy sauce for a bit either, and never brought out the green tea we ordered. It took another 15 min to run our check. First time in my life I walk out without tipping. And as a former bartender/waiter that says a lot because I am very very flexible with mistakes in this industry.
