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Categories: Sushi Bars, Japanese [Edit]
Neighborhood: ExcelsiorSunday to Thursday all day happy hour
Hot sake & beer, only $ 0.99 each
Mon-Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Mon-Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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What a fantastic find! Definitely worth the trek out to no man's land. Completely unpretentious, yet delivers some of the freshest sushi combined with eye-popping presentation. No need to pay the price or deal with the hassle of Ozumo's or Kiss when you can get the same great experience here. On a Saturday night, there were 2 large parties, including ours, and the place still didn't max out capacity. Service was on the ball all evening and they even came out with a complimentary sashimi 'cake' for the birthday boy.
Highlights:
Salad - the dressing was soooo good!
Bento box - nice way to get some meat into the mix
Molten sushi roll - not sure of the exact name but it had mango and was on fire. Delicious!
Sashimi - salmon and tuna were as fresh as it gets
Lowlights:
Deep Fried Rolls - I tried the hamachi and when they fried it, the fish got cooked through, which gave it a really fishy taste. Presentation rocked, though!
New to area and I saw this place in passing. went in .....
great service
great sushi
great tv playing sports
great place to go if in the area.
order the four seasons roll. you wont be disappointed!
cute wait staff
Don't believe the hype, folks. This place isn't bad, but is nowhere near the quality of places it's compared to in some of these reviews. As good as Kiss and Ozumo? Really? Puh-leeze. They both serve Sapporo and have chairs, but the similarities pretty much end there.
This is your standard Cantonese-faux-Japanese sushi restaurant. This town is full of restaurants like this (see my review of Wasabi and Ginger), done with varying degrees of success (although dirty carpet seems to be ubiquitous in establishments of this type).
In this case, the sushi was reasonably fresh although spotty. When we went, the salmon and hamachi were fantastic - fresh, creamy, clean, etc. But the fatty tuna had been there a while, and you could taste the frost on it. The ankimo was generally bad and tasted like it came out of a can. Other dishes fell comfortably in the "OK" category but nothing exceptional. Although we didn't try it, they do have a full menu of hot entrees as well (stuff like tonkatsu, bentos, etc.).
So all in all, a decent place to fill up on a wide variety of Japanese-inspired fare. Prices aren't bad: we paid about $70 for two of us, including beer and sake. If I'm ever in the Excelsior at 7pm on a Friday night, and I don't have reservations anywhere, I could definitely eat here again. I just wouldn't go out of my way to eat here.
EH I'm on the fence about this place. I was craving Japenese, and didn't want to venture outside of my 'hood. Yelped this place and decided to try it out.
Ordered rock and roll, and my husband ordered some fancy sushi on a crazy detailed plate. I also ordered Udon soup to share. Nothing remarkable. I do remember the rock and roll coming out as SOON as I finished ordering it, so it made me think it wasn't fresh as I'd like.
I don't know if I can say I'll be back, maybe if I'm lazy again...
This review is for dine-in, have not tried delivery service.
Overall, for the Excelsior area this place is worth 4 stars because there's no other Japanese food nearby. Not a place for traditional sushi purists, they serve Americanized sushi.
Let me be absolutely clear that this place is not in the same category as the best Japanese restaurants in the city. The quality of the raw fish is just average.
The space is somewhat dark, but the attention to details and pleasant service makes a difference. I really like the modern dinnerware they use, VERY cool - the tea cup has grip marks to fit your hand. The place is fairly clean, and the laminated and illustrated menu has a lot of choices. Really well designed, newbies will have an easier time ordering. I think that the biggest draw is the value priced bento (under $15), http://static.px.yelp.... the rest of the menu has moderate prices.
If you look in their white board of specials (next to kitchen entrance), you'll find many good choices. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed my meal here. Here's some of the food highlights we've tried during multiple visits.
Shisamo (grilled pregnant fish)
http://static.px.yelp....
Mirugai ("giant clam"/geoduck) skewer
http://static.px.yelp....
Beef tongue skewer
http://static.px.yelp....
The lamb chop appetizer was very tasty, not too fatty - it was quickly devoured, so no pic. Ayu (grilled sweetfish) is listed in the menu, but I was told that they have permanently removed that item.
The sesame chicken appetizer (like a tempura chicken) is okay, BUT they put a horrendous spicy mayo sauce all over it. If u want to try it, I'd say ask them to leave it plain - no sauce.
Also, I DON'T recommend that "Texas Roll" that other people mentioned. It's like a Chevy's version of sushi. Ugh! Bleah!
Thin overcooked beef is used instead of nori to wrap the rice roll, filled with avocado, and other things I don't remember. Don't eat the raw whole carrot on top of the dish, that's just decoration - I found out the hard way, it tasted awful. Yuck! http://static.px.yelp....
Sometimes the white board of sushi specials (behind the sushi counter) has some interesting choices. Here's some pics of what we tried:
Kurodai (black snapper).
http://static.px.yelp....
Engawa - fatty muscle of dorsal fin in hirame (flounder or halibut), it was misspelled as 'Angawa' on the specials board.
http://static.px.yelp....
I'm not a fan of rolls dripping with mayo, or imitation crab. So I didn't try those items.
Very friendly service. If dining in this area, this place is worth a visit.
AMAZING!
This place has the freshest sushi I've tasted!
Love it - Love it!! - Love it !!!!!
(And I love the happy hour specials too!!)
-LARGE SAPORRO BEER FOR ONLY $2.00?!!!!!!!!!!!
GREAT!!!!!
MAYBE...
maybe it was the time of day it was (late afternoon), maybe it was the day of the week (SUNDAY), or maybe we just went there on an off day...
because MAYBE just MAYBE this place is not what it's all cracked up to be. =/ really dont understand what the hype was about over this place
here's what the boyfriend and i ordered:
-miso: didnt try it but his face said it all =(
-seaweed salad: bland ive had better seaweed salad from Manila Oriental Market
-9pc sake sashimi: it was ok had way way better
-5 pc yellowtail sashimi: this was good... it was like butter when it touched my tongue
-lion king roll: pretty cool they used a blow torch to make this BUT did not like the fact it tasted like butane
service was average.. pretty neutral about it, she did her job and plus it was only us and 2 other tables
SO...
just maybe, maybe i will come back but most likely not
i absolutely love this place. we can't get enough of it, and if sushi dinners didn't dig so deep in the pockets, we'd eat here much more often.
andy is the coolest chef. he takes pride in his food, and he does a damn good job. i'm finally easing my way into eating raw fish, and the way he prepares his sashimi and nigiri leave me craving for more.
we're delighted to have this in our neighborhood!
we've drove past here many a time, but have never popped in. saturday night we were craving sushi,… Read more »
This place sure is tasty. My boyfriend and I battle the best sushi places in the city and this one is his. I would have to say that I agree. I highly recommend the Four Seasons Roll and the Mt Fuji Roll... SO SO good...
The service is really good, (more like a team environment), the drinks are good, (cant really go wrong with saki!) The ambiance is nice... not romantic, not casual...
Sam says see for yourself! :)
Wow FINALLY a good place for rolls in the city! I feel like there's definitely a lack of Japanese restaurants in the city that are good for rolls... or maybe there are only a handful.
We had the oysters on the half shell, sake sashimi, dragon roll, sunset strip roll, and some other roll on their special menu (similar to the lover's roll). All DELISH!
Kind of an obscure place for such a great restaurant but I'll def be back when I'm in the city & craving sushi!
I am officially addicted to their shrimp tempura rolls. I had to go back the next day to get another.
good portions, great deals, bento box (about $8lunch 12$dinner) with your choice of 3 items consisting of teriyaki goodness, fresh delicious sushi, a wide variety of options
What makes me even happier, I live about 5 min. away, even happier then that, even if I wanted to I could not move and get it delivered.
Wow take advantage of this place, it's a 'gem'
Delicious.
This place is getting worse and worse. I started out liking them because they have a long range delivery and get the order right most of the time.
The last few times they would delivery smaller and smaller portions.
Then the portions were small and old due to late deliveries.
Now they have topped it even more. The deliveries do not even come.
We order $100+ of sushi each time and they lose the order - or part of the order each time. They are rude and do not care about the customer anymore.
The rolls are horrible and sashimi portions are TINY.
Management needs to do a fire drill and get their act together so their long-time customers and neighbors don't boycott them. I hear similar stories after other neighbors were happy to have a sushi place nearby.
Now the next sushi joint who comes in the area will have our business. Are you listening sushi chefs??? Sushi Raw is swamped with customers day and night - huge opportunity in the deep mission.
OK...I double, triple, quadruple checked to make sure I was reviewing the same place as you other people. Maybe it's only good if you go in and eat at the physical location? Well, it'd take some serious arm twisting to get me to do even that after today's delivery experience.
My miso soup was pretty good, but not hot. I forgave them for that since I ordered delivery. So...OK start. Then I went for the ahi. Now let me tell you, I love ahi. If your children don't ever get to experience the power and the glory that is seared ahi...give them a picture of me to throw darts at because it will no doubt be my fault for eating it all. So, it is with great regret that I admit to throwing away the Tokyo Ahi I got from Sushi raw. It was seared fish that looked and smelled bad with red onions on top of it...and it was floating in puke sauce. My first big disappointment for the night.
Then, on to the spicy tuna roll and tekka maki (what?...I said I like tuna). Both rolls had that grocery store "we've been sitting in this plastic all day" flavor and that "how damned much sugar did they put in this rice" after taste. The spicy tuna looked gross and tasted like eating straight wasabi and the tekka maki just tasted like sugar rice.
The truly impressive thing was that after choking those rolls down I thought my edamame would at least clear the taste out of my mouth...but they even managed to screw that up.
In case I'm not being quite clear, I've had better sushi from Trader Joe's. I've had WAY better edamame...which apparently you can screw up, from Trader Joe's. If I want to eat sushi that has been sitting around, I will go to Trader Joe's instead next time.
They delivered fast, gave me extra ginger like I asked and the delivery guy was nice. So...you can have your swill in record time from a friendly dude. If I didn't think that ahi was bad, I'd give it to my cats. Boy do I hate wasting food but I just can't eat it without gagging uncontrollably.
I see that many of you like this place...so let me save you time and frustration. Don't send me nasty-grams. I'm just going to laugh at you and then delete them.
Great sushi, FANTASTIC service!! Can be crowded some nights but worth the noise, cause no matter what your gonna love the sushi and the service!
Again another great yelp recommendation.
Fresh ingredients, good selection, helpful if not very attentive waitress, pleasant atmosphere, friendly sushi chefs and very reasonable prices.
A nice closer to home discovery, in a neighborhood I would not expect to find good sushi. Will definitely become a regulars.
I LOVE sushi raw! The setting is unpretentious and the prices are ridiculously cheap (especially during lunch), but the sectioned porcelain "bento" plate makes for a very clean and classy presentation as opposed to the common plastic bento "box" that you can find in 9/10 japanese restaurants. Plus, the food is pretty good, chicken teriyaki exactly the way I like it, and I definitely can NOT complain.
The sushi chef's are very nice. But it's hit-or-miss with the waitress'. Some days you'll get the girl who gives HORRIBLE service, wont look at you, barely talk to you, etc, but then on other days, they have another girl who is friendly, nice, and will give you EXCELLENT service, so I'm not Yelping this based on their service. The only con is that it's pretty dark during the day, I don't know if their lights are really dim or if they refuse to turn it on? It's metered street parking, which means you'll end up spending $2.00 on parking alone. Oh, and not in the best neighborhood, but definitely not in the worst either.
But other than that, I think the food is a great value for the money, and is definitely worth a try.
Let's see, the Yelp keywords for this place are: "four seasons roll", "lion king roll", and "gentrification". Ok, just kidding on that last one. But this dark-and-polished sushi joint sticks out in the Excelsior about as much as the homeless woman who appeared suddenly out of a sea of Ben Sherman track jackets and asked our table for change (yes, that really happened--first time ever for me in San Francisco). So a trip here is still best left to the early adopters of G-Fi, if you know what I mean. Or to those of us who have actually frequented Excelsior dives and just had to see this place with our own eyes.
Once you get over all of *that*, however, you're left with pretty run-of-the-mill yuppie sushi. Their specialty is definitely the fancy rolls--like the afore-mentioned lion king drizzled in "special sauce", or the artfully decorated caterpillar or spider rolls. Taste is solid but nothing extraordinary, and prices are pretty good until you realize that in this neighborhood they ought to be even better.
I have to down-grade the rating that I gave to Sushi Raw awhile ago...
My BF and I have been going to this place in average of once every 3 weeks I would say. Lately, their food and service have been super inconsistence.
The portion of food is all over the place. I've been served now and then between 4 and 2 pieces of fish fillets.. It is a big different and is so obvious..WTF!! The staffs are very slow. Order from the phone have been such a pain in the butt! They really need to train their staffs to provide better service to customers and improve the quality of the food. For now, I can only give 2 1/2 stars...I round up to 3 only because Sushi Raw have amazing deal on House Sake and Jap Beers (eventhough, the price has gone up but you can't beat that still)
Hey everyone, i just ate here last night for the 3rd time. Here's the deal breaker that makes this… Read more »
Pretty solid sushi. The quality isn't the best ever but the prices are pretty reasonable for what you get. $3.95 for a large plate of wakame (seaweed) salad. California rolls are really cheap but they use imitation crab meat. I got 9 pieces of salmon sashimi and a spicy scallop roll. The salmon was pretty good but again not the best quality ever although it was very fresh. The scallop roll was just OK. Cool TV above the sushi bar!
i went here three times before & three times was awesome! they have very creative sushi's. very interesting. i would love to come here again & get the spider roll. it's very pretty!
I'm fortunate to have a bf that lives just a couple of blocks away so we don't need to worry about parking which could be a pain. We came in on a Tuesday night around 5:45. We were welcomed warmly by the waitresses and sushi chefs. We were seated immediately and read through the menu. They have a very generous selection of alcohol (sake and beer), sushi rolls and ramen. We ordered the following:
She: Four Seasons roll, Rainbow roll, large Asahi
He: Special ramen, sesame chicken, large Asahi
The sushi was decent and the ramen was good. The presentation of the Four Seasons roll was really cool with the sauce in a fancy swirly design. It was actually pretty good. However, I can't help but compare the ramen to the bomb ass bowl we had in Oahu, hence I say it's "pretty good". The sesame chicken, though was a total disappointment, for me anyway. It tasted like chicken karaage with a tiny bit of sauce drizzled over the meat and sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Every bite I took tasted more like straight up oil than actual chicken. Me no likey.
Tab was just about $51 including tip which I thought was pretty steep for a so-so meal. But sure, I'd come back, but just out of the convenience and the $1.99 large bottle of Asahi (not sure if this was a happy hour special).
Oh and unlike their warm welcome, we didn't get a "thank you" or any type of acknowledgement when we left. Boo!
Went here for lunch today and it was amazing! Perfection at it's best.
Four thumbs up! (including my toes)
Sushi Raw is a Boss. I was there when they first opened and my boy Ben and I were sitting at the bar watching our sushi boat being prepared. The sushi chef was working away, when he got a call on his iphone. He picked it up, started talking and kept preparing. We were all watching to see if he'd fuck up, but this guy was LEGIT. We started giggling like little school girls at the skill of this guy. He eventually noticed, blushed and put the phone away. We were disappointed.
End of story - Sushi Raw has RAW ASS CHEFS.
The Miso is pretty damn good too.
Sushi Boat -works every time, unlike The Sex Panther which only works...Everytime
For the people who say delivery is slow. It may be, but it's never taken longer than they told me on the phone to deliver food.
I love this place. I have since they opened, and I will until they close (which I hope not, b/c we need a place like this in the 'hoodie)
Always fresh and always delicious. Friendly wait staff make the environment that much better. Decor was excellent too, which you don't see much of anymore.
Just about every roll on the menu is delicious. The whole grilled squid is a must try!
ordered delivery (online!) from this place tonight. i wasn't expecting too much, but color me impressed! my friend and i both ordered bento boxes. for $12 (or$12.99, can't remember which) i got miso soup, salmon teriyaki, an avocado roll and shimp tempura. a perfect (even a bit excessive) amount of food -- totally filling and an excellent deal. everything was fresh and delicious. the salmon was perfectly cooked. i would definitely try this place again.
I'm sure someone else has made this joke:
I like it raw! Sushi raw, that is.
Okay, thanks for humoring me.
I've eaten here before, and found the service to be very poor, but the food was ok. I ordered take out and found A RAT TURD cooked in my tempura. I will never eat here again.
I'll come back for the sake and beer any day! $1.50.. what a great deal. Cheap cheap cheap.. can't beat that anywhere!
We ordered lamb chops which were pretty good. Ordered 3 other special rolls too.. devoured it all but got too drunk from the cheap sakes to remember if they were any good.. =/
One weekend I was sitting in my flannel pjs, watching unwrapped on the food network, and being sluggish, and pondered if there were any food places that delivered to my house.....hmMm I pondered...
A few clicks on the computer later.....grubhub.com....
sushi raw! Delivers for free with orders over $20 anytime after 5pm (meaning great for dinner). Plus if you order at least over $25, you get some free rolls (check out their website http://sushirawsf.com). I am cured!
The food (raw sushi especially!) has always been fresh and consistant. They have a variety of daily specials and an interesting selection of rolls and entrees.
My favorite especially is the katsu oysters and sea bass bento boxes, 49er roll, catepillar roll, and raw oysters! Yum yum! My mouth is watering just thinking about it....415-333-9288, "Yes, I'd like to order for delivery PLEASE!"
I live really close to it and it took only about 20 minutes to deliver.
I run a printing shop in the Excelsior. The neighborhood isn't awful but it is gangsta lite central. When I lived there a gang banger got shot dead in my driveway. Afterwards his homies would come by at 2AM and pour liquor on the sidewalk. Saggy pants as far as the eyes could see! Seriously! I ended up moving to Berkeley because of that shit. You can imagine that such a neighborhood only had eateries of the gray meat taco variety.
I was suspicious when Sushi-Raw opened. What's a clean sushi restaurant doing in the Excelsior? ..... I immediately thought....Yakuza!
Last week my friend and I finished a big T-Shirt order. We were were exhausted and hungry. I thought "Hey? Why not try Sushi-Raw?" Yakuza be damned! I'm starving! We found parking right in front. Awesome! Then we were seated by the nicest hostess. The waitress was kind and helpful. Looks like a Japanese family runs place. We ordered: Soft Shelled Crab, Bacon wrapped Ebi, Unagi Nigiri, Hamachi, Plum Flower Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll. To Drink? 2 ice cold tall Sapporo beers, and a small bottle of saki!
DAMN! everything was kick-ass good! The sushi was fresh and tasty, The cooked items flavorful and perfectly seasoned. And the drinks? They were cold and flowing! Sushi-Raw kicked culinary butt! If they are Yakuza, then I love Yakuza! Go... eat the food and relax in fat sushi bliss!
i always order in sushi as my 4-yr-old happens to love love love it! i usually order from another place but decided to try sushi raw. i was not disappointed, and neither was my son.
food came fast, i think about 30 minutes or less. bento was hot and beef teriyaki was done medium - perfect for beef lovers! tempura was not too greasy, and was fried perfectly, still crunchy when i took my first bite. miso soup was really tasty and had lots of tofu and seaweed!
sushi was great especially for delivered sushi - presentation was great despite being in a plastic box. freshly made and just fantastic. my son ate it all up in a flash.
great place, great food!!! will call again!
Great lion king roll and eel rolls. Perfect for a relaxing lunch!
So my bestfriend just moved in this neighborhood and we wanted to grab something to eat today after work. Yayy we found parking easily! thank god it was past 7p so no meter pay since I never carry change hence the tickets i owe(but thats a whole nother story).
they all welcomed us walking in. sweet staff. We got the Dragon Roll. it was tasty and pretty big. i left full. My friend got the Tempura Udon Soup which was huge for the price.
Minus one star cus i didn't know Japanese restaurants can actually mess up Miso soup. Not good at all.
Very nice place. Clean dark wooden tables. Sushi bar and big screen tv. Almost seems like it used to be a small sports bar? hmmm. Oh yea they do free delivery as well. In the excelsior it's hard to believe this place exists. Would definitely go back.
I'd gotten a delivery flyer from them so I decided to try it out with my girlfriend. It was very busy, I'm always glad to see a business thats packed these days, so I figured that was a good sign. The staff was friendly but a lil disorganized, I'll chalk that up to being busy.
The sushi was pretty average; I tried a pretty wide variety of stuff including the advertised skewer specials so I think I got a pretty decent cross section of things. Decent Sake selection which was unexpected. They did seem to be very liberal with the mayo, which is something I'm not real fond of. I noticed some cross contamination when cutting rolls which is a big no-no for me.
If you're in the area or you want delivery, probably a good place to try.
Sorry Sushi Raw, you've done it to me for the last time.
You quoted me 45 minutes for delivery. One hour and 45 minutes later the food still hadn't arrived. I had a flight to catch and I wasn't waiting around for your ass - we just wanted a quick, good dinner while we finished packing.
Your lies to me on the phone about the driver "already being on his way" at 1 hour and 15 minutes didn't help your case any. Either way, we're done. Your sashimi and nigiri were both very good, but I was never too thrilled with your rolls, anyways.
As we drove away nearly two hours later to go to the airport we saw your driver pull up. I suppose you didn't relay the message to him that I clearly gave to you - another 5 minutes and we're not accepting the order. Such a shame.
Brought a client here for lunch... its a surprisingly good place for the area. The one reason why I take off a star is because the place smelled like fish.
I got the lunch box... had a couple of types of sushi rolls and tofu terriyaki. The tofu was the star of the meal according to me...
The gyoza were equally good... all in all a decent meal. Still doesnt hold a candle to moshi moshi or coast in Chi town but a reasonably priced alternative.
when i first got my bento box it looked really small, but after i finished it i as full as hell. the saba shiboyaki was the best thing out of my bento box. the rolls here ain't bad either nothing too spectacular but its good for the price.
I like the decor very nice. I suggest sitting at the bar and order as eat. Sashimi is very fresh, especially the Toro (fatty tuna). Ask the sushi chef to surprise you on some secret rolls! Texas roll my favorite!
What a find! We have lived in this neighborhood for nine years and have only now finally made it there. The Excelsior is more know for great El Salvadorian food than Japanese. For me, Sushi Raw can compete with the best Sushi in town. We have been twice now and the fish was super fresh each time. As mentioned by others, the rolls ARE amazing. The Miso soup is just right. Not too salty like one can often find elsewhere. The service is outstanding as well.
I go to the place at least 1-2 a week's people are very nice but once it gets crowed sometimes it seems they forget you here! other then that.. its a good place with different sections and the have $ 1.50 beers that my family loves!
The tea is awesome and the Bento box are a good deal if you want Little bit of everything.. good prices and you can choose your own!
oh and they deliever! what sushi place does that? and if you order over 20 bucks they throw in free california rolls!
San Bruno, CA
Category: Japanese
San Francisco, CA
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Excelsior
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: Parkside
Category: Sushi Bars
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