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Categories: Japanese, Sushi Bars
Neighborhood: SOMAMon-Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Fri. 5:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Sat. 6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
"This is my happy place... the place I go to when: 1. I want to tune the world out and tune myself in 2. I want to stare into wide open…" read more »
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Love this place because it's right on the way home from my office and when I stop in after a long days' work, the vibe is just right and I feel right at home. Good music, wonderful food and drinks.
Happy Hour: 5-7pm Mon-Sat
I went here Friday night for my boy JASON GEE's birthday. He was not a happy camper and was complaining for the rest of his night. He loves to eat and is the biggest food critic I know. Service here is super slow! ( TERRIBLE) Please hire more staff to accommodate your hungry customers. The worse thing is a nice restaurant with good food that has HORRIBLE service.
I personally liked the sushi rolls, but the price and service over powered my liking! Tsunami you are also lucky that I don't like wasabi, otherwise I would be complaining about not receiving any.
Tsunami at this location will be bye bye soon...if you do not clean up your act. It is critical to keep your customers happy so they can tell all their friends and yelp raving reviews.
Came here for my birthday dinner. It sucked!!!!
We made reservation and we had to share a table??? You kidding me? Service was slow, no pride of ownership, it seemed like the staff don't like working here, bartender took 30 minutes to get us drinks, no parking around here. We had 1 round of drinks for 6 ppl 5 sushi rolls,tuna tartar, 2french fries, 2peppered tempuras, carpaccio. total bill was 275 dollars. Seriously?
The sushi is tasty but the wait and the service were just too bad to overlook. I really do hate this place and will never come back, and I am trying to say this in the nicest way possible as my reviews are never that bad unless you are that bad. Tsunami.......you are really that bad. They actually ruined my birthday. Urrgghhhh!!!
This is going to be harsh.
There is no parking lots around here, not their fault, parking is almost impossible.
Not one person working here is Japanese, though one of the Sushi Chef looked half Japanese.
The Maitre D, either she is the owner or something cause she just grabbed the first six things she saw and wore it to work.
This place seats about 35 people maximum. We were seated along with a party of three other people.
For a party of six, it took half an hour to receive our drinks. we ordered 4 chilled shots , one beer and one straight shot, it's not like he had to make all 35 people their drinks all at once, I used to work at Scoma's and to make drinks for this amount of people is the norm, they would get their drinks in about two minutes, from making it then to your table.
The wait staff, they have no clue, if you see someone drop their chopstick on the floor, you should bring them another one, if this is a Japanese resturant, shouldn't I get some wasabi, why did I have to ask for wasabi???? Why would you not bring wasabi for everyone else too??? That's why we were all just sitting there looking at the food. Duh????
The food, Poke, how do you F this up???? Why is it just small cubes of tuna and avacado????? Who makes Poke with avacado???? They have about seven kinds of rolls here, if you want to know which one is the best??? It don't matter which one you order, they all taste the same!!!! Oh, it took 45 minutes to make this crap, I timed myself and it only took me 5 minutes and 45 seconds to crap it back out.
The bill came out to 275.00 and the worst part of it was they charge 3.5 percent on top of that for workers insurance, you know for what you charge, your custumers should not be paying your inadequate staff's insurance, I don't see any mom and pop busssiness charging a fair price and giving good or decent food doing that.
The only Japanese you guys speak here Sake.
It's not Ali Got Toe, It's Ali Got To Go.
Disclaimer: My ratings are based on value compared to other restaurants of the same cuisine and of a similar price point. A $10 meal could very well score 5 stars if the restaurant delivered excellent value. Similarly, a $100 meal could score 1 star if the food was dismal compared to its similarly-priced brethren. For the most part, my ratings will be based on the quality of the food, unless I explicitly comment on the service or the decor.
In this case, my points of reference are Sushi Time and Ryoko's, which are less expensive. Quite simply put: Tsunami can't even get the most basic component of sushi - rice - right. The texture of the rice was mushy and it seems like they forgot to add rice vinegar. The fish was bland (read: defrosted), but at least it was clean.
The only saving grace: cute decor, convenient location (for me) and late hours.
I love Tsunami. It's my favorite happy hour place for a smooth glass of Old Fashioned. All cocktails and bottled sake are half off from 5-7pm Mon-Sat. In addition, maki and handrolls are half off as well. You can ask to substitute a handroll as a maki cause handrolls are messy to eat.
On days where work leaves me feeling like something the cat dragged in, I flee to Tsunami to have a drink, chat up with the wonderful hostess Tessa and the impeccable bartender Robert.
Dinner is great too. We had dinner here multiple times and never had a problem with quality of the food, service, or ambiance. They recently added a specialty menu to include fries with spicy aioli sauce. That sauce packs serious heat. I'm excited to try other items on their menu. Cheers!
It's really just an cool place with OK food neighborhood sushi place. Tsunami on Fulton is a little better to be honest.
The lunch options are pretty good, not too pricey, liked the salad with seared tuna a lot
The sushi/nigiri options are nothing but ordinary. Fish is fresh, yet size is just way too skimpy. I have small, if not tiny appetite, but the portion is so skimpy that it actually "looks" bad.
Will come if I'm left alone by myself and feel like some sushi in the hood, but definitely won't bring friends here...
I thought my palate was well sashimi-educated considering the abundance of Japanese restaurants in San Francisco.
Tsunami took sashimi to a new level. The first time I laid my eyes on their thinly sliced, almost an art-form like sashimi plate I scoffed (as any other cynic would do when a new place opens in their neighborhood). Tasting it was a different story, Tsunami sashimi is a living proof (for the lack of a better word) that sashimi can look great and taste even better at the same time.
I also discovered one of my all time favorite mushroom appetizers when I ordered their fried mushrooms (I believe it's shiitake but I'm not 100% sure).
Staff is friendly, passionate about Tsunami menu and helpful with Sake ordering choices.
-1 star for no private tables, it was difficult to have a decent conversation in a close approximation to two other just as chattery couples
We went there for an early dinner before a Giants game; didn't know that their happy hour is from 5:00p to 7:00p Monday to Saturday. We were told that we had 40 minutes to order maki and bottled sake at half price. Unfortunately, we're not Sake drinkers. The music was kind of loud and so were the people. Tables were spaced close together. The service was okay. Most of the fish was fresh, but pretty pricey.
- Hamachi stuffed shiitake: the fish was so fishy that we couldn't eat it. The tempura wasn't nearly as crispy as the waitress had described.
- Tuna carpaccio: the fish seems fresh, but it's difficult to tell because it was drenched in turffle oil.
- Kobe beef tataki: the meat was slightly tough and not marbled like Kobe beef should. The seasoning was well balanced and interesting.
- Tekka maki: fish was fresh but very little
- California roll: surprisingly that the crab meat was NOT imitation and it was good. Gave them an extra point for that.
- Hamachi and Avocado maki: fresh fish, just the right amount of rice and thinly sliced scallions on the outside. My favorite of the evening.
- Hamachi nigiri: fish was fresh, but again very little of it
Our waitress was nice enough to give us half off of the Hamachi stuffed shiitake, since we mentioned to her that it was very fishy. A quick dinner for two with a bottle of wine ($35) was over $120, even at happy hour. Most likely we won't go back again.
+4 stars for affordable half-priced temaki, maki, sake, and cocktails during a long and generous happy hour (5-7 PM weekdays). +1 star for featuring ume shiso on the menu -- haven't seen that outside Nijiya market Stateside, and I miss the unique taste. -1 star for overpriced sushi at other times. -1 more star for the excessive rice to fish ratio in the temaki (the maki were just fine).
Very friendly service and staff. They gratuitously "extended" happy hour prices by a few minutes for us when we were late putting our orders in.
By the way, who actually goes here close to 1 AM on a weekday in Mission Bay?
Would you like to eat some overpriced concept sushi before the ballgame and walk out still hungry? Cool, let's hit up Tsunami.
My 1977 roll (salmon with lemon and scallop) was neither as interesting nor as big as I was expecting. $15 yielded very little satisfaction in that case. I liked the seaweed salad a lot, but it confirmed that I am definitely allergic to something in seaweed salad, and that the late night Korean market purchase I made several months back didn't have me up hurling all night because of the source.
Tsunami's got that awful China Basin dressed up conference room decor. It seems they tried, but the most one can really do with space in these new buildings approximates a Scandinavian Design showroom.
The food is quality, I'll give it that. They have a happy hour, but it's still easy to spend $30 pp for a snack.
Date & Time: Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 6pm
Stars: 3.5
Company: Michael
Crowd: Mix of 20-30 Something Condo-Dwelling Couples & Families En Route to Giants Game
Music: 80's Pop
Decor: Contemporary. Bar & Lounge. Tightly-Packed Suede Banquettes w/ Tables for Deux or Quatre & Communal Table
Service: Efficient 20-Something Females
Imbibe: Sapporo. Cocktails Available
Devour: Spicy Scallop, Spicy Tuna, Hamachi & Unagi Hand Rolls, Kanpachi, Hamachi, Uni, Walu & Toro Nigiri
Total: $90.40
Yuck yuck yuck. I was really hoping to find great sushi here, but it was just terrible.
My roll was a bit like a rainbow roll, but with no avocado and more fish, but it was terrible. The "crab" in the california roll tasted like tuna fish..like from a can! It was almost the same color too. I picked out all the fishy tasting crab and just at the rest, but it was still a little sketchy. The fish had an odd..um...how do i describe it..shine? to it.. It was just odd. And when I left, I was legitimately worried that I would get sick from it. I did have the soba noodle salad, which was decent, but i will not be returning.
Chopsticks up: cool interior, close to the ballpark & my office, soba noodle salad was decent.
Chopsticks down: fish like i had never seen it (not a good thing), tunasalad-ish crab, no real sushi bar, waitress had an attitude, no A/C, no easy parking
The food was good, the ambiance nice, and the service attentive and friendly. The experience was so good that we even went back, despite getting a little sick after the first time.
Both of us got sick again. And my new (luckily) rule is that no matter how fantastic the meal, when I get sick twice I can't let myself go back.
Can't say I was overly impressed with the new Tsunami location. Compared to their first location at Fulton/Divisadero, I thought this one had a colder ambiance, indifferent service, and steep prices. Food was good, but overpriced. $15 for a signature roll just seems excessive. Salads were a better value at $8, but the fish portions were no better than average. The wait for order taking, delivery and the check were longer than average.
Full disclosure: I went during lunch, so the evening ambiance might help the atmosphere. But I won't be going to back to check. I'd much rather make a return visit to the original.
It's regularly pretty expensive, but during happy hour it's great! Half of maki, cocktails, $5 large beer and ome other specials. We all drank and ate and it was still less than $15 per person.
The sushi itself was ok. Not bad, but also not great. The specials only included the regular stuff (California, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, etc...) so we didn't try any of the more exotic combinations, but for the price it was definitely worth it. At regular price... I wouldn't be as happy.
This was a disappointing experience as the place is very near to my home. I was very hopeful for a great sushi experience given the proximity. The atmosphere is the modern lounge style with great use of wood furniture and industrial feel. I particularly liked the design of the bar with high glass shelving going up to the ceiling on a brick wall showcasing their liqueur selection.
The food was forgetful and the selection of fish was disappointing. I was really surprised how few varieties of fish they had. I have seen cheap sushi boat havens with more selection. The menu was limited and the fish ended up being only ok. The waitress tried very hard to make our first introduction to the restaurant a good experience, but she had little to work with. We finished with some french fries (type thing) that was very good filler given we gave up ordering.
The place has a lot of potential with its design and location, but whoever owns this place needs to recognize that it takes more than great looks to get neighborhood sushi patrons. This is not a place you'd want to search out unless you live next door.
I was here with a friend just last week, and I was very pleased with my experience. Food: delicious, fresh, perfectly made. The presentation of the food was nice as well. This place also has a good selection of wines; whatever it was that we ordered (I regret not asking) it was the best wine I'd tasted.
Service, a-ok. We were able to walk right up to the sushi bar and were immediately greeted. Our server was quick, professional, and not overly kind. I'll come back again.
We have been a fan of Tsunami since it opened up. The sushi is great and the staff is wonderful. They are supper friendly and helpful when we come in with a party of 2 or 6!
It is also a great place to grab sushi during happy hour or before a GIants game! They have 1/2 off Maki rolls and $5 Asahi beer which is a great deal.
In short: pricey with very small portions.
The good.
+ Out of the sashimi we tried, I liked the the albacore and butterfish the best.
+ I really like the decor of the restaurant itself, and the waitresses are pretty friendly.
The bad.
- Our food came out really, really slowly. If you're hungry or more pressed for time, ask them to bring out your rolls/dishes as they're made. I think it took forever because they waited to bring it out when everything was made.
- None of the rolls we ordered were very memorable or flavorful. There's not much in each roll, and each piece is so tiny!
I just moved really close to Tsunami, so I was hoping it'd be a good place to go regularly. But I'm pretty disappointed, and I don't think it's worth the price to go back.
stopped in last night just for a quick to-go order, ordered hamachi sushi, unagi sushi, and a vegetarian roll (honky tonk pistol). total-about $25 which i think is just a tad pricy. usually hamachi is only about $5, it's about $7 at this place and tastes pretty much the same.
don't get me wrong, the sushi was delicious, and the vegetarian roll was very tasty, but also i think maybe just a tad bit over priced ($10).
can't comment on service or sake, as this was a to-go order. the rolls are good, but i think just a bit overpriced.
PRO: Sweet design, solid food, great happy hour, Hamachi Shitake!
CON: A few dishes seem over priced
We've been to Tsunami Sushi a few times now, and it has consistently been very good. We were here Friday night with our friend Candida, who needed some cheering up after almost having her Pug flattened by a SF Fire Truck a few minutes before. And that Pug's face is flat enough as it is.
***If ya want the full VinDivine review & more reviews, check our profile...
So our fave dish here is the Hamachi Shitake ($12). You have to get this. If you just come in, grab a seat at the bar, a drink and this dish it's worth coming. We had four orders! And it is exactly what the name implies, kittens. Tender Hamachi stuffed into Shitake Mushrooms. The blend of flavors and texture is awesome. If you get this and don't like it, well then you are crazy. If this isn't their signature dish it should be. It's almost up their with Nobu 57's Yellowtail with Jalepeño signature dish in our humble opinions.
They do some good rolls too, including the Phat Cat ($13), with Spicy Tuna and Unagi, and the Veggie Tiger Roll ($12). And the Sashimi, you ask? Yes, we are Hamachi fans. The Hamachi Sashimi ($16) was very fresh, and had excellent texture. The Toro Sashimi ($26) was too pricey but again fresh and tasty. Not worth 26 bones, but it was good.
***If ya want the full VinDivine review & more reviews, check our profile...
5:03 pm on a Friday - walk into a not-so-crowded Tsunami
5:04 pm - waive at waitstaff asking if we can sit at a table if only having drinks. Response is "Uh, a hostess will be back shortly." (Can she not answer the question?"
5:06 pm - no hostess; we sit at the table.
5:09 pm - no sign of waitstaff
5:10 pm - got our drink orders; still no sign of waitstaff
5:13 pm - give up on waitstaff and go to the open seats at the bar
5:18 pm - yay, got a side glance from the bartender
5:20 pm - bartender: "I'll be back" in a rushed, no eye contact kind of dismissal
5:23 pm - no sign of help. happy hour or get your crap together hour?
5:25 pm - 15/20 min is too long to enter a restaurant and not get any interaction w/ a human who works there.
Seriously?
Did the happy hour on a bike ride running some errands for work.
$5 for the large Sapporo is a great deal! Happy hour deal is the sapporo for $5, and 1/2 price maki & hand rolls.
I ordered the scallop hand roll, tuna nigiri & rock and roll.
hand roll was mostly rice, very little scallop, a single shred of cucumber. not very impressive.
tuna nigiri was medium size I would say, not too big, but big enough to cover the rice, but not a thick slice.
rock and roll was mostly rice again, not much eel but some good flavor.
I bet the big rolls are much better, but I really judge a sushi joint on the quality of the maki and nigiri. without those, they are just making fancy rolls and not real sushi.
I will go back to try the other rolls, but only during happy hour. Most of the specialty rolls are $12 and above.
The sushi, cocktails and sake were great. I'm a little bit biased because this is the only place in town where I've seen a ume/shiso hand roll on the menu. It's not a taste for everyone, but happens to be one of my favorite combinations. Add fresh crab to the roll for a treat.
In anycase, my only complaint is that the place had really loud and annoying dance music. At least at Nihon they have cool DJs that spin interesting stuff - even if it's loud, it's not generic. Here, the music was very generic and loud. Add that to the high-ceilings and tall windows and you have a place that's really too loud for a quiet conversation over dinner.
The food is very good and gourmet. Normal pricing is a little steep, though the happy hour specials are pretty good. Basic rolls are 1/2 price from 5-7p, which end up being $3-$3.50. Most drinks are also 1/2 off and end up being in the $4-5 range for some pretty premium cocktails. The ambiance is very hip, although its not terribly big. The service has been pretty good but not great the two times I've been there. Oh, and HH is for the whole restaurant, not just a limited bar area like some places.
Friggin' steal of a place if you show up before 7 PM!
A champagne-drink, bottle of beer, miso soup, and enough of maki rolls for two ...... $31! The happy hour rocks, as previous reviewers suggested and the sushi quality is solid. You're not going to cream your pants over the rolls but won't be disappointed either. Lovely spot to check out, especially if you live nearby.
Hated it. Drink sucked, the Miso was fishy (because the seaweed in it was so damn fishy), the appetizer sucked and all of the sushi was way too fishy. Thank goodness I only paid half price for the drink and sushi during their happy hour otherwise I would have really been pissed.
The address for this place should really be 4th street. The entrance is across from the T-Sunnydale platform If you try walking on King street looking for Tsunami....chances are you'll be walking for awhile.
Good thing is this place is open until midnight on Saturdays. Wasn't at all crowded when hubby and i stopped by for a late (9pm) dinner on a Saturday night. We had 3 rolls: papa san, spider, spicy tuna and Albacore nigiri.
All 3 rolls were just ok. If I had to nit-pick, Papa san roll was pretty unforgettable. The soft shell crab inside the spider roll could be a little crunchier with less batter. Chefs really skimmped on the spicy tuna. There was barely any spicy tuna in the roll and they were sliced REALLY thin. Albacore nigiri was seared which made it a little dry.
No warm green tea served with your meal or free miso soup. Prices are moderate. Not my favorite sushi place - Just OK.
This place is close to my work, so I heard good things about the original spot, so I'd thought I would try this place.
Nah, it's only ok, sushi is not made by Asians!
Also, they only do sushi plates with pre-menus. There's no picking or choosing of your own fish or rolls.
Those are my reasons for the minus of 2 stars.
So, overall- the place is just eh.
Great tasting sushi, wish there was more of it. I ordered take out and when I got there, was horrified to see the amount of sushi which was in my box for $25. Needless to say, I filled my tummy with a LOT of beer to make up for the lack of sushi. The Volcano Roll was very tasty, the spicy scallop roll was just about ok.
If you are looking for quick takeout sushi, stick to Nama, Safeway or Whole Foods
It was really hard to pick a star value.
For happy hour, it gets a 4. Still one off for it's i-try-too-hard-to-be-cool vibe, but the prices and the sushi offered for those prices are really good.
For regular times it gets a 2 stars. Over priced, trying-too-hard, slightly pretentious, good service, great salads, original and very tasty sushi options... but overall you go home and eat again... i'd just as well walk down third to Moshi Moshi.
Great food - 8 out of the 10 rolls are phenomenal. The other two are veggie so haven't really tried them. The menu is also slowly being expanded. The ingredients are always fresh and the sushi chefs are willing to try new things if you ask. The mushroom-less "magic mushroom" is something that should be added to the menu ASAP - I believe it is a holdover from the first location. I've only tried the lunch special once and was fairly impressed, but not sure if sushi for lunch is something I'll go to war over.
But food-schmood - the real gem here is the bar. Any idiot who says the bar is "ok" is obviously a true connoisseur of the vodka-soda who likely frequents Circa or Kelly's Tavern. Tsunami's bartender extraordinaire, Robert, is an effing rockstar. Just take a peek behind the bar. There are spirits in there that you don't see anywhere other than places like Bourbon and Branch. And he knows how to use them. Come visit. You won't be disappointed.
Don't get me wrong.. the sushi and cocktail are always good here... but when it comes down to it, Customer Service Reigns... and every time I have been here is falls short...very short! I have given it more than a half dozen tries, as I am apparently more than willing to give a place a chance, especially when it is so close and perfect for an, "on the way home dinner." The fat cat roll is Awesome... and cocktails are really interesting... but that's if you can get one before your food shows up. Many times the miso soup comes after the rolls, and you might wait 20 min before seeing your server, and it's too expensive to not have a great experience each time. After trying Nama down the street the sushi is better and the service always works hard to meet your needs, and it won't break your weekly sushi bank. So if a loungy atmosphere is more important than service to you than have at Tsunami... but if your in it for the sushi and want to see your sake and miso before the rest of your meal... head a block to Nama.
Vibrant happy hour scene. Fresh sushi. Tasty cocktails. And very close to home.
But I am taking away a star because their miso soup was disappointing. It was bland and needed some sodium boost.
I live a block and a half by the original Tsunami on Fulton. It's a curious thing because I do really enjoy it but I somehow find myself not going there that often, despite the proximity. Maybe it's the abundance of hipsters that I just can't keep up with these days...
Anyway, this past Saturday some friends and I were looking for a "new" sushi spot to get us out of our usual environs, and on a yelp whim, we decided to try the sort-of-new Tsunami outpost by the ballpark.
After a three hour meal, we're glad we did! The space itself is much more lighted and perhaps as a result more open than the Fulton location (despite I think being a little smaller), and the angled community table adds to the socialness.
Our hostess with the mostess, Tessa, greeted our party and took us to a prime corner window seat (we had five people). I'm not going to detail every type of fish we tried but my general feeling is that Tsunami does fancy rolls better than regular ones, and some of the nigiri we had was only ok. That said, they had walu (butterfish) on special, and we had two servings of sashimi that were simply magnificent.
The full bar is a plus, and most of the cocktails we sampled were the sort you'd order again; they were not contrived concoctions. But for my money (and we did spend some), go with sake. Plenty to choose from, best to experiment, but the selection is a choice as a good wine list.
I'm excited to go back to this Tsunami, which so far seems a lot less busy (perhaps a little more grown-up) but somehow more fun than the original. If you're looking for a place to go after, Bacar, District, and Gallery Lounge are all nearby, or on weekends you can go watch drunk people by beer and cupcakes at Safeway!
Great deals before 7pm!
Yummy sushi- so fresh and delicious
Great ambiance!
Take advantage and go before 7pm for their happy hour specials!
WALU WALU!
Amazing lunch specials at this phenomenal sushi place!
All those Mission Bay residents/ Giants fans are in for a local treat!
We live right down the street from this sushi place the decor very nice wait staff are always on top but I must admit, the food is pretty good, but it's just soo overpriced.
Stopped by here for happy hour before a Giants game. I've been to the sister restaurants Tsunami Sushi Panhandle and Nihon Whiskey Lounge, so I expected that this place would be good.
Their happy hour specials consist of $5 drinks, $4 hand rolls, $4 maki rolls and half off bottles of sake. We ordered a bottle of Nigori sake and then I had a Lychee Mermaid....just as good as Nihon....mmmm. We got the tempura shrimp roll, spicy tuna roll, rock n' roll( http://static.px.yelp.... ) and hamachi & negi hand rolls( http://static.px.yelp.... ). I didn't see uni on the spoon on the menu, but I asked, and they made it for me( http://static.px.yelp.... ). All the food was really good and everything met my expectations. The uni on the spoon was delicious. I only wish it was a happy hour special!
The service was great. Our waitress was always checking up on us and refilling our water. The only bad thing was that it was a hot day in SF, and the restaurant only had their front doors open, so it was still warm inside. They could've used a fan or two to get the air circulating.
I'll be back another day to cure the happy hour munchies.
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