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Category: Sushi Bars [Edit]
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPAMon-Sat. 6:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Sushi Boom II offers unique, delicious sushi rolls, fresh and flavorful sashimi and various traditional Japanese dishes at... more »
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Went here on a date and had a great time. Didn't hurt that my date was really cute.
We were a couple of hedonists and had quite a selection of sushi and sashimi. Our favorite was an ahi tuna sashimi drizzled with truffle oil, we ordered two plates of it. Nomalicious!
Sushi dudes behind the counter were really nice and made some creative presentations and saki recommendations. Nice atmosphere and vibe.
I would definitely return when I'm in the neighborhood.
"I'm gonna eat you little fishies...." (Red Dwarf Nerd Alert)
I hate the music (club/dance music) here. I hate that said music is so loud, I can't hear my partner speak nor he hear me from across the table but I *can* hear the shouted conversation of the couple next to me. I hate that it sometimes seems as if they have gone out to catch my fish for my sushi.
My irritation rises from the moment I walk in, while I am pained in my inner ear by the music, while I wait and wait for my sushi. But then it arrives. And my eyes roll back in my head and incoherent "ahhhhmmmmmmmooooohhhhhhh"s slip out of me (although no one can hear them).
The sushi is sooooooooo good, I go back again and again despite the other irritations. And if anyone asks "what's your favorite sushi place" (by the way, sushi is one of my main food groups - with coffee, cheeeseee and chocolate), I say "Tsunami". They have plumb sake (sake, not wine) which I've never seen any where else. It is tasty like candy. And I don't even drink. It's not cheap, but they are open late and did I mention, the leetle feeeshes are sooooo unbelievably tasty!
I went here last night with some friends. The sushi chef was very friendly and was helpful on helping us pick out our food. Jojo, the bartender made us a really really good cocktail with cucumber. I must say it was delicious! :) The manager was also very very cool Adachi! He not only gave us some complimentary food but also had a shot with us. :)
The ambiance is very romantic...good to bring your date. However I went with my two friends. hahaha
Sushi is fresh and I would recommend Tsunami to everyone. I will try the Tsunami closer to my house soon.
This place deserves more than 3.5 stars. They have some of the freshest , tastiest fish at any sushi place in the city. The sushi chefs were fun and friendly and we sat at the bar and had a great chef's choice.
I'll be back.
Just OK.
The happy hour sushi rolls are a nice deal - but frankly, I could only eat and enjoy the spicy tuna. The rest was blah.
Their other non happy hour dishes sound great and I would like to come back and try more. The Tuna with truffle oil was GREAT.
Very good, sake menu...Will try one more time....
The food was pretty good, definately fresh. A little pricier than expected and the service was slow despite not being overly crowded. They had an excellent wine list and many different kinds of sake which I love. If it hadnt taken 45 minutes to get my rolls I would have given a 4.
My best friend from Guatemala was visiting and the first night she was here we both had a huge craving for sushi. Thankfully I'd heard there was a decent place around my neighborhood.
Never did I expect this place to be as delicious and fun as this place! We ended up there on a Saturday night at 8:30pm so obviously it was packed and a waiting list as long as Santa Claus' gift list (ok, I'm exaggerating). We put our name in and literally 5 minutes later the hostess sat us at the bar! In the future I definitely will make reservations in advance because I doubt I have that much luck next time.
To start off with, our bartender was amazing. She recommended a nice hot Sake to start out with and then we ordered the food. LOVED the 1974 roll! It had amazing bursts of flavor and the Sake nigiri was incredibly fresh also. My friend ordered the Volcano roll and said it was very tasty.
This is a great place to come with a small group of people or just one date, as long as they're fun and don't mind being a little loud because people are talking left and right. The lighting is very "loungy," which I really like. Don't need a huge amount of light for everyone to watch me stuff my face with sushi, thank you.
Went back to Tsunami for the first time in a couple of years last Friday. Surprisingly, it wasnt too crowded -- my theory, at 9 PM people have finished eating for the night. I was soon proved wrong, however: the place filled up as it got later, and it was quite a lot fuller when we were leaving, round 11 PM. Clearly a late night sushi destination, in an area of town (Divis & Fulton) that seems to be becoming much more of a destination, and clearly a location for the hip, skinny-jean Western Addition crowd.
We got some sake from the very extensive menu. (I had no idea - so the waitress suggested a couple of choices, a "dry martini-like" glass, and a more fruity, fragrant choice. Honestly, I couldnt really distinguish, but both were very pleasant, and really complemented the sushi.) Just to be sure, we followed up with an Asahi beer...
The miso soup was excellent. The "Tsunami Ahi Poke" was only ok. However, the sushi *was* good. We ordered several of the special Tsunami rolls. (Seems they also now serve more standard sushi -- California rolls, nigiri & the like -- I dont remember this from before.) All choices were excellent -- the Mama San, the Papa San, the Volcano -- a lot of spicy deep-fried choices, but very enjoyable. We did also get an order of spicy tuna hand-rolls, but these were surprisingly, not as good as their specialty items. Our waitress seemed to be taking care of half the tables in the restaurant, so things moved a bit slowly - not necessarily a bad thing. However, she was very friendly and helpful with a slightly quirky menu, and she gave us some complementary green tea cheesecake for dessert - a nice touch, I thought.
Just got back from a great dinner with my roomie here and this place is right in the next building from where we live. The atmosphere is super nice and modern. The portions are a bit small though for the price... but they have a pretty mean green mussel with ponzu sauce... yummy! The rolls are pretty fresh and yummy but small in portion... We had the spider roll, mackerel roll, and some other rolls... try to drink some miso soup to fill up that tummy! :)
Probably will be back here again since it's so close by.
Friends were visiting and wanted sushi so we tried Tsunami. One guy - visiting from London said it was the best sushi he'd ever had. The gal - said it was delicious and made it into her top 3.
As for me, the Vege Tiger dish, which is actually vegan, was a cacophony of exquisite flavors and so much more than the usual boring veggie rolls forced upon us.
Regular readers of my reviews know I'm a service freak-- and I am not shy about my claim that SF lacks proper service skills in the culinary arena. Little things matter: polite, friendly staff with a can-do attitude, servers who follow through on what they are asked, reservations that aren't delayed by poor organization. Good food helps too.
Good service can be especially apparent when something is even slightly wrong with your order. The server has two options: deal with it even if they may not want to, or put up a fight. I'm of a simple mind here: the server should never put up a fight for a reasonable request, like "this is not what I ordered" or "this isn't cooked right."
Long story short: Tsunami is excellent. Their food is very good-- melt in your mouth sushi with rich, succulent flavors; incredible saki list that all tastes the same kind of wonderful to this gaijin; and, yes, attentive, polite, friendly, helpful, speedy-but-not-rushed staff.
I went here last Saturday and everything went right, even when it didn't. Bravo, Tsunami. I'm a fan.
I've never been willing to return to this place after my first and only awful experience there.
My boyfriend at the time and I went to the restaurant very early on a Saturday night because we were going to a show at Yoshis in Oakland and needed to have an early dinner. So we were the first diners there. We should have known it was going to be bad when it took 45 MINUTES to get beers. And I mean beers in a bottle! How long can it take to get a cap off?
Another 45 minutes later (yes we've now been there for an hour and a half without getting our food) and other diners have arrived and already been served sushi rolls! Now I'm pissed. I call the server over and am ready to ream her out, but my boyfriend (who is far chiller) calmly explains that we need to get our food because we have a concert to get to. She apologizes and offers to give us extra rolls for free. Extra rolls? How about the stuff we already ordered nearly two hours ago?! We had to stuff our faces when the food finally came so we could get out of there in time to make the concert.
This was quite possibly the worst service I've ever experienced in the city. I can't even remember if the food was any good because the whole experience left too bad a taste in my mouth.
Was the sushi good ? NO ! Terrible service. We got a $60 bottle of sake that was good, and it was happy hour priced at $30 , but still not THAT good.
I got the weakest spicy tuna hand roll ever, didn't know you could mess it up that bad....the sushi chef was a white guy who looked like the missing link to Harold and Kumar.
45 minutes after ordering we got our main rolls. Total EH.
The waitress was nice and kinda sexy, but seriously, this place is some hipster bullshit....
I could recommend at least 20 sushi joints in the BAY that own this spot. SKIP!
I had a great girls night out here on whim. We feasted on a ton of different rolls and sipped sake till we were tipsy; thanks to the happy hour special. There's this tendency when one goes out to sushi, to be caught off guard by the bill. Here however, we were all pleasantly surprised that our stomachs were full and spirits high at a very reasonable price. I strongly recommend checking out the happy hour here.
My FAVORITE sushi restaurant!
And it's close to home so we can get the sweet happy hour prices for dinner until 7pm during the week: half price hand rolls and maki rolls and best of all..half price bottles of sake! Which makes an otherwise pricey menu affordable. The sake menu itself is the biggest I've ever seen, with a seasonal menu board letting you know what will be coming soon.
My absolute favorite thing on the menu is the Seared Albacore Sashimi $12 for 5 pieces. BLISS.
Note: The last time we went the bartender/server was not that attentive and would not give us a certain bottle of sake we ordered for the half off price because they were no longer going to have it as part of the special but had not yet changed the menus. I guess? I didn't think that was very cool, but I didn't want to take off a star just for that when I've eaten here plenty of times without incident.
Love the atmosphere here. It's a cute and hip sushi/sake lounge/bar. They carry mostly all of the sake possible, by bottle and glass. They also have a bar stocked up with Japanese liquor so don't go looking for some hen or belvi. They also don't have red bull, so bring your own if your a fan of that. You can buy a bottle and take it with you or open it there during dinner.
Came here on a Wednesday night. They have happy hour during the day and late night specials until closing.
We came for sake and got sake, now only if I can remember the name of it... The waitress recommended it. It was a filtered bottle, that had a dry taste yet it had a full body feel.
We ended up trying their Volcano Roll- avocado, tuna, jalapeno, cucumber and tobiko. Wished it had some spicy kick to it, but it didn't and it wasn't anything special. It was filled with slices of cucumber and jalapeno topped with tuna and avocado. Wasn't worth the $15.
Overall experience, the staff were super friendly, service was great, didn't try much of their food menu to agree or disagree and plenty of sake to try. Great spot, parking sucks. =P
Its really good and creative but extremely pricey that gets its 3 stars.
Where do the next 2 stars come from?
As I sat waiting for my food at the sushi bar my stomach started growling. "errrrrr arrrrrrr grrrrr. feeeeeeeeeed meeeeeeeeeeee" I don't think anyone else, including my dining companion next to me, heard. But my eyes spotted a large pile of nori for making the sushi rolls a top the sushi counter. The Hapa ( I am hapa too :) ) sushi maker must have seen my puppy dog eyes begging for some to tide my awaiting stomach over. He said "help yourself." I took one little slice not wanting to take advantage. He replied "take more. as much as you want." My stomach responded "THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!"
The restaurant rejoiced!
I think there are two scales you have to evaluate places on as far a sushi goes. The first scale is the quality of the sushi, the second scale is the atmosphere.
For a long time I thought Tsunami hit the ball out of the park on quality, and had great atmosphere, but you just couldn't justify the crazy prices. I've changed my mind. The prices are high, but they're worth it. Tsunami has the best fish in the city. It's my new #1 sushi restaurant.
I've been back several times since my initial review, and have to give bonus props to the servers. We seem to get the same woman each time, and she is fantastic about pairing sake according to your tastes, and also what you've selected to eat. I could be wrong, but I get the impression that they must taste and learn all the sakes they offer at some point, because she was really knowledgeable (and Tsunami serves a wide variety).
Also, we went here last Friday night at 8pm--without a reservation--and still got sat. Much appreciated.
Appetizers are full of complex flavors. Highlights were the mussels and mushrooms. Pass on the… Read more »
That green tea cheesecake was pretty damn good.
I had a bunch of rice at the bottom of my sake. Weird.
They were also out of one of the specials, but didn't tell me until 15 minutes after I ordered, when they brought the other food. Annoying.
So instead, I got the 8-piece omokase. I figured omokase is always a good choice, I'm letting the chef decide and (s)he knows best, right?
My meal wasn't bad, but I really wanted to be blown away if I was letting the chef do the choosing, and the fish I had didn't seem to be anything I couldn't have at a cheaper restaurant.
Oh well. Still might come back here for happy hour.
While I feel bad about giving it 3 stars let me explain my reasoning. The food was very good, fish was fresh and rolls were well prepared. Since SF has so many great sushi places, it will take a lot to distinguish itself. The ambiance was very nice, we were seated right away, however it took over 20 minutes to get our drinks, it was just 2 of us, glass of champy and a beer, not the hardest order and it was far from crowded. Then it took a good 50 min to get our rolls and sushi. I didn't mind all that much, however a dinner for two shouldn't take two and half hours. The waitstaff was very friendly, just very slow. Had the service been a little more prompt it would be a easy 4 star. The prices were a little high in my opinion, the rolls weren't very big and they all are about $12-$15, and a modest dinner with limited drinks was over $100.
Having recently moved up to this area from San Diego, I was anxious to find an awesome sushi place. Tsunami is hands down THE best place to go. Especially cool is their half-price specials on Saturday nights from 5:30-7. The food was served quickly and excellent quality-great variety and presentation.
One slight complaint, but not a deal breaker-the staff can be a little snobby. One server the other night sort of looked down her nose at us the last time we were there and said 'I assume you are here for the half price sushi."
Sorry to annoy you by trying to save money!! I really felt like I was not cool enough for the servers to pay attention to us. But whatever, sometimes I feel like that is just San Francisco...we still had a great meal and i would definitely go back
Seriously, anyone who has rated this restaurant less than 4 stars, definitely has a stick up their ass.
I don't understand why they would want to steer you away from here... they obviously don't have your best interests in mind. But don't you worry, 'cause I do!
Now listen to me good- you need to go here (the sooner, the better) and drink the sake, eat the Mama San roll & the Volcano roll, get some salmon nigiri pieces and if you don't like the "see and be seen" crowd, just sit at the bar and watch the sushi chefs.
Sayonara beeches!
my local sushi joint and - maybe i'm biased due to this - one of my favorites in the city
the fish is always excellent
some great daily and house specials
watch out for the rock and roll (roll) - some serious fiery chilli tobiko on there!!
Shin - one of the chefs - is a great guy and always looks after you if you sit at the sushi bar
also the waitressess are always really nice and friendly
only downside is i get too carried away and its not 'cheap eats' so the bill is always over $100 for 2 with sake and beer..
worth it for quality and atmosphere
half price sushi during happy hour make this place a great value. good quality sushi, nice enough decor, friendly staff.
Amazingly good, consistently fresh food.
Consistently friendly and cute waitstaff and chefs.
Get the Mama San roll. It is the best roll I have ever had in my life and I go here just for that over and over again.
Just don't go on a night when I'm trying to go, it's hard enough to get a table sometimes. ;)~
The seating is a tiny bit rough, but the atmosphere is excellent.
Love, Love, LOVE Tsunami.
If you go you must order the sashimi platter. The fish is really fresh served on a platter that looks like an underwater jungle, except the fish can't swim.
The place is swanky & very hip with an amzing sake' list and excellent service. Music is often times pumping loud but very fun, with very hip stylish dressed staff and equal look from the customers. Oh, also you should order the papasan and hamchi shitake'
This is a return visit to Tsunami, although I did not yelp it the last times I ate there the I experience a similar experience. One difference this time is that I brought my parents who are both new to the sushi world, my dad loving sushi more than I and my mom never trying sushi before. We walked down from my house and worked up our appetites and were ready to eat, unfortunately our table was not ready so we decided to go next door to the saki / wine bar corked which is fairly new and next door, I will yelp about that next :). We had just got out samples when a different table opened up and our friendly hostess came by and got us to be seated.
Our waitress was very nice, friendly and as my mom pointed out to me cute. I explained that my mom is a sushi virgin and my dad will eat anything, she told us that she had not had sushi until she started working there, she also noticed that my mom was having problems with using chop sticks and brought her the training once with a rubber band on it, also a fork since my mom wasn't getting the hang of it.
We had a large assortment of rolls mostly, too many to list, however they were all very good, my dad loving everything and my mom not getting it. They did both enjoy the service and my father enjoyed the beers with me.
The cost was a bit pricey for the amount you get but nothing shocking at a nice sushi restaurant, my dad and I both left full and happy and my mom was still wondering why we eat the stuff. It is a good local sushi place with good service and good fresh fish.
Tsunami was a random choice for dinner before our night plans at the Independent SF. I felt pretty good leaving the place but I better have for a $56 bottle of sake.
Anyhow, fish is fresh. I ordered a sashimi plate and it even included toro...which was quite small I must say, but I was surprised they even gave a little.
*Warning: The portions of this place are unbelievably small....Sashimi were dinky bite size pieces. Sushi rolls were good but pretty small also. I found myself ordering another later since I was still hungry.
I really liked the ambiance though. It's a cute little place to eat some sushi for the not-so-typical type of roll lovers. If you like sashimi, prepare to spend some money because you def will not get full from it.
Just a tip, make a reservation to sit away from the door because it gets cold if you sit in the middle "community" table where you will find yourself sitting next to complete strangers who can definitely hear your conversations. But the concept was fun, I guess. Also the chairs at that table were wobbly so I didn't favor that part of the dinner. Overall it was okay and I would consider going back if I were in the area.
O, some good things to mentions though, service was reallly great and they had a whole book full of sake if you are a sake lover.
I give the happy hour 4 stars, but otherwise probably wouldn't eat there at all. The sushi is good and the happy hour half off makes it a reasonable expense. I especially enjoy the 50% off sake bottles during happy hour. Happy hour, happy hour, happy hour. Otherwise, I'd go somewhere else.
Sushi here is actually quite good, but I went here last night and was very disappointed with the service. Our server paid attention to us when we first sat down, brought us drinks and our food and then totally ignored us the rest of the night - plates were clean, glasses were bone dry, and she just shuffled around and ignored us. Took forever to get our bill, forever to get it back once we paid, and it was rung up incorrectly first, the wrong charge is still showing up in my bank account, despite her saying that it was voided. Meh.
Granted, the place was super busy, but if they are going to fill the place to capacity, they need to either have enough servers to deal with or have qualified servers who CAN deal with it.
Tsunami feels a little bit past its prime.
It tries to have an upscale atmosphere, but something is wrong with the way that the place is set up - it feels strangely jumbled and does not flow. That and the noise level did not make for a comfortable dining experience.
Our server had a hard time hearing us, and we had a hard time understanding her. Also problematic for me, although she did her best.
Our food was OK. Good oysters, bland sweet potato fries, ok sushi rolls, pretty good drinks. Oh, the Uni Spoon was great. Other than that, not much was memorable.
The staff was very nice, and there was nothing wrong with the food, but to pay that much and go through the inevitable parking angst in that neighborhood, I would probably dine elsewhere.
Happy Hour!! Thats all you need to know. Until 7, you get all your hand rolls and maki as well as any bottle of sake for half off!!
We left feeling full and drunk for $70. The fish tasted good and the sake even better!
Also, the restaurant is connected to a wine shop that I hear has really good handpicked wines for sale.
I will be back, but not unless its Happy Hour!
3.5 Stars
It took a while for Bonnie Y. and I to find Tsunami Bar. I swear it was really hard to find the restaurant because its located in the middle of Fulton St. and their sign isn't even that big.
Right when you walk into Tsunami the interior and ambiance is really dark. The place reminded me of Tao with the deep red walls and lighting. The dining room is really small and all their tables are usually labeled "reserve." So I'm thinking in order to get a table you better call ahead. Bonnie Y. and I got stuck sitting in the bar because we didn't have reservations.
We ordered three sushi rolls & 2 appetizers --
1. Mama San -- Pretty good but kinda pricey.
2. Papa San -- The BEST roll. SOo good!
3 Volcano Roll - Disappointed. I thought it would be spicier.
4. Grilled mushrooms -- MUST GET. Very good
5. Mussels -- Really good too but the cheese was too overwhelming.
Overall, my dining experience was just okay. Nothing very memorable. I had better sushi elsewhere. However, Bonnie Y. did say their other location (Mission Bay) is better.
Walked in with a friend Saturday night at 9:30. The place was busy,(I think the rush was over, as guests were leaving) but there were three seats at the end of the bar. No host in site so we meandered over and sat down at the two stools at the end of bar. A few minutes later the hostess comes over and asks us to move down one seat to leave the one seat at the end empty in case a single comes in and wants to sit down. I said "I don't want to move thank you I prefer the end seat". The hostess asserts herself telling us she would really like us to move down one. At that point we did move, right up and out the front door. I understand that the hostess needs to manage the room but this type of microing is not acceptable. If there had been two extra seats I would have understood and gladly moved.
I finally got in here at 5:30 on a Saturday. Alone as usual when I go out to treat myself, I sat at the bar and dived into their half off happy hour options. Everything was excellent and the bottle of sake the bartender recommend did the trick. I would say that happy hour here is the way to go.
I find it somewhat ironic that me, a self-proclaimed sushi snob, actually likes the one sushi bar in the city that's trying to be some late-nite ny-style hip lounge hang-out place. Not the kind of sushi bar I'd take seriously on first appearances. However, I've been here numerous times and it's always good! In fact, come to think of it, on my quality sf sushi hunt, this place is kind of on the top. I know it's not the most traditional, and they've got their share of commercial rolls with stuff they'd never dream of including in Japan. But, its all good! The rolls are well prepared, sushi rice is well made, fish is fresh and delicately sliced- none of these giant rice packed fishy stuff you see at many second rate sushi places around town. And it's kind of fun to be in a dimly-lit hip little spot walking distance from where I often reside, the Lower Haight.
Also, the service really isn't all bad- as far as my experiences have gone. I often ask for sake recommendations, because, despite my Japanese heritage, I know nothing about it. And the servers have always been spot-on in their suggestions.
Yup, I'm a fan.
Tsunami was the last stop of the night. It definitely looks like it's in the same family as Nihon with the reddish lighting, a bunch of alcohol on one wall and mellow vibe. We had the izakaya platter which was squid 3 ways, soba salad, seaweed salad, a spicy scallop temaki, maguro nigiri and onigiri. Everything was pretty tasty.
It was dead in there and the service was kind of spacey but they serve decent food until after midnight and the seating was comfortable.
This is the place to go if you want seriously good, creative sushi and great sake. Atmosphere is fun- relaxed, kinda lounge-ish, but not pretentious. I've sat at the bar the last 2 times I've been here and had a great time- the bartenders are super knowledgeable about the sake and the sushi and even gave my date and I some special tastes of sake. It's a little pricey but worth it for a fun night out. It can get kind of crowded, but sitting at the bar is fun. Downside is that when it is crowded, the only place to stand is awkwardly in front of the host stand by the door... eh. However, that does not ruin my appetite for their delicious rolls, sashimi and sake.
I went to Tsunami about two weeks ago with my friends.
I am Japanese, so I have to say I am quite picky about where I go since I can cook quite a lot of dishes (not so much sushi!!) at home.
I really liked the ambiance. It didn't look so amazing from outside, but once I stepped in, it was really nice. I think it would be a good place to have a cozy dinner.
In terms of food, I liked this dish called "Magic Mushroom." I have to say miso soup when I went there was little too salty for my standard. I order miso soup every time I go to a Japanese restaurant (It's my measurement if the restaurant is good or not), and it was not so exciting. My friend said it was salty, but not always that way, so it was may be my bad luck? Sushi was decent.
My friends knew some staff there, so we got surprise services with a soba salad and some shots. I like the sushi/Japanese chefs who worked there. They were all friendly and approachable.
If I could give .5, I would say this place is 3.5 !!
Happy Hour - 7 Days A Week!
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
15% off your next lunch at…
Neighborhood: Hayes Valley
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
Category: Wine Bars
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
Neighborhood: Hayes Valley
Category: Sushi Bars
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
Category: Restaurants
Neighborhood: Hayes Valley
Category: Sushi Bars
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