Takoba SF

Absolutely favorite sushi place. Sad they closed. I keep checking this page with a little hope to see if they will open again.

After enjoying a couple of beers downstairs from this restaurant, I found myself wandering up the stairs to sit at the window facing counter. That's right, ichiban... it's sushi time.

Didn't eat a lot... just ordered a couple of different things, and took in the nonsensical whimsy of the City: the view out the window of another building's view out of their own window. The dead end -- but we're driving through anyway-- street below. The crowdedness of the little place; I practically sat in the lap of the dude next to me.

The food was good-- I always seem to have a thing for Hamachi, and it didn't disappoint. Tried some other thing with jalapeños on it, but I can't remember what it was called. Beers, you see.

All that to say, the server kept my water pitcher full, and checked in on me from time to time. Something about heading out without a reservation on Valentine's Day in a town that is decidedly not yours makes even the slightest courtesy seem like a noble deed.

I'd say I'll go back here... but when?

This place is like a speakeasy.

It's on top of a bar, and it's so inconspicuous that if you don't know what you're looking for you're never going to find this place.

I was amazed about how good this place is.

Considering they have special sauces that include coffee of all ingredients. I believe it's called the special Xtra (the one with the coffee sauce) and it has shallots, crab, cucumber, and maguro.

Delicious.

I also tried their John Collins roll which had spicy tuna, crab, and salmon.

Equally delicious.

A great place to get your sushi fix in the heart of the financial district.

Five out of Five just for the ridiculous freshness of the fish! One of my favorite spots near work - I absolutely love coming here and grabbing a bowl or the sashimi lunch special with a yummy roll on the side. To be quite honest, I rarely deviate from the sashimi lunch special just because the freshness of the fish demands it to be enjoyed sashimi style instead of slathered in unnecessary sauces or hidden amongst veggies & rice.

The service was great with our waiter checking in on us regularly enough to keep our glasses filled but not often enough that we felt the pressure to call for our check immediately after the last morsel was consumed.

Highly recommend stopping by for a decadent, healthy, and super fresh lunch.

I came here with my GF after work on a Friday and I didn't realize the restaurant is tucked away on top of John Colins Bar in the small alley. The restaurant itself is very tiny and honestly warm with limited air circulation.

Regardless, we decided to try out their food and hope for the best. Luckily, I did make a reservation so we were able to sit fairly quickly. The special rolls were good and large. My GF and I shared 2 rolls and their seaweed salad and were very satisfied afterwards. If i am being honest, the sushi rice is alright. It is a bit too soggy in my opinion but the rolls come with interesting and tasty combination of fish and sauces.

If you are having a drink at the main bar downstairs, Takoba serves it downstairs too. I think the food is good but if I have to sit on high stools with nowhere to put my bag and sustain the warmth again, I would prefer finding another place.

Takoba is the perfect lunch spot to escape the buzz of downtown San Francisco! If you are in the city for a work trip (like I was) come here to enjoy of a few minutes of relaxation and delicious sushi.

I honestly wouldn't have known how to get here if it wasn't for my friend, so I am going to walk you through the "entrance process". As you walk in the building (which I believe is another restaurant), you turn left and you'll see a small stairway. You walk up the stairway and you'll get to a private little area with a few table and a sushi bar. The concept is really cool and it feels super private.

Between my friend and I, we shared 3 sushi rolls which was the perfect amount of food. The sushis were ready in just a couple of minutes and all of them were delicious. The service was outstanding and they waiters were always checking on us and making sure everything was fine. A super plus for me was that one of their staff members spoke Spanish (I love when I can speak my mother tongue at a restaurant).

Loved everything and highly recommend it!

Takoba SF is located right inside John Collins in case you didn't know. If you want to avoid the lunch hour rush, get here before 12:30pm. Otherwise it will get busy inside.

The fish here is really fresh. I ordered the chef chirashi bowl which is a fantastic selection of maguro, hamachi, sake, walu, seasonal fish, tobiko and cucumber. I also ordered the Sendai miso soup which has a generous amount of shitake mushroom in it. Also be sure to get a Macau iced tea to go with your meal.

I've been here twice and have been getting consistent service. The food is delicious and this place turns into a full bar (John Collins) in the late afternoon. Price wise you'll be paying a premium because it's SOMA.

The sushi spot upstairs is not to be missed (although John Colins downstairs is the cutest, most instagrammbale bar for a drink after)!

Maritza and the whole team was so friendly, welcoming and warm! I was visiting SF for a conference, so I was eating dinner solo. These ladies really went above and beyond to make my evening :)

Keep up the great work and serving those quality cuts of fish!

Who would have thought to open a sushi bar inside a bar/nightclub?

Popped in here after happy hour and honestly wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised! The sushi bar sits in the loft space above John Colins. The space is small so it gets filled up pretty fast. The menu is small, but I thought the specialty rolls were pretty delicious. Try the spicy hamachi roll, Oban roll, and poke roll!

I've been wanting to come here for weeks after I heard some coworkers raving about it. It's on a side street so it's kind-of hard to find to start with, but then it's also on the second floor of a bar which is the start of a few problems with Takoba.

Another concern was that Asian people don't work at Takoba! That should've been a red flag.

The bar is loud, impersonal, and overwhelming. You have to show ID to get in the door even if all you want is Takoba. It's confusing because Takoba will tell you you can wait in the tiny area upstairs, outside, or at the bar. So even though we put ourselves on the waitlist via Yelp app and they gave us a time to be there by, we still had to wait. So what did we do? We waited at the bar, as they suggested.

One confusing aspect is that you can order sushi at the bar. So after a bad tech meetup where this recent dropout pitched me his crypto startup idea (and debated the ethics of ethereum and blockchain) we did what any hungry person would do: we ordered sushi at the bar to speed things up. Then we got a text message saying our table was ready. Score! The barman said we could go up, so we went up.

Takoba wait staff seated us at our table (which was a communal table, fine, it's as intimate as the bar but quieter! Still a step up from where we were, literally and figuratively!)

Takoba staff gave us menus, and gave us waters. I was quenched! The bar didn't have water. I gulped it down. We told them to take our menus, we'd already ordered. Aaaand then they told us to leave and go back to the bar because they couldn't give us our food that we'd ordered FROM THEM down there even though we were told we could order down there and then told by someone else at the bar that we could eat it at our table UPSTAIRS where it was crowded but not noisy. Hey, we wanted to chat like friends.

Alas, Takoba waitresses and servers rudely and loudly made us leave (I was so embarrassed) and we went back to the bar where we ate our Takoba, Midori, and Minna rolls in silence because we didn't feel like yelling to be heard.

They were good rolls but not worth the price and definitely not worth the service. Until Takoba learns how to treat customers (hey, the customer is always right, ESPECIALLY when multiple people say the same thing and we--the customers--do it.)

Save your money (those were pricey rolls, even for SF), save your breath, and save the stress and embarrassment (also secondhand embarrassment, because other customers asked why we couldn't stay at our table either) and go to Pabu or Akiko's (both also in FiDi) or venture to Ebisu in Inner Sunset.