Okazu Ya SF

October 25, 2007 - Our intention was to just go up the street to the one on Taraval but they were closed for vacation! Luckily the sign pointed us in the direction of their Noriega/32nd location otherwise we would have just headed up to Shimo. Don't get me wrong, Shimo is our fave but we were feeling like we ought to try some place new, especially given all the Japanese places around.

So we headed over to the one on Noriega and did our little "peek in" to make sure there were people in there and there were. The restaurant was spacious and clean. The decor was simple and modern looking. The place had a nice hip feeling for a Sunset neighborhood joint.

We were quickly greeted and seated. They brought out a big pitcher of hot tea. That was a little weird. I don't know why they didn't go with teapots but rather with these big thermos like pitchers for the tea. They took up space and I felt a little silly hefting the big pitcher just to pour a little tea into our typically small sized tea cups. Oh well.

The menu was extensive and they supplied you with a pen for checking off items on a separate list of the different rolls available. That list was very long. When trying a new restaurant I don't ever feel the need to be too adventurous with the food. So we pretty much ordered some basic gauge foods and an entre to share. We got the vegetable tempura, a roll with tuna and salmon, and for the entre we ordered the beef sukiyaki.

The tempura came out pretty quickly. For around $3 there were 4 pieces of the veggie tempura. I'm not sure if that's expensive or not... I'm bad with remembering prices. But it definitely was not as satisfying as other tempura appetizers have been. The batter was nice and light and crispy, but I didn't feel the pieces were as tasty as others have been. My sister commented that this was more similar to tempura that she had had in Japan so perhaps this more authentic. But I'm used to Americanized Japanese food so it was a notable difference to me. I didn't like it a whole lot. It was super greasy though! That was very nice.

The roll that came out next was ok. It was rolled tuna with the salmon on top. The rolls weren't too big so they were easier to eat. You could put the whole piece in your mouth to avoid trying to break the piece apart. But overall it wasn't spectacular. I'm no sushi expert but I didn't think the salmon was soft enough and the rice seemed like it had been refrigerated too long or something. It seemed a little hard. The whole thing tasted fine but not great. That might just be because of the roll we chose though. It was ok.

The sukiyaki was a perfect size to share. This dish was only ok too. The beef wasn't as tender and soft as we've had before. The broth was not as sweet and tasty as we've had before. For me there were too many carrots and not enough noodles, but plenty of mushrooms, which I liked. It was ok and we ate most of it, but it paled in comparison to the suikyaki we've had at Shimo.

Oh, the meal came with the typical salad, soup and ice cream for dessert. We had green tea of course. Why does green tea remind me so much of chocolate? Anyway, overall the restaurant was clean, service was fine, and the food was ok, just not good enough to temp a return visit. The search for a Japanese restaurant in league with Shimo continues!