So I clearly owe you more recipes. I actually have a number more coming, but haven’t quite got around to it. But I do also want to introduce some restaurant reviews onto my blog since we eat out a fair amount, and I pride myself on helping friends with restaurant recommendations around San Francisco and the other cities we travel to. I still have a number of restaurant reviews in the backlog as well – the most important being Lazy Bear (which was incredible!) – but I’ll try to tackle one at a time.
Most recently, just last week, my cousin and I visited Tsubasa Sushi in Hayes Valley. Tsubasa Sushi replaces The One sushi bar space in the heart of Hayes Valley right by Gough and Hayes Sts. And frankly, it’s much better than what The One used to be. My cousin, Alex, was visiting from Denmark and so was in search of good sushi, which apparently is tough to find and expensive where he lives. I had never been to Tsubasa but had heard good things and wanted to try somewhere new that was fairly central to both of us. And we were able to snag a reservation the day before, which is rare these days! Thankfully, both of us were extremely happy with our meal. The fish was fresh and displayed solid knife work, the service was attentive and helpful, and the overall meal experience was solid.
Tsubasa Sushi specializes in more traditional sushi; we stuck primarily to sashimi and nigiri, but has some unique takes on their traditional options. If you’re looking for super creative, fancy rolls or nigiri options, I would probably go elsewhere like Elephant Sushi or Umami. It’s also not the place you bring a big group and do sake bombs. But I would highly recommend Tsubasa for a centrally located traditional sushi dinner that isn’t outrageously expensive; other favorites in the same range include Saru Sushi, Eiji, and Kabuto Sushi.
We started with a couple of appetizers: a maguro (tuna) sunomono salad which is a marinated cucumber salad with seaweed, and a trio which consisted of shirataki (yam) noodles, a combo of tororo (mountain yam paste), tuna, and wasabi, and house cured ikura (salmon roe). All of the starers were decent, but none stood out except for that ikura. So ridiculously good! Believe they cured the ikura in sake or something else, but the roe was slightly sweet and not briny at all, and burst in our mouths like mini firecrackers. Alex and I were fighting to see who could get more of those delicious round juicy sacs.
Following the starters we moved on to the 10-piece sashimi omakase served with its own house-made soy sauce. The omakase was served all at once on a plate to our table and actually ended up being 15 pieces as they provided 3 of each kind of fish instead 2. And we weren’t complaining. Everything was fresh, well-cut, and they were thoughtful in the progression from the light-tasting maguro (tuna) and ending with the more pungent aji (mackerel). And I typically am not a huge aji fan, but their version was perfectly cured and not fishy at all. The aji and the iwana (arctic char) were my favorite sashimi items, although all were great. And the knife cuts were spot on — no mangled pieces of fish here.
We then progressed to two orders of the 4-piece nigiri omakase sets so we both could enjoy the same sushi selection. The vinegar in the rice was slightly stronger than I typically prefer but the grains were just the right amount of stickiness, and each piece of nigiri was perfectly sauced and balanced. I wish I wrote down what each was, but the artic char again was one of my favorites.
Because we’re gluttons, we continued to more a la carte orders of nigiri – including zuwai-gani (snow crab) served with kani miso (crab guts), hotate (scallop), seared ibodai (butterfish), and uni (sea urchin) with ikura. All were incredible. Hotate perhaps was the least creative or interesting of the ones we tried, but still delicious. The seared ibodai nigiri came a dab of their house cured beet root on top, which was the perfect acidic and texture balance to the soft, buttery texture of the fish. And the uni nigiri when consumed with the same amazing ikura from the starter was a party in my mouth.
Throughout the night, service was attentive (but not too much so), and they even provided complimentary appetizer (a green tea tofu if I remember correctly), palate cleanser, and a little dessert (sweet potato). Tsubasa Sushi definitely won my heart that night, I would place it high on the sushi considerations for the city.
My rating of Tsubasa Sushi
So on the VC restaurant rating scale, I would rate the meal as follows:
| Overall | 4.5 out of 5 | Great sushi contender in the city |
| Food | 4.5 out of 5 | I would recommend skipping the starters and going straight to the good stuff |
| Service | 5 out of 5 | Super attentive |
| Value | 4 out of 5 | Not a cheap option, but very good for what you get |
| Date potential | 4 out of 5 | Worth bringing a date, but I would recommend a window seat or sushi bar for the best seats |
| Group potential | 3 out of 5 | Probably best for 4 people max |
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