Cured Fish Bar — Restaurant in Livermore

This is a new little restaurant that combines Western and Japanese seafood into some really fantastic dishes, in a cute little space nestled between other great food places in a tiny plaza. Overall we had a fantastic time, and will definitely be returning. The food tasted great, the atmosphere was pleasant, and the staff were all friendly and helpful.

Top 3 takeaways: The Dayboat Scallops were amazing. If there's one dish that we had that should become a "signature" dish for the restaurant, it's that one. The scallops were soft and tender, the flavors were perfect, and the yuzu sauce added a nice tartness that didn't overpower, especially combined with the olive oil. (We asked for spoons to clear the plate with after the scallops were eaten!) The presentation of everything was beautiful (in addition to being delicious). We took photos of everything because it all looked so good we wanted to remember it. The sake flight I had was great; all the sakes were light and smooth, but still had distinct flavors and paired well across all the seafood dishes

Things that weren't quite to my personal preferences/tastes: The breads used for the Uni and Tuna Tartare dishes were too crispy with how delicate the seafood was. It was tough to appreciate the buttery flavor of the Uni with how crunchy the bread was. Similarly, the tuna tartare was on a tasty sourdough crisp, that while delicious masked the flavor of the tuna itself since it had a very strong sourdough taste, and was much crunchier than the very soft tuna itself. I would have preferred the seafood be more forward on those dishes, personally. Just as general recommendations, it would be nice to have an indication of how much of each dish is provided on the menu so we can plan for sharing and order enough. For example, we didn't know that the uni dish was a single-bite, and we had to cut it in half to feed two people. We also noticed that it got very loud very quickly in the small space as soon as a louder group came in, and would recommend putting something to help dampen the acoustics, like some wooden structure or something to disperse the acoustic reflections.

This place is extremely impressive for a new restaurant with a really cool, unique menu that changes all the time with the availability of different ingredients. Despite me having some personal preferences regarding a few of the dishes, everything was delicious and we really enjoyed the meal!

I'll 100% be going back for more and seeing what the chefs and staff prepare in the future! (And next time will be trying some of their oysters/mussels which...

I drove 40miles to try this place, never been to livermore, but got to try this place. This place is cozy and modern vibe which I love. We sat down at the dining table followed by host. Menu was pretty straight forward and had not many options. Server recommended us to order at least 7 dishes for 2ppl. And we did. First, I ordered oysters and they were super fresh. I loved the oyster the most here. The bread along with the garlic butter was very delicious as well. Caesar salad - very unique texture of the topping they spread on the top of salad. Salad was very fresh. Toro tartar - fish was fresh but it was a bit salty King salmon - it was a bit fatty and oily Bluefin tuna - perfect taste Albacore - it was ok

One thing I didn’t like about the sashimi plate was they all had virgin olive oil that makes me can’t enjoy fresh taste. I wish they come up with other toppings or seasoning.

Service - could’ve been better. My server was too cold, I think host was more professional than other servers. Since this place is tiny (looked like focused on more local ppl or so), they could’ve been more friendly to customers(?) idk they acted like they are working in some franchise restaurant where random ppl come and go.

Do you think I will come back later?...

I was very excited to try this new restaurant in Livermore, and I was not disappointed! The menu is all small bites made to be shared between two people for the most part. So as a single diner I ordered 5 different plates. The Caesar salad was unique and one of the best I've ever had - will definitely eat that again! The other highlight was one of the weekly specials - the Uni Toast - very fresh and deliciously presented. I also thoroughly enjoyed the other weekly special - amberjack with lime and a kick to it and the Roasty Toasty mushrooms were a nice warm offset to the cold dishes. The sourdough bread from Wingen bakery is of course wonderful and was served with a very nice garlic and herb butter. I am not a sake fan, so I had wine and found the Vermentino to be a nice pairing for the fish dishes. The surprise dessert of warm chocolate chip cookies dunked in milk was a perfect ending to the meal! All of the staff were very professional and helpful and the chef visited my table and was eager to hear input. The restaurant itself is clean and modern (just maybe a little too stark for my personal tastes, but others would love it.) So all in all a highly satisfactory experience. ...