Chīsai Sushi Club — Restaurant in San Francisco

It seems we came here on an off night or something. We were here awhile ago and both ordered the oki. The nigiri was ok, though we felt most of them were overly seasoned.

We arrived on time for our reservation, but had to wait another 15 minutes to be seated. Not a huge deal, but also not a great start to the evening.

The biggest problem was that the omakase experience was terrible. We were seated at the end of the bar, with Richie. The timing between each serving was extremely inconsistent. We had one course come out immediately after the one before it, then right after waited literally 30 minutes for the next one. Richie was also apparently the chef for all the tables along the walls, so we watched him make dozens of other plates before getting back to us. The customer that was seated nearly an hour after we arrived finished his omakase course before we were even halfway done with ours.

The chef also had dirt under his fingernails. Look, if you're going to be making and serving sushi with dirty fingernails, you absolutely should not be doing so in a place where a customer could see it.

Perhaps we simply got unlucky with having a bad chef, or coming on an off night. Based on the other reviews I see here, that does seem to be the case. But unfortunately, based on my own experience, I would never recommend this place to anyone, and would discourage anyone from spending their money...

We had a great time having dinner here with my husband and a friend. I recommend getting the Oki, their 17 course tasting menu, which all three of us got. Overall, the food is great and there was never a part that we did not find exciting.

I initially thought that the portions were small and I would end up hungry. However, all of us ended feeling satisfied after the journey. Our tasting menu started with some oysters, then a salad, followed by 9 types of nigiri (my favorite part!), and a roll. Before dessert, we also tried their creamy uni pasta (because we love uni) and had creamy sake--both of which were not part of the tasting menu. If I am not mistaken, you can also ask to reorder any of the nigiri that you have tried. I wanted to do this but could not keep track of the names just because the next ones just keep on tasting great. I am no sushi expert but everything to me tasted fresh and the textures and tastes were perfectly balanced and pleasing to my toungue.

The place is also slightly nondescript on the outside and could be easy to miss. Us and our Uber driver missed the place even despite the Safeway across the street being very remarkable. Might be good to mention that the place is a bit small from the inside so might be best for smaller groups.

We are definitely...

Great service and we'll designed omakase. Enjoyed the vegetarian omakase and leek nigiri. Very friendly service from the sushi chef who detailed what all the items were and kept on top of how we were doing.

The starter salad was nice, I enjoyed the texture of the wakame, and the vinegar of the tomato.

The marinated tomato nigiri had a great firmness that brought back the texture of tuna in a way.

The bamboo nigiri had a nice pop to it that was unexpected.

The roasted eggplant was satisfying and had a light flavor that wasn't that smoky despite being torched before being served.

The carrot nigiri had the most satisfying flavor with a balance between the carrot and sauce.

I went for the leek nigiri supplement primarily because of the "vegan caviar" but it was just some seeds that didn't have much taste or firmness. I've had better fish egg imitations.

The ice cream at the end (barley?) was nice, but I think I would've enjoyed a lighter flavor, perhaps yuzu or something more refreshing.

While the business looks shut down from the outside, it is just closed from outside view. Check out the fish on the sidewalk outside. Most seating is at the sushi counter, a few tables are set apart, but I think it was nice having the sushi handed to us directly...