Hakashi Japanese Sushi Bar & Grill — Restaurant in San Francisco

This place was an absolute miss! We arrived after a long day of fasting, stomachs growling, ready to indulge in a well-earned feast. Instead, we were met with four of the smallest sushi rolls I’ve ever seen—so tiny, I genuinely thought they were appetizers for the real meal. I’ve had gas station sushi with more impressive portion sizes. Maybe they should take a research trip to Sacramento, where they actually understand that sushi should be a meal and not a scavenger hunt for flavor.

And then came the drinks. Four dollars for a single soda? At that price, I expected it to refill itself, sparkle, or at least come with a free fortune telling. But no, just standard Bay Area pricing, where even your thirst gets upcharged.

As for the sushi itself, let’s just say my taste buds have experienced better days. Bland, uninspired, and forgettable—if sushi had an off day, this was it. By the time the third plate arrived, we had already mentally checked out. The pacing was so slow, I considered sending out a search party for our food.

Customer service? Minimal at best. Our waitress seemed determined to complete her shift as fast as possible, barely acknowledging our existence. A simple “How’s everything?” would have gone a long way, but we didn’t even get that. And let’s talk about the seating—the tables were so tiny we had to rearrange plates like we were playing sushi Jenga. I came here to eat, not to test my spatial reasoning skills.

At the end of the night, we walked away $100 lighter and still hungry, with nothing but regret filling the void. If you’re in the mood for sushi, do yourself a favor—pick literally any other place. Your wallet, your stomach, and your overall dining experience...

It's been a while since my last visit here and the experience felt very different this time.

Food: The food is still good! My partner and I shared a few rolls and a dessert. The rolls were good-sized portions for sharing, but the dessert was quite small for the price.

Prices: Some reviewers mentioned it's kind of pricey, but to others it's affordable. IMO it's as expected - i.e., kind of pricey indeed, but on par with many other San Francisco restaurants. Special rolls are $16+ and regular rolls are $8+.

Service: ... could be better. The restaurant didn't get that busy during dinner - at most I saw only about 4 tables seated. Service was fast in the beginning, but then slowed to a crawl and it was also very challenging to get the servers' attention because their backs always seemed to be towards us no matter where they were in the restaurant. Weird. The first server spoke very quickly and it was difficult to understand what they were saying - then to repeat they lowered their mask which made me feel a bit uncomfortable at such close range indoors.

Overall, it was an okay experience (docked a star though after comparing to the stellar visits in the past), and conveniently located... but not sure if I was wowed enough to come back soon.

Footnote: I was told by someone that they have omakase here. I didn't see any signs or anything that say they have it currently...

Before I begin, I’d like to mention that this is my all time favorite sushi place in San Francisco. I’ve been here numerous times and take anyone I want to impress here. With that being said, I finally got to experience the Valentine’s Day Omakase and was extremely disappointed. For 160 dollars per person, our experience was disregarded with many items missing from the various presentations. The seafood was low quality, there was too much wasabi in the nigiri, sea urchin was used for multiple dishes (nothing new for around four courses), and everything was rather quite lazy. I really do love these chefs but maybe the constant shots they drank throughout the night affected the way these meals were prepared. The usual place I go to for omakase was booked (Robin) which is less expensive with higher quality fish and much better service. Me and my boyfriend have never felt so disregarded when it comes to omakase and I’m afraid we won’t be coming back. There was even multiple moments throughout the night where we heard other guests murmur about the omakase selections not being good and was extremely expensive for what it was. Even though this was our personal experience, I don’t discourage anyone from eating here at any other time. Like I said, this is my favorite sushi restaurant in all of San Francisco, but this omakase experience was...