NARA — Restaurant in San Francisco

I'm a foodie. My favorite type of cuisine is Japanese, mainly ramen and sushi. I'm saying this just to give some credibility to what basically a random guy's review. I had amazing sushi, I had good sushi, and I had terrible sushi. This place - I didn't like their sushi. I read some of the reviews here, and I don't get it. Great staff, SUPER friendly, very good (actually, pretty amazing) sake selection - But I won't be coming back here for the sushi (maybe for omakase?). Some more details - The good Sake selection is fantastic. We had the peach flavored one - Superb. Meat courses - We had the ribs, pork belly, and pork buns. Ribs were pretty good, very tender. Pork buns we good, I think it's with some kind of kimchi spice (more Korean than Japanese I guess). The pork belly was fine. Service - Amazing staff and the saving grace of the evening. Price is fair, not too expansive (~$150 including tip for 3 people, full meal, a bottle of sake, and desserts)

The bad Sushi - It's not that it's "bad" it's just weird, and I didn't like the end result. Maybe if you expect a "fusion sushi," then it works, but I did not enjoy any of the rolls I had - Blazing Glory came wrapped in aluminum foil with a stripe of flame on the plate. Looks kind of cool, but zero effect on the sushi itself which was still cold when the fire died. The Fill-More just tasted strange. Sake bomb and Special K(? - Not sure about the name here) - were just not good (flavor-wise). Not a fan, what can I say... They have my favorite mochi - Was super excited about that but it came covered with whipped cream. Made me sad :(

So while there are more good points than bad ones, the main thing - Sushi - was not what I expected. I was...

More like 3.5, but I am rounding up. Had a 6 pm reservation on a Wednesday night. Staff greeted me warmly and adhered to my request to be seated at a different table since it was still somewhat empty when I arrived.

I think the happy hour oysters and draft beers are a great deal. I also tried their spicy salmon and spicy tuna handrolls. Both are a decent sized handroll but the tuna is definitely spicier.

Everything came out really fast. My favorites not on the HH menu was probably the Haight Me roll and the a la carte salmon sashimi. For some reason, I enjoyed the butterfish truffle more when I separated the fish from the truffle. I was a bit disappointed when we opened the Smokey Scallop dish and no smoke came out although, you could smell the smokiness of the scallop. The sashimi was decent but I’d probably want to try the omakase next time.

Our first waiter (although very nice and helpful) did not inquire about an food allergies. Later on, when we added the Haight Me roll (very yummy) to our order, she inquired and brought over tahini for my GF friend.

Overall, had a good meal and pleasant experience and would definitely come back to try more things. I was followed for about a block afterwards by an aggressive panhandler though but...

Unfortunately, both times we've been to Nara have been extremely disappointing. We thought we'd give Nara another try after the first visit because of its shockingly high reviews and proximity to our apartment. The food at this place seems to be tailored towards a Western palette; we noticed a lot of overpowering sauces and not a lot of subtly that we love about Japanese food.

We've ordered appetizers, entrees, and sushi; overall, the dishes have been bland, overcooked, and overpriced. We had to send back the "Baby Got Back" and "Yellowtail Collar" because both were severely overcooked and dry - even the waitress agreed. However, we did think the Oink Belly was cooked perfectly.

Although the food is not satisfactory, we're giving Nara two-stars because they have been accommodating and nice. The kitchen remade the dishes that were overcooked and brought out an extra dish. We would have preferred just getting the food comped because the remade dishes were still subpar but I appreciate their customer-first attitude.

We wanted to like Nara due to it's appetizing menu and nice waitstaff, but despite it's fantastic reviews (we are still mystified at the 4.5+ yelp rating...) we will not be...