NINNIKU RAMEN IZAKAYA — Restaurant in San Francisco

We were hoping for good things from this place. It was fairly highly rated, and we had one pass in Japantown for some really good Japanese food - our favorite type of "ethnic" cuisine in New York.

First there was the wait of about 20 minutes, with no place to stand. This raised anticipation of a good meal, since we interpreted that to mean that locals liked the place and it was popular and worth waiting for, It would have been nice to have a a place to sit for those twenty or so minutes, but whatever.

When we got in and tried to order, first, they were out of sushi rice, which in a Japanese restaurant before the evening rush seemed strange, but okay.

Then my partner and I settled on the ramen and small don, two kinds of small don each (the same kinds). It took four different tries for the waiter (his name began with an "E") to get it right.

After a time, he brought usone of them, and it was basically a raw egg over cold rice and ground pork. Yuk. , After waiting at least 20 minutes for the second type of small don, we asked our waiter to please bring it because maybe it got lost in the shuffle.

We were then told that the chef had left without making it and the new shift chef wasn't ready. Then we were told they were out of it. It would have been nice if he had told us, instead of just ignoring the fact that we had ordered and having us wait for something that wouldn't come; we could have ordered something else.

Then the ramen came, and it was okay. Maybe two and half stars at best.

The whole thing was pretty unpleasant and we would not recommend it to anyone.

Just want to say that we rarely write reviews and I SWEAR we are not the type to give places the white glove treatment, and we try our very best to be gracious and err on the side of generosity. We know restaurant work is hard and stressful, but the service was lousy (although the other guy came and told us they were out apologetically, and that was fine) and the food, especially the don we tried, was pretty inedible.

(We also occasionally write reviews when a place is fantastic too, although those are usually in the form of a personal note to the managers with a cc to the excellent worker. ...

I was actually on my way to the supermarket on Post Street when I passed this place for the first time, and stopped in because I happened to be right on time for happy hour. I ordered salmon poke, salmon sashimi, and seared salmon nigiri.

The environment is fresh and clean, they had loud upbeat music playing. Not unpleasantly loud. Good vibe.

I found the waiter oddly unhappy and unfriendly. It may have been because I asked for two orders of nigiri, and he said "two nigiri", and I clarified "two orders, so four pieces." He appeared annoyed by that, and then again seemed bothered when he asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I said I'm fine with water. I arrived in a very good mood, I'm not sure if there was something he didn't like about me, or if he was just having an off day. But I did feel a little less comfortable there before my food arrived.

The fish was excellent. The food was delicious. I was impressed by everything I had. Two small points of constructive criticism. Both the sashimi and the poke were served with seaweed salad. In the poke it was a bit overwhelming to the flavor of the fish, and I really like seaweed salad, but then also having it be the sole garnish for the sashimi made it a bit samey. One Japanese mint leaf in there would've delighted me. I understand it was discount hour, though.

The quality of the fish, the rendering of each dish, very very good.

I would return again at some point, hoping for either a different waiter or that waiter having...

A high 3, closer to 3.5-3.8, but overall an average experience. Food was good, service was good, but I was not Wow'd and have a list of other izakayas/Japanese spots I would prioritize over this one.

Noteworthy are the happy hour deals! List of dishes all $5. Basically our whole dinner was from the happy hour menu, and we even ordered hot sake. Favorite of the dishes was the seared tuna with the salsa sauce. We were intrigued because salsa is not something I associate with sashimi, but it was very good, especially with the smokiness from the sear. Pork belly in the pork belly don was also nicely done. Some pieces were quite fatty but the fat melted beautifully into the rice. Least favorite was the salmon sashimi; pieces were quite big, and salmon felt really cold. Went in on a weekday, early into the dinner rush. Service was fast and efficient. Cozy spot, not too much space so wait could get long if there is a big...