On the Bridge — Restaurant in San Francisco

Disneyland attracts millions and millions by claiming to be “The Happiest Place on Earth”, but Walt Disney was never fortunate enough to visit On the Bridge. OTB is my favorite restaurant in the world, and I found myself always thinking about them . . . just like being in love. Their menu reflects creativity and a willingness to enlighten customers about what Japanese food can be.

Their yoshoku style food will transform your life, and you will become an official ambassador for their restaurant. Chef Nakumura said that they were the first Yōshoku-style restaurant in San Francisco. You will not see Chicken Teriyaki or Tempura on the menu. Luckily, I had an opportunity to speak with Yolanda who is a co-owner of On the Bridge in San Francisco’s historic Japantown. She said that the food they serve is what people in Japan eat while sushi is for businessmen. (Gotta keep it real, ya’ll). She is also a very proud mom of three cats.

My three entrées were so memorable that my socks rolled up and down plus my mind was blown all the way to the surfers at Ocean Beach. The three oishii (delicious) meals were:

Chicken Rice Gratin: Super flavorful, tender, and juicy chicken with at least two kinds of melted cheese, onions, over a specially flavored Japanese rice. This stayed hot for 20+ minutes which is ethereal.

Chicken Katsu Curry Over Rice with a Sunny Side Up Egg: Yolanda and a KQED Food Japan Town video on YouTube confirm that making the curry takes 3 to 4 days. The chicken was the lightest katsu I have ever had and was equally as tender.

Unagi: Broiled eel was so buttery and almost the size of a brick sliced in half lengthwise.

Their restaurant is located a stone’s throw from Kinokunya Bookstore on the 2nd floor West.

On the Bridge has been designated as a San Francisco Legacy Business for being in business for more than 30 years (opened in 1992) and contributing to the neighborhood’s history like Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop (Coffee Crunch Cake), Cinderella Bakery & Cafe, Tadich Grill, and House of Prime Rib which adds to their rich history. The icing on the cake, which was definitely a sign for me to go, was that my favorite movie Kiki’s Delivery Service was on. What a truly...

Service is absolute trash.

We didn't get our drink menu along with the food menu when we first got there. Had to ask for it.

We ordered a hamburger steak and pork curry katsu for our main dishes. The waiter that spoke English told us that the steak would take longer than the katsu. But then our steak came out first to our surprise but we didn't think too much of it and we waited for our katsu. The steak was served by another waiter that barely spoke English (important). We then realized that someone who came after us got their pork curry katsu before us. We asked the same waiter (the one who spoke English) where our food was and then the waiter who barely spoke English tried to take the katsu that he served the other person and give it to us 🤮 (thankfully he didn't). Then the waiter who spoke English came up to us and said that there's a pork curry katsu in the kitchen that's been lying around. He told us that he'd get our food in 2 minutes. It ended up taking 15 minutes. I then asked him why it took so long and the waiter who spoke English said it wasn't his fault as the other guy was responsible for bringing out the food to us. He kept on saying that since the guy who didn't speak English brought us the steak, it was his responsiblity to bring out the katsu as well. We ended up getting a refund for the food but this pretty much ruined our friday night.

They got some nice teamwork here. Great restaurant.

Never going to this place ever again. One of the worst restaurants I've been in all of SF. We went to Rintaro two days ago and I can't believe these two restaurants exist in the same city. Absolutely...

If you like high quality food and good service, avoid this place. I had a really terrible experience going here. I ordered the chicken kara-age, gyoza and a side of rice. For starters, when I asked the waiter what chicken dishes they had he replied "everything is on the menu", yea no sh**. I could live with that, though not the worst thing. I ordered vegetable gyoza, and that came out greasy and mushy. I ate 1/6 of them. Then my chicken and rice came out, in a minuscule portion (for 9$). The rice was 2.50 extra, and it's the only thing I felt like I could eat. The chicken was super greasy and DARK MEAT. The quality of food was not satisfactory for me. At that point I flagged down a waiter and he pointed me toward the manager. I talked with the manager for quite some time, and long story short, she wasn't willing to come to any sort of compromise. Despite the fact I had only eaten a bowl of rice, she wouldn't give me any store credit, other food, price reduction or sympathy. As far as she was concerned, the restaurant did everything right. I was as respectful as I could when I spoke with her and yet she asked me questions like "have you gone to many restaurants before?" to which I replied yes, I go out to eat every weekend, and good service would find a way to resolve this. In short, this...