Shizen — Restaurant in San Francisco

I absolutely love Shizen and the food is absolutely amazing and the vegan sushi is unlike any other I have ever had but unfortunately their service has about a 50/50 chance of being relatively good or completely awful.

I had one of the worst service experience of my life here which is saying a lot. We got there on time we had reservations everyone else that came in and didn't have a reservation was seated before us even though we got there first and the same size party of people. Slightly annoying but no big deal. We sit down order our food and we go to grab our sushi plates and realized one was dirty, like two grains of rice were still stuck to the plate, gross but benefit of the doubt Ive worked in service and unfortunately sometime stuff like that happens and I would be willing to overlook it. Was just about impossible to flag the waitress down and when we finally do we explain to her that the plate is dirty and still has rice and we would like a new one. She take the plate and apologizes and walks away... and never came back with a new plate, we tried numerous times to flag her down to get a new plate and eventually the food is being brought out by a new waitress and we tell her we were still waiting on a plate replacement, she apologizes and then leave and drops off a "new" plate and then walks off. We look down at the plate and ITS THE SAME PLATE WITH THE SAME 2 GRAINS OF RICE ON IT FROM BEFORE!!! So essentially the server put the dirty plate back on the top of the clean plate pile instead of putting it in the wash bin!! At this point we couldn't flag anyone down still, unless you are explicitly rude and arm waving you most likely won't get service. My sister ended up having to eat the remainder of her meal over a napkin as clean plates seem to be impossible to get at Shizen.

I am not sure if they are severely understaffed or they just don't have process or training but for such an expensive restaurant with such amazing food it is so incredibly disappointing that their service is lacking. Have gone back twice since, one of the times we were able to get good service, but the last time, we were sort of pinched in their time frame. If they have specific allotted times to get food on the table and get people out by, they need to have attentive staff that help pace and move things along as it took a very long time for the wait staff to come to our table to even put an order in and then they dropped off our two last rolls 5 min before they wanted to...

My partner and I have been going to Shizen every week or two for over a year. It is my favorite restaurant ever for a number of reasons. Some people we have brought in initially express skepticism about a vegan sushi restaurant; by the end of the meal, everyone we’ve brought has been blown away and found the same enthusiasm we have.

Shizen succeeds, educates, and elevates. The team is spectacular at creating an integrated and beautiful project that is political, philosophical, ecological, experiential, spatial, interpersonal, artistic, and nutritional. Cumulatively I find it a transformative experience.

Our go to order for a more filling meal is the bean curd katsu with a side of spicy agave aioli, the yakisoba, and the boddy and soul. Our go to for a lighter meal is the yuba salad, eggplant nigiri, avocado nigiri, boddy and soul, and sweet potato roll.

A few specific notes:

Food: The food is world-class. They elevate plants to an art form, don’t try and use imitation meat, and everything is fresh and absolutely delicious. The seasonings and sauces are perfect. Jimi, Harris, Jacob, and the other cooks do spectacular work and are friendly, humble, and delightful.

People: the team at Shizen is incredibly friendly, kind, generous, and knowledgable. They are clearly friends with one another and have good vibes. We love Zach, Natalie, Rose, Donelle, Herman, Simone, and the whole team. They always are so welcoming, and in some cases have come to our new years and birthday parties. They are the best and make the experience what it is.

Ambiance: the space is simple, elegant, and elevated. The wood, plants, tables, and way that everything is “just so” feels both Japanese and American. The plates are lovely. The space is small but used perfectly. It all communicates an attention to detail that is beautiful but not pretentious.

Price: compared to other sushi restaurants in the Mission, Shizen is roughly the same price point. We can get a solid meal for both of us and a Shizen lemonade and secret soda for ~60. For a Michelin recommended spot, this feels like an incredible value.

Philosophy, artistry, and ecology: the underlying philosophy of Shizen is a beautiful vision of a world where we care for the ocean and the life in it. It is an exceptional accomplishment to translate that philosophy into a place where people can have a direct experience with a healthy and better way to eat and relate to the world.

We...

I was quite skeptical about this place at first when my friend said it was a vegan sushi restaurant, but Shizen definitely exceeded my expectations by quite an amount! We were a group of 6, and got 7 rolls, which was just the right amount. We had 2 simple ones, a California roll with tofu of course, and the mixed vegetable roll. Both were really good, and had the right balance of rice and filling. You couldn't tell at all that the California was tofu and not crab. The mixed vegetable was quite large too! The other 5 were all from the speciality menu. There was the boddy and soul, candlestick, plot twist and open invitation. They were all quite exquisite. The Boddy and Soul was a tempura, fried to the perfect amount. The spicy aioli was just amazing, and went well with the spicy tofu that topped the toll. The presentation of the candlestick was quite fascinating, and had an actual fire on the dish! The open invitation looked really simple, but tasted really nice. The plot twist came with a bunch of chopped tomatoes, onions and pickled mangoes spread around the roll, which were surprisingly good just by themselves too! The night ended with the Surprise Ending. The display was quite aesthetic with a shot of sake surrounded by the pieces. The deal with this roll is that one of the pieces is extremely spicy, so each member in the group has a piece and the unfortunate one takes the shot. Every piece is also topped with slice of beet, so the contents are covered and you can't see the filling and find out which one's different. Thankfully I didn't have the spicy piece, and got a great end to the night. The roll had an amazing combination of ingredients. They told us there would be a wait of an hour, which turned out to a half hour only. Even the one hour would have been worth it though, coz the food was amazing! The staff was also very nice and accommodating, and seated an additional person who joined our group even though she had to move a couple things around. A really...