Sushi Aoba

This place is so cute! It is very intimate - they only have ~8-10 seats. The chef puts in a lot of care into each piece. For the price, I think they give a lot of food compared to other omakase places in SF. The fish quality is superb - insanely fresh and melts in your mouth. The sushi rice was top notch.

Intimate Omakase experience that gives tokyo a run for its money. Stayed in Japantown for Dreamforce and lucked into an early dinner reservation at this place. Absolute gem! Chef was focused and happy to share tidbits about each course. The sake bottle we got (hyakumoko) was an excellent pairing to almost every course. Most stand out feature aside from the perfectly fresh uni course was the choice of music. The chef was humming along to all of his favorite classic 80's rock songs (Springsteen, Madonna, and the like). I can't wait to come back to this perfect Omakase place.

I’d give millions of stars if I could! Chef Sachio is the BEST. Everything tasted so unique and authentic. Best sushi you’ll find in San Francisco. Update on 10/25/2022 - seems the chef has changed and it’s not the same anymore…

Everything is great! You will feel the heart from the chef. The waitress is attentive. Reasonable price for Omakase. The highlights are Wagyu beef sushi and Sea Eel (Anago*) * I forgot the name, just found it from Google.

The hotate with the lime zest, saba, and toro was delicious. The lobster soufflé was a lovely texture and saltiness. Conch was a bit on the chewy side, but overall it was a great kaiseki. They just opened two months ago so I’m looking forward to them continuing to develop their menu!

So delicious! My favorite was the uni course and the chutoro course and the salmon. Everything was yummy and will def go back!

Wonderful place! Amazingly fresh, authentic omakase. Every single thing we ate was incredibly delicious. Even the wasabi was freshly ground and the ginger was young. The bar is tiny and only sits 5, so reservations are necessary. Watching the chef prepare the sushi was an additional delight.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience but for the amount paid I expected a little better quality. Some courses included over cooked fish which were very tough (piece of shrimp in the egg drop soup was rubbery). It also seemed very odd as to when we were given soy sauce or ginger. The sashimi course included wasabi and soy sauce but no ginger while the nigiri course included only ginger. Lastly they asked if anyone in our party did not like wasabi which I do not but that preference was ignored when served nigiri. Despite all of this, the staff were very friendly and the quality of most dishes was great. Just seemed over priced for what was presented.

How about dining with a college buddy with a grandmaster sushi chef who also served us sushi 37 years ago? Sachio Kojima owned and operated Kabuto sushi on Geary street back in the 1980's and 1990's. Tonight was an Impeccable dining experience ! Fabulous food both raw and cooked kaiseki style in an intimate setting. The photos show our omakase (chef's choices) this evening and they were all wonderful. Incredibly fresh selection. Artistic presentation! JYW highly recommends

Excellent fish, with thoughtful seasonings and lovely presentation, an intimate setting, and superior service. Chef Sachio-San from Kabuto sushi of fond memory-- was one of my first sushi experiences (more than 30 years ago). Kabuto was known for its excellent, classic sushi. The new home for this chef lets his excellent skills shine in an intimate setting. Every item in this multi course dining experience was delicious. Some memorable items: smoking a fish in front of us; tender octopus and abalone; wagyu beef with 24k gold; chawan mushi chock full of crab; anago with miso yuzu sauce; buttery otoro tuna; uni; non-dairy dessert with lovely textures and redbean sorbet, green tea Panna cota, strawberries in a generous amount -- I could keep going and will try to remember the details of each photo I post but with no written menu I will miss important details. Service is attentive. We were at the chef's counter with one other diner. There are 2 tables as well-- empty in a Thursday night. Chef was pleasant and as chatty as you want him to be. Waitstaff brought fresh cups of tea before I could ask for it. This made me so happy. Bathroom score A: single room with plenty of space for ADA needs, though if you are in a wheelchair perhaps tell them when making the reservation and ask if they can ensure the sink is approachable. ( there is enough room but a free-standing table and the garbage can might be in the way of full accessibility. ).

Sushi Aoba is definitely one of those unassuming Omakase spot that reminded me of going to Tokyo. It is a lot of food for me - all top notch quality sashimi, amazing nigiri and to me of course the stand out is the Hokkaido uni hand roll. We also had a generous portion of abalone that I love, a Wagyu beef nigiri with caviar and gold flakes , Hokkaido scallops nigiri. Service was attentive but not uptight - perfect representation of Japanese hospitality. Not a cheap spot for sure so be prepared to be pampered and enjoy the experience!

Outright scam. Two bills for an embarrassingly comical dinner. The chef in 5 star raving review photos is not there anymore. Current chef is kind as can be, but it's as if he's never seen sushi made. Every course made us look at each other asking what, is, going, on, here?! After watching the sloppiness, the tupperware / reused clamshell plastic containers, it was the scoop of the cheap swirl ice cream that made us say, okay this is a joke, not a style we've not seen before.

Whenever I'm in town for Christmas Eve, I inevitably find myself in front of a sushi bar. It's really a nice tradition and this year I found myself a fantastic kaiseki-sushi omakase at the end of Japantown. Sushi Aoba occupies a very intimate spot and offers a high-end omakase that rivals many of the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurants in the city. There's usually a rhythm to this type of experience and this version started with a sakizuke (Japanese version of amuse bouche), followed by zensai (starter course of small dishes), a warm soup, sashimi, a chawanmushi, nigiri, miso soup and dessert. Everything was perfect that evening. The amuse included sea cucumber and cured halibut. The small plates had rockfish with trout roe and abalone with steamed octopus. The soup was shrimp cake in seaweed dashi. The sashimi included blue fin tuna, amber jack, king mackerel and salmon roe. The chawanmushi had crab and matsutake mushroom. The nigiri included only the best - live scallop, barracuda, horse mackerel, cured fatty tuna (this was the best for me), sea eel (anago and I ordered an extra piece), golden eye snapper, striped jack, otoro, Hokkaido Uni, A5 Satsuma Wagyu and lobster egg omelet. The miso soup had Manila clams. The dessert was a spectacular matcha panna cotta with mochi and red bean sorbet. Buckwheat tea was my beverage pairing for the evening. Service was fantastic and the chef treated us to a little bit of a show when he was laying out the fish and smoking one of the pieces. Wasabi was freshly grated right in front of our eyes. With tax and tip, this was around $240, which I consider to be excellent value given the level of service, execution and experience. I'm sure Michelin star is coming soon. Highly, highly recommended!!!

The highlight for this place is probably the sushi rice for me. It's the best I've ever tasted so far in omakase places. The base fee was $165 per person, and I could say that we were getting a good deal. So many courses here. Also, cute place. Small and intimate. Everything was fantastic. It's also entertaining to see the chef up close doing all the preparations. Don't know, just feel different than watching chefs at other omakase places because this place is so small. All the courses that we got were fantastic. For me at least, I still can't get over the sushi rice. Maybe they should degrade the sushi rice so that I could remember some other stuff as the highlight of this place :) Unfortunately, one thing that quite irked us was that our server kept coming in between us to grab plates and to put plates. Like, my right side is wide open, yet she kept going in through the middle between me and my partner. This also caused my partner missing the moment of video-ing me blowing my birthday candle because she just came in between us while it was clear that she was video-ing me. Not a big deal because I'm not really big at pictures or videos stuff, and not like I ever go back to look into all the pics and videos I've ever taken, but it's just annoying to miss that moment in a way. I think deducting 1 star due to this is a bit much, maybe it should have been only 0.5 star. Anyway, putting it at 4 (though it's more like 4.5++).

Delicious omakase! The shari is seasoned incredibly well. Some of the best rice I've had and the fish selections are great as well. The value is great for what you get, especially in San Francisco. Will return :)

Sushi Aoba is a gem -- pristine, perfect, reflecting warmth and light. We went there last night, on the 10th day since opening and feel so lucky to taste Sachio Kojima's extraordinary cuisine before the crowds arrive. Every course of the omakase experience was beautiful, delicious, and impeccably executed. Some of the surprising standouts: his anago sushi served with a sweet miso glaze; matsutake chawan mushi; creamy ankimo as an appetizer; and his revelatory tamago, fluffy like a souffle with lobster and yamaimo (mountain yam) as key ingredients. Rare and extravagant ingredients are sprinkled in throughout, but in the most organic way--caviar topping, abalone, lobster, Hokkaido uni, even gold leaf flakes for visual pizzazz. Then there is Kojima-san's rice. He mixes 2 varieties of rice (70% koshihikari & 30% another from Japan) and seasons with two types of undistilled vinegar so his shari are quite distinctive from other nigiri rice you might taste in SF. Throughout the meal Kojima-san walked us through his preparation with amazing transparency. The cherrywood smoke finish on one dish, done under glass right before our eyes; his preparation of the dessert elements such as green tea panna cotta and red bean ice cream, where he listed the ingredients and amounts and urged me to try to make it at home. Kojima-san was astonishing to watch in action (what blade technique!) but also kind, funny and warm. He sets the tone, so even a sushi novice doesn't have to worry about feeling intimidated eating at the bar in close proximity to the master. We were there for our son's birthday, and our 26-year-old felt it was the top omakase experience he's ever had too. Kojima-san has worked at Omakase on Townsend, Sushi Ran in Sausalito and was famous for his years at Kabuto, for decades the top sushi spot in the Bay Area under his aegis. I remember long ago our favorite chef in Berkeley, Akira, who owns Kirala, telling us that when he goes out to eat sushi, the only place he eats is Kabuto. Now we know why. I think a top omakase experience is about more than just the food, though. It's an alchemy between food and presentation, with each course served in the perfect, exquisite dish, with just the right utensil. Sushi Aoba delivers on that level as well, so thoughtfully and with understated elegance. Even the little finger bowl before the nigiri courses start was a tiny bit of perfection. In that sense, it reminded me of some of our best meals ever: Single Thread in Healdsburg, Manresa in Los Gatos, both Michelin three-star standouts. It feels as if it won't be long before Michelin finds out about Sushi Aoba and we won't be able to get in without a long wait. So go now, while you can and enjoy this tiny bit of perfection in San Francisco's Japantown.

Not sure how this place got a 5-star reviews; maybe they now have a different chef? It was not Chef Sachio when we were there to celebrate my mom's birthday. It was another chef with jeans, mask under the nose and looked like he was having a bad day. First couple of dishes were good. When it came to nigiris, that was where the big disappointment was. Out of all the nigiris we had, at least half were torched. Then a piece of nigiri fell apart when the chef was about to serve it; what he did was just grab another set of rice and put it back together. This really made us upset. There was soy sauce dripping on the dish and the chef just wiped it with a sloppy way with a piece of ginger still lingering on the edge of the plate. The nigiris were not impressing; they are mostly ingredients you can get in most regular Japanese restaurants in your neighborhood. Fast forward to last dish which was dessert; the waitress had come earlier to ask whose birthday we were celebrating. When we were half way done with it, the waitress came with a lit candle on a plate and said happy birthday. Really?????? Shouldn't it have come with the dessert? Honestly that was unacceptable. We were not asking for a free dessert, but a candle on a plate was nothing special. You might as well not ask what people are celebrating. This whole experience was very disappointing. This meal was not worth the money we spent, it was $180 per person and we also got a bottle of sake. We have had our shares with other omakase restaurants and this is by far the worst.

Michelin star material. This tiny restaurant reminds one of the late Ozaoza, then San Francisco's only kaiseki restaurant. Aoba is primarily sushi but has a number of cooked dishes in its omekase style presentation. All the cooked dishes are excellent. The sushi selection is the best in SF. Wako and Omekase will have renewed competition. The staff is two waitresses, the famous chef, and a sous-chef or assistant. The service is as one would expect of a Japanese run restaurant, attentive but not overbearing. I'm looking at you Avery, Nisei, and Sons & Daughters. The chef, legendary Sachio Kojima, is friendly and talkative as are the waitresses. It is on the expensive side, but worth it. The nihonshu (sake) is expensive and listed as bottles only, but the made the excellent Yuki Manman available to me by the carafe. The decor was appropriately Japanese minimalist and the serving dishes, cups, and carafes were of the same sophisticated design and appearance. A must for sushi connoisseurs.

I've tried almost every omakase if the city, and this is now my favorite. The A5 wagyu piece is included in the price and come hungry. I was almost a little too full by the end and regretted my snack before hand. I'm often still hungry after sushi so I usually snack before.

This is probably one of the smallest Omakase places we went to, having only a 5 top at the bar and two 2 tops. The most memorable thing about this location is the amazing personality of the chef and personalization for our special event. The temperature of the meal could use some work, but overall the introduction of some unique dishes not seen anywhere else (so far) makes this a place the lady and I want to return. Do come here if you enjoy having a very friendly and talkative chef, and he makes the experience truly enjoyable.

I don't normally write reviews but this place was amazing! What a great omakase experience and such delicious food, will definitely be coming back! It was so great to watch Chef Komisa up close in an intimate dinner as he prepared each of our courses and as we were able to converse with him, really such a humble man!! The food was delicious and so artfully prepared, we loved trying the different fish.. to be honest I don't remember all the different courses but enjoyed the various mackerel, scallop, cold smoked mackerel (I think??) and toro. Guess we just have to go back and try them again

Another wonderful evening, walking out blissfully full and happy with delicious food and sake. Several courses have been changed up and it was also lovely to revisit those that hadn't. Thank you Kojima-San for a wonderful meal! Cannot wait to return and try your kohada. (It won't let me edit my earlier review but it was delicious conch not snail I had on the from SnailBar!)

I'd give millions of stars if I could! Chef Sachio is the BEST. Extremely attentive with great sense of humor. Everything tasted so unique and authentic. Best sushi you'll find in San Francisco.

3.5 stars. Came for my cousin's birthday and was excited to try a new Omakase spot. Very small space and very expensive for what you get. The first 3 courses of cooked items was not good. I was super disappointed, but as the raw dishes came out and the sashimi, the food got better. Nothing was wow and for the price, things can be better. They did do a nice cute HBD card and signed it for my cousin. Many better spots out there. Service was good.

It's not the same Chef with the 5 star reviews. They still charge the price of $180 per person. The quality, craftsmanship and service are way off. I do not recommend.

Though a new restaurant, Sushi Aoba offered an amazing, intimate omakase dinner to celebrate an early birthday and ring in the new year. Having front row seats in this quaint restaurant was great since it allowed me to capture some of the magic that the chef was displaying through the 20 course meal. Of course, this meant I was unsuccessful in listing the names of each course, but the flavors of each dish are something you need to experience yourself! Welcome to San Francisco, Aoba!

Sublime. It was a rare treat and honor to be served by Chef Kojima in a warm and inviting space. I have heard about him for decades but was never able to dine at his previous restaurants...would have, could have , should have. No longer! I miraculously was able to reserve a late spot for dinner and ...... His passion and attention to his craft are incredible to behold; he moves with precision and grace. Service is impeccable; attention to detail was astounding. He has a sixth sense....timing of the dishes ... knife skills, plating, conversation, warmth, knowledge, hospitality... I don't need to say much more. Just go while you can. Read about Chef Kojima online and you will immediately understand.

I had a fortunate experience of dining at a brand new upscale top-flight sushi restaurant in Japantown. The sushi here rivals some of the best sushi I had in Tokyo. Unbelievable, wow! Can't wait to come back! It's a small restaurant which adds to its charm and uniqueness. The expression of "good things come in small packages" applies in spades here. Top quality sushi, wonderfully attentive staff and a comfortable environment. All I can say is enjoy, I did! Hope I can get in next time.

Chef really friendly and this is a new business just opened for 5 months . Great simple menu but omakasa fulfill with surprise taste. Highly recommended, looking forward for the summer menu. This is a restaurant definitely will be go back again

We had a delicious dinner here last night! There were about 14 small courses all served with unique coordinating plates and gorgeous plating with flavorful ingredients. I left feeling full, but not overstuffed. It's Japanese Omakase style, not like a typical sushi place. It was very authentic. The service was excellent! They were totally attentive and were great about asking about our allergies or preferences upfront. It was like having a personal chef and server. Another thing that I really liked, the restaurant is tiny - four counter spots and a table for four. I loved the intimacy of the restaurant and that it's easily accessed from the street with no stairs. This is a great spot to take anyone who can't do stairs, etc. We had a great time and I would come back here again. It's an experience vs. everyday rush/dining.