A Housewife’s Tale

One of my favourite places in the Bay Area for sashimi~ We brought Bern & NC here for dinner (only because we got lost trying to find Gochi) on their first night here.

When we got there, there was a line out the door (Friday night). It took about half an hour to get a table so I recommend reservations~

I mentioned before that the menu here is confusing. They have 3 different menus and menu items on the wall (that is not on the 3 menus you get), so spend some time and read everything~

We ended up ordering:

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Tempura $7.40

Mixed seafood and vegetable tempura

Not my favourite. The batter was not as light and crunchy as I would have liked. That being said, the shrimp was fresh and not over done. Vegetables included sweet potato, carrot, green peppers, mushroom and broccoli. I didn’t care much for the veggies other than the sweet potato. I would probably not order this again.

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Kobe beef tataki $11.90

One of my favourites from Tomi. The beef is not sliced very thinly, which is fine only because the meat was not tough. It has a nice chew to it, great flavour from the few seconds on the grill and a nice amount of fat.

I don’t know if this is kobe (because there was not the intense marbling I have seen on most kobe cuts) but it was definitely fattier and had more marbling than normal. Probably the popular “Kobe style” american beef that is quite popular in restaurants here.

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2 orders of Extra Special Chirashi $26 per order

Both of them looking quite like mirror images of each other. I was disappointed that they did not served the crispy sweet shrimp head deep fried. I didn’t think about it till I began writing this post.

Unagi (Eel), Uni (Sea urchin), Amaebi (Sweet shrimp), Maguro (Bluefin tuna), Sake (Salmon), Toro (Fatty bluefin tuna belly),  Toro tartar, Hotate (Scallops), Tamago (Sweet egg) and 3 other fish I can’t identify…

So far, sashimi here has not disappointed me – there is always a dozen or so different pieces of sashimi and all of top notch quality. Everything fresh and firm. My favourites include the chopped up Toro (fatty tuna belly), it was delicious and so creamy. The chu toro was pretty darn amazing as well – fatty and the prime definition of  “melt in your mouth” piece of sashimi. Other than the tamago, I enjoyed every piece.

One thing though, sometimes we get the amaebi head deep fried with it and sometimes we don’t.

There is always a few pieces that I can’t identify and the servers are usually too busy to really be helpful in answering questions.

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Dragon roll $10.90

I thought the Alaskan Dream roll would be my favourite – but I think this might be the new favourite!

It had crispy shrimp tempura and imitation crab in the middle, topped off with a nice very well grilled unagi (moist & delicious). Everything just went together amazingly well.

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Spider roll $9.90

We thoroughly enjoyed this roll as well. They were really generous with the amount of soft shell crab in each roll. The soft shell crab was still warm when it got to the table, with a nice crunchy batter.

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Alaskan Dream roll $9.90

I actually forgot to take a picture of this roll, but here is one from a previous visit to show what it is suppose to be. This time around, the roll did not look as pretty but it was still good.

The sear on the top of the scallop gives this roll a nice smoky flavour. The salmon and scallops were really fresh. It was topped with a nice salty sweet glaze.

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Total Damage: $140 (including a drink, tax & tip)

Personal rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Very good)

Yes, sushi is expensive in the Bay Area and Tomisushi isn’t exactly “cheap”. I have to say, some of the items are a little pricier than other Japanese restaurants. But the chirashi bowl here is just sooo good. The sashimi is always of excellent quality.

I notice when they are busy, service is just all over the place and it is hard to really get anyone’s attention and ask anything. In addition to service, rolls are not consistent either. Do make reservations on weekends, otherwise wait could be as long as 1/2 hour.

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(408) 257-4722