[El Diablo]

pj,

Sushi Groove South is my favorite and most regular sushi joint in SF. It is a nice place, but not extravagant. Kind of a chill SF vibe, a little on the dark side, a little bit romantic, DJ spinning, etc. They have great fish and a lot of tasty rolls, but most of the rolls are not super complicated.

Blowfish Sushi is another place I go to a fair amount. This is more of a party atmosphere. Blaring music on weekends and crazy anime on the TVs. Hot bar scene too. They also have incredible fish. They have some more intricate rolls, really delicious.

Sakana is a no-frills cheaper place that is excellent. Nice and clean, but definitely not the high-end ambience of the two above. The real focus here is on the fish rather than rolls. Usually I'll just focus on some nigiri and some sashimi here, maybe we get one spider roll.

Ace Wasabi and Tokyo GoGo. These are Marina and Mission versions of the same place. Very good, both a little sceney. But excellent. Ace is often too crowded to deal with. Tokyo GoGo is pretty easy to get into. Tokyo GoGo does these special sashimi trio plates which sound good but are not really that great imo. I'd stick with all the great sashimi, nigiri, and rolls.

Ebisu is a more traditional place out near the park, 9th and Irving or something. Very good stuff, again more focus on the fish as opposed to tons of complicated rolls, but everything is very good here.

Kyo-Ya. This is a really expensive place South of Market in the Palace hotel. Great stuff, but super pricey. Lots of Japanese businessmen go here.

Ozumo. This is a sorta pricey place South of Market near the Ferry Building. It has a pretty cool bar and a great happy hour w/ sushi and drink specials. They also focus more on having lots of hot food as well. Highly recommended, but a little on the expensive side.

Mas Sake. This is a party atmosphere sushi place on Lombard. Way too loud and the service is so-so, but there are alwyas lots of cute chicks there. They do an all-you-can-eat sushi night here which actually features really good fish. I find the place a little annoying though.

Nama. This is my neighborhood sushi place. Unfortunately, I think it kinda sucks. The fish is not as good as the other places listed. They are great at frying sh*t up, though. Great tempura and great unhealthy rolls with fried up tempura and spicy sauces. They have multiple sections of various permutations of special spicy/crunchy/tempura rolls. That's all I eat when I go here, not really sushi.

OK, that's the ones that come to mind off the top of my head. I've probably been to at least 10 more sushi places in SF, likely more.

When going with one other person, we usually get 4 orders of nigiri and 3 rolls. Standard would be one order shiro maguro (albacore tuna, prob my favorite and often almost as good as the way pricier toro), one sake (salmon), one hamachi, and one unagi (eel) or maguro (tuna) or whatever else. For rolls, usually one fried roll like a spider roll. One spicy roll like a dynamite roll or spicy tuna. And one other roll, often something a little unique. Usually start w/ miso soup and seaweed salad, sometimes some edamame. Sometimes replace some of the rolls or nigiri w/ some sashimi. Sometimes we'll get a couple more nigiri and rolls. Tea, beer, and/or sake, depending on the mood. At Sushi Groove South, this runs $35-45 depending on what we have to drink and whether or not we have dessert. Sushi is really an incredible bargain compared to other nice meals out.