Ebisu Restaurant

Recommends

sallyvjj

Joined 8 years ago

Never tired of Ebisu's Fresh Fish. I went to Ebisu with several different friends and everybody enjoyed their fresh nigiri and sushi! Tuna belly is one of my favorites. It gets crowded sometimes but it worths waiting. The owner's wife CoCo is very nice and all the Chefs are great! Suzuki San is funny too. I always enjoyed the cozy atmosphere and great fish here!

Recommends

crewkip

Joined 8 years ago

Best sushi in San Francisco, no questions about it!. This is the simply the best sushi in the city. The service is first class, the fish is outstanding, and the menu has something for everyone. If you are not a huge fan of rolls with sauce all over them then this place has what you need.

The prices are great, the sake is great, the casual atmosphere is great. There is nothing better, don't even bother trying to find something better.

Doesn't Recommend

sasahap

Joined 7 years ago

Slopp. We listened to the strong recommendations this restaurant trumpets---and were very sorry. A few dishes were good--the live shrimp sushi with a tempura-fried head was excellent. The premium toro ($8.50) was a thin "shaving" of fish that had none of the fatty richness or mouth-feel of toro. No one could explain what sort of tuna or cut it was--just that it was "premium." A simple tuna roll was a disgrace. First, ginger bits were strewn all over the plate (sloppy, over-rushed sushi chef). The pieces of the roll were uneven, lopsided, and not properly rolled, since they were coming unrolled on the plate. An aesthetic disaster--and aesthetics are about 40% of the sushi experience. We sent the roll back--it was re-rolled--and came back "re=rolled" in the same dirty plate. A salmon-skin roll was nearly a dangerous experience: I bit into a fin that had not been trimmed from the fish skin. This sloppy preparation is the sign of a poorly trained and extremely cavalier staff that's encouraged to rush and doesn't do the job properly. Moreover, one wonders what short-cuts are being taken with the product. Final verdict: amateurish sushi house that has been able to forge a reputation by passing off inferior food on unknowing clientele that is seduced by the low-key, friendly "fun" of the sushi chefs who are entertainers rather than true sushi masters (average age appeared to be 25-29)

Recommends

hmmfood

Joined 7 years ago

Great Sushi Place, when there's no crowd. For the adventurous sushi eaters (and I am not talking about the saki bombers) Ebisu is the place for you. They have the regular sushi menu as well as a special menu, which consists of so many different items not found elsewhere. To name a few, live uni (YES its still moving), Kobe beef sushi, live scallops, and sardines. When my wife and I go, we usually order the special items, since they are so yummy and hard to find, but their hamachi and tuna are also very good and fresh, just not moving.

After going there for over 2 years, I have to say that the service and attention to sushi details has suffered. This is probably due to the large number of sushi eaters coming here. If you go on a busy night, you may feel like you are being rushed out the door to make room for the next patron or you'll be waiting between your orders since there are so many orders to fill, but if you manage to go on a light night the sushi is neat and oh so tasty.

I highly recommend Ebisu if there's not a lot of people, but if there is I would say its average. Parking is easy in Golden Gate Park.

Doesn't Recommend

charmingkati

Joined 7 years ago

Rude staff!!!. The food was okay at best...

and the service was the worst I have had in the city. Plus the price was three times what it would have been anywhere else.

Recommends

hbgreen

Joined 7 years ago

Wonderful & fresh toro and maguro. I have been coming to Ebisu since it opened (1986?). The sushi and other fresh fish

are superb. Sit at the bar for a most entertaining experience. Ambience is a little stale.

Could use a remodel. Other than that everything is great, especially the service and of course

the sushi chefs!

Recommends

delairen

Joined 7 years ago

The Standard By Which All Other Sushi Places Shall Be Rated Against. This place simply had the very best Sushi I have *ever* had. Everything was just so delicious it was amazing. Everything we had was so full of freshness and flavor that your mouth will think it's died and gone to sushi heaven. The rolls were good, but the Nigiri is really where it's at. We didn't order anything from the kitchen, so can't really comment there.

Expect to wait a while for a seat on busy nights as they don't take reservations and to fork over some cash - this place is definitely not cheap, but it's worth every penny AND the wait. :-)

Doesn't Recommend

hennham

Joined 7 years ago

Extremely disappointing and overpriced. My boyfriend and I went here because it seemed like we always heard how fabulous it was.

We left $50 poorer after a meal of tepid miso soup, vinegar-y salad, very average spicy tuna, rubbery and fishy smelling seafood tempura, and fatty, over cooked chicken teriyaki- even the rice was crunchy like it had been sitting out too long. Furthermore, seating is extremely crowded, the waiters had to be flagged down for any kind of service which usually consisted of hurrying us through our meal- it is a mystery to me why this place is so popular. I have heard that the sushi is the only thing to go to this restuarant for, however, a few days after we ate here a friend told me she had gone to Ebisu solely to have sushi and had essentially the same experience I had and was extremely unimpressed and bitter about the money she had paid for sushi that was obviously not made with fresh ingredients. The only difference I could find between Ebisu and the most average of Japanese restuarants is that the sushi comes with an orchid on the plate- pretty but not edible.

Recommends

kimura

Joined 7 years ago

over rated. I am Japanese and think this restaurant is way over rated. The sushi is bellow average and the whole restaurant stink like vinegar. Bad sign for a sushi bar!

Recommends

cmsdanielsan

Joined 7 years ago

average at best!!. went to Ebisu on 6/22/06... service was shotty and food average. we had a new server who didn't know what Albacore was. the rolls were ok... had way too much rice on them. sushi was ok as well. what i'm saying is i think this place is way OVER-rated. the worst of all was when people (who may have been locals) shook hands with the sushi chefs!!! that's digusting! those hands should not be touching anything but the fish and rice! i feel like i know my sushi... and i've been to many a sushi restaurant in the city, and i would never go back to Ebisu. with so many good restaurants in the city, i don't want to waste any more meals by going back here. My advice: go elsewhere.