Toyo Sushi on Sloat Blvd in San Francisco

This is yet another, Chinese owned sushi restaurant. We sat at the bar and the chef had a scared look on his face when my buddy asked me if we should do “omakase”. I’m fairly certain he didn’t know what that meant. This place is okay. Their “shari” (rice) really sucks. It had no taste – not salty, not sweet, not sour. Their fish though that day was very fresh and tasted very good. After one piece of nigiri, we did sashimi for the rest of the night. The chef at the bar was lame. We tried ordering from him and he seemed to acknowledge our orders, but never fulfilled them. He told us that he was very busy and we would have better luck ordering with the waiters. That was pretty disappointing. We took 3% off of his tip for that and I don’t expect to go there again.

Shokudo Japanese Restaurant & Bar – Honolulu, HI

This place is really friggin’ good! We were on Oahu just for 4 days or so and went to this place twice for dinner! Well, one of the reasons for this is because we knew that after leaving, we wouldn’t be able to revisit it very easily.

Of the two times we were there, we usually started with the premium Sake…don’t remember the exact name of it – it was one of the Junmais – the premium is the sweeter one though they’re both good. We’ve had the Sushi Pizza, which was pretty original and not bad. I’d prefer crispy seaweed, but it was still good. Unagi and Rice – the hot plate was very good – should wait until the rice gets harder before serving – rice from the bottom of the bowl is excellent. Yukari French Fries – taste like regular fries, but they’ve got a little twist – a little different taste that makes it just a little value add over some of the other places. The Rock Shrimp – it was good, but I didn’t find it was that good; better than most fried shrimps as the quality of the shrimp wasn’t too bad – you know how you can get fried shrimp from some places and they give you mostly batter – not this place. The Gyoza – awesome quality! Not too big, tasted good. Albacore Tuna Carpaccio – it was seared and was a little weird for me since I’m used to having it raw, but it was definitely good. Chicken Karaage with Spicy Tartar Sauce – the chicken was good; I didn’t need the tartar sauce. :) It’s optional. Stir-Fried Omelet Noodle – eh … friends thought it was really good. I thought it was okay – not something that I would have again because the tangy taste was a little weird for me. Albacore Tuna on Crispy Rice – definitely original, definitely good – must try. Beef Tataki with Balsamic Sushi – I liked the Tuna better, but this wasn’t bad – another original. For dessert, we tried the Chocolate and Cinnamon Honey Toasts and the baked banana. The honey toast is something that everyone gets. The baked banana was alright; tastes like your typical pan fried banana you can get at other places. Overall, A++ – I’ll definitely go back when I visit Hawaii again!

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Sushi Dai is way better than Sushi Yamato in Tsukiji (Japan)

It’s really ridiculous how different the two sushi places are in terms of service while they’re right next to each other and look the same as well. They both have similar amounts of traffic as well.

Here’s a good review of Sushi Dai:
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides … 4654633758

Another review for Sushi Dai:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/As … -BR-1.html

    Sushi Dai had better service as even though we did the set (omakase), we were asked if there was anything that we didn’t eat. (I don’t like octopus or uni.)
    The egg in at Sushi Dai was hot and fresh where the one at Yamato was cold and looked like it sat there for a while.
    At Sushi Dai, we were given the items one at a time and told what they were. At Yamato, they just kept throwing stuff in front of us making it feel rushed.
    At Sushi Dai, we were offered different tastes for example, the choice between salt and soy sauce and a citrus flavored piece whereas at Yamato, they were all soy sauce flavored.
    At Sushi Dai, I was able to use chopsticks to eat all of my pieces. At Yamato, my pieces kept falling apart.

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