Kusakabe

Growing up in Hawaii in a Japanese family meant that eating sushi was a natural part of my food experiences. While I have had the opportunity to sample some of the best Hawaii has to offer, I’ve never had the chance to try sushi at the Michelin rated level before. A chef we know in Minneapolis recently traveled to San Francisco as well and recommended that we try out Kusakabe, a 1-star Michelin rated sushi restaurants that serves an omakase menu for a very reasonable $95 per person. With omakase, you trust the chef to serve you the best available items he or she has that night.

When we arrived the restaurant was packed but we were lucky and ended up getting seated at the sushi counter right in front of Chef Kusakabe himself. This is the omakase menu we enjoyed on December 23, 2014:

Zuke chutoro - Lightly seared bluefin medium fatty tuna cured in soy sauce

Hirame - Ikejime halibut, halibut liver

Bonito - Seared with daikon radish

Maguro and raw scallop, nestled in shaved ice with wasabi and yuzu onion sauce

Kamo Dango duck and asari clam miso soup with mitsuba

“Hassun” - Left to right: Shirako (cod milt), crab sushi square, Shigoku oyster with French Daurenki caviar and yuzu, ikura sushi square, wagyu beef croquette

Kinki big hand snapper, matsutake mushrooms

Shimaaji

Kisu cured with konbu and bonito

“Sushi Finale” - Seared Miyazaki A5 grade wagyu

I’ve never had sushi like this before! It was incredible to watch Chef Kusakabe handling each course and perfectly shaping every piece of sushi. The freshness, flavor, and execution of each course was unlike any other sushi I’ve eaten back in Hawaii. I was very glad to have followed my friend’s recommendation. Kusakabe is definitely a steal for the price!

Kusakabe
584 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
www.kusakabe-sf.com