Ame Restaurant in San Francisco’s St. Regis Hotel serves up seasonal New American cuisine, blending of flavors from southern France, northern Italy and especially Japan. No sushi here though. Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani are also chefs and co-owners of Terra Restaurant in St. Helena. They received One Michelin Star in 2010 and have been open since 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

Ramen Dojo recently opened in San Mateo at legendary Santa Ramen’s original location, no doubt hoping to capture some of its good karma. In fact it’s owned by the same people. They focus on spicy ramen, specifically Sutamina Ramen (aka Stamina Ramen) that is served in a couple restaurants.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ramen Santouka is a legendary noodle shop located inside the Mitswa supermarket in San Jose just off Highway 280′s Saratoga exit. They have locations in many different cities around the world including Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »

We recently visited the greater Vancouver area. This week we feature reviews from our neighbor to the north.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sakae Sushi moved to this location in 2009. It was originally called Noboru, but morphed into Sakae Sushi when their other location located. They also run Yuzu in San Mateo. It earned a Michelin guide Bib gourmand rating in 2010. We have been here several times, with our latest visit in March 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Sumika is a small low key Japanese restaurant in downtown Los Altos, hidden away on a sidestreet. You really need to seek out this two year old restaurant. The focus on home style comfort foods with rice bowls during lunch and Kushiyaki or Charcoal Yakitori grill for dinner. They use organic chicken and other ingredients. Read the rest of this entry »

Tsukiji Sushi is a Japanese Restaurant in downtown Mill Valley that opened in July 2009. Haruo Komatsu is the Sushi Chef, he was the head sushi chef at Sushi Ran for many years. Tsukiji uses Koshihikari rice (a super-premium rice) and rice bran oil for their frying. The restaurant is named after the Tokyo Tsukiji fish market, the largest fish market in world. Most fish is sourced from this market. We decided to try this place because we’ve been to Sushi Ran so many times. Read the rest of this entry »

Downtown San Mateo has a very high concentration of Japanese restaurants. Almost one on every block.This one is one of the best and most economical.  No surprise, there is a line out front most of the time. We’ve tried pretty much all the nearby Japanese restaurants. Sushi Sam and Kisaku are also good but more expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Bar Masa is the latest outpost for Masayoshi Takayama, famous for ultra expensive, three-star Michelin star Masa and Bar Masa Japanese restaurant in New York City. This restaurant is located on the Las Vegas Strip the new City Center, Aria Hotel on the first floor. He also runs Shaboo, an even more expensive ($500 per person) Omakase Shabu Shabu restaurant next door. Do not visit Shaboo until you have experienced and enjoy Shabu Shabu hot pot dining, otherwise you will be wasting money. No one was dining there when we visited. Read the rest of this entry »

Jin Sho Restaurant is a ‘Executive-Class’ Japanese restaurant run by 2 chefs formerly of Nobu in New York, Noriomi Kaneko and Ichiro Takahashi. They bought several dishes with them from their past experiences. It opened in late 2007 and is located in Palo Alto’s California street shopping district right off of El Camino Real. They serve everything from classic sushi rolls, sashimi, omakase, to more western entrees. Read the rest of this entry »

Shabu House is a Japanese Beef Fondue restaurant with locations in San Francisco and Burlingame. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese culinary dish which inspired from the Mongolian tradition of nabemono, or “one pot” cooking. In traditional shabu shabu, thin slices of beef are placed in a communal pot of boiling water and swished back and forth until cooked. We went to the new Burlingame location, open since late November 2009. The San Francisco one opened in late 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Shabuway is a Japanese hot pot restaurant in San Mateo and Mountain View. You cook vegetables and thinly sliced beef at your table in a your own boiling pot of water. Read the rest of this entry »