Izakaya Rintaro, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Izakaya Rintaro 82 14th St San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 589-7022 Izakaya Rintaro Website

Why did we dine here? – A friend really likes Rintaro and suggested we try it out. Rated 4.5 on Google, 4.2 on Yelp. We’ve shopped at Rainbow Grocery next door and always were curious about this spot.

Insider Tip – Need to reserve ahead, week or two in advance. No walkins

Cuisine – Japanese Izakaya
Location – San Francisco
Opened – 2014

Service – Rintaro had very good service with servers passing through fairly often. Our waitress knew the menu and could navigate dietary restrictions.
Verdict – Rintaro surprised us with very good food across the board. Service equaled the food. This is an easy place to recommend if you like Japanese Cuisine. This brings best of many different categories of Japanese food under one roof. In Japan, you have places that specialize in much more narrow dishes. (Oden spot, Yakitori spot, etc)

Note: The restaurant was on Resy with Amex reimbursement when we visited.

Is this restaurant worth a 5 minute drive? Yes. 30 minute? Maybe. 1 Hour? Maybe

Rintaro Signature Dishes – Karaage, Oden, Yakatori, Katsu

Rintaro’s Menu is very wide ranging, everything to raw fish to oden to skewers to udon. It does lack much in the way of vegggies. Set menu available.

Website Rintaro Menu

Rintaro Food Picks:

Yosedofu, ($15) Housemade silken tofu with Meiji soy milk, freshly shaved katsuobushi, ginger, scallion and shiitake shoyu sounds deceptively simple, like you can buy it at Trader Joes.. Everything is very fresh and made with care. Great for vegetarians. 9/10

Hanetsuki Gyoza, ($22) Becker Lane Berkshire pork gyoza with chicken foot jelly and “wings” is an eggless version that comes inverted with a nice crust and a bit of juice. 8.5/10

Teba no Karaage, ($16) Japanese fried chicken wings with smoky tare and sansho pepper is gluten free and eggless. Fresh and hot out of the fryer, this version is diffeent and good. 9/10

RINTARO FISH CAKES, TOFU AND VEGETABLES LONG-SIMMERED IN RICH KATSUOBUSHI DASHI – Hitokuchi Oden, ($19) Small plate with choice of three pieces was very good. We should have gotten more pieces. Large selection to choose from. 9/10

Yakitori Eringi, ($11) (2 skewers) King trumpet mushrooms hit the spot for some veggies with dinner. Cooked just fine. 9/10

Yakitori Negima, ($12) (2) Chicken thigh + onion was better than the oyster version. Nice tender chicken cooked and juicy. 9/10

Yakitori Chicken Oyster ($13) was fine, but not as good as the Negima. 8.5/10

Kake Udon, ($15) Rintaro hand-rolled udon with two fishes dashi broth scallion clearly has homemade noodles cooked perfectly. Simple, plain but satisfying. 9.5/10

Mabodofu Don, ($17) Rice and Becker Lane pork, Meiji tofu, Yamaki barley miso, ginger, hot chili and sansho pepper is a rich and filling dish. Probably only necessary if you need cheap filler. 8.5/10

Hojich A Panna Cotta ($12) Japanese Toasted Green Tea Panna Cotta With Hojicha Syrup And An Almond Cookie is smooth and rich. Nice tea flavors. 9/10

Sufurei Chiizu Keiki ($16) or Japanese Cheesecake is very egg centric and comes with apricot on the side. Gluten free! Reminds us of Uncle Tetsu. 8.5/10

Do you agree with our review? Have you found other similar restaurants that are better?

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