deep sushi

Last night the guys and I were in the City for dinner at Deep Sushi. Deep Sushi is on Church at 29th in the south end of Noe Valley, and i'ts one of a number of stylish SF sushi restaurants. This was my first visit.

In décor, staffing and concept Deep Sushi is similar to Sushi Groove, Ozumo and Blowfish. In this case, the restaurant and sushi bar are in front and a back room hosts an actual bar, some chill couches and space for a dj.

The menu features creative small dishes like the Kani Croquettes we tried. We also ordered Tako Butso (an octopus salad), the Romi Romi salmon and the daily special seafood salad. Everything was quite good. From there we moved to nigiri and found our sake, kanpachi, maguro, shiro maguro and unagi to be fresh and subtle in flavor.

Deep Sushi offers a large selection of maki, and we tried two: the UFO roll and the Marilyn Manson. The UFO roll (pictured above) is a California roll with added albacore and tobiko, and your server torches the tobiko tableside for a little drama. The Marilyn Manson roll is shrimp tempura, scallop and cucumber, and the chef adds lots of spicy sauce for a different kind of sizzle.

To finish things off we ordered banana tempura with mango and coconut Mitchell’s Ice Cream for dessert. But, the best part of the meal was that they serve one of my favorite sakes: Hoyo Kura No Hana. Along with mustards, jams and water, one of the few things I almost always have in my refrigerator is bottle of Kura No Hana.

Kura No Hana is a daiginjo sake handmade from sasanishiki rice by Uchigasaki, the oldest sake brewer in the Miyagi Prefecture. Its taste is light, delicate and sweet and somewhat hard to find. I get mine at True Sake and I am always happy to discover a new restaurant that carries it.

Not all was perfect with our meal. We waited 30 minutes to be seated despite having a reservation, and the table service was rather slow. Although the pacing never felt too far off (perhaps because we amuse ourselves so easily) dinner lasted 2 ½ hours (fine for Michael Mina, stranger for sushi). Finally, Deep Sushi is not cheap. We didn’t drink that much and managed to spend $85 a person. Without any sake we still would have spent $60 each.

Those substantial caveats aside, Deep Sushi met my high expectations and I will return. I’d also advise you to give it a try. I doubt that Deep Sushi will become an all-time favorite, but it is nice for a change.

Deep Sushi: 1740 Church St, San Francisco, CA (415) 970-3337