For my second dinner in the San Francisco Bay Area post-Open Sauce (the convention blog post for which is still in progress and will be published soon), my friend and I decided to go Izakaya Rintaro in San Francisco, California. Japanese is my favorite cuisine, and she had recommendations from a friend who already had a positive experience at Rintaro, so we figured this would be a good spot to check out.
For our first cold dish appetizer, we got Ika no Nuta with Monterey Bay squid, Hikari Farm Tokyo turnip, komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach), Fuji apple, and scallion with mustardy-sweet white miso.
Overall, this was a good dish taste-wise, but I couldn’t really tell that it was a squid dish, as the intensity of the squid flavor was very low relative to the tang of the sauce. This served as a great opening salad, but I didn’t think it was worth it at its price point with the squid, as the squid didn’t add much to the profile.
Our second cold dish, which wasn’t actually entirely cold, was Gindara no Sunomono with miso-cured Ft. Bragg black cod and Hikari Farm cucumbers, dressed in sweet vinegar and with a side of Half Moon Bay wasabi.
This was a nice, clean, straightforward cod dish. The ratio of cucumber to cod was a little high, but that was fine—we portioned the cucumber accordingly to each bite of cod, then finished the remaining cucumber on its own as a salad. The fish was very tender, and the skin was cooked to the perfect doneness such that it maintained the skin-like texture but wasn’t too difficult to cut and chew.
For our drinks, we ordered off the non-alcoholic beverage menu—my friend got a Rintaro yuzu cooler with Kochi yuzu juice and seltzer, and I got a Rintaro ginger cooler with fresh ginger-lemon juice and seltzer. The yuzu cooler was sweet and had a nice yuzu flavor as you’d expect, and my ginger cooler had a rich gingery citrusy flavor with a great mixture of pungency and zestiness.
For our sashimi dish, we ordered San Ten Mori. On the sashimi plate, we received five slices each of San Diego bigeye tuna, konbu-cured San Francisco halibut, and Baja yellowtail amberjack.
The fish quality was great, but the thickness and size of the cuts were quite a bit smaller than I expected. I was also slightly disappointed at the fact that, although we got some Half Moon Bay wasabi, we didn’t get any ginger to act as a palate cleanser between the different kinds of fish.
The slices of halibut were placed on top of a slice of seaweed, but only the bottom-most cut actually touched the seaweed directly. I was the one who ended up eating that final slice, and this physical contact made for an interesting phenomenon where the flavor of the seaweed got absorbed by the halibut, thus making that last bite taste extremely rich, umami, and unique. To be clear, I don’t actually prefer that seaweed-infused halibut over clean halibut, but I definitely appreciated being able to try it at least once.
With the cold dishes done, it was time for chicken skewers. We ordered three portions of charcoal-grilled yakitori, with each portion constituting two skewers—momo (thigh) sansho, sori (oyster), and kawa (skin).
The thigh and oyster was some of the most tender chicken I’ve ever tasted. I’m not the biggest chicken skin fan, because I think it just tastes a little bit too intensely gamey of chicken, but this kawa yakitori wasn’t bad and was fairly well-balanced in flavor.
We didn’t want to be too healthy, so we threw in a fried dish to our set. We opted for Sakana Furai, consisting of minced yellowtail amberjack and white miso with fresh acme panko, snowy cabbage, and Rintaro tartar sauce.
In my opinion, this was the least memorable dish, as it basically just tasted like a fish cake. However, unexpectedly, the snowy cabbage stood out above everything else. With whatever sauce was already on it, it was joyfully delicious.
For our final main course, we ordered Kama Tama Udon. This had Rintaro hand-rolled udon “carbonara” with a raw egg yolk, butter, ginger, scallion, and freshly-shaved katsuobushi (bonito flakes).
We tossed all the sides in and gave it a good mix. The bonito flakes, made from skipjack tuna, gave the udon a rich fishy flavor, which I liked. It was also pretty salty, and even though I’m not usually a fan of excessively salty foods, the udon’s flavor had so much depth to it that the saltiness worked well in extracting and enhancing it.
Satisfied with the dishes so far, it was now time for dessert. First was Hojicha Panna Cotta, consisting of Japanese toasted green tea panna cotta with a side of hojicha syrup and almond cookies.
I’ve had panna cotta before, but none that had this kind of flavor profile. The Japanese toasted green tea gave it an extremely unique taste that was unbelievably rich and umami. It was almost like it was triggering the bitter taste receptors on my tongue to fire, but not all the way, so it seemed like it was bitter but it didn’t have any of the negative sensation usually associated with bitterness.
The presentation was also charming. The hojicha syrup came in a fun miniature cup, and it added an element of smooth sweetness without being too intense.
I think this is one of my all-time favorite desserts. I was already fairly satiated from dinner, but even then, I still literally could’ve had three or four more cups of this just because of how good it was.
Our second dessert was Sufurei Chiizu Keiki, which, as you might have guessed from the name, was Japanese soufflé cheesecake with Montmorency and Bing cherry compote.
I’m usually not the biggest fan of cheesecake, but I got this anyway for two main reasons: (1) it was marked on the menu as a limited-edition item, and (2) my friend wanted to hear me pronounce “sufurei chiizu keiki” when I ordered it. I wouldn’t say I have a strong fear of missing out, but I do still like getting limited-edition dishes because they are often experimental and I like trying unique and innovative foods.
This cheesecake did not taste like a normal cheesecake. Apparently Japanese cheesecakes are much lighter, and in my opinion, that made it significantly better. This tasted more like a fluffy pastry as opposed to a thick, blocky chunk of grease like cheesecake usually does. On top of that, the cherries balanced the flavor profile even more because I made sure to include some with every bite.
The restaurant was also aesthetically pleasing. I took photos of the entrance, dining area, and kitchen.
| Ika no Nuta | $ 17.00 |
| Gindara no Sunomono | $ 23.00 |
| San Ten Mori | $ 45.00 |
| Yakitori Momo Sansho | $ 10.00 |
| Yakitori Sori | $ 12.00 |
| Yakitori Kawa | $ 10.00 |
| Sakana Furai | $ 21.00 |
| Kama Tama Udon | $ 16.00 |
| Hojicha Panna Cotta | $ 12.00 |
| Sufurei Chiizu Keiki | $ 16.00 |
| Rintaro Yuzu Cooler | $ 7.00 |
| Rintaro Ginger Cooler | $ 7.00 |
| Sales tax | $ 16.90 |
| Gratuity | $ 40.00 |
| Total | $ 252.90 |
The table on the right shows how much we paid.
I thought this restaurant was fantastic, and it exceeded my expectations in basically every facet.
The food tasted excellent. It was obvious that all the ingredients were of high quality. All the flavors were clean, simple, and straightforward. There was no reliance on excessive amounts of salt or sugar, and the actual contents of each dish spoke for themselves.
The order in which each item came out was also optimal for the flow of the meal (though I guess a lot of this had to do with us and the way we ordered); there were no jarring changes of flavor profile between dishes, and everything told an overall nice flavor story.
In a similar vein, the variety of dishes available on the menu was fairly vast. I feel like there was something available for someone with any kind of food preference (provided that you don’t hate Japanese cuisine entirely… but even then, I still think you’d be able to find something you enjoy). This let us build an entire journey with our build-your-own eight-course meal.
The service was appropriately satisfactory, which is to say, also excellent. Our server was always there when we needed her and never around when we didn’t need her, which indicates that she was good at keeping an eye on us and knowing when to show up at our table. We ordered little by little based on our level of fullness at the time, and when we were almost ready to order our next batch of items, our waitress showed up so there would be a minimal break between our items.
The ambiance was very comfortable and soothing. It was clear that they went for a cozy and casual feel, which made dining feel stress-free. It was as if we were allowed to just be ourselves, without any external pressure to act in a certain way. It was clear that diners wanted to reciprocate this level of respect for the clientele, so the entire vibe of the restaurant was one of peace and consideration for others.
If you’re in the San Francisco area and are willing to take a trip to the northern Mission District, and if these price points are within your budget, I highly recommend checking out Rintaro.