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.

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.

I traveled into San Mateo County, California last week for Open Sauce, a science and technology convention that ended this past Sunday. While I’m already in the area, I decided to extend my stay for a few days to try out some nice restaurants in San Francisco. My convention blog post is going to be fairly large and I’m still waiting on some friends to send me photos of me that I might use, but until then, I decided to do some food reviews.

Last night, a friend and I went to Nopa, a New American restaurant focused on using fresh, seasonal ingredients sourced from local farms. We applied my typical strategy for restaurants like this—instead of ordering a main entrée, we ordered a lot of smaller plates to build our own meal and try out a wider variety of available dishes.

For our appetizer, we got Little Gems, made from Star Route Farm lettuce, K&J Orchards Bing cherries, caramel walnuts, and Matos St. Jorge cheese.

This was a very refreshing salad. Each piece of lettuce was the perfect size—not too big and not too small—and each bite had a nice crunch to it. The cherries had a great balance of sweetness while still being subtle as to not overpower any other flavors. The caramel walnuts expanded the breadth of texture in the dish, which I liked. I am usually not a fan of cheese, but the flavor of this cheese was smooth and not excessively cheesy.

For my drink, I ordered a non-alcoholic beverage off their zero-proof cocktail menu called the Influencer, made with Vibrante vermouth, smoked black tea, pomegranate, and peppercorn, topped with an orange peel.

Of course, the reason I picked it was because it was named “Influencer,” and it wouldn’t be a normal day in the world of Adam Parkzer without joking and memeing about influencers. The drink itself was passable, but not that great; it had a flavor profile that I had never tasted before in any other drink, but it was a little bit too bitter for my preference.

Next up was local halibut crudo with Dapple Dandy pluot, pickled G&S Farm sweet corn, basil, and urfa chili.

The halibut was fresh and had a satisfying texture. This was the first time I had ever tried pluot, and I think I like it—I couldn’t really isolate and pick up on its core flavor because it was just an ingredient in a broader dish, but I could still tell that had a good amount of sweetness. The sweet corn was a bit overpickled for my preference, but when added together with the other ingredients in each big bite, it served its role well.

Because of a minor mix-up, my friend didn’t get her drink for a little while, but it eventually came out—she got a pomegranate hibiscus soda. I tried a few sips of her drink, and it was sort of like a sweeter and “purer”-tasting variant of my own drink.

For our first savory dish, we got house-smoked trout with marinated cucumbers, Brokaw avocado, tzatziki, purslane, and crispy quinoa.

This was a bit more cooked than I expected for a dish that was supposed to be smoked, but it was still very tender. I took care to add each ingredient into every bite, and it had a very refreshing flavor with no unexpected aftertastes. The quinoa added a fun crunch, and the very lightly fried oily taste added great balance to the richness of the fish.

Our second “main” entrée was saffron rigatoni with Shasta morels, porcini, Genovese basil, and herbed house ricotta.

We mixed in all the ricotta with the pasta. Usually, I’ve found Italian dishes to come with too much sauce such that the cheesiness and saltiness over­pow­ers the pasta, but this dish had great balance of sauce and pasta. The ricotta had a deep, rich flavor, and the pasta was cooked to be soft and chewy.

Our final entrée of the night was flatbread with Nopa bacon, Rojas Farm white nectarine, Point Reyes Toma cheese, and arugula.

I’m usually not a big fan of bacon, but this Nopa bacon was not too greasy and it was cooked to the perfect firmness where it’s not too hard and not too rubbery. The nectarine added an amazing refreshing flavor to the flatbread—it’s like it took what people like about pineapple on Hawaiian pizza, but toned it down enough that it maintained the crispness and sweetness without being way too watery and tangy on pizza like pineapple is. I couldn’t really taste the arugula, but it added some color and was nice for presentation.

For dessert, we got a blueberry apricot cobbler with a hot sugar crust and topped with frosted almonds and crème fraîche ice cream.

Like the main courses, the cobbler also had a very clean and refreshing taste. The cobbler had a great consistency to it, the almonds had a very deep nut­ty flavor, the ice cream was smooth and rich, and even the edible flowers added a nice touch without being too fragrant.

This is a bit silly, but I decided to include this picture anyway—instead of regular salt shakers, Nopa has a small wooden bowl with rock salt in it. All the dishes were well-seasoned so we didn’t need any salt, but I still thought this was a nice touch to make the restaurant feel higher-end and classier.

Here is a view of the interior of the restaurant. My friend works remotely for an East coast company and operates on Eastern time zone, so we booked our reservation for 5:30 PM PDT right when the restaurant opened, which is why it looks so empty. However, by the time we were done with our dinner two hours later, the restaurant was packed and bustling.

Our table was up on the mezzanine, and you can actually see my chair in the top-right corner of this following photograph. It meant I had a nice view of the restaurant throughout my meal, but the downside was that I overheated halfway through my meal because I was directly above the kitchen and the heat of their cooking rose directly up to me.

A recurring theme across the dishes was that the ingredients spoke for themselves. I don’t think there was any extra seasoning added beyond salt and pepper, and the amount of salt used was small enough that it didn’t overwhelm the dish or make it too salty. Any additional supplemental flavors were added with herbs and other premium ingredients that synergized well with the dish, which made all the food taste pure, clean, and refreshing.

Overall, I was very satisfied with my dining experience. We got a lot of dishes and the bill added up pret­ty quickly, but with all factors considered—supporting local farmers, California’s cost of living, San Francisco’s even higher cost of living, and just the overall quality of the dishes—I don’t think the price was unreasonable.

The dining experience was also very pleasant. This was the first time I had seen this friend in-person in almost an entire year so I was fairly distracted with conversation, but when I did notice the waiter come around, he was available when we needed him and he was attentive to our needs. I also think I got some of the most prime seating in the restaurant, as we were in an elevated and quieter area of the res­tau­rant, and we were able to look down on everyone else, almost as if we could people-watch as en­ter­tain­ment.

If you live near San Francisco or are in town visiting and want a nice meal that is light and healthy but still filling and tasty, I’d definitely recommend checking out Nopa. They have some large plates that may be more cost-effective than what we did, but if you want to experience a build-your-own multi-course tasting menu, their small plates are fantastic.