Sushi Rock

I am not a Sushi Expert. And, I am willing to admit that I was extra tempted to give this place a 5th star just because of how wrong some of the reviews posted have been. One Star? Are you kidding? But, alas, I stuck with a solid-four. I know there are things I don't know, and there are obviously 5's out there that would blow this away. Granted - probably pretty expensive 5's.

Yeah... I'm not a Sushi Expert. In fact, I only really started eating it in the last few months. Why? I've always thought I have a fish allergy. It turns out that I don't. Without boring you about the details, it has opened up a new world. The flip-side is that I have yet another expensive new area of Bon Vivant-ism to satiate. ...Cause, that's what I needed in SF.

Every meal here starts with complimentary Miso Soup and Cucumber/Seaweed Salad. Both are tasty. Everything I've had has been good. The Temaki Hand-Rolls (I've tried Poki and Spicy Scallop) have been substantial and tasty. The Nigiri have been really good and high quality. I have to single out the Sunrise Nigiri - Smoked Salmon, Tobiko and Quail's Egg - and it is SO good. I've also tried their daily specials a few times, and the winner was Amberjack, which was among the best pieces of Sushi I've ever had. I gotta praise the Unagi Nigiri too. I've also tried the Squid Shioyaki and Tempura Green Beans as starters - again, both pretty good.

Where I feel like Sushi Rock has really shined are their Rolls. Man, I've had some good stuff. I will grant you that $12.95 isn't cheap, but both the Garlic Spider Roll and Champion Roll were dynamite. These guys were flavorful and well balanced. The King Kong Roll with Albacore, Tobiko and Garlic was delicious. I've had a variety of the Makimono Rolls, which have a lower price-point than the Special Rolls.

I am not a Sushi Expert. But I can tell you that I've now tried about five other spots of comparable price and menu (in the last month) - I think this is among the top two. I have no quarrel with the quality or freshness. I really have enjoyed the service - they have been really nice each time I've come, and they make good suggestions. Do not believe that this is a one or two-star joint. That's complete BS.

Sushi Rock, and this applies to the Pine St. location too, has decent enough food for days when you are famished. Head elsewhere if you are really looking for authentic Japanese food though because this feels more like Japan by way of Beijing.

With that said I do think the bentos are good value. (http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?userid=DvcAC_nlKaTDsHcA8Slagw) I've had multiple iterations but I think the consistently decent bets are oyster katsu and the saba shioyaki. Depending on the day, the sashimi, tempura, and tonkatsu can be had.

Sushi here is mediocre. The biggest offense is the rice that is often dry and ummm not sushi rice to begin with. Fish is typically decently fresh but there are many better places around. I would stick to cooked foods. Katsu Don after a night of drinking often hits the right warm fuzzy places.

I love the fact that the servers here have PDAs to take your order and act really busy. It's not that hard and punching the keys in harder will not make you any less busy.. and unfortunately the food any better.

Decent for when you you need sustenance and you're right there, but by no means a destination to satisfy cravings - Sushi Rock is ok.

Came here on a weekday for dinner and it was nearly empty. The service was fine. They give you free miso soup and a salad.

I ordered 12 pieces of sashimi (19.95), and thought it was cool that they let you mix and match. I asked the waiter which fish was the most fresh that day, and he went to check with the chef. He came back and said all the fish was fresh, since they got all their shipments today. "How lucky!!!" I thought, and chose salmon, albacore, and yellowtail.

Ew. The fish was gross, bland, and obviously previously frozen. I should've known when I saw the salmon was served on top of a glowing changing color plastic ice cube. The albacore was straight up mushy and on the verge of going rotten. It was so bad that I didn't even finish it. I mean it's fine if you have to freeze your fish, just be upfront about it. Don't try to sell it like upscale fresh sashimi (people can tell the difference), charge a lot for it, and lie and say all your fish is fresh and the shipments all came today. If they had just been upfront about it, I would've ordered something else instead, and probably left with a better impression of this place.

I haven't been here in many, many years, but the other night I was in the neighborhood late night, and decided to dine-in since it was one of the few places I saw that was still open.

This place is Not within the group of best Japanese restaurants in SF, but it's possible to have a decent and affordable meal, if you're selective. For example, I'd never eat raw fish at Tani's Kitchen, EVER. Here is a little better, I don't completely avoid raw stuff but I'd be very picky because quality is not the best. To be safe, I'd look for cooked food from the regular menu, or the value priced bento, and maybe look at the specials, that's it.

This night I chose one of my favorite dishes from any Japanese restaurant, Hamachi Kama for $8.95 (grilled yellow tail collar). http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/VCh9So8HbALmL1mr7akyGA/l They have many nice appetizers too (25% discount during happy hour 3:30-6:30pm). The raw fish specials are priced at $8.95-$10.95, flipbook of pictures on the table - tuna tataki, seared tuna, etc.

The best deal is the value priced bento - choice of 3 items for $7.95 during lunch, and $11.95 for dinner (dinner has more choices: seabass and salmon, plus sashimi for $1 more). Really good pricing! each portion is small, but the quality is not bad. http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/Noe55BH17KlbfARq5vxj6g/l

About the positives that night:
regardless of your order, everyone always gets a complimentary cup of miso soup and a pickles with seaweed appetizer (tsukemono) after you sit down. Also free green tea ice cream with your check (dinner only). My grilled yellow tail collar was delicious. Service is friendly. The ambiance is unique because of the music, they were playing 80's rock music (ie. Scorpions - Wind Of Change, etc) that night.

About the negatives that night:
my tea cup smelled like bleach, so I used my glass of water instead to drink my hot tea. And the lemon on my hamachi dish was old.

In the past...
I swear this place was much better many years ago. Fish quality and specials were better (for example, it's one of the first places to serve ankimo in SF years ago), and the promotions were really cool. I remember when they gave free meals for your bday for frequent diners complete with a free bottle of (cheap) wine, complimentary cold sake, 50% off appetizers during happy hour, etc.

I agree with most reviews, don't go here. For the price of the rolled sushi, it is not worth it. The pieces were half the size as regular pieces. They were sliced so thin that the sushi chef has absolutely amazing knife skills or they are just cheap.
Bad, bad, bad.

I've always thought of Sushi Rock as the T.G.I. Friday's of sushi. It's not the finest, but it's decent, reasonably-priced and it hits the spot. Actually, I've found the sashimi to be quite good. I particularly enjoy coming here because I can comfortably bring my preschooler; there are enough distractions and plenty of action to keep her entertained, and the waitstaff graciously anticipates her needs (extra napkins, a spoon for the miso soup, etc.). They've spoiled her by sneaking her extra scoops of ice cream at the end of the meal...now she expects it! It's nice to be able to indulge our Japanese food cravings once a week without breaking the bank.

This is the closest sushi place near my house so I go to it when I get REALLY bad sushi cravings.

Food is overpriced and is mediocre. The udon is super bland and not very tasty. The tempura veggies were undercooked because my batter was still raw.

Its super loud here and I can't ever hear myself or people I'm sitting with talk.
It gets ratchet in here esp on weekend nights so if you're tryna have a nice quiet and peaceful dinner, don't come here.

Ugh, Sushi Rock was HORRIBLE!
If you want to get poor quality sushi, mushy udon noodles and seaweed salad with lack of flavor, then this is the place for you!
It was inedible. I was scared to eat anything because i didn't want to get food poisoning. The fish was a BAD color, and the noodle soup had no flavor.

I will NEVER go here again.

I ordered Sushi Rock delivery thru Grubstub. The delivery actually came 15 minutes early which was about the only good thing about my experience. I ordered the chirashi entree, unagi sushi and the mackerel lightly salted. First, miso soup that came with the chirashi entree was horrible. It was very salty and had a "thick" taste to it. I've never had worse miso soup before. The Chirashi meal itself was just okay, the rice was very starchy and the pieces of fish were semi-fresh, maybe it had more to do with my order being delivered and the fish was on top of warm rice. They should actually separate the fish when they deliver.

The unagi sushi had was average, the rice was starchy and chunky. The unagi pieces themselves were average in size, however, I prefer sushi places that are generous with their fish.

The lightly salted mackerel was pretty good, for about $7 you get 5oz. of mack, its good with rice, but too bad their rice isn't good here.

I paid about $35 after delivery and tip, not a good bargain considering most of the food I ate wasn't good. I can tolerate average sushi places but I won't bother ordering from this place again.

Eh same as before. Medicore. One plus is the $2 happy hour sapporo and $1 hot sake carafes.

One of our rolls seemed to be filled with tuna fish... yuck!