Koo

Omakase tonight served by Mike. The young chef Mike is very friendly and hard working. It’s great sitting at the bar and watching him swiftly cut the fishes and make sushi for us. Overall the food is 4 star. Fishes are fresh and of high quality. Rice is ok and a bit too loose.
Monk fish liver is ok, I had better ones at other sushi restaurants. But the addition of shiso makes me not to the degree of disliking it – without the shiso It would be ²⁄₅ quality – I know I am biased here coz I like shiso.
Hamachi toro is my favorite. Very fresh!
Anago is good though its slightly a bit too sweet.
Hokkaido scallop is pretty fresh.
Hokkaido Uni melts nicely in mouth. Seaweed could be a bit more crispy. Although I am not blown away with wow… I am satisfied.
Goma is, well, just ok. My least favorite.
I had total of 17 sushi. All the others are ok. Overall a good experience. 4 star is so accurate!
Sake was generously served.
I did not realize that the omakase they have here is different from Wako or Kusakabe or Yoshizumi – whose onakase is a fixed courses of 16 or so with a la carte (extra after the fixed course) On the menu it says 50 dollars and up – that means after five or six courses, they will just kept feeding you until they noticed you are full and asked: you want more? At that moment I knew I have extended the courses. So the total came to 98 or so and with tip its 115. I am 90% full. Overall a good experience. Will come back but next time I will skip the Omakase.

Came here with my bf for my bday. We got:
Spoon Full of Happiness: yes! It comes with a sake
Beef Tataki: This is not worth getting, very dry, wasn’t that tasty.
Rolls (Koo Roll, UCSF Roll): Loved the rolls, must gets
Nigiri (Kurodai, Shima ji Japan, Iwana): Love the fresh fish, super tasty, melts in your mouth
The owner there was so sweet and surprised me with a sweet green tea ice cream with candles for my birthday and sang for me. Great service. Location isn’t too big. I usually don’t like unni that much but this place was pretty good. I liked that they give you a shot of sake to sip eat sip eat sip.

To be blunt, and I truly believe this describes my experience here–
MOUTH ORGASM
Wow. The scallops and kobe… I just… I mean, I shouldn’t be writing this until I’ve had time to come down. It was, OMG good. I would go into serious debt if no one was there to temper my enthusiasm. I would just keep ordering until I maxed out my credit card.
It is upscale and expensive, but maybe by comparisons locals would not think so. But totally worth every penny.
I may try to edit this review later, after I quit shaking and tingling. I need a cigarette and to check my credit limit.

Been meaning to try this place many times Two of us and we ordered:
Spoon Full of Happiness = As the name says it is tasty, definitely get it! You also get a side of sake. I normally don’t like sake but this sake was great.
Beef Tataki = I wouldn’t suggest ordering it, it was dry
Rolls (Koo Roll, UCSF Roll): they were on point, get them.
Nigiri (Kurodai, Shima ji Japan, Iwana): Apparently they’re known for these. The kurodai so was really good.
The service was great and friendly!
Parking was a bit hard to find, we had to circle for a while before we parked up the hill.
would come back again!

This place is overrated :/
Food is mediocre and for the price you pay it should definitely taste better.
I’ve ordered sushi rolls and cooked food here and I wasn’t impressed by any of it.
Service here is also pretty blah. I’d recommend going elsewhere for sushi.

Our new favorite sushi place.

Authentic and delicious sushi. The mood was very warm and romantic making it a great place for a date

I came to Koo because my favorite Japanese restaurant (coincidentally only a few blocks away) had way too long of a line and I needed to satisfy my sushi kick ASAP. I had high expectations after perusing the reviews on Unilocal and decided to give this place a try.
Chalk it up to not ordering the «right» dishes (aka I did not order the spoonful of happiness), but my meal was average at best. I ordered the spicy salmon and the flying kamikaze rolls.
While they weren’t bad, they weren’t spectacular either. Something about the sushi rice was a bit too sticky in consistency and borderline mushy. And the dried seaweed was tougher and chewy as well.
That being said, the quality of the fish wasn’t half bad at all and had I ordered something like the sashimi, I could see this having higher reviews. That being said, the rolls didn’t live up to my expectations, and while I’m open to trying Koo again, I doubt I’ll be having the rolls

Like everyone else has already said, spoons of happiness are ON POINT. The omakase was very fairly priced. The only thing is that you get all of it at once, so it’s more like a nigiri platter than your traditional omakase experience. This might also just be due to the fact that we sat at a table and not at the bar.
Also, this place is a unicorn in the city. Great food, good service, and NO WAITING, at least not your average SF 45 minute type of wait. It’s never overflowing busy. Probably a function of the location, but if you don’t feel like waiting in the freezing cold or being on a waitlist for 3 weeks to eat some good sushi, this is your spot.

The spoonful of happiness. Go try it yourself. They do make you happy. They always made ME happy!
I moved from SF to OC a few years ago, and every time I visit SF now I have to get my spoonful of happiness. It’s so delicious that it is beyond words. You have to try it to believe it.
The other items on the menu are good, but overpriced from my book. I often get the spoonful of happiness as a happy hour item and then go for dinner later.

3.5 stars. the 0.5 extra star is for…
three words: SPOONFUL OF HAPPINESS!
highly rated dish — am almost 100% certain this is the best item on their menu (but i haven’t tried everything to say for sure just yet). if i could go back and redo this meal, i would order about 5 of these and a large carafe of hot sake and call it a night. it’s so good, i almost gave koo 5 stars based solely off this dish — almost.
what makes me hesitate is the rest of their menu. their sushi selections of the day were very solid and are the way to go if you’re a fan of sashimi/​nigiri. however, the rest of their menu leaves a lot to be desired. the rolls weren’t particularly inspired, and even their regular menu nigiri would be considered average at best.
we ordered some other small plates — wakame salad and agedashi tofu — that turned out to be pretty good. but our total bill came out to almost $ 130 for two people before tip. and at that price point, i feel like i’d rather be somewhere with better sushi. wouldn’t you?

ordered from the catch of the day menu and added a miso soup and came out to be $ 90. it was a little unpleasant dinning when I am constantly swapping the fly away from landing on my food. I had to eat the sushi quick. I don’t know why there is a fly in there and I can’t imagine where this fly goes…
The miso soup was too salty. It had spinach, tofu, and seaweed in it. need to cut down on the salt and I love salty food.
the chef can spruce up his skills on plating. presentation helps and shows the care of what you’re putting out to the customers. it took a bit for the sushi to come out but I didn’t mind. it was a Friday night around 6pm and plenty of table open. All the sushi tasted average in terms of freshness. nothing wow’d me. Wished it was colder.
Green tea is not for free. They charge $ 1. I got 3 refill. tea is a bit weak.
I can’t say I would patron here again. I have been here many times and finally got around to writing a review for this place.
After paying with credit card, the staff came over before I signed it to pick it up. I had to tell her I didn’t sign it yet. it is like they are rushing me. I wanted to finish my tea before leaving. after 5 mins and I finally signed it, the same lady came over and picked it up. I don’t understand the rush. it is not like you’re closing your register. it wouldn’t hurt to wait till the customer leaves before clearing the table and picking up the check. that irked me a little.

This place is amazing! Tucked in inner sunset, it is a really quaint little place. The spoon fulls of happiness is worth every bite! I would order it again, and again, and again, if I could. Definitely dream about it from time to time.
The sushi we had here were all really fresh and tasty, but portions are small, and alas, I can’t come here all the time without breaking my wallet.

Koo, I’ve been looking for you– solid sushi restaurant in Sf.
If you’re looking for authentic, delicious, and fresh nigiri and sashimi, this will be your jam! Koo is pretty solid, like I said.
Came here with a coworker a couple days ago and we started off with pretty every nigiri they had on the menu. Yum! The toro and barracuda were my favorite. Piece after piece we thanked the chef that kept filling our plates and ate to our hearts content. The spoonful of happiness was delish!
I bet the omakase here is awesome! Next time.
On a side note, the other items were ordered were stuffed jalapeño, shrimp dumplings, and Tokyo crunch which were not as good as the fresh fish and wasn’t a huge fan of.
I’ll be back sometime, probably!

Saturday night rolls around and a spontaneous date night ensues!!!
Tired from a long week, but craving a touch of class Koo springs into my head as we drive around. I walk past Koo daily, but have never stopped in. We decided to give it a try!
Lucked out and found parking RIGHT in front, no easy task for 7PM on Saturday. And to my surprise, the place wasn’t packed. We were seated right away!
Menues Given, Drink Orders Taken, and now we were strolling through the menu trying to find something to tame our Saturday night Hunger.
We ordered the Oyster’s 2 piece appetizer, I am pretty sure I could have eaten a dozen of these, topped with tombiko I was a happy lady! NOM.
Best Roll topped with Lemon was good, besides the fact they kept the rind on the lemon. I now this is common, but I LOVE lemon, but strongly dislike the bitter rind. I think peeling the lemon then topping with a thin slice of pulp would really help this dish.
Our other roll was white fish and avocado topped with a spicy tuna.
A nice quite little spot with very polite staff. I’d return!

I suggest trying out Koo only if you have some appreciation of izakaya style cuisine. I came here a few years ago and it was naïve and cynical because I was frustrated at all small portions, overpricedness, and general fuss and frills of fine dining – 3 stars. Then I came back for happy hour after living in SF for a few years and becoming accustomed to/​spoiled by all the good food so I was finally able to pick up on some of the subtleties instead of complaining about paying so much and still being hungry – 4 stars. Maybe one day I will be a professional diner and be able to taste things at Koo that normal people can’t detect, and I will give 5 stars.
[THE SIGNATURE]
A Spoonful of Happiness (a spoonful of uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu & a spoonful of ankimo wrapped with whitefish, white truffle-​oil ponzu & a shot of chilled sake):This is the highlight of many reviews and after seeing all the pretty photos you feel inclined to order it because it looks so photogenic. I’m not even a fan of sea urchin or monkfish liver or truffle oil (too fancy for me) and $ 13 is expensive but includes alcohol. So I decided to be adventurous and deviated from my friends’ orders. The conversation went like this:
Friends order appetizers and drinks.
Me: Can I get the Spoonful of Happiness?
Server: Just one order?
Me: Yes, I’ll be happy by myself!!!
Although my palate is not culinarily cultured to all these exotic ingredients (raw quail egg made me squirm a little), I did enjoy the unique flavors and complex layers. The sake definitely made it tastier; if a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, a shotful of sake makes the spoonfuls go down. It’s among the craftiest things I’ve ever eaten – spoonfuls of happiness indeed. (And, of course, I maximized my $ 13 by essentially taking multiple 360-​degree panoramic shots of my spoons)
[THE HAPPY HOUR]
Godzilla Tofu (crispy tofu with spicy garlic miso): Surprisingly tasty for tofu! The crispy exterior is nicely balanced by a soft silky interior. While I liked the simplicity, I think it could be even better with a ponzu dipping sauce of sorts.
Stuffed Jalapeño (with hamachi, with lime aioli): Before you get scared by the jalapeño pepper, let me tell you this is not spicy at all (nor is most Japanese food). Decent appetizer especially if you like strong, bold flavors.
[THE KITCHEN]
Miso Marinated Black Cod (served with dashi branched baby bok choy and fried tofu): Pricey, but the cod melts in your mouth!
Flying Kamikaze (spicy tuna and asparagus wrapped with albacore and topped with garlic ponzu and scallions): For once, gimmicky toppings are a nice addition to the sushi roll and not just used to mask funky fish – the sashimi quality is good, and overall it’s tasty (this is one of their more popular rolls).
[THE VERDICT]
I browsed around their website and read up on the chef and the restaurant name: Koo is a masculine, informal way of saying eat (I guess it’s somewhat the Japanese equivalent of omnomnom except less cutesy). In my opinion it’s quite the opposite because it’s dainty and the portions are too small to be something that guys would be happy with.
Koo is a level up from the rest of the Inner Sunset in terms of food and ambiance fanciness, but the price is also leveled up accordingly. Worth a try if you think spoonfuls and happiness and the like will make you happy!

Make sure you make reservations as this place isn’t very big.
I took my friend here for her birthday and we got the omakase courses for $ 56pp. Came with miso soup, an okra salad, a spoonful of happiness, 6 pieces of sashimi (maguro, harami and another fish) and 7 pieces of nigiri.
The things that stood out to me were the spoonfuls of happiness (bursting with with different flavors and indeed made me extremely happy!), the harami (super soft, melts in your mouth), Hokkaido uni (so good, worth whatever you gotta pay to try it, and the bluefin toro (also melts in your mouth).
Other than that, my friend and I weren’t a fan of all the other foods and fishes. It would have probably been better for us to put in individual orders of nigiri as the ones the chef gave us were a bunch of the fishes that don’t seem as popular and weren’t very soft.
The Mount Fuji dessert with green tea ice cream was also delicious. Service was on par.
Didn’t feel like it was quite worth a $ 160 meal. If I ever come back, I’ll probably just order nigiri and the spoonfuls of happiness. Definitely glad I got to try this place though!

On the hunt for great sushi and I don’t regret trying Koo but don’t think the visits will stick.
Get me another +‘s:
+ Spoonfuls of Happiness. They were DAMN GOOD mouthfuls of HAPPY. The journey with first a sip of sake. Next down spoonful of white fish with truffle oil. Sip sake. Down the spoon of uni and raw quail egg. Savor. Finish sake. It’s $ 13 and bit pricey but I don’t regret it.
+ Rolls were decent. Got the standard spicy tuna and the Crunchy Roll which had great texture with each bite.
+ Saturday night wait was just 20’
Going to pass -‘s:
— Green tea is not complimentary. It’s $ 1 per patron. Geez.
— The fresh catches of the day just weren’t up to par. We had barracuda and halibut. It was not memorable and the slices were somewhat stingy at $ 7 for two pieces of nigiri sushi.
— Took a while for us to order. Think they were short on staff.
TIP: You may not like uni but the Spoonful of Happiness will make you forget the funny snot like texture. The wonderful mixture and balance disrupts any fear you have of uni or raw eggs. It’s that good.

I adore Koo!
Back in April of 2012, I dragged the roommate here since I was craving sushi. We came after he picked me up from work, so luckily, we made it for happy hour! We ordered from both the HH and regular menu
Happy hour:
*Temaki Handrolls: Spicy tuna (spicy tuna, cucumber and lettuce) & Hamachi and avocado
*Wakame Salad: japanese seaweed salad
*Stuffed Jalapeño: with hamachi, with lime aioli
Regular menu:
*Kumamoto Oysters on the half shell 2pc: served with spicy Daikon radish, green onion and ponzu sauce
Beef Tataki: chilled, sliced shoulder tender loin with apple-​ginger soy
*A Spoonful of Happiness: spoonful of uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu & spoonful of ankimo, wrapped with whitefish, truffle-​oil ponzu & a shot of chilled sake
*Hamachi Kama: broiled hamachi with ponzu and grated daikon radish
*Flying Kamikaze Roll: spicy tuna and asparagus wrapped w/​albacore and topped with garlic ponzu and scallions
*Nigiri: Hamachi (yellowtail) & Amaebi (sweet shrimp w/​fried head)
Spoonfuls of happiness? How can I say no to that?! Most definitely, my favorite item! I love uni and ankimo so each spoonful was like heaven! The uni and quail egg went so well with the ponzu. And the ankimo with a truffle oil ponzu? Yum! Just writing about this makes me want to go there now! Delicious!
Parking can be difficult at times in this area, but we got there around 6pm so finding parking wasn’t too bad at that time.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Koo. I think I’m long overdue for a return visit! Spoonfuls of happiness, get in my mouth!

Had dinner on Wednesday night at Koo at 7 pm. I was told that Parking was going to be terrible and it was. I circled a 6 block area for about 20 minutes until I found some leaving. The restaurant was half empty probably because they were looking for a place to park. Koo offers 3 levels of Omakase, $ 50 level with just Sushi and Sashimi. The $ 60 level includes appetizer and the spoonfuls of happiness. Then $ 70 level with tastes from the Kitchen along with the items on the $ 60 level. We ordered the $ 70. For the extra ten dollars you get two small grilled pieces of egg plant, 1 small wrap of mango and fish, and a small portion of Japanese pickled veggies. So not worth the extra $ 10.
The sushi, sashimi, and the spoonfuls of happiness were excellent. 7 pcs of sushi and 6 pcs of sashimi. Service was good. Reservations were easy. However, I wouldn’t roll the dice and try my luck for the night time parking situation at Koo again. Unless there is Valet parking, a trek from the East Bay is an issue.

Quelle petite phrase bouleversante au coeur d’un être?