[SF] Koo Sushi

[Carolyn Tillie]

It has taken living in the city for three years to beat it into me that I have to get out of my comfortable neighborhoods. I had yet to eat at ANY restaurants in Inner Sunset and I have my eating buddy, Lisa, to thank for bringing me here. Apparently it helps to know the chef or at least insist at sitting at the bar to ask what is special and fresh.

We started with the ubiquitous "Spoonfuls of Happiness" - two soup spoons, one filled with a tai-wrapped smoked ankimo dressed with a bit of truffle oil and tobiko, the other a preparation of uni with quail egg and house-made ponzu sauce. The spoonfuls are served with a specialty sake and being an ankimo fan, I thought I would prefer that bite, but the freshness of the uni and the subtlety of the ponzu made the uni the preferred bite.

Not wanting to get full on rice, we specifically requested sashimi -- with two slices each of maguro, tai aka, sake, hamachi, and and kanpachi. Note that the fresh, real wasabi is certainly a treat.

Indicating we were definitely interested in "unusual" offerings, the chef made us a salad of light mizuna greens, thinly sliced cucumber, and baby raw whole shrimp and squid. I don't recall ever having been served whole squid the size of my thumb. Incredibly tender and lightly dressed, this was an amazing offering.

As my client requested salmon, a special offering of crudo was presented -- thinly sliced white salmon, so tender and bright.

There was also an unagi course, but I'm not remembering exactly how it was offered.

We finished up with my one request of the evening; ama-ebi, as my good friend, Lance (visiting from London), had never had a fried shrimp head before. Perfectly fresh sweet shrimp and the fried heads were light and crunchy. Just perfect.

I brought a potential client and I'm sure we must have been given some deals as we drank a lot of sake, ate a lot of sushi, and the tab was only $300 for four.

[sk4sk4]

i think that Koo is one of the best japanese/sushi restaurants in the city, especially for the money. i try to eat at the bar when i go, and just order off the daily special menu. the hokkaido scallop, grouper, and black cod are real standouts if they are stocked that day.

koo also does a lot of traditional japanese dishes very well, their eggplant dengaku is excellent.

the spoonfull of happiness is also one of my favorites there. i consider it a must if i am entertaining people from out of town.

glad to hear you enjoyed your meal at koo.