Red Box Sushi

DARN — they’re CLOSED! I’ve never mourned for a restaurant in my life and this will be my first.
That’s what happens when you move out of San Francisco!!! I definitely plan on moving back and can’t wait!!!
I didn’t even get a chance to a write a review how magical this place was. But regardless, I am doing it right now!!!
I used to come here with my friends from Taiwan (great memories). It was ultimately the very BEST SASHIMI I’ve ever had in my life. EVER!!! Their TORO & UNI were out of this world. They were so fresh, they were literally melting in my mouth. The owner/​chef JOE is so cool. He runs the whole show. This place is unique in that the owner serves everybody. The whole staff is family and from what I remember, there were only two of them — so you would need a bit patience — but in the end — it was well worth the wait. And if you’re a die hard sashimi lover like me, this «was» the place to be!!! Incidentally, they were famous for their Fire Cracker ball which is basically a deep fried sushi with their secret spicy sauce and everyone went bonkers over it! LOL: p
I bet if they had stayed in business long enough, they would’ve been discovered by Micheline and awarded THREE STARS!
Sitting and dinning at RED BOX SUSHI is like watching the documentary film «Jiro Dreams of Sushi.» — «Mouthwatering, A work of Art.»
UGH!!! I can’t believe they’re gone!!!

Joe, we still miss you terribly, I haven’t eaten sushi since you closed, this is still true, 10 months and counting. Please please please, if you ever open a new place let all of us know!

I visited the place solely because of the reviews on Unilocal.Yelpers write about how wonderful the place is and how the line is out the door. Needless to say I have once again been let down by Unilocal reviews. I don’t see what all the fuss is about.
Before my criticism I must say the size of the place fits my style, so too the location. The room is narrow, dimly lit and in the ‘hood. All pluses. However, the place was so dark from the outside it is hard to tell if the place is open or not. From across the street it looked closed and I nearly turned around. Luckily, my eating partner wanted to see the hours so we walked over to the door. Even right outside the door it looked closed. Maybe this explains why we were the only ones in the restaurant for the entire time, well over an hour. Yes, it was a Wednesday but it was from 5:30−7pm.
Okay, the food.
«I will have some tako.» Waiter’s reponse — «We don’t have any tako.»
«I will have some ebi.» Waiter’s response — «We don’t have any ebi.»
«I will have some tobiko.» Yes, they have it! No, wait. Waiter’s reponse, «the chef says the tobiko is not very fresh so we don’t have any.» While I applaud them for not serving me bad tobiko… come on! This is a sushi place. The waiter’s reasoning…“not a lot of people order tako so we don’t have it.” This proves to me this really is not a true sushi place but one of those «foo-​foo» places serving sushi to please those who only eat California Rolls and tempura.
Okay, Unilocalers claim to love the Firecracker Balls so I order these. If you name something ‘firecracker’ it had better be spicy. These are nowhere near spicy. The 1997 Roll was spicier than the Firecracker Roll. The Firecracker Balls were covered in ‘spicy’ mayo and some sweet mayo and tons of green onions. They tasted fine… but don’t call them ‘firecracker’.
All that said, the 1997 Roll was solid and well presented. The Futo Maki, although being the smallest Futo Maki I have ever ordered, was good as well.
Hey, what’s this?! They charged me for tea? That can’t be. Another reason this really is not a sushi place for true sushi lovers. Sadly, I am again disappointed by previous Unilocal reviews.

So firm was my belief in this restaurant (mostly based on its solid rating on Unilocal) that I actually recommended it to a few people before I even had a chance to go myself. Then, last month, a celebration-​worthy event came upon the calendar, and knowing how much I wanted to try it, the boyfriend made reservations for 2 here.
To start, the space is small. Very small. No bigger than a long hallway. Reservations are a must. Given the limited seating and speed of service (see below), you may be stuck having to find alternate eating options in the heart of the TL. Ideal for a date or dinner with a friend that you’d like to know much better.
The food was brought out very slooooowly. We ordered a large sashimi platter and a rainbow roll. The sashimi was brought out first, and after we finished it off, there were at least a 20 min gap before we were given the roll. The waiting, though I am complaining about it now, did allow us to have a lengthy period of interesting conversation. I’m trying looking for the bright spots here.
Those things being said, the fish was noticeably fresher than most of the sushi restaurants I’ve been to in the city. I had found my standards lowered for quite some time due to the mediocre place that I’ve come across, but not here. Red Box proves that excellent sushi is still available at a decent price as long as you are willing to wait (and wait and wait) for it.
Next time I make a recommendation for this place, I will actually have my own rating to contribute. Thanks Unilocalers for finding me another winner!

Good fish, but not worth all the hype.
My little sister took me here last night to make up for flaking on my birthday party.
The quality of the fish seemed excellent, but there were some major drawbacks.
1. Location: unless you want to be mugged or have a crack whore for dessert.
2. Seating: we were told sit at the bar because the tables were reserved for parties of 3 or more, but they sat unoccupied the entire 2 hours we were there.
3. Speed: the sushi came out really slow.
4. Temperature: most of the rolls came out hot. Hot sushi is gross, unless it’s just one of many rolls.
On the brighter side, the interior was attractive, particularly the bathroom. The server was nice, and when asked for suggestions, he told us his favorite was not on the menu but he could have it made for us, and the NPR roll, or whatever he called it was one of our favorites. The 5 different Japanese beers were a nice touch too.

I love that I’ve found another reliable sushi spot in the city. After meaning to check this place out, we finally rolled in on a Friday night — finding parking right in front. We got 2 seats at the sushi bar and were impressed right off the bat. Unlike the dirty Tenderloin exterior, the interior was clean, cool and classy. Don’t get me wrong, it is quite literally a box… but what a good use of space.
Passing by about 6 tables of 2 or 4, we sat below the projector showing some cool movie and in front of rows of fresh looking fish. Yum. No one likes to see sloppy, unfresh looking sashimi.
The service was a little slow, but 3 orders of sake made the wait just fine. $ 75 later, we had 3 types of sashimi, the menage tois roll, unagi nigiri and. something that I’m not remembering. My ONLY negative feedback is about the toro. $ 19 for 4 slices of toro isn’t a whole lot, but it wasn’t what we were looking for… Next time, we’ll ask what grade of toro it is. Our fault.
But, we made friends with the sushi chef who tossed over left over pieces of fish as he cut it in sashimi block form. We ravaged it like starving teenagers.
All in all, a nice surprise. I WILL be back.

Okay, the lack of meaningful things to write about sushi is becoming ridiculous!
I’m finding myself at a major loss of descriptives…
Fresh…check
Simple yet elegant… uh huh
Freshity fresh as can be… yes ma’am
Décor…who cares?
Sake…Drunk@?!?
Delicious…what do you think?
Just GO TO RED BOX and try everything on the menu, throw out a bunch of superlatives and exclamations, and then repeat after me!

I would normally give this place 3 ½ stars but I’ll round up for the outstandingly sexy company of my Kung Fu Panda friend who’s probably blushing uncomfortably right now.
:)
We started the evening off with some confusion about sake. We weren’t confused by what we wanted but the waitress was. Once we finally straightened that out we had some delicious cold sake.
And waited to order for a while.
When we finally were able to order we were kind of irritated to find that the prices for appetizers were applicable to lunch only and that the dinner prices were double that. Ouch.
So we only ordered one appetizer (the Tataki) and settled on the Maui Roll, Uni, baked Scallops, Am-​ebi sashimi, monkfish liver and a Rainbow Roll. This would have been plenty of food for two people but they spaced it out waaaaayyyy far apart so we actually ended up ordering a couple more rolls after that to make up the stomach hunger deficit. One of them was a spicy tuna roll and I can’t remember the other one but it was tasty. The lack of memory may be due to the two other sakes we drank. We both found the Tataki to be unlike any tataki we’d ever had, in a good way. The rolls were pretty decent too although my friend will never ever admit to eating rolls for fear of bringing shame upon his family name. I have no such fears and have brought plenty of shame and drama to my family name in the past so admitting to liking rolls is no big deal to me. The Am-​ebi Sashimi was super good but they cooked the heads instead of giving them to us fresh. It was okay, they still tasted decent though we wondered if they had come from the freezer due to their very cold temperature (the bodies not the heads). The monkfish liver was tasty but not prepared in the style originally requested. The uni was good but not as fresh as I’d had previously in Hawaii.
All in all a pretty solid little deal in the TL.

Who knew sushi in the ghetto could be fabulous? This place doesn’t look like much from the outside, but you’ll forget you’re in the Tenderloin once inside. There was no line on a Tuesday at 6pm, which was a huge plus – I wait for no one and no restaurant when I’m famished.
My friend and I had the Firecracker Balls, the Spider Roll, and the Maui Roll. The balls were absolutely flavorful and delicious – deep-​fried crab sushi was topped with what I think was Sriracha, eel sauce, kewpie, green onions, and tobikko. A MUST-​TRY. The Spider Roll was great and generous with the soft shell crab. The Maui Roll had ahi, mango, and macadamia nuts – a strange combo that was good nevertheless. I probably wouldn’t order it again since one bite had a ton of wasabi that nearly left me tearing and paralyzed.
My one gripe about this restaurant is the portion size. I could’ve eaten four rolls by my fat self! Hahaha. This won’t keep me away, though. I’m in a permanent sushi state of mind because of this place!

In the past week I’ve read a couple of Unilocal that thought that Red Box Sushi may be closed! Would someone in SF confirm or deny this horrible story for sure already? That said:
All the 4 and 5 star reviews: thank you! Without your enthusiasm, we never would have found what is now one of my all-​time favorite sushi restaurants!
Yes, it’s on the edge of the Tenderloin, but parking was easy and in no way did we feel threatened.
But politics is (or should be) about the issues, and restaurants are about the ambiance, service, and most all, the food.
If you can, sit at the small sushi bar, where you can talk with chef/​owner/​host Joe. It was like getting a la carte omikase at great prices. He kept the food coming based on our feedback to his questions. Nice!
The white tuna nigiri with a garlicked soy sauce drizzle was marvelous. I shy away from wacky-​maki, but everything else was superior, so we tried the Red Box Roll… Yeah, baby! Like many of the other sushi, it came with its own plated sauce, so we hardly ever needed to touch the little bowls of wasabied soy sauce that we’d ignorantly prepared early in the meal.
Oh, yeah! I stay away from deep-​fried maki, as it usually turns into a greasy roll of cooked fish. Not here; greaseless with the fish near the outside cooked a little and the center appropriately raw (it’s sushi, for crying out loud!) so go for it, and while you’re at it, get the sushi that comes with a martini glass of sauce; it’s as tasty as it is good-​looking. (I’ll post a picture that I took with my cell. Another couple who eats at Red Box Sushi whenever they’re in town was sad that they hadn’t brought their camera; everything is THAT good looking!)
Speaking of good looking, the décor is minimal but more than OK. The animé on one wall by the sushi bar is soundless, so you can glance at it, stare at it, or ignore it.
The sake selection is very nice, and Chef Joe’s recommendation was perfect.
This restaurant is one of the reasons why we’re gonna eventually move from the east to Northern Cali.
Henry M
Did I mention that the Ankimo was the best that I’ve ever had?
I will!
Thanks, Chef Joe!

Red Box is hands down THE best sushi restaurant in the Bay Area. I’ve been here about 5 – 6 times now, and the sushi is consistently EXCELLENT! The sushi chef Joe not only knows how to make the rolls tasty, but he puts in a lot of creative effort into the presentation of the sushi as well. If you order the R&B Roll (not on the menu), you’ll know what I mean — absolutely beautiful! Other rolls to order include the Red Box Maki Roll (my favorite out of all of them — the fish just melts in your mouth) and the 1997 Roll. Also, if you like spicy food, make sure to order the Firecracker Balls as an appetizer — Red Box is well known for this delicious dish. Enjoy!

This little box is a hidden gem. It has the kind exterior that you might walk past every day and never be tempted to walk inside, but once inside you will wonder why you have never been here before. The quality of the fish here is extraordinary and the preparation and presentation meticulous. One of the benchmarks of any sushi restaurant for me is always the Saba (Mackerel), and we ended up ordering two rounds of it here. The standout pieces for me were Hamachi, Striped Bass, and White Tuna.
We ordered a couple of rounds of Sushi and there was no prolonged delay getting the second round even though the restaurant was getting busy at that point. Suffice to say that Red Box is now vying for position as my favorite Sushi joint. It’s also worth mentioning that two of us ate a lot of sushi and a couple of beers for $ 78 which was great value IMHO.

Ate my weight in sushi, y’all!
I’ve been here twice in 3 days. Does that say anything to you??!
So far, in my life, this is my favorite place to get sushi. Anywhere. It’s freshness and intense variation of flavor really make Red Box better than the rest.
We started with Firecracker Balls– deep fried spicy tuna rolls, battered in panko and drizzled with a spicy sauce. They’re definitely one of the my favorites on the menu.
We also had the 1997 Roll, the Spider Roll, the Dynamite Roll, and the Salmon Tempura roll, all of which were fantastic. With interesting combinations of cilantro, mango, and macadamia nuts, Red Box is tough to beat with the diversity of their rolls.
The service here is stellar, the space is cool, and later on at night, they show movies on the wall.
So yeah, duh– Love this place! The only drawback (or maybe not, depending on what you like) is the vast amount of ‘Local Flavor’ dancin’ around the streets at any given time. During dinner, through their small window, we saw 1.) a drug deal, 2.) a crazy local with a pink boom box, jammin’ out, and 3.) about 15 speeding firetrucks fly by (No really, 15!).
It might be in a ‘seedy as hell’ part of town (the sexy, sexy Tenderloin!), but please DO NOT let that deter you. I will guarantee you that this is some of the best sushi you will ever have. even if you are offered up a trick or two along the way.

This small long sushi joint that had dark tinted doors and almost no sign was an absolutely fantastic hidden gem!
Great presentation of sushi which was also very fresh and delicious. Service was great though very slow. And it’s quite inexpensive! They also serve some sushi that’s not always common such as monk fish liver. Definitely worth a trip to this kinda run-​down neighborhood.

Simply put, inexpensive and great quality, which is hard to find for a sushi restaurants. The clean and modern interior makes you wonder how this little box ended up in the Tenderloin.
JONASAPPROVED!

I’m sorry, previously-​favorite-​sushi-​joint, you’ve been callously elbowed aside. I didn’t see it coming either.
Beautiful, amazing, luscious fish. So good. How good? We got the toro and it was w-​o-​w, but it came in at the bottom of the generous pile of nigiri we ordered. The hamachi made my face melt off. Not kidding. My face is still on the table.
Dear lord.

Joe was the only one there the night my mom and hubby stepped in to have dinner before the heading to the symphony. Despite the not-​so-​great neighborhood and the cold (it was raining), we found the interior space to be cleverly decorated with mirrors to make it larger and the projected movie on the wall overhead (on this particular night, it was the latest Star Wars movie) was a nice touch.
As for the food, excellent, if on the small side for portions. Red Box is worth a try even if the waittress doesn’t show up.

Burn Baby Burn!
So after much back and fourth debate over where to begin the Saturday night festivities we all agreed on Red Box. A) Because they were happy to take our party of 6 and B) Because Unilocalers love this place and so, I figured I would too.
So we arrived and our table was already waiting for us. Always a nice treat. The place was pretty small, but as a lover of small holes in walls (Whoa, that could be taken wildly out of context) it was kinda of like the goldie locks just right deal. They also had a DVD movie play thing setup, but I think Antonio A.‘s review pretty much nailed how that whole scenario went down. :)
From there we proceeded to order a whole lotta deelishy cold sake and some sushi, along with a few rolls. I am not usually a roll eater as more often than not they taste more like a «Bullshit Roll» or the «Ewwh, could you cram anymore eel sauce in that roll» or of course the «Why Bother Roll.» BUT I will say that some of the ones we ordered were quite unusual and tasty. Namely the «HELP MY MOUF IS ON FIRE» roll aka the Super Dynamite Roll. I stupidly expected your typical dynamite mayo scallop thing, but wow. This was cock sauce, spicy mayo and suma spicey sushi. I think the insides of my mouth that were burned off are finally starting to grow back. We also tried the sushi balls and a few other nibblies that I simply can’t recall at the moment.
One thing that did work its way in as a major party foul was the fact that we specifically asked for no wasabe on anything and if anything it came with DOUBLE the wasabe on a few of the pieces. Of course these were the ones I accidentally ate and I couldn’t tell you if the Hamachi was any good since all I tasted was wasabe. As a girl with food allergies, they really should take a look at this kind of a Eff Up, as that could have been a really bad sitch for someone who might have been allergic to wasabe. If we asked for no wasabe, there’s probably a damn good reason.
Overall, it wasn’t anywhere near the best sushi i have ever had, but it did get some major originality points and for that I would have loved to have given it a 3.5, but because i think they tried, I’ll go 4. And for 6 people to grub and drink for around $ 30 a person, yeah, 4 stars!

«Like Buttah»
Barbara Streisand’s slender manicured hands would be chop-​stick-​ing away at the incredible sushi here at Red Box. It really does go down like buttah. The sushi here is unbelievable. Fresh, rich and unique.
Red Box is a small space, but interesting in it’s layout. There are only a handful of tables, which makes for a very intimate dining experience, A movie projected on the upper wall, plays above those eating. Star wars and sushi. It’s practically an orgasmic combination. If it was actually playing. (little bit of technical difficulty)
Having lived in Japan for a year, I am embarrassed to admit that I know very little about good sushi. Still going through the middle school to high school transition, I shied away from new eating experiences, and left that much more amazing sushi for my older sister. So I was relieved when the sushi connoisseurs at our table, took the lead and ordered for us.
The Fire cracker balls — our appetizers, fried tuna drizzled in serache sauce and cheese, were delicious and not a hint of fishiness about them. The sake eased whatever spice it left behind. I couldn’t wait for our next courses. They did not disappoint. Generous slabs of sweet salmon, spicy eel rolls, and other raw fish delicacies. Every roll had it’s own allure and everyone at the table raved about the quality of each.
My only complaint would be the delay in water glasses, despite asking twice for a round of water. With such spicy dishes, we were forced to take shots of sake to take away the edge (and I even stayed away from the most spicy rolls). Also there was one wasabi tainted batch of sushi — that left half of our table’s eyes red and their throats tight. A slight downer, especially when the rolls were specifically asked to be wasabi-​free. The cost of our meal was comparable for the quality of our sushi. It was on point and an excellent start for the rest of our night — which unsurprisingly was equally as smooth. Slick buttah memories.

When we found a spot without even circling the block, at seven o’clock, I knew it was going to be a good night. I half-​expected a crazy line to greet us, but for most of our dinner we were Joe’s only patrons. The lighting was soft and relaxing and local jazz singers serenaded us by CD (though we never managed to find out who they were, only that they hailed from San Mateo).
We enjoyed a good many rolls and some nigiri too. All fresh. I tried to order a scallop roll and he advised me against it– I appreciate honesty like that! Our tea cups were kept full throughout the meal.
Toward the end, Joe gave us a gratis dish of calamari and seaweed. Spicy and tasty.
I hate to see this place so empty. I think Joe’s created a wonderful place here and I’d love to see more people have the opportunity to enjoy it. And the neighborhood really doesn’t seem as sketch as you might think when you consider the cross streets.
Final call: lovely ambiance, good sushi, worth a trip to the ‘loin!

Wow, what a find, on a somewhat desolate part of the Tenderloin too. Our group went on a Friday night, and the small space was relatively empty, but I can’t imagine that will be for long. The sushi and sashimi we ordered were fresh and fantastic, we sampled some nice cold sakes too. For appetizers, the seaweed salad and edamame were both refreshing, and a visit would not be complete without an order of their delicious (and deliciously-​named) fried cracker balls.
The interior itself is modern and simple, the highlight being the back wall, which doubles as a huge projection screen showing animé and other Japanese films.
Final note and inside joke: local hipsters refer to this place as «Sush,» which rhymes with tush but not hush.