Sushi Rika

I really really really loved this place. When I’d go to San Fran, it was one of my first stops. It wasn’t Nob Hill, it was definitely Tenderloin. Great sushi for the price, but I’m here to talk specifically about the cocktails.
They made these cocktails that were like Hi-​Chews, they were super fruity and flavorful. Not too much liquor, not too much price. I can’t figure out the liquor brand so I can tearfully remake at home.
Seriously, if any of you know the liquor I’m talking about, please let me know.

Sushi was good though the rolls could be bigger or «meatier» for the price they charge. I had a $ 10.75 roll that wasn’t very big in diameter. I went last night around 6 pm and sat at the then empty bar. All tables were taken. It’s a small place on the corner of Taylor and Bush. Everything including the bar filled up in 30 minutes. Sushi chefs are friendly; staff is okay. One tall, slender young man doesn’t understand english very well. I asked for seaweed salad and he brought me a small regular salad that didn’t end up on my bill. Cool. People around me were taking advantage of happy hour — large beers and such.
You have to wave down servers when sitting at the bar because there were only three of them and the host for the hour I was there. It was a short downhill walk from California Street.

Got food poisoning here. I’m not the type that easily gets sick but HOLY after eating here, I felt like dying. I’m never coming here again. I’m too scared to even eat cooked sushi from here.

They changed their menu and removed the Popeye salad. All waitstaff now wear black. They are still very nice here and their signature continues to be those mammoth kind of slapdash artsy rolls. I really liked my Udon and the broth, however it took wayyy too long for the tempura to come after I got the Udon. That said, I ordered later than my friends did. Our server was very very nice. The tempura was about as good as it gets — hot and very fresh, with 2 prawns, lots of squash (my favorite) and one piece of cut in half broccoli (a little skimpy on the broc).
The amaebi had lemon squeezed on it and did not taste as sweet (aka fresh) as I prefer. The heads were also chewy. I’d probably pass on the amaebi. It’s too delicate and pricey to fudge on that way. The grilled asparagus were tasty.
I still think this place is solid overall. As with lots of other big sushi restaurants, I’ll stick to more mainstream fish and/​or their rolls, as well as the hot stuff.

Good Sushi at a Reasonable Price!
SITREP
My lovely friend Anya clues me into one of her favorite sushi spots in San Francisco in the Nob Hill hood and so we make an evening trek there before going dancing out on the town.
THE MENU
We get a Dragon Roll (Shrimp tempura, unagi, avocado, tobiko, and sweet sauce), a Tiger Roll (with Shrimp tempura, unagi, tamago, scallion, sweet sauce) and their evening special called the Genji Roll which most notable feature was the jalapenos in it.
The were all yummy rolls and definitely worth coming back for. Dinner, including tip was just around $ 40.
PARKING
There was parking close by and adjacent to the restaurant so that was a big plus.
THE LOWDOWN
Sushi Riki Rokked the Sushi

After a 9.4 walk to Baker Beach from Pacific Heights, circling back around the GG Bridge to Crissy Field along our way to a sunset swim at Aquatic Park, by the time we arrived here, we were starving and ready for noms.
To match our ocean adventure day, and healthy walk/​swim, we chose sushi! Also, it was super close to my friend’s house, where we were finishing our evening with sauvignon blanc and Odine.
We devoured the following rolls & were quite pleased:
— Rainbow Roll
— Tropical Delight
— Three Amigo
— Futo Maki
YUM!

the bento dinner is a great deal. For $ 14, you can choose from a variety of things.
I had the crunch roll, which was under $ 10. It was topped with bits of fried tempura and the fish inside was quite fresh. Rolls are not too thick, but given the price its passable. Vegetarians rolls are not too bad, you get about 6 rolls.
Waitress are nice and courteous. the interior lighting is dim, so nice for dates haha

The only reason I’m giving this place 3 instead of 4 stars is because the one time I found a hair in my udon soup. so I’m giving them 1 star for that.
I choose to give them another chance because I really liked the soup and it is in the neighborhood. The last time I went everything was really good so 4 stars for that. 4+1 /​2= 2.5 or three stars to be generous .
We ordered sushi, which was ok. The tempura was a little on the heavy side. I loved that It had tons of seaweed on top! But honestly the sushi is not the star of the menu.
Their udon beef soup is amazing. It has that perfect umami flavor meaty, seaweedy, and salty. The udon noodles are thick, giving the soup some body. Perfect for a cold day. I’ll come back for the soup for sure!

More like 2.5 stars, but I’ll round up.
Sushi Rika is not my favorite place, but it has some things going for it:
–Free parking in the adjacent garage, but you need to call ahead so they’ll open the gate for you.
–Decently priced sushi.
–Freakishly close to my house.
This is where I go when I want take-​out, haven’t combed my hair, and am simply too embarrassed to go anywhere else. I’ve dined-​in and done the take-​out thing, and both times rolls came out incredibly sloppy with tasteless rice. In all honesty, it kind of reminded me of grocery sushi, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but, when I’m eating at a restaurant, I want some extra inspiration and oomph in my sushi. The ginger is a shady shade of fuchsia, which always breaks my heart (artificial coloring, anyone?), and the salad (if you want to call it that) is a freakin’ joke — iceberg lettuce drenched in mayo. And what is with the terrible teeny-​bopper dance pop blasting on the stereo…
Lastly, the staff seems to be all Korean, so where’s the kimchi roll, yo?

Went there for a get together plus birthday dinner.
The environment and ambiance are pretty cool. Service was really good, nice and friendly. Food… overall it’s not bad, but I don’t like it too much, since a lot of stuff on their menu contains certain kinds of fried stuff which I really don’t like. I prefer lighter taste of sushi. I usually eat 5 – 6 rolls especially if I go to all-​you-​can-​eat sushi, but 4 of us had only 4 rolls in total here, and I don’t feel like eating any more…

The one thing I clearly remember about this place is the no carb sushi roll. It’s worth it to come here just for that.
I also really enjoyed the Yakiniku and their tempura. There’s parking inside the building where the restaurant resides but you have to ask them to buzz you in. Otherwise finding a parking is a herculean effort.

The low down: Fresh Japanese food and great service. I’ve come here 3 times and ever time I get consistent food, and friendly service!
This place is pretty good for a party as well, as there is extra space.
Happy hour is also decent for beers.

The sushi rolls aren’t bad but they’re not noteworthy in anyway. I’d give the sushi 2.5 stars. There isn’t a lot of variety in the roll menu with most rolls containing some combination of tuna, crab or salmon with some spicy element and some sweet element to it.
The big problem with this place is the service. I’d give the service negative stars if I could. First, I had to ask for tea refill no less than 6 times before my tea was FINALLY refilled. And then, when they did refill my tea, the server tried to run away without refilling my friend’s tea cup. He had to insist on getting his tea cup refilled too. Second, we ordered vegetable gyoza and it was substituted with pork gyoza (I don’t eat pork). AND we were never asked or told about the substitution until we bit into it. They do get a a star for removing the price of the gyoza from our bill.
I came here with a groupon, and since it was days before the expiration date, they were probably busier than normal for a week night. But by the time I had asked for the gyoza and the tea refill half of the dining room had left. I really wanted to like this place but it really didn’t live up to the positive Unilocal ratings that inspired me to purchase the groupon. If I’m in the area, I’d much rather wait ten minutes for a table at Ryoko and get sushi that’s outstanding rather than just so so (oh and Ryoko is busy every time I’ve been there yet I’ve never had to ask for a tea refill).

The sushi joint my gang & I always went for sushi! (:
Sushi Rika offered me the best sushi satisfaction being away from home (Honolulu, HI)
The atmosphere is perfect for a great first date. (; My BF & I had our first formal meet in SF, he flew up from home & that’s when everything started & our first Sushi Date was @ Sushi Rika! My first time @ Sushi Rika was w/​my friends the night before my BF came up, so it was a great recommendation. (:
The staff there was awesome, friendly, fast & gave good reviews about their menu.
Usual:
Miso Soup
Edamame
Lion King

okay food, but good for groups, which is what i came with. my friend had her birthday dinner here and there was about 16 people, so we got the «back room». it’s not really a room, but it’s two steps up from the rest of the restaurant, so it’s a little more private.
the sushi was average, but the portion was big. one of my friends and i share a combo: salmon teriyaki & a roll with tuna. we were stuffed at the end of the meal, and we didn’t even finish it all!
i also tried uni. i’ve never had it before, and just decided to try it because my other friend said she’d share with me. it was a good first experience. i’m not sure how «high quality» uni is suppose to taste/​look, but i liked it. it wasn’t fishy that’s for sure.

I wasn’t even gonna review Rika, it was one of those unmemorable visits where the food was mediocre and I’d rather just let it go. The portion sizes are above average so that was nice, then on the con side I’d heartily suggest everyone avoid rolls that advertise «fruit sauce». The entire roll just tastes like the sauce and in our case exactly like strawberry jelly. I’d go ahead and bet $ 10 it IS just watered down jelly. Gross. Not much to review, I’d never come back but it would have been «OK» I guess, that is until my girlfriend with the eagle eye spotted the cockroach.
Actually saying she had an eagle eye is being extremely nice, suggesting it was far in the back or teeny tiny. In reality it was the size of a quarter and running around about 3 feet away from us ON THE FUCKIN SUSHI BAR. We point out to the host, look homie, you’ve got a roach chillin a couple feet away from 4 customers.
He spends about 5 seconds in shock as if this was his first time spotting the elusive creatures. Sure dude, if you’ve got one you’ve got 1,000. He takes a receipt from his hand and cups it over the roach and just stands there, roach cradled between his hand/​receipt and the glass case. I can see the gears turning in his dome, pondering options, and after a few additional seconds he goes for it and SQUASH, right against the glass fish case.
Then he just stands there, leaning on it, realizing he now has a smashed bug all over the damn cold case that should be a shining advertisement for fresh ingredients, with two customers on either side of him just staring. I had JUST paid the check, if we were still eating fools would have mistaken us for super heroes for how lightening fast we’d have bounced up out of there.
I stewed on this, was going to say 2 stars. I thought hey, roaches happen and the food was aight, but honestly the more I thought about it there are 17 billion sushi restaurants in San Francisco, if a roach on your sushi bar doesn’t drop you to the bottom of the class I don’t know what would. That and a strawberry jelly sauce maybe? AND the fact that it took the host minutes to come back with a rag to wipe off the remnants of the fallen bug? Seriously, I’m pretty sure I’d be sprinting back with disinfectant within 15 seconds to wipe away the evidence versus the 2 or so minutes it took someone to return to clean it off.
Nasty, just nasty. Ugggggghhh…

A couple of tips:
1) call to make a reservation if you are here on a weekend night
2) to access the free parking lot, you have to call the restaurant and they will come out to open the door for you. the parking is on taylor street and is a super small, narrow and inconspicuous driveway. it’s really tight to get in and the spots are super tight as well. that being said it’s free parking. still, there were many skid marks next to the parking exit. those poor cars just couldn’t turn the corner right
Ok onto reviewing the place. Groupon sushi is fast starting to become our favorite way to eat sushi =) We came here on a Friday night and the place was pretty packed with students, club goers, and just a random assortment of groups, dates etc. We made a reservation about 45 minutes beforehand and we waited for about 15 minutes before we were seated. Our waitress was sweet though and she gave us free edamame for the wait.
The rolls were pretty tasty. We ordered the spider roll (very good), Indian express (also very good), jumpin tail (yum), and 3 amigos (only ok). The appetizer was crab in fried shitake mushrooms.
Overall we really liked the place and could see ourselves going back if we were in the area.

This seems like a decent «something for everyone» Japanese place. There’s lots of cooked stuff and plenty of vegetarian options. And the food’s not bad. But, obviously that’s not a ringing endorsement, either!
I had the sushi dinner combo which had 6 pieces of nigiri and a california roll, and shared the avocado/​cucumber roll and «house roll.» The nigiri are quite large (probably too big, but the fish is pretty good, so I had no complaints). The dinners come with miso soup and «salad» (iceberg lettuce + some weird ranchy dressing — pretty pointless). The california roll had more «crab» than any I’ve seen. I liked the avocado/​cucumber roll a lot — simple, but substantial. I found the house roll a little weird, with the sauce kind of reminding me eerily of the salad dressing — so I have a feeling I wouldn’t like a lot of their rolls, which seem to have plenty of sauce.
Not bad, but we probably won’t be back.

Yuck.

Stayed at the Mark Hopkins… our first night we craved sushi… searched Unilocaled and found Sushi Rika that was nearby.
Sooo good… service was great… lion king yummy… dragon roll oh soo tasty. Fish was fresh.
$ 60 on sushi that was worth it!