There are 2 Tsunami restaurants in San Francisco, one on Fulton and Divisadero, the other on 4th and Berry, right by the Giants' ball park.
We went to the latter for dinner last night, and found it a decent competitor to Blowfish, my favorite sushi place in the city.
There are a couple of spots closer to where we live on Potrero Hill - Live Sushi and Moshi Moshi, which I've written about and dissed in earlier posts. Those places focus solely on the food, and don't bother much with ambiance or entertainment. I'm not saying I'd go for atmosphere with nasty food, but Blowfish and now Tsunami make sure all of your senses are addressed.
Having said that, Tsunami's not perfect.
Service is desperately patchy. Our waiter introduced herself by saying it was her first week, so set our expectations accordingly. That didn't account for us waiting 10 minutes at the front desk to get seated at a table that had been empty the whole time, waiting a further 10 minutes to place our order, and a yet another 10 minutes before our drinks came.
While they specialize in Gin (which is somewhat unusual), Sake (as do many sushi restaurants), and Whisky (they're owned by the same people that own the Nihon Whisky Lounge), I asked if they had vodka. Our waiter said "yes" so I ordered a Stoli Martini. She came back a few minutes later to say they only had Ketel One. I don't normally like that brand, but aside from the perfectly-cold but thimble-sized martini glass it came in, I enjoyed it.
The one person behind the bar was sporting a cast on his left wrist and thumb, so was clearly laboring when it came to fixing drinks.
I don't know how long this place has been open, but after writing the above I saw a couple of other reviews that also dinged them on service.
The food was excellent taste-wise, although it perhaps relied too much on the various sauces that were doused over and around the rolls, and lacked the crisp execution for which Blowfish is renowned.
All in all, a solid second behind Blowfish, and we're sure to visit Tsunami again.
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