Sho Time

At Yoshi's, Chef Shotaro Kamio brings a true taste of Japan to San Francisco.

To call Yoshi’s ambitious would be a gross understatement: The $10 million project that has done much to revitalize the Fillmore is nothing short of a tour de force. As at the Oakland original, there’s a nightly performance, in both the club and the restaurant, where chef Shotaro Kamio, impeccable in his white jacket, presides over a huge open kitchen and 35 cooks (many of them transplants from the East Bay outpost) working with near robotic precision.

Kamio is best known as the opening chef of Ozumo, one of the first places in the city to push the high-end-Japanese envelope. He left in 2005 to open a restaurant of his own (a deal that fell through), then joined the Yoshi’s Oakland staff and began gearing up for the San Francisco expansion. He oversaw plans for the new space—a dream kitchen, complete with a robata grill and a Japanese wood-burning oven called a kamayaki, the first of its kind in a US restaurant. With that kitchen, the stage is set for Kamio’s refined Japanese food, which makes use of scores of unusual ingredients, from kanimiso (the creamy reproductive organs of Dungeness crab) to mitsuba (a chervil-like Japanese herb). Perhaps due to its proximity to the famous musicians performing in the club next door, the dining room fairly crackles with electricity. The 400-seat space has sleek booths, a second-floor lounge and a private omakase room, set off by panels of frosted glass, where guests can enjoy a tasting menu.

Yes, the menu offers sushi, but the rolls are markedly more restrained than others around town, and 90 percent of the fish is flown in from the renowned Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. In the Sarusa roll, poached shrimp and white fish are united with avocado and slices of lemon and topped with Dungeness crab “salsa”—it’s unusual without seeming gimmicky. But it’s the non-sushi items that are the true highlights: chawan mushi, a savory egg custard, is enhanced by spiny lobster, uni (sea urchin) and foie gras; vegetables are wrapped in a paper-thin sheet of cedar and roasted, a beautiful presentation that lends the dish a subtle perfume. Herbed bigeye snapper, also roasted in the kamayaki, is surrounded by lacy pieces of seaweed and fish eggs, all topped with toasted pieces of nori. Wrap bits of fish and seaweed in the nori, dip into ponzu and eat. It’s a revelation—and merely one of many, from the ribbons of avocado garnishing the pressed tofu salad to the fresh wasabi atop the miyazaki filet mignon (a grade above Kobe).

Revelations don’t come cheap—rolls are upwards of $12 each; that snapper costs $65—and because the menu is à la carte, the tab quickly ratchets skyward. Knowledgeable servers will encourage you to order three items per person, an enticing but expensive proposition. In spite of the cost, you likely will—because Kamio’s creations are so exciting that even after the curtain comes down, you won’t want the night to end.

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