Kabuto - Best Sushi in SF

It is possible I have never seen an episode of Cheers (not on purpose at least).  I have, however, eaten at a Cheers restaurant, which had the most unfathomably disgusting ribs a 12 year-old could and would not choke down.  When I think of Cheers, though, I think of sushi, not those ribs.  This relationship would be a mystery to anyone but John.

We both have fantasies of having a local restaurant that we love and visit so frequently that they know our name.  We had such a place (well, minus the knowing of the actual name bit) in New York - our favorite sushi haunt, Takahachi.  We went there almost every Friday night for a late dinner before we walked to the movie theater to see whatever romantic comedy was showing.  Our usual waiter always greeted John enthusiastically when we came in and the chefs would smile their "hellos."  So to me, when I think of great sushi I think "the place where everybody knows your name."

By far our favorite sushi place in San Francisco is Kabuto.  They don't quite know us yet, but we are working on it.  It's not in walking distance to our place like Takahachi was, so it takes a bit more time to create the Cheers vibe.

We went to Kabuto for the first time a couple years ago based on its insanely positive Zagat rating.  Thank you Zagat, for another win!  The atmosphere is a little lacking, but I almost prefer it that way.  There is nothing pretentious about this place, and we always sit at the sushi bar to watch the action.  Everything is fantastic - from the sashimi to the American-style rolls (shrimp tempura above) to the special rolls the chefs think of (I know we had one with pear recently).  We recommend this place to everyone we know, so it must be all their new customers that are distracting them from recognizing us just yet.  I guess we'll just have to go more often.