Live Sushi Bar

I've been here twice, lunch and dinner, both times were not great - the sushi was not very tasty. It's a shame as I live and work very close and love sushi.

Posted 06/01/09

It wasnt this place, just my first time tasting sushi. I will never do that again, but my friends are saying its the restaurant and not me, should i give it another try?

Posted 01/29/09

I live millbrae the sushi is very fresh.Excellent service and excellent roll .good sushi chef Jackson!
Don't miss going to live sushi bar!

Pros: Fresh sushi. Good fusion creations

Posted 01/27/09

The place was very casual. Food was good, not great, not bad. The staff was very friendly. Spicy tuna was not fresh, but the rest of our sushi was good. The Chef Roll was very unique. At first I didn't like it, but was glad I tried it. It is made of kobe beef and foie gras. It's an interesting dish for those who want to try something more interesting. I still don't know how to explain the taste, but it was quite different. Reminded me of something they would eat on Bizarre Foods or that other food show on the travel channel. I would go there again.

Pros: thumbs up for the chef roll - something different

Cons: ambience very casual

Posted 12/31/08

No weird attitude- just a nice place with good sushi and rolls and - HELLO- they are FRIENDLY too. More californians in the service business ought to learn how to do that.

Good rolls and interesting combos.. Authentically done.

Pros: fresh, friendly

Posted 07/03/08

I tried to order a personalized sushi platter for a small office party. I was ignored for about 10 minutes upon entering the restaurant (there were maybe 2 parties in the dining room), and when I explained what I wanted, the waiter stared blankly at me. I was then rather rudely told that I would have to come back later because they were too busy. I told them I would wait. After another 30 minutes of being ignored I left with no sushi and very ticked off. They lost a $300 + order and several devoted customers. Everyone has their off days but this was ridiculous. The staff was very rude. They need to consider hiring more staff... but they should do a personality check before hiring. I once relied on this place as my go-to sushi spot for lunch. I will probably never return. NOT RECOMMENDED!

Posted 05/29/08

The sushi here is one of the best around! The prices are typical good sushi prices. The quality of the sushi and sashimi is always fresh and they taste really good. The service is great even when they are busy (I always sit at the sushi bar) and they are very attentive. I became hooked on Live Sushi, they had me at 'Hello!'

Pros: friendly staff, great sushi and sashimi, easy parking

Posted 04/11/08

My japanese boyfriend decided to take me to sushi tonight. So we went here and LEFT DURING the meal very dissapointed.. It was a slow night (on sat) should of been the first clue.. We ordered live scallop and the chef or should I say korean due to their dialect didn't know what part of the world it was from.. It clearly wasnt live Im not sure how old it was.. We ordered ground diakon which was bad and got spi t out at the first taste.. The guy next to us ordered live uni and it was clearly already dead.. We cancelled the rest of our order and didn't even finish our beer.. We left with such a sour taste (well literally) Do not recommend this place at all! The two behind the sushi bar couldnt have been japanese due to the lack of quality in their fish..

Pros: Web page design

Cons: false advertisement

Posted 02/15/08

Not bad, not great, just average. i'm a big sushi lover, but i'm sad to see that there's no originality at this restaurant. upon hearing one of my favorite chefs from ebisu restaurant opened up his own place, i was eager to try out the new place. i looked at the menu and realized that 80% of the menu was straight out of ebisu's. everything from the 49er roll and even the 29 roll. the 29 roll had significant history at ebisu, even named after the chef. i can't believe that they would keep the same name of the roll when it has no significance to Live. other than that, the dragon, rainbow, etc are all replicas from ebisu.

service was okay. when i was there, there seemed to be a lot of drinking by the owners/managers which seemed pretty unprofessional to me, other than my buddy jackson, i don't think there should have been drinking by the wait staff and such.

jackson is a great chef, knows what he's doing, but i wish there was more effort on the owners part to make sure their menu didn't look like ebisu's.

Pros: parking is easy to find, it's never too busy, jackson is great

Cons: food is off and on, service is slow, mixed ambiance

Posted 11/20/07

I don?t know who these people are writing negative reviews, I eat at Live at least once a week, sometimes twice and I have NEVER had a bad experience. The sushi is fantastic. They have a very creative large menu so you could try something new every time. I am picky about my sashimi and with the relationship I have formed with this restaurant, all I got to do is ask, "Jackson, what?s good tonight?" --never have I been disappointed. The place is usually very busy, you don?t need a reservation, but if it wasn?t good, people wouldn?t be eating there! GO LIVE!

Pros: Staff, food, Sake, easy Parking, private room for large groups

Posted 11/06/07

Despite the last less than appealing review, I thought I?d give this place a try after doing some errands in the neighborhood at lunch time. It does have a weird smell ? somewhere between cleanser and aquarium. The rest of the place is fine ? nothing fancy, but generally clean and bright. The waitstaff was friendly and attentive. I ordered the sushi deluxe and my lunch partner, the combo bento box with tempura, cali roll and beef teriyaki. The sushi, however decently priced, was seriously mediocre ? and there is nothing worse than mediocre sushi. The hamachi was like none I?d ever had before, completely tasteless. The tuna was thin and stringy. The California roll had crab salad instead of crab. The green salad came with unappealing pink salad dressing. Even the rice in the bento box wasn?t very good. We both agreed that the best part of the meal was the miso soup, which if you like miso with a strong onion flavor, you will enjoy.

Pros: maybe the noodles are good

Cons: sushi

Posted 11/05/07

I was so excited to see a sushi restaurant near my home. But upon getting into the restaurant, I became less and less excited. firstly, I don't know what kind of chemicals they use to clean, but the place reeks of windex, or ajax, or something toxic, which i had to smell the whole time I was eating. The service was very slow, and I've had better sushi from 7-11 than the Bento box that I ordered there. I eat at quite a few Sushi places in the city, and though the prices here are affordable, I'm willing to pay more money for better quality fish, better ambiance, and a place that does not smell like Windex.

Pros: location, parking

Cons: smell of chemicals, bad fish, dirty tables, ambiance

Posted 10/26/07

How excited was I to walk in and see my very favorite sushi chef in SF at the bar! Jackson is the best, his new place is fun and he is a fantastic sushi chef! The staff were so friendly and worked so hard to please. I am looking forward to going every week. My new favorite sushi bar!

Pros: Fun , good parking, awesome sushi chef

Cons: none

Posted 08/25/07

Are the owners writing their own reviews? I can't believe that a restaurant that uses mushy long grain rice for sushi deserves five stars! I have never written a review before but I felt that people should be warned about this "restaurant" My family was served a salmon and avocado roll in which every slice of avocado was spotted with throughly unhealthy looking black blotches. When I brought it to the attention of the owner/chef, he said he had scraped the inedible parts out and was slicing it for the next diner. With this lack of attention, I question the cleanliness and safety of the fish. We came hoping for a nice new place on the Hill, but it seems the owners have no regard for our safety, or our palate. Avoid this restaurant, there are several significantly better sushi restaurants within a few short blocks of this location.

Pros: None

Cons: Black splotches on food

Posted 08/16/07

Live Sushi Bar is the best inexpensive sushi restaurant in the portrero hill.
I go there almost once a week.
Service is friendly, owner is nice.
Bento boxes are excellent if you don't eat raw fish.
I am a picky sushi eater and they're fish is great.
Let the chefs make you their specialty!
it's worth it =)

Pros: Great service, inexpensive food

Posted 08/16/07

I think Live sushi is a great addition to the Hill. I came just to try it out during the "soft opening" and it had some slow service. But I gave it a chance and tried it out again. The service and wait staff has turned it around. I came just for a some albacore and eel sushi but stayed for a coupla rolls a Chicken Katsu and a WHOLE lot of sake. The sushi chef Jackson introduced me to a few new things. I remember the oyster shooter the most. Wow, you gotta ask for that one. Its got the vibe of Blowfish without the price.

Pros: Good and Fresh Sushi, chill house music in background, fun servers, private room!

Cons: working out the kinks

Posted 08/03/07

Some dissapointed to see false reviews. The best thing about the restaurant is the location. Other than that it's your standard sushi place run by Chinese people with Chinese cooks. Only 1 sushi chef with complete new crew. Long waits. For your money and time, there are plenty of other sushi places (with 4 sushi chef per nite instead of one) for your money better spent.

Pros: Corner Location

Cons: Slow Food Service and New Wait Staff

Posted 07/17/07

The core staff split from Mikado sushi and started their own gig, the Live Sushi Bar, investing their extensive restaurant, service and food experiences. Like with any new restaurant, I would hesitate to run home after the first dinner and write an immediate review, so we went back again for dinner to check out consistency. We loved the service, while the restaurant was pretty full, we did not have to wait; and the owner and his wife buzzed around the floor all evening. We've tried 6 or 7 rolls, but if you don't see your favorites on the menu, they can build it for you. Anything you want, they will make for you.

I love Live Sushi!

Pros: Great food, great service, fun place to hang! tons of parking!

Posted 07/14/07

The core staff split from Mikado sushi and started their own gig, the Live Sushi Bar, investing their extensive restaurant, service and food experiences. Like with any new restaurant, I would hesitate to run home after the first dinner and write an immediate review, so my husband and I went back again for dinner to check out consistency. We loved the service, the owner and his wife buzzed around the floor all evening. Even though the place was full, we did not have to wait for a table, or for our food. We recognized a handful of the diners as "regulars" from Mikado.

We absolutely love the location, the inside is cozy, the picture windows will offer lots of people watching; although parking is likely to get competitive once Wholefoods opens and people start moving in the units above. The sushi menu is sophisticated, and evolved from the Mikado experience. We've tried 6 or 7 rolls, but if you don't see your favorites on the menu, they can build it for you. That's how one of our favorites, the Bergschneider roll came about (thanks, Bergschneiders!) We also love the tuna roll that's wrapped with cucumber instead of rice. We tried two of the live specials, the urchin and the horse mackerel - they were both bursting with freshness and pure flavor. While the price of the specials may seem high, the urchin yielded 6 pieces of sashimi, and the mackerel came with 4 pcs of nigiri and several slices of sashimi. Then we sent the remains of the fish back for deep-frying and crunched all of the leftovers but the head!

For those skeptics on Potrero Hill, I would encourage you to come back for another try. The staff is friendly, aims to please, and they treat their regulars really well.

Posted 07/14/07

Staff is young, saw one waitress make about 3 mistakes but not a big deal, just typical kinks to work out. They were ok with a baby, floor manager had some nervous energy that will be tempered with more time and experience.

Food was solid and the presentation was very good, everything tasted fresh. The music was so so, would be nice if they mixed it up a bit from the typical endless dance mix. Decor is ok although the window drapery looks a bit amateur, bathroom is nice and clean although they need to make the light switch location (which is on the outside of the room) a bit more obvious.

Location next to the soon to be open Whole Foods in Potrero Hill will make this a place a slam dunk winner, although it will be interesting to see how they deal with parking when that happens. All in all I would recommend and will go back.

Pros: Location, Parking

Cons: New Staff

Posted 07/11/07

This place is great, I have had 3 fantastic dinners there since they opened 9 days ago. The sushi was cut perfect and my tempura was full of flavor! The menu is full of new and different dishes that I was needing here in SF, I was getting tired of the same old stuff, this place has all the goods for many great new tastes for my palate! Hearty meals! Great prices! Live Sushi Bar will be a regular spot for me and my belly, late hours, delivery, tons of parking.... what else could I ask for?

Pros: Staff, vibe, Menu is HUGE, great prices!

Posted 07/11/07

I went to Live Sushi Bar last Saturday for the soft opening/get together and fell in love. I know this place is going to be a weekly spot for me. We had great service, great food, fresh sashimi, a huge bottle of great sake. I am so excited, we are going there tonight. I cant wait to see how its going for them in week two. The owners are super nice and very friendly. It looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship....

Pros: Fresh fish, great sake selection, great staff, easy parking, delivery

Posted 07/05/07

This place is much better than the last joke that was here (Tranquility Garden) and the wait staff are a thousand times nicer/helpful. I would definitely reccomend this place as a quick, insexpensive place to get some really tastety fresh sushi and nigiri. :) (+)

Posted 07/03/07