After eight years working with chef Michael Mina’s restaurant group, sushi chef Yukinori Yamamoto steps out on his own to open Dining Yamamoto in SoMa. The restaurant launches on Wednesday, April 1, serving “omakase-quality” sushi bento boxes and chirashi bowls for lunch, the chef says.
The opening marks the fruition of Yamamoto’s dream to open a restaurant in San Francisco. He previously worked at Kagaman in Osaka and Sushimoto in Tsu; when he moved to the United States 10 years ago, he spent nearly a decade working with Mina as executive sushi chef. Now that he’s 55 years old, he says, this is his chance to open a restaurant.
“I have to make a restaurant right now,” he says. “I can’t wait more.”
Yamamoto’s restaurant features a wealth of imported ingredients from Japan, including bluefin tuna, uni, ikura, and more. Lunch options include varieties of chirashi donburis, nigiri, and sushi maki. Diners can choose from items like the kaizen chirashi donburi, featuring bluefin tuna, salmon, hamachi, madai, sweet shrimp, ikura, and uni over rice; the hosomaki trio with bluefin tuna, salmon, hamachi, paired with cucumber, pickled daikon radish, and green onion; and more.
Befitting Yamamoto’s time at the Mina restaurants, some of the chef’s more luxurious bento boxes, like the toro lover, include caviar and truffle alongside ingredients like medium-fatty tuna and salmon toro. Prices range from $25 to $46.
The lunchtime bento boxes are just the first step in Yamamoto’s restaurant plans. In addition to the bentos, Yamamoto will do catering and open his space to private parties. He hopes to follow that up with a full omakase dining experience, hopefully next year, he says. For now, the bento boxes can be ordered in person at the restaurant, and Yamamoto will eventually add an online ordering system in a few months.
Dining Yamamoto (167 11th Street, San Francisco) debuts on Wednesday, April 1, and is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The restaurant will also serve limited items from March 26 through 28