I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but I feel like it's been months since my last sushi post. Looking at the archive, it appears I haven't posted about it since my horrible experience at Typhoon. I guess on some level I chose to tough it out and just eat sushi in SF. So my first dinner out in SF was at Ino Sushi at its new location inside the Miyako mall in Japantown (next to the Miyako Hotel). I went to the old Ino (was torn down for that new complex that is taking over the old Japantown Bowl spot) years ago, and remember it being quite good. The new Ino location is great - quite small, very clean, and simply decorated. The room contains only a nice little sushi bar and maybe 3 or 4 tables. The setting is very comfortable and quiet. My dad and I went on a pretty quiet night - Ino manned the bar by himself, and the only other customers were 2 Japanese business-looking types at the other end of the bar.
toro nigiri
My dad and I were both eager to try what Ino had to offer, so we dove right in and opened with some toro nigiri. I'll note here that Ino uses the counter directly - he puts all of the sushi onto the counter itself without the use of plates. This has always been a good sign in the past. As for the toro, it was delicious. Ino goes the route of putting a little wasabi into the nigiri, and though I've read complaints of him being a little too heavy-handed with it, he used the perfect amount here. After such a long sushi drought, biting into the soft, buttery toro was a relevation for me. It's good to be home again!
hamachi nigiri
We kept going with "normal" fish, and the hamachi was great as well. It tasted very smooth and clean, and had a nice texture.
uni nigiri
At this point I was practicing my newly-learned first-semester Japanese skills by reading the hiragana on the wooden planks behind the sushi bar. Of course it helped that I already knew most of the names of the fish, so I kinda just put two and two together if I had trouble with any of the characters. Next up was uni - very sweet and creamy. I forgot to ask where it came from, though.
kanpachi nigiri
We asked Ino what other good stuff he had on hand, and he said he had a few fish just flown in from Japan. Kanpachi was one of them, and we always jump on kanpachi when we get the chance. This stuff was excellent - probably my favorite fish of the night (along with toro of course). It had a slightly chewier, more substantial texture than the hamachi and blended very well with the rice. Afterwards, we also had some suzuki (unpictured) from Japan - also tasty, although not as wonderful as the kanpachi.
anago nigiri
Next we went with some anago, which we always prefer to the more usual unagi. Ino was generous with the eel, which had a subtle grilled flavor.
toro nigiri again
Of course, gluttons that we are, we couldn't resist more toro. We actually got some negitoromaki cones before this, but I can never figure out how to take a picture of something I'm holding with one hand. I want to mention though that Ino does a great job with the hand rolls. One of the main reasons is that he toasts the nori briefly before he makes the roll, which makes it very nice and crispy. Our second round of toro nigiri may have actually been nicer than the first - simply delicious.
tamago nigiri
We often like to finish with tamago, sort of like a dessert sushi. Very cakey and light.
The bill ended up somewhere around $140 for the two of us, which sounds pretty steep. Still, considering that total included 6 total orders (1 cone and 4 pieces of nigiri for each of us) of toro, as well as 2 orders of uni, it was not a bad deal for the quality of the food. The toro/uni probably accounted for the majority of the bill, and it's no one's fault but our own that we got that much of the stuff. This is easily the best sushi meal I've had for quite a long time. Ino's rice is nicely vinegared and textured, and just right temperature to balance the fish. I look forward to returning here.