Pabu Izakaya San Francisco
Chef Ken Tominaga brings forth a modern take on traditional Izakaya-style dining with PABU - San Francisco. In partnership with Michael Mina this modern izakaya and sushi bar in downtown San Francisco is a dream brought to life for Tominaga and Mina. Located at the landmark 101 California space in San Francisco’s Financial District, PABU - San Francisco combines rustic, old-world Japanese charm with modern, urban sophistication to create a dynamic, social dining experience. Requests for the sushi bar cannot be guaranteed.
Private Dining
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Safety precautions
- Surfaces sanitized between seatings
- Common areas deep cleaned daily
- Digital, disposable or sanitized menu provided
- Sanitizer or wipes provided for customers
- Sealed or wrapped utensils used
- Limited number of seated diners
- Distancing maintained in common areas
- Extra space between tables
- Waitstaff wear masks
- Diners must wear masks unless eating or drinking
- Sick staff prohibited in the workplace
Popular dishes
Sansome Sushi Roll Platter
Sushi rolls. Platter includes soy, wasabi, ginger, plates, napkins, and chopsticks. 64 total pieces. Includes 16-pieces California roll, 16-pieces spicy tuna, 8-pieces vegetable roll, 16-pieces eel cucumber roll, and 8-pieces salmon avocado roll. Serves 6.
37 reviews
Salmon
Avocado, daikon, and poke sauce.
3 reviews
Miso Tofu Soup
Scallions and seaweed. Serves 10.
1 reviews
Very good service, consistently a good meal! There’s something on the menu for everyone! We enjoy going back.
Amazing food, service and vibe! Definitely worth a visit 💗💗
Great service. Slow food.
amazing food as always. cocktails are great too. and great service.
Sophie & Danny were awesome & very accommodating. Thank you again!!
Treating my little sister (a pastry chef) to come to this place for her very first time in Pabu (a different Michael Mina experience). For 2 of us, we ordered 6 cocktails, 2x Pabu feast, 2xHokkaido Uni, 2x Shima-Aji, 2x Sakura salmon, Spider Roll, Flatiron Waygu beef skewers, 3x beef tongue, 2 happy spoons, Chu toro nigiri.
My reservation is at 5:30pm and we were done by 7:25pm ..asked our dessert to be up and the bill too... I understand when I asked my dessert is the most busy time for dinner (Friday night) the server gave me the bill super quick and I quickly provided my credit card too... but waiting for the dessert after I requested for 30 minutes is a bit too much and we have plan at 8pm.
Since my little sister is a pastry chef, I really want her to try the dessert from Pabu. But when the dessert arrived at 8pm, the busser learned we have been waiting for such a long time, he apologized. Then the server suddenly came to check? (probably she saw the dessert has been serve) and she apologize while we are rushing to eat the dessert in 2 minutes and tried to run out the door.
While we tried to leave, the manager heard? and wanted us to wait for him another 2 minutes, so he can compensate us? (But in my mind.. you want me to wait again? I am in a rush + I already down the dessert in 2 minutes.. I really need to go and you still ask me to wait?)
So I told them we have to go.
Pabu was one of my favorite places to go because they have great cocktails, nigiri. We usually order once a week for togo or at least dine in for a Friday night once a month with my coworkers since COVID (it is so close by my work place). But this is a very disappointing experience for me to bring my little sister to dine in here (when I told her how great this place was).
Excellent food and drinks. Great patio and outdoor dining set up for those who want to eat outside. Plenty of heaters and just overall great setup.
They have the best unique sushi. It is my favorite date place.
Wonderful evening
Dinner with a friend. Very nice. Food, service and atmosphere were all great.
Outdoor dining space is really nice so the ambiance was great, all the food and sake was also really good, and it was a very COVID-friendly experience.
As best we could do with outdoor dining.
We felt safe and warm
Pabu Izakaya served some of the best sushi and nigiri that I have ever had. If you are a foodie, the Omakase was absolutely delectable. The sake pairing with the meal was equally extraordinary. The price tag is hefty, but you will not leave dissatisfied.
I understand that we are in a pandemic and outdoor dining is not the same as it once was with indoor dining. However, at these price points, there is an expectation of a higher level of service and working heating lamps. They were completely short staffed. I am disappointed by my experience. The manager working the front of the house was the saving grace for this experience.
Great first visit! In the COVID outdoor dining reality, Pabu did a fantastic job. Comfortable outdoor seating with plenty of heaters. Food and service were outstanding.
Overpriced for what it’s worth. Spend $300 on Omakasa dinner for 2. Waiter didn’t even bring us a spoon for the appetizer. Was not well prepared. Food was OK. Rib was way over cooked.
Pabu has done a great job accommodating guests through the pandemic and winter weather. The tent and heaters worked well in the rain showers during our visit. The food and beverages were AMAZING as usual!!
we love Pabu- the fatty tuna medium and extra is devine. We feel so welcome at Pabu and the outdoor ambience is worth paying extra for. Cant wait to return.
Outstanding customer service and delicious food
Delicious!! Definitely will return one day.
Food was great and the outdoor seating space was great as well. Tables spaced out and the space heaters worked well so being outside was no issue. Really pleasant experience and would definitely go back.
Great weather to be seated outdoor. Heat lamps really helped. Service was awesome.
We love this restaurant the fatty tuna was memorable as was the uni but its the service and ambience that make it worth the money- it is expensive. but we have eaten there quite a few times and the quality is consistent-
Gabriel our server was fantastic. We can't wait to go back and sit in his section again.
The food was delicious, the service was absolutely wonderful! Just a great experience all around. It was so nice to get out and safely have a date night.
This was our second visit here for dinner during the pandemic. Food and service is consistently AWESOME. The heating lamps were working so well, we all had our jackets off soon after being seated. Tables were well-spaced, and staff always had their masks on-- felt very safe. Can't wait to come back again soon!
This is great sushi! Good portions and prices which I love. The atmosphere is awesome so be sure to reserve a good table indoors.
Love the heaters, gorg atmosphere, delish food.
It reminded me of why we never go into the city everything is so overpriced $300 for my husband and I to have two rolls a couple glasses of wine
Excellent EVERYTHING as usual at Pabu. It's definitely a little pricey, but the food is so good, drinks are so good, and the service is absolutely outstanding. This time we especially appreciated the hospitality and expertise of our bartender, Mundo, who shared excellent whiskeys and kept us very, very happy :D
Dinner with my parents, service was great and all food was very fresh. They also had heaters everywhere so it was very comfortable for our dinner on an October evening.
TLDR: expensive Japanese beer on tap, get the miso cod and the chocolate sesame pudding. great service
My partner and I came here for the $65/pp SF Restaurant week tasting, but we ended up liking the options on PABU's "Best of PABU" menu for $88 per person more. My partner and I also ordered some Japanese beer on tap (between ~$12-$14 for a standard pour), of which I recommend the witbier - it has a lovely jasmine tea taste to it. We enjoyed every course in our meal, but the ones that truly stuck out were the miso cod and the chocolate dessert. I recommend having a glass of port with the latter, as it brought out the tasting notes of the choco and sesame! Due to both COVID and grabbing dinner on a rather calm Halloween, the service was spot on and attentive. We dined inside and it almost felt like a private dining experience. As others note, this place just comes with quite a price tag on it that I am not sure I can afford again (with the $88 pp menu we still ended up paying about $350 for the two of us! How?!?!). But for the time, it was very *lavish* and fun!
The quality of food and the presentation of the food was fantastic. Unfortunately we left hungry, we were seated at 7:30pm and waited about 40min to 1 hour between courses. The potions were very very small and were eaten quickly.
Great service, great food and great ambience! I highly recommend for special occasions.
We were excited that the restaurant re-opened for dinner. But the dinner took 2.5 hr and we didn’t even get out last course before we decided we need to grab our check and leave. We don’t usually leave comments but I don’t think a 3hr service should be acceptable.
Friendly service, food is delicious, and clean environment
Completely amazing experience Fromm start to finish. Attention to detail is amazing and the food was delicious! Service was impeccable.
The service is so so slow. The food takes forever to come
Not a very happy experience.
The portions are so small too. Been there before n it is not like that.
A very disappointment experience.
We were there to celebrate 2 persons birthday. Spoiled the whole evening.
Horrible service - timing of the food was super odd. Waiter said sushi bar was backed up, then all my food came out at once and my husbands food came out (a 4 course set meal) about 30 minutes later and then waited 20 minutes in between each course
My fiancé and I went to celebrate our engagement, it was a bit of a surprise from me to her. When we arrived, we were greeted with a hand written card signed by the whole staff, and after being seated, a waiter brought out some sparkling wine. It all started out really nice. After that, though, it felt like we were mostly forgotten about. Over nearly 2 hours, we were only able to order one round of drinks because that’s how many times we saw our waiter (once outside ordering food) and we had to get other waiters’ attention to get the check or get plates cleared etc. The food was delicious and the ambiance is amazing, I just felt a little bit ignored while watching other tables get incredible service (one table, the owner seemed to keep visiting with different bottles of sake) which left us wondering “why not us?” I wanted to write it off as they were understaffed or very busy etc but other tables were getting excellent service all around us and we couldn’t even get a second round of drinks. We were so put off that we skipped dessert and everything and paid the bill and left. What started out seeming like it was going to be a fantastic experience left me very disappointed. I’ll definitely give Pabu another chance as the food and drinks were incredible but this was a really awful experience.
FAQs
You can order delivery directly from Pabu Izakaya San Francisco using the Order Online button. Pabu Izakaya San Francisco also offers takeout which you can order by calling the restaurant at (415) 535-0184.
Pabu Izakaya San Francisco is rated 4.7 stars by 1152 OpenTable diners.
Yes, you can generally book this restaurant by choosing the date, time and party size on OpenTable. Due to local restrictions, this restaurant may not be accepting reservations at the moment.