Rocketfish

Went there with my Fiancé, my good friend and her boyfriend… waited 15 min before someone even acknowledged us and they weren’t even busy inside the place. The waitress was rude and we didn’t get the food we ordered nor the drinks. I will try again though, everyone gets 1 more chance.

I really hate to do this but the owner of this establishment should be ashamed of the service that is being provided… I was there friday for my girlfriends Birthday dinner. She chose this place because of the great Happy Hour menu & drinks~which were BOTH almost non-​existent! Almost everything on the Menu was not available & drinks~what drinks!!! The poor waiter tried to serve us but was obviously annoyed, embarrassed, & irritated with his job. He gave us way too much information on why the place ran so poorly…
The only reason i am giving it two stars is because the food was good, the fish was fresh, and servings were decent size.
But unfortunately, I would never come back nor ever recommend this place to anyone!!!
OWNER…give your waiter & chef a little respect and proper acknowledgement… get them some help!

The 5 stars are for the consistency of the meals I have had here over the years. Last night was another excellent foodie experience. We had a sushi chef combo, and it was tailor-​made for us.
The downside is they are not very crowded on a Friday night (good for us because we got great service) just concerned if they will be able to stay open. Here’s hoping they will be around for many years

I think three and a half stars is pretty indicative of the overall experience. Great atmosphere and service. Love the quieter area away from the bar; it was perfect for our date. The woman helping us out was knowledgeable, friendly, and attentive. The food was great — I just expected the portions to be larger for the price.
The monkfish liver and ikura nigiri were delicious, and the rainbow roll was fantastic. The mushroom roll was pleasantly different, and tasty to boot. We had the mochi tofu churros, which was a fun twist on dessert. The sashimi, nigiri, and dessert portions were much smaller than expected. Good think I noshed beforehand!
We’d come back, but only with a reservation (and 30% discount) through Savored.

If you’ve ever lived in an urban area in Japan, you’ll love Rocketfish. The sushi is great (the rolls are pretty creative, but ask for what’s fresh that day if you like sushi!) and the atmosphere is cool.
Unlike most sushi places that either go for a traditional or modern fusion look — which is nice but played out — this place looks like a bar, that happens to serve sushi, which is just like the places I used to go to on Osaka and Tokyo.
On top of that they killer happy hour specials and I’m told they also do all you can eat sushi some night too. So for style, quality, variety and price they get 4 stars.
What prompted me to give this place 5 stars though is the main host Ryo. He really brings a true, boisterous, Japanese style: booming out a genuine «irashaimase» to anyone who enters and running the floor and other staff with a zest for service that’s uniquely and authentically Japanese.
I’ll be back again and special thanks to Ryo for taking such good care of us last week!

What a great sushi find! I’ve tried sushi at a few places in the city and have been, thus far, disappointed. But we were really pleasantly surprised by RocketFish. The ambience, seating, service, food, were all great!
Food:
Fish Party Roll: yummy deep fried roll; it was good but not amazing or out of this world
Double Rainbow: YUM! ive had many rainbow rolls in my life so i was getting ready for the same old, but the filling was awesome and really made the sushi on top great.
Rocket Roll: our favorite roll! so delicious and light/​fresh. wish we ordered a second one!
Ambience: super cute and quaint. my favorite part was that the booths had these awesome wrap around seats which were sooo cool.
Service: our server was sooooooo nice; he was really friendly and gave us great recommendations. the only negative was that he was kind of slow to take our order and our check :/​but his awesome service more than made up for it
Price:
–prices were average for sushi; HOWEVER, BIG TIP UnilocalERS: if you download the savored app, you get an automatic 30% off when u make a reservation. no hassle with clipping coupons or bringing anything at all, it just shows up automatically. this made the meal awesomely affordable!
Would go again in a heartbeat. A great find!

Walked on around 8pm not too many people on a Thursday night. Sat at the sushi bar with my friend.
1. There were out of Uni, understandable.
2. Asked sushi chef if they had amaebi instead, guy answers «what’s that?» Nuff said, and they were out of it also.
Epic FAIL

Rocketfish is one of my usual spots to get some sushi. I discovered it awhile back and it has quickly become my Tuesday ritual. It may not quite be hump day but all you can eat on a Tuesday sure helps any week get along.
$ 19.99 for adults and $ 9.99 for kids. $ 20 never got you so full off great sushi. The next Tuesday you are looking for somewhere to eat stop by Rocketfish. It will probably be packed because it’s no secret so call ahead and make a reservation.

I was a first-​timer and visiting from out of town. This place is a regular haunt for my friends out in the SF area. It was really crowded and loud due to karaōke night, but you could still move around and there weren’t people all over you.
I had a sushi roll and a flight of sake. Both were really good. I generally don’t like sake, but because of the huge selection, I decided to try something new. I was rewarded with a flight of smooth and semi-​sweet (and very drinkable) sake. I was impressed.
The owner came out a couple of times and made sure we were being taken care of and having a good time. A very nice touch and it shows that he really cares about his customers. Kudos to you, sir!

This review is for the awesome cater they did for a party I recently attended at a private home.
First off Kanichi the owner showed up with another guy to set up the dishes. Kanichi is so gracious and kind. He loves what he does and it shows.
The dishes were all so fresh. The food was such a hit with our group that the plan to visit him in his restaurant is already in the works!

I’ve been here a number of times; it’s not great, but it’s a decent place to have dinner or throw back a few drinks. What brings me back here repeatedly is not the ambiance (a strange combination of dark and modern without being the least bit romantic), the service, or even the food. What keeps me returning is HAPPY HOUR. They offer discounted prices on food and booze from 5−7pm Monday and Wed — Sunday, Tuesday being all-​you-​can-​eat sushi night. The HH menu is limited to a few items, but it’s solid fare. Give me a few rolls and a bottle of hot sake and I’m set. My new favorite dish is what’s called the «fish party,» a Maki roll filled with a variety of fish tempura (salmon, yellowtail, walu, albacore) served with scallions and spicy teriyaki sauce.
When I’ve strayed from the happy hour menu, I haven’t been disappointed; the Udon noodle soup, served with prawns, chicken, a raw egg (that cooks in the broth), tofu, wakame, and veggies is large, hot, and filling. I wouldn’t go out of my way to dine here if you happen to be in the Potrero Hill/​Dogpatch area, but it’s not a bad way to spend an evening. If you’re lucky, they’ll be showing Iron Man on TV… and who doesn’t love sushi with a side of Robert Downey Jr???

Giants game night and the bar side of the restaurant was filled with bunch of enthusiasts screaming and clapping. Besides the stench coming from the bathroom, it’s a great place to catch on the scores and order some interesting dishes.
If you want to have a conversation with your friend at dinner, then the dining room right next door is the place to be. Dim lights and usually empty.
Portions are real small, plates are almost like tapas, and rolls and nigiri are thin. Do offer more variety of fish, such as amber jack, walu etc.

Confused about what it wants to be, Rocketfish is hit or miss at best.
Once you enter the bar/​restaurant, you will be underwhelmed by the lack of décor: vinyl booths, bare tables, and a long bar are all the atmosphere you will get. Not surprisingly, this should set your expectations (on the low side) for the food quality as well: restauranteurs that care about atmosphere will care about the food; those that do not, will not.
The menu is a confused mish-​mash of American (steaks, sliders, and roasted Brussels sprouts) and sushi (some rolls and nigiri). Rocketfish just doesn’t have an identity, except perhaps semi-​dive bar with a bunch of random food targeted at denizens of Potrero Hill who don’t want to drive anywhere to take advantage of other, superior offerings.
The Hawaiian spring roll was good, if nothing special, while the white walu sashimi was fresh and tasty, but thinly sliced. Topped with crispy onion strips, the garlic edamame was good, but the regular nigiri was tiny for the price. The Tokyo Napolitano – grilled sashimi topped with spicy tuna – was creative and delicious. The fried «calamari» was really a combination of octopus, Monterrey squid, and shrimp in a simple batter, rather than a panko-​crusted delicacy that you might expect.
At Rocketfish, the star is happy hour (5:00 — 7:00), which features $ 1 oysters, $ 3 sushi rolls, $ 4 beers, $ 5 small plates, and $ 6 well drinks. What the establishment lacks in quality, it makes up for in low prices.
The service is hit-​or-​miss: either slow and indifferent or nice, friendly, and knowledgeable. On one visit, service was close to perfect, on another the server didn’t even bother to describe the types of fish included in the sampler platter and didn’t know that a dish was no longer available. Obviously there is something to be said for staff selection and training …
If you are in Potrero Hill, need a sushi fix, and your only option is Rocketfish, then go; if you are in Potrero Hill and have wheels, seek other options. If you are not already in Potrero Hill, then Rocketfish is not worthy of a special trip.

After living in the area for two years, I’m not sure why I never thought to wonder if this place had HH.
$ 1 oysters, $ 3 sushi rolls, $ 4 beers, $ 5 small plates, and $ 6 well drinks makes Rocketfish a nice surprise between 5−7PM. Their oysters are fresh and decent-​sized but served with something similar to soy sauce so I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I also ordered the Fish Party Roll, a tempura roll. I’m not a fan of tempura rolls in general since the fish is usually cooked but this wasn’t too bad and left me very full. Their Seared Albacore Tuna though was DELISH! I’d go back just for this.
Oh and they have free WiFi :)

The sashimi here is decent. but other items on the menu need improvement — We had a roll that was deep fried and the very little fish filling inside was extremely dry. We also ordered the grilled skewer 4 ways and didn’t care for them. They were heavy handed on teriyaki sauce. made everything salty and goopy.
The night we went there was a table of EXTREMELY loud patrons sitting in the bar and made the experience unpleasant.
The service was very friendly so I’d go back again – especially know that I know what to order.

Nigiri sampler is not necessitarilly what is listed I got shrimp and taco instead of amber jack and white fish
Don’t order a cocktail both the orange blossom and cable car resembled and tasted like what I imagine iced dish water tastes like. WAY overboard with the sweet and sour. Both drink looked identical.
The sushi was ok. I was disappointed that my sampler did not have the fish listed and the waitress did not mention that when she delivered it. She should have at least pointed out what was on the plate once delivered I had to point it out to her and she pointed to the fine print saying that it was up to chef what to use. That should have been pointed out at the time of ordering and it should have been clearer on the menu itself. She did bring me two more pieces of bin toro to make up for it so that was nice.
Its a bit over priced for the neighborhood, atmosphere and quality. If we make the effort to drive all the way across town there are much better choices near by such as Live Sushi Bar that is in the same price range and neighborhood and 1000 times better experience. I don’t think we will be back here though we like a lot of the restaurants near by such as Chez Papa and Skool, Really can’t think of any reason to come back to Rocketfish.

I wish, I wish, I wish I were a fish. Cause fish have a better life than people. I’ll let Don sing it:
What kind of fish would I want to be? A tile fish like Don Knotts and save the US from the Nazi’s. Maybe a salmon, ending up between a bagel and cream cheese or on the shelf at Trader Joes for $ 7.99 for 8oz.
No, I’d want to be a Rocketfish, a surprisely good sushi spot in the nice neighborhood of Potrero Hill.
Before coming, I read a real mix of reviews on Unilocal regarding this eatery. So I came in not knowing what to expect. Here’s what I ended up ordering:
Dungeons & Dragons Roll: this roll is Unagi, tempura shrimp, avocado, crab, and cucumber. I order this pretty much anytime I go for sushi. Their version was good.
Rocketfish Roll: this is of course their flagship roll. Tuna, crab, tempura, topped with albacore, spicy aioli, and Unagi glaze. This roll is like how I like my woman, hot and sweet all at the same time. A delicious combo of ingredients, the spicy aioli gave a nice bite to the roll followed by the sweet of the Unagi glaze. Really good.
Bacon wrapped filet: this was the star. What I will remember most about Rocketfish. Crisp bacon wrapped around a tender cut of beef cooked to a medium rare. Amazingly flavorful, tender, and moist. There was a bed of peeled and then roasted tomatoes surrounding the filet, the tomatoes had a sweet taste that went perfectly with the filet. I dont care if its authentic, it was incredible like Mr. Limpet. Best entrée I’ve eaten in a while…
I wish, I wish, I wish I was at Rocketfish… eating a bacon wrapped filet.

It pains me to write this review…
I sometimes envy people’s ability to be blunt and not sugar coat anything. I, on the other hand, don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings especially if they’re a nice person. So, I will often just errr, tell a white lie even though I’m one of the most horrible liars period.
Yesterday, after getting a 3-​hr massage, my friend and I were starving. It was complete chaos outside since the Giants WON the World Series, so we didn’t want to venture far. My friend was craving sushi and referred to Unilocal.Rocketfish came up as an option. We didn’t take the time to read the reviews since we were starving and it was getting late. Since there wasn’t many nearby options, we decided to head over there.
We arrived around 9:15 PM and were seated promptly at the dining area which is above the bar/​lounge area.
FOOD:
At first glance, the menu has a good variety of cold and hot tapas, sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. I didn’t even notice they had specials up on the blackboard with an additional 15 food items until after we ordered.
If you’re a frequent diner of Japanese Cuisine, you will quickly notice (if you can’t tell already from the ambiance/​décor) that many of the food items on the menu are not authentic; e.g. ceviche w/​mango.
*Seaweed Salad ($ 7.50): ECK! The seaweed was swimming in pool soy vinaigrette dressing which caused the seaweed to be overly salty. There were beets, tomatoes and mandarin oranges which didn’t pair well with the seaweed and literally ruined the integrity of the salad.
As a side note: The pricing of the salads seemed very steep compared to the rest of the menu. How does a salad cost $ 7.50 when a Spicy Hamachi Roll is $ 5.75???
*White Fish (Seabass) Carpaccio ($ 9): YUMMY! The seabass was thinly sliced and dolloped with a lemon confit and a jalapeño vinaigrette. The seabass was fresh and had a soft silky texture. The lemon confit added a pop of citrus tang and the jalapeño vinaigrette added a nice kick.
*Combo Sashimi ($ 15) — HUGE PORTION for the price! Most places charge $ 2 for a slice of sashimi, but at Rocketfish I got 3 slices of the following:
–Hamachi (Yellowtail): Stringy texture and fishy taste.
–Hirame (Halibut): Fishy smell and taste.
–Maguro (Tuna): Pasty texture and fishy taste.
–Sake (Salmon): Although it was soft, it didn’t have that buttery texture that I’m accustomed to.
–Walu (Butterfish): The freshest of all 5; soft with a silky texture.
Normally, I can polish off an entire Sashimi combo all to myself. However, the fishiness of the sashimi was very off-​putting and made my stomach start to churn, so I ate just half of the order.
SERVICE:
Our waitress was friendly but seemed overwhelmed. When our food was ready, we saw our orders just sit there until finally one of the sushi chefs had to bring us our food. Also, we sat there for a good 15 minutes waiting for the check to be brought to us. After becoming impatient, we just asked the Owner/​Manager.
The Owner/​Manager was very nice and friendly. He saw that we didn’t finish the seaweed salad or the sashimi combo. He asked, if I wanted to bring it home and I said, no. He then asked, if there was anything wrong with the food. Being a softy that I am, I told a white lie and said nothing was wrong with the food. *sigh*
AMBIANCE/​DÉCOR:
Rocketfish is one of those sushi joints that try to appeal to the hipster crowd (just like Tokyo Go-​Go, Blowfish, Mas Sake, etc). Upon entering, there’s a bar/​lounge area that resembles a sports bar.
The dining area is simple and contemporary; not like your typical authentic sushi joint. If there wasn’t a sushi bar, you would even know it was a Japanese Restaurant.
Unfortunately, Rocketfish was a bust for me, so unless I thoroughly read the Unilocal reviews, I’ll stick with my Tried-​and-​True Authentic Favorites: Koo, Kabuto and Izakaya Sozai.

Do you ever feel like you’re at a popular restaurant where the chef keeps trying to dazzle you? Sometimes you see the stars and angels circling your head just like when Wile E. Coyote’s head gets bonked as the Roadrunner escapes yet another one of his springboard contraptions. Sometimes you just go «meh». Both experiences happened when Jamie W. and I visited Rocketfish, the nuevo-​Japanese place that replaced Lingba in Potrero Hill. It calls itself a «Japanese tapistro», which sounds so resoundingly pretentious that we almost walked past it with our rolling eyes gravitating toward Chez Maman.
The layout is the same as Lingba, but the former Balinese-​tropical look has turned all sleek and darkly contemporary (see photos). Chef Kenichi Kawashima is definitely a culinary craftsman, and that was enough to draw all sorts of foodies in there that night, including an adjacent large party headed by a loud-​mouthed Brit software engineer who had no idea he was breaking the sound barrier with his expletive-​filled opinions. Lots of tantalizing items on the menu separated into cold and hot plates (shoku). We started out with a bland miss, the $ 6 Mozzarella Agedashi, which were little slabs of fried fresh mozzarella cheese lacquered in tentsuyu sauce (see photo). I think he was going for a mochi-​like consistency, and the flavor was oddly neutralized… it just didn’t resonate with us
Next was the $ 8.50 Monterey Baby Calamari, which was indeed calamari reinvented as squid tempura mixed with chili peppers (see photo). This was better, a light-​crispy plate of rings too easy to devour. After that was the $ 12.50 Hamaichi Shio Yaki, a surprising disappointment since the grilled yellowtail tuna was overdone, which made the bacon bits, leeks, daikon radish, and baby spinach feel very lonely on that plate, even with the ponzu sauce to help lubricate all of it. This was followed by the savory-​sweet $ 13 Roasted Duck Breast, thinly sliced with sesame eggplant and currents atop a dollop of mashed potatoes, all ladled with a rosemary-​balsamic reduction sauce (see photo). This was a definite hit and gone all too quickly.
Last was their signature Rocketfish Roll, priced steeply at $ 15 and looking a bit like Katrina went through it, but it offered melt-​in-​your-​mouth flavors combining tuna, crab, tempura, and cilantro with a one-​two punch of spicy aioli and sweet unagi sauces (see photo). That was worth waiting for at the end. All in all, I like the concepts that Kawashima has developed with his dishes, but in my humble opinion, the execution could be a bit more consistent to go with the (mostly) dazzling presentation. It’s most definitely worth a return visit to try other some of the other small plates and obviously the sushi.
FOOD — 3.5 stars… sometimes dazzling, sometimes a dud, always creative… depends on if you lead with your eye or your palate… sometimes you can’t get both here
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… sleek but still crowds easily and loud if there are big parties in there
SERVICE — 3 stars… OK but a bit on the perfunctory side
TOTAL — 3 stars… a few more out-​of-​the-​ballpark hits may elevate the rating next time, Kawashima-​san

Considering they’d only been in business for a mere two weeks my dining experience here was quite good. There was a single service issue that kept the experience from being better but especially for new restaurants I’m often willing to just let those things slide as I’m certain those issues tend to work themselves out with experience.
Greeted by my friendly server I took a long look at the wine and beer list and finally settled on a bottle of Lagunitas Pale Ale. Taking glances up on the specials board and back onto the menu I decided I wanted to try several things. I don’t get to sneak out of work too often to go to dinner so I was going to savor this occasion. The waitress returned quickly with my bottled beer and poured it into a frosted glass. It was a perfect pour by my standards.
I selected two types of skewers, a cold entrée and a maki roll. That’s when the service issue came up. The wait for my food was a bit on the long side, but once they brought out my appetizers everything else arrived at the same time. I went from no food to a table full of food in no more than twenty seconds. I guess when it rains it pours. I decided to just take my time and eat each dish as I would have had they arrived in the order that I preferred.
The Scallops Kushi and White Shrimp Kushi arrived together in a white paper cone (
) accompanied by a soy-​based dipping sauce and some spicy salt. The Kushi appetizers are skewers that come two skewers per order. The Scallops skewer (
) had two big juicy scallops on each that were covered with panko crumbs and deep fried. This selection was tasty but quite ordinary. The White Shrimp skewer (
) is a tiger prawn wrapped in shiso leaf dusted in panko crumbs and deep fried. I liked this one more, but the truth is I love most things with shrimp.
The Grilled Sake and Kawa Maki Roll (
) was good, but I might have preferred less shiso as the flavorful herb pretty much masked most of the flavors from the creamy fresh salmon and the crispy, deep fried salmon skin.
As it was I saved the best for last. The Masami Wagyu (
) was outstanding both in presentation and in flavor. Tender fillets of wagyu beef tenderloin are seared medium rare and combined with strips of fresh, spicy mango, sweet raisins, fragrant pine nuts and fresh mint in a medley of flavors that aroused my tastebuds. The entrée is served cold and I absolutely loved the flavors of the dish.
Full and satisfied as I was I decided to order dessert anyway. All of their desserts are served with a portion of steamed fruit described as «Fuji apple, banana, dried fig steamed with star anise, cinnamon and bay leaf». I selected the Blackberry Cabernet Sorbet (
). The steamed fruit was only okay but I loved the sorbet which had bold blackberry flavor with just a subtle hint of red wine. It was a delicious ending to a very good meal.