Ozumo

Ozumo opened its first San Francisco location in 2001 and was, from the beginning, one of the most culturally ambitious Japanese restaurants on the West Coast — one of the earliest US restaurants to combine a traditional sushi bar, a robata grill, and a serious sake lounge under one roof. The San Jose outpost on Santana Row has become the South Bay's most considered Japanese kitchen: a room that takes sushi and yakimono seriously enough to hire the people who understand it, and casual enough that you can drop in for a solo omakase at the bar without reserving a week out.

The sushi side of the menu is the serious stuff. The nigiri selection rotates with what flies in from Japan and what the Pacific fishmongers bring in, and the sushi chefs behind the counter are the kind who talk to you about what is good tonight if you ask. The robata side — Japanese charcoal grilling — is what separates Ozumo from the rank and file of American sushi restaurants. Skewers of miso-marinated black cod, A5 wagyu, Santa Barbara prawns, and king oyster mushrooms arrive off the grill with the kind of smoke-and-sweetness balance that can only come from a real charcoal setup and a cook who has been running it for years.

The sake program is quietly world-class. The list runs deep into daiginjo and junmai daiginjo categories, with tasting flights that reward anyone willing to spend twenty minutes learning what the fuss is about. The room itself is dim, wood-heavy, and lit for the evening — modern in its lines but traditional in its attention to detail. Booths work for groups; the bar works for everyone else. Santana Row outside makes Ozumo easy to get to; the kitchen inside makes it worth the visit.