We recently heard about Tekka, a very tiny, totally unique Japanese Restaurant and we knew we had to try it. Everything we had read was true. You show up to the address at 6:30, although they don't open until 7:00. There is no sign. You have to show up early, as the place has a single table seating 3 people and a counter that seats 7. That's it. Around 6:45 a middle-aged woman shows up with a few bags of groceries, and walks through the door, saying nothing and leaving everyone still waiting outside. A few minutes later a very old man also walks through the door. At precisely 7, they open the door and let you in, well, they let 10 of you in. The woman serves you tea, and Jeopardy plays in the background. You are given a warm, moist towel to freshen up with. Then the woman comes around and takes your order. There are no menus, just a list of the fish they have that day. We'd heard the omakase was good, so we went with that. It was totally delicious. The woman just keep bringing out dishes, checking in every once in a while to see if we were still hungry. The food came to about $70 for the 2 of us. The old man is the sushi chef and stands behind the tiny counter serving up sushi. The woman makes elegant, hearty, homestyle Japanese food in what we can only imagine is the tinyest of all kitchens in the back. Unfortunately, this was the first time in the history of SeeUsEat, that we've been requested to stop taking pictures. The reason given was that the sushi chef "doesn't like the internet". It felt a little odd to eat without taking a picture first. In any case, we felt we should oblige because 1) this place was too small to take pictures secretively and 2) this is the kind of play with "house rules" posted in 3 places inside no more than about 150 square feet as well as a signing insisting that they "reserve the right to deny service to anyone". (Rules like "no forks", "no soda", "no teriyaki" and "no tempura".) We'd also heard that the owners have a tendancy of kicking people out for disobeying. While "no pictures" was not on this list of rules, we didn't want to push it. We did get a few pictures in before we heard the official decree, so you can at least see the beginnings of our delicious meal and get a feeling for the place.

Tekka Japanese Restaurant
537 Balboa Street
San Francisco, CA 94118

No Website
Health Code Violations

Labels: Decor: 1, Food: 2, Japanese, restaurant, review, Service: 2