
North Beach Gyros
On Columbus Avenue, where North Beach pretends every storefront is a destination, this casual little Mediterranean room makes a quieter case.
An | Japanese Restaurant is one of the best japanese restaurants in San Francisco for date night, especially if you want a strong option in San Francisco.
An [庵] — the name itself is the thesis. In Japanese, it refers to a modest cottage where monks and artists once retreated from the noise of the world, and that etymology is not incidental decoration. This is a 12-seat sushi counter on the second floor of San Francisco's Japan Center, marked by a small sign on the side, open just five nights a week. Chef Kiyoshi Hayakawa, who opened the restaurant with his wife Ayumi in 2015, built An around that philosophy of deliberate smallness: a place where the format enforces attention, and where the cooking asks to be taken seriously on its own quiet terms rather than competing for hype. The room is for diners who find a counter seat at a chef's restaurant to be the beginning of focus, not a compromise.
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An | Japanese Restaurant is an easy yes when you want somewhere that feels considered rather than fussy. Spoonful of Happiness (uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu) and Miso-marinated black cod also give you a decent sense of the menu. It also holds a 9.6 rating across 175 Google reviews.
0 diner reviews · reviewed by Marcus Chen for An | Japanese Restaurant
Every note in this section is written by a diner who actually ate here, so we leave it empty until there's a genuine one to share.
For now, An | Japanese Restaurant holds a 9.6 rating across 175 Google reviews.
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An | Japanese Restaurant is a Japanese restaurant located in San Francisco, San Francisco. An [庵] — the name itself is the thesis. In Japanese, it refers to a modest cottage where monks and artists once retreated from the noise of the world, and that etymology is not incidental decoration. This is a 12-seat sushi counter on the second floor of San Francisco's Japan Center, marked by a small sign on the side, open just five nights a week. Chef Kiyoshi Hayakawa, who opened the restaurant with his wife Ayumi in 2015, built An around that philosophy of deliberate smallness: a place where the format enforces attention, and where the cooking asks to be taken seriously on its own quiet terms rather than competing for hype. The room is for diners who find a counter seat at a chef's restaurant to be the beginning of focus, not a compromise.
An | Japanese Restaurant is best for hidden gem, date night. An | Japanese Restaurant is an easy yes when you want somewhere that feels considered rather than fussy. Spoonful of Happiness (uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu) and Miso-marinated black cod also give you a decent sense of the menu. It also holds a 9.6 rating across 175 Google reviews.
An | Japanese Restaurant is in the More of a night out price range ($$$). Google rating: 9.6 from 175 reviews
Start with Spoonful of Happiness (uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu), Miso-marinated black cod and Mushroom chawanmushi. These dishes are shown from TastyPals notes or restaurant data on this page.
An | Japanese Restaurant holds a 9.6 Google rating from 175 reviews. An | Japanese Restaurant is an easy yes when you want somewhere that feels considered rather than fussy. Spoonful of Happiness (uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu) and Miso-marinated black cod also give you a decent sense of the menu. It also holds a 9.6 rating across 175 Google reviews.
An | Japanese Restaurant is located at 22 Peace Plaza, #510 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA. Directions are available via Google Maps.
Yes — An | Japanese Restaurant is tagged for date night dining. An | Japanese Restaurant is an easy yes when you want somewhere that feels considered rather than fussy. Spoonful of Happiness (uni, quail egg, tobiko ponzu) and Miso-marinated black cod also give you a decent sense of the menu. It also holds a 9.6 rating across 175 Google reviews.
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Check availability on the restaurant's official site.