[San Francisco, CA] - Hitachino Beer & Wagyu

I like celebrating the boyfriend's birthday all month long. He mentioned wanting to go to Hitachino Beer & Wagyu. They opened in March, but it was so limited you had to sign up for Owlie Mail and enter a lottery. It didn't work out for us during that time, so finally in May, when they full on opened and started taking reservations, I was able to get us in. 

Parking is all street so get there early. If they are as strict as their email confirmation, you have 15 minutes after your reservation time before they give away your seat and charge your credit card. There was a ton of traffic on the way there that day, so plan accordingly if you are driving from further away! Since I got lucky with parking, we showed up about 20 minutes before our reservation. They told us we could stand and wait, or hang out at the bar. 

At the bar, we hung around just relaxing and checking the place out. The decor is simple, which I like. On the wall are wooden boards that list their beers. I think there's a bar menu, but we didn't have one. Maybe we were supposed to ask a neighbor for one, but we didn't really care since we were going to eat dinner anyway. We each grabbed a beer and started with some Wagyu tongue skewers. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the skewers were pretty awesome. The meat was so very tender. the yuzukoshō was delicious with the tongue. I'm not entirely sure, but it may have been my first time having some. It has my favorite flavors all in one - chilli, yuzu, and salt. It was the best tongue I've ever had!

In case you want a recipe to try at home, here's a link to BON APPÉTIT. 

As we were eating our small appetizer, they came to let us know that our table was ready. If you are in the middle of your bar snacks, they are willing to let you finish up and come over at your convenience. Don't worry about closing out your tab (unless you want to), they can just transfer it to your dinner bill.

Wagyu tongue skewer with scallion and yuzukoshō.

If you plan on dining here, the tables are all along the narrow corridor of the restaurant. And, they have a set menu with a few options. I read on Yelp that people were still hungry after, so they added an extra steak. We went with the set menu and added Hokkaido AA uni. There was another option to add a soft shelled crab to the ramen, but I passed on that. I'm glad I did. I was able to get pretty full from the entire meal. Our server did mention that they serve both Japanese Wagyu and American Wagyu. The Japanese Wagyu would be served in smaller portions as it's more expensive.

The menu for the night. They also have options for beer or sake pairings. The boyfriend go the beer pairing. It's $30 extra and comes with three samples that the chef picks, and the last one is a full pour of your own choosing.

Otooshi/amuse bouche of wagyu pate, crisped rice, and I believe avocado puree. Probably not one of my favorite things I've eaten. It was very light in flavor overall so the main taste was the pate. I think the texture didn't work for me. It reminded me a bit too much of paste.

Tataki, smoked tosazu, eggplant, and chive. The dish is served cold, and the clear "sauce" around it has little jellies in it. The beef was very good, but the sinews were hard to eat. I would have preferred it served in smaller pieces so I wouldn't have to feel like such a lardo stuffing it in my mouth so unceremoniously.

Kobujime, burrata, edamame, ginger, dry tomato, katsuo-bushi. This also has bonito flakes at the top, while the broth is made from konbu and katsuobushi. The uni was was an add on option that cost extra. Totally worth it though. I miss Hokkaido.

Didn't realize this was going to happen again so soon, but our next course included the Wagyu tongue skewer. Did I mention that the asparagus was also grilled perfectly and was not old like the ones served at a lot of other restaurants? Also, it's covered in what looks like black pepper, but there is more in there for sure since my tongue ended up numb like I just ate some Szechuanese food. 

BTW, if you haven't tried their beer yet, do it! I had Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale most of the night. 7% alcohol but doesn't taste like it. It has enough flavor that if you drink it without snacks, it's really good. It's also light enough that if you drink with with snacks and food, it doesn't overpower your taste buds. The Red Rice Ale is also slightly sweet from the rice, but overall is really smooth on the palate.

Oden oxtail, daikon, beer mustard. The oden came from the bar and was served in the bowl after the server poured it from a mason jar. This was one of my favorite courses. The beef was incredibly tender, the daikon had been stewing long enough that it was soft and tasted like beef, and the broth was extra beefy. The mustard and onions are sides to add in. I suppose not everyone uses it since our server was surprised we used it all.

Yakiniku sushi, apple, sesame, soy. Again, I would have preferred the beef sliced smaller so I wouldn't have to shove it in my mouth. I couldn't bite it in half so I ended up eating the beef in one bite and half of my rice fell down. The apple listed on the menu is actually apple sauce, so it gave the sushi a sweet taste. The side of corn was a bit salty, I guess to counteract the sweet of the apple sauce. 

Tantanmen with a spicy sesame broth. This also has coconut shavings on it, giving it a sweetness. This was also not a favorite of mine. It wasn't bad at all, but the sweetness from the coconut didn't work for me. Also, the noodles were a little too hard and reminded me of Hong Kong style egg noodles. At this point, I was already pretty full and didn't actually finish the ramen.

Soy milk panna cotta with Mandarin granita. Holy cheeses. If you love orange creamsicles, this is the jam. I thought I was full, but then this appeared in my life. the soy panna cotta was so perfect in texture - not soft and mushy, and not too thick. It also wasn't super sweet, but sweet enough to mix with this fabulous granita. The mandarin granita was more tart than I expected but I loved it. It was the perfect size even though I wanted to get at least ten of them to go.

Barley tea, brown butter cookie. I was ready for the meal to be over after that perfect panna cotta, but out came the tea and cookies. The cookies are small, but just right for me because I was too full to eat a full sized cookie. The tea was so warm and strong (definitely not in a bad way, I hate watery tea) that I actually wanted another cookie to enjoy with the rest of my tea.

Address:
639 Post St.
San Francisco, CA 94109

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