A change of pace (it’s not ramen this time!)

When I’m stuck in San Francisco, I morph into a creature of habit. I ALWAYS go to the same places to eat, depending on what it is.
For example, when I want good ramen, I go to Santa or Himawari. For spicy Chinese food, I go to Spices. For izakaya fare, I go to Oyaji, each of these places I have written about at one time or another in this blog. Now, it’s not out of stubborn loyalty or benign ignorance but rather that these are the “best” places for these kinds of foods. There’s not a lot of diversity here in San Francisco, food or otherwise so ya gotta go with what you know.
There’s a small restaurant across from the Kinokuniya bookstore in the Japan Center here. Besides being a fully stocked bookstore (with all sorts of Japanese books, magazines and DVDs), it’s a good meeting place because traffic and transit here makes it impossible to meet at an agreed time after work.

“Want to eat?”
“Sure. Where to meet?”
“Meet me inside Kinokuniya and we’ll figure it out then”
Across from Kinokuniya is a small restaurant called Maki. It’s really small inside (19 seats!!) and has some tables outside.

I’ve run past this place soooo many times!
The menu is posted outside as well as all the accolades they’ve received. Lunch specials are a bit on the high side. Dinner is higher. Maki makes good Japanese comfort food like sukiyaki, shabu shabu and fresh made maki. Sounds ordinary, right? I mean, this is comfort food and the prices make it sound like a “date place”. However…
They specialize in Akita style udon, called inaniwa udon. Unlike typical udon that’s the width of TV cable (the kind you buy from Comcast) and has a chewy, almost undercooked doughy taste, inaniwa udon here is made fresh, is half the width of fettuccine and is very light on the palate. As is the broth. Yum.

This is the ebi udon and those are small tempura shrimps in the bowl along with a vegetable
I’m a self-confessed ramen guy and I’ve also developed a taste for Matsumoto soba. I never thought I’d like udon. Until now. It was really good! But be ready for sticker shock if you come here for dinner cuz this bowl costs….
US$18.00!! WAAAAAAAAH!
So this is definitely a date place, but unlike many date places in San Francisco, you will get a good quality meal and you’ll leave satisfied knowing you’ve had something unique.
And I’ve got to stop running past small hole in the wall restaurants like this in future…
maki
Kinokuniya Building
1825 Post Street
San Francisco CA 94115
415-921-5215