Chotto – New Izakaya in San Francisco’s Marina

[Melanie Wong]

Last Monday I dropped into Chotto, the new Japanese robata bar and izakaya-inspired spot on Steiner Street. It opened two weeks earlier in the space previously occupied by Three Seasons. At 6:30pm, I caught the tail end of a magazine photo shoot that will hit the stands in February. The buzz machine’s definitely humming for this spot early in the game.

Freezing cold inside at this early hour, I opted for a table behind a partition shielding it from the doorway instead of a seat at the bar. A carafe of ice water and a menu soon appeared. In addition a couple of specials were listed on the blackboard, but the basic menu offered more than enough choices for a solo diner.

Instead of ordering any of the cold sakes or shochu cocktails, I asked for a cup of hot water to warm my hands. I started with two items as an initial order. I would have tried more variety but skewers are priced as pairs and not available singly.

Tsukune, $8 for two skewers – Chicken meatballs, homemade teriyaki sauce enriched with raw egg yolk. Liked the teriyaki-egg yolk sauce once I dumped out more than a teaspoon of slimy egg white and could then stir them together to emulsify. Without the sauce and dab of chili powder, the plain tsukune was quite bland on its own with minimal seared or smoke flavor. Also, the finely ground chicken was on the lean and dry side, really needing the egg yolk for richness.

Kani korokke, $9 for three pieces - Snow crab croquettes in a miso-tomato sauce. Quite a bit of crab meat in these croquettes and less of the creamy base than other versions. Somewhat underseasoned and needing the sauce to boost the salting. Good job with the frying, golden brown, light crunchy, greaseless.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5294518124/

Finding the cooking competent enough in these two dishes, I ordered another item from the grill.

Tontoro (pig cheek), $7 for two skewers. Though the menu lists only sea salt and shichimi chili as seasonings and does not mention tare or sauce, the flat squares of tontoro were brushed with sweet sauce obscuring the natural flavor of the meat. I asked the waitress about this errant sauce and requested that my order be salt-grilled without sauce. She said that would not be possible as the pork cheek is pre-marinated. I should have returned it, as the sweet sauce covered up too much of the natural sweetness of pork cheek fat and I couldn’t taste the grill influence.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5294518116/

Despite being full at this point, I ordered one more dish, and it turned out to be my favorite.

Grilled Sanma, $7 - This time I checked ahead to be sure that this whole fish would be salt-grilled with no sauce. Yes, my waitress confirmed. When she brought the plate she advised that the easiest way to remove the bones was to run my chopsticks down along the spine. While the skin was somewhat rubbery, the whole pike was marked precisely and had the scent of the grill. Seasoned simply with shio and careful grilling, the dark and oily flesh brightened and rounded-out with a squeeze of lemon and a dab of peppery, grated daikon colored with sauce.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...

Prices are higher here in the Marina, on the order of 20 to 30% more than charged in the South Bay for similar dishes.

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Chotto
3317 Steiner St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[vincentlo]

I'm glad the sanma at Chotto was good. I love oily fish like mackerel, sardine, and sanma, but when served grilled say in Japanese restaurants, they are never fresh. Good sushi houses like Sushi Tomi once in a while will inform their customers that they will be grilling fresh mackerel/sardine/sanma, and that's never to be missed!

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Sushi Tomi
635 W Dana St, Mountain View, CA 94041

Chotto
3317 Steiner St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[Melanie Wong]

When I was doing my due diligence investigation before ordering the sanma, besides the sauce issue, I had asked my server to check if the fish was fresh or frozen. She said the kitchen said it was fresh. The sanma wasn't particularly vibrant and I don't know that i've had fresh sanma before to be able to judge for myself.

[Melanie Wong]

Vincent, have you tried the grilled hokke at Sebo? Here’s more about hokke, also known as atka mackerel or arabesque greenling.
http://www.bfh.jp/en/theme/theme_searchdetail/99060105101/

I dropped in early on the 9th and had a seat at the counter where I could watch the three chefs choreography knocking out dishes in the tight space. The night’s Izakaya menu for Sunday, 1/9/2011
http://twitpic.com/3omews

Goya chanpuruu, $7 - Bitter melon, egg, tofu, katsuobushi, bean sprouts, scallions, onions. Much lighter made with smoked bonito shavings instead of pork, and the salting was perfect to “sweeten” the bitter melon in this Okinawan dish. I liked this dish a lot and it felt very cleansing, just what the doctor ordered. However, a full serving was too much bitter flavor for one person to consume in a sitting and I took most of it home with me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5351279244/

Kaki chige, $10 – Korean-style hot pot with oyster, kimchee, carrots, daikon, okra, fishcake, scallion, onions. The soup and vegetable base was simmering on a burner on top of the sushi bar. Then an order’s worth was heated with the raw oysters until the mollusks were exactly on point and custardy in texture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5351279240/

I enjoyed the first two dishes greatly and was about to leave. But having taken note of the many orders for Hokke, $10 - Atka mackerel (1/2), I had to try that too. Hokke is cured/marinated in shoyu and mirin, turning a deep rusty orange color, then dried for an extended time to release the oils to the surface. The slab is grilled until bones and skin are crispy. Extremely rich in flavor and texture, I loved the contrast of the velvety smooth, oily flesh against the crackly bones. When I have this again, I’d immediately pull off all the skin so that it doesn’t soften from steam emitting from the flesh.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5351279236/

Then a few days later I tried the Grilled jack mackerel hiraki, $8, at Gaku in San Jose. Served skin side up, it started out crispy but the skin softened soon. Oily, buttery textured, rich flesh, this was very delicious as well and perfectly cooked with the merest hint of binchotan charcoal fire wafting up from the plate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...

After tasting those two excellent examples of grilled oily-fleshed fish, I have to say that I was overly enthusiastic about the Sanma at Chotto in my original post. While it was my favorite dish of my sampling at Chotto, Sebo and Gaku’s grilling skills and cooking across the board are in a different league.

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Sebo
517 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102

Chotto
3317 Steiner St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[SteveG]

Thanks for the Sebo Izakaya reminder. I'm still not ready to go back for sushi, but my izakaya meals there were all great and much more affordable.

[DezzerSF]

I went recently as well.

I thought the flavors in general were too subtle. The sushi we had were the best thing we ate. Really fresh uni, ankimo, and shima aji.

The skewered chicken thighs and wings were pretty nice too though, with the bincho charcoal flavor coming through, especially with the wings.

The seared duck breast was nicely cooked and sliced perfectly thin, but the flavors were a bit one note and it's served cold.

The grilled saba on the otherhand was delicious, perfectly cooked and juicy.

The ohitashi (spinach with bonito flakes) in yuzu was nice and refreshing.

The kani korokke was a miss for us, as the batter was too thick and hard. We thought the filling was a bit too creamy. I'm guessing the kitchen worked out the kinks on this dish.

The beef tongue, cooked medium rare was okay. The menu stated shichimi as an ingredient but it didn't come through so we asked for more. It was served with lime and a fermented bean paste that didn't pair too well with the beef. The beef itself needed a lot more salt.

The pork belly skewer was also a miss, meat was way too tough.

The suzuki (striped bass) was cooked nicely with a crispy skin and moist meat, but way underseasoned.

We ended with a plain onigiri, which didn't have anything inside so we added the suzuki, shichimi and soy sauce to it.

The shochu and sake cocktails were fine, the server explained the drinks were on the light side, as to not overwhelm the subtle flavors. Sake list itself was on the short side. The also have beer and wine, but the glass of Sauv Blanc we had didn't pair too well with the food.

We were disappointed in the lack of yakitori on the menu, ie. gizzards, liver, chicken skin, but I guess it's hard to expect that at an izakaya in the Marina.

Service though, was really professional and knowledgeable.

For izakayas, Sozai and Ippuku are my favorites.

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Sozai Restaurant
1500 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122

Ippuku
2130 Center St, Berkeley, CA 94704

[Melanie Wong]

I agree that the kitchen has too light a hand with salt. For the dishes I tried, it tries to make up for this with the sauces. Too much reliance on sauce to give the main ingredient personality.