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Photo du Jour 501
How can you not click on a link entitled "Yelper Seeks Place to Spend $500 on Sushi on a Sunday"? Well, maybe you can restrain yourself, but not this Internet Website reader. So, away we go from the glorious Eater SF, and into the bowels of Yelp, where user "Ethan L., " who is planning for "girl's big day" (is this like Administrative Assistants' Professionals' Day?) asks:
Since both of us love sushi with passion, what would you recommend for an upscale sushi place in SF? Price range is about 300-500 for the 2 of us.
This is where we need you to imagine that record scratching sound you hear in a movie trailer when, like, a white person uses "urban" slang, a dog moves in with a cat, or a straight person is confused with a homosexual.
Because, wait, Ethan's asking about San Francisco, not NY or Tokyo, right? Is it even possible to spend 300-500 bucks on two person sushi in the Bay Area? If so, what does that entail, like, fish made of gold? A metric ton of toro? Or, and we hate to even suggest this, is Yelper Ethan L. (of the Fremont L.s, if his profile is accurate) trying to show off?
We're not even going to start with how this economy makes us loath to make a $500 purchase we'll be dislodging with flax seeds (if you know what we mean), since we do get that fancy restaurants are expensive and Big Girl Day comes only once a year (?).
If there's anyone who knows where and how to blow half a grand on raw fish, it's SFist readers. Would you do it? Could you do it? Should Ethan and "girl" do it? If so, where?
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the post was funny but this was priceless:
"This is where we need you to imagine that record scratching sound you hear in a movie trailer when, like, a white person uses "urban" slang, a dog moves in with a cat, or a straight person is confused with a homosexual."
a much needed laugh this afternoon. muchas gracias.
$500 of raw fish in one sitting? Is Ethan L. dating a dolphin?
Sushi's expensive.
$100 for the sushi, $50 for the sake, and $350 for the naked model you eat it off of.
I laughed about Ethan being "of the Fremont L.s".
He can always give me $500 and I'll feed him some raw fish from my boyfriend's roommate's fish tank. Money well spent!
Ethan and Flipper's 1-year mark.
That boy can bowl.
Sure, it can be done. You need a sushi place with a REALLY good wine list. Or bring your own. None come to mind at the moment.
I am sure there are at least a couple of $150+ bottles of sake at Ozumo (for instance). A moderately hard-drinking couple could get through two or three of those in an evening.
See, this is where a restaurant should cash in. Make up a special prix-fixe menu for $500 just for them.
Of course the price that anyone else in the restaurant would pay is much much lower, but the birthday girl and the ostentatious boyfriend don't need to know that :)
You could probably do it at Kaygetsu in Menlo Park. Would I? No.
@cv Really? I looked at the menus of what I thought of as the likeliest big ticket places (Kaygetsu, Yoshi's, that place at the Palace Hotel), and the worst damage I could do with food alone clocked in at 100 bucks per person, and those were BIG ASS meals -- like, (PDF!) here's what I got at Kaygetsu, at 98 bucks. Even the most extravagant places had only a couple of items in the 20-30 buck range, but the rest of the stuff is pretty much what you'd expect, between 8-14 dollar rolls.
It's funny, I felt like I was on Supermarket Sweep ("No! NOT THE COFFEE!!!") trying to rack up big imaginary bills. I think if they did make a sushi restaurant version of that show, I'd have to do as SFJoe and gkanapathy advised and drink my way to the big check, but, otherwise, I'm just not seeing it.
Of course the price that anyone else in the restaurant would pay is much much lower, but the birthday girl and the ostentatious boyfriend don't need to know that :)
And then the birthday girl can entertain the other diners by playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on a series of bicycle horns and balance a beachball on her nose!
I'm sorry. That sounded a lot funnier in my head.
@BeejW it was pretty fucking funny out here, too, no need to apologize.
Aw, thanks Eyleen! I think this cubicle is getting to me.
Two roundtrip tickets to LA = $250
Rental car for a day = $50
Omakase menu plus sake at Wa Sushi & Bistro in WeHo or any other high-end place = $200
Several years ago when Ozumo was good, my partner and I racked up a $400 tab on an umpteen-course omakase menu plus sake pairings but that was more than sushi.
By the way, does anybody else besides me think that sushi in the Bay Area is mediocre, and you can find much better quality and variety in LA and San Diego?
If I was going to try to spend a lot of money on sushi, I certainly wouldn't get any rice or duck or anything that would get in the way. Maybe a little seaweed salad, but everything else...sashimi.
I'd bet $500 that this girl would rather a nice $200 dinner and REALLY nice pair of $300 shoes. Sounds like its more for him and his ego.
@cloudgazer Totally agree. Hell I'd go for a $100 dinner and $400 cash.
@cloudgazer more like for us(to see/hear about) and his ego.
I'm not going to begrudge him the splurging. If he's got it to burn, burn it. And we don't know if he's doing it casually or if he had to scrimp and save to give his girlfriend a special night.
The one that leaves me scratching my head is the whole "super-expensive seafood dinner on a Sunday night. If he and his GF love sushi "with a passion," I imagine freshness of fish is more important than exactness of birthday celebration.
No Eyleen, I do not know what you mean. What DO you mean by dislodge with flax seeds?
Hell, I'd rather have a $10 dinner at In n Out and a $495 pair of shoes.
Sushi comes and goes. Shoes are forever.
Oops, $490 pair of shoes. How I hate teh math.