Ron received some free tickets for a concert by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS). BARS is a non-profit organization and their mission is to provide “a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. BARS makes cultural, social, and educational contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high standard.” Ron knows one of the members of the orchestra who gave us the complimentary tickets. The concert was at the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Franklin @ Geary, their next concert is also there on June 20th.

We both enjoyed the concert and it makes us want to pick up our instruments again, Ron played the violin and I played the flute. We’ll see if that happens. Ron’s violin is in the closet but my flute is on loan to my parents’ friend’s daughter.

After the concert, we were starving so went to find dinner. It was already 10:30 so we weren’t sure what would be open. I had just purchased a whole bunch of gift certificates from Restaurant.com because there was a 70% off code (FEAST, expires 4/20/09) so that some $25 value gift certificates ended up only being $3. So we went to try Sushi Tani since we called and they were open until midnight. The GC had a few restrictions though: minimum purchase $50 but not including sushi, sashimi, rolls, alcohol plus 18% gratuity is added to the original bill.

The restaurant was empty when we showed up at 10:45pm but during out meal, two other couples walked into the restaurant. We ended up ordering lots of appetizers and their bento box. We ordered a bit too much so had leftovers to take home.

We were able to sneak in some sashimi with the Ocean Trio Cocktail appetizer which had tuna, yellow tail, and salmon with yuzu sauce. We found the salmon and tuna a bit mushy but the yellow tail was yummy.

Agedashi tofu. There was a lot of it and very freshly fried, it was made really quick!

Chicken Karaage served with tonkatsu sauce. Yum.

Tempura, 2 shrimp and tons of vegetables. Hot hot hot (like heat-wise).

The dinner box special, we chose chicken teriyaki and ton katsu. The salad dressing was yummy, a bit sweet and nutty. The ton katsu was a little bit dry. The chicken teriyaki was good.

Sorry for the blurry pictures but I was just using my phone because it was convenient.

We haven’t figured out if buying those gift certificates are actually worth it… Our total bill was around $70, minus the $25 then adding 18% gratuity of original, so we ended up paying $57 for dinner. I think ordinarily we wouldn’t have ordered so much but we felt like we had to in order to meet the $50 minimum food purchase. We do have enough for lunch for both of us the next day so maybe it all works out. Plus it encourages us to try somewhere new.

There’s still plenty of other Japanese restaurants around our area so I think we’ll continue exploring.

Sushi Tani
4828 Geary Blvd