Rikyu sushi on College Ave.
The address is 5335 College Ave, Oakland, CA. It used to be Hiro’s Sushi but the family sold the business to the new owner who used to be a sushi chef at Kirala. Which, if you extrapolate, means the sushi at Rikyu is really, really good. One sushi chef and the sushi chef is the owner. We went there tonight and I guess it was the grand opening. The location isn’t the area of College Ave where there’s lots of foot traffic. It’s not a restaurant for ambiance, it’s a nice every so often, I don’t want to wait at Kirala or go into the City, type sushi place from someone who knows how to prepare and slice fish.
I like the trend of new restaurants opening in Oakland and we seem to be poaching from San Francisco and Berkeley and also keeping our talent in Oakland…e.g. from San Francisco we’ve got Wood Tavern, Somerset, Mono Restaurant, Levende East, B Restaurant. From Berkeley we’ve got Bakesale Betty, Pizziaolo, Cesar’s. And we’re keeping the Dona Tomas owners in Oakland via Flora.
