I grew up in San Francisco and I've been coming to this location since I was a kid (it was a Japanese restaurant forever) and I have to admit I was a little bummed when I found out ownership was changing hands. Since this place opened late last year I have visited a handful of times to either have a sit down dinner with some friends or to grab a quick bite and a beer at the bar. I have to admit, for someone that went in there ready to pick it apart, this new ownership group has done an outstanding job. They made all the right changes to the decor and the menu (which started out very good) has steadily improved with time. I went down last Saturday night around 11pm to grab a drink and the bar was packed! It was a great crowd, super friendly and fun to hang out with. After talking to a manager I found out they opened up the downstairs bar space in the hopes of fostering a fun, hip, late night bar scene on the weekends. Well if its for dinner or for weekend drinking and socializing, Umami has won me over and I'll be going back for many nights to come.
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