Nojo: Hayes Valley Izakaya Blends California and Japan

Comments (0) By Jonathan Kauffman Wednesday, Jun 1 2011

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Kimberly Sandie

Not a stray drop of oil on this tempura: fava beans, maitake mushrooms, and Meyer lemon slices.

Location Info

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Nojo Restaurant

231 Franklin
San Francisco, CA 94102

Category: Restaurant > Japanese

Region: Hayes Valley/ Tenderloin

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Details

231 Franklin (at Linden), 896-4587, www.nojosf.com. 5-10 p.m. Sun.-Mon., Wed.-Thu., 5-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; closed Tue. Muni: 7, 71, 21.

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The space, like the food, reflects Hayes Valley more than Japan, with its new-condo sheen and front-row view of the cranes next door. From the reclaimed-wood tables and the raw concrete surfaces to the woven lamp shades and long bar, almost every surface in the place is squared, but comfortable nonetheless. Dunmore stands at the heart of the silvery open kitchen, flanked by a couple of deputies, while all the other staff flow in and around him, their paths quick-footed and impossible to predict.

The opera ticket holders from Woodside haven't yet discovered the fact that Nojo's service is as good as at the restaurants where they spend three times as much money. So, for the moment, the crowd resembles the restaurant's staff — young, ethnically scrambled, in close-fitting clothes and an abundance of scarves. Stray details from their dating lives fly off the tables and buzz about the room; flowing toward them, as if in exchange, are mugs of Linden Street's black lager and bottles of small-production local beers. Chances are, the diners the drinks are destined for won't remember who took their order by the time it arrives.