Izakaya Sozai

Reviews

• Hye Yun L.

  star star star star star 11 June 2026

  AMAZING. Beyond words and I fell in love immediately after stepping in. Felt like I was actually transported to Japan as soon as I entered this little place.
  
  The ramen is unique and delicious!! A pork broth of sorts that reminds me of a Korean stew, a flavor I've never experienced at any other ramen place but wish I could have more of. The noodles were a perfect texture, and the chashu was heavenly. Can't go wrong with choosing this little izakaya as a date spot or just a friendly hangout location. Recommended for smaller parties, since it is on the smaller side for a restaurant. Parking was easy at 9pm on a Friday night. Lots of free street parking along the way here! Also, didn't even have to wait to be seated, which was super appreciated
  
  Would absolutely love to be back to try more of their menu. Beautiful decor and really chill atmosphere. MUST check it out if you're in SF!!

• Jay D.

  star star star star star_border 5 June 2026

  My family and I got here right when it opened. We were lucky enough to get seated since some of the tables were already reserved.
  
  There were 2 servers for about 10ish tables I believe. The room itself is pretty small.
  
  Once we were seated, we took about 10 minutes to order our food. We ordered kempachi, ramen, pork belly with cranberry sauce, chicken gizzards, chicken wings.
  
  Ramen - the broth itself is very thick, the chashu pork was soft and meaty. Noodles were soft and tastey. The spicy miso paste was the best part. It added a small kick but nothing too spicy.
  
  Chicken gizzards - these are some of my favorite. Depending on how you like it, these were just grilled but not crispy. It was good. I wouldn't mind getting this again.
  
  Pork belly - very very well done with a sweet sauce. This was a table favorite. I'm not sure how often they have this as it was one of the specials.

• Davis E.

  star star star star_border star_border 3 June 2026

  I was there yesterday trying their ramen as I keep hearing how "amazing" it is was. In my personal opinion and pure honesty, there is nothing special about their ramen.
  
  While the service is great and super friendly, I'm sad to report that the ramen has way too much black pepper. Yes, the whole dish is good, but it is as good as all of the other places serving ramen. I think that people enjoy it due it's location, which is a great thing for them to serve the people who live mid inner/mid outer sunset.
  
  The chicken wings, again nothing special, in fact the dish is not good. I think they should re invent them and coat them with flavor.
  
  The one thing that really got me was their overpriced Sapporo beer "on tap" for $7.00. Shouldn't Sapporo be on the affordable side when pairing it with Ramen? I guess not.

• Jasmine S.

  star star star star star_border 2 June 2026

  It should/could be a 5 star review because the dishes are pretty unique and good quality fish. I liked the standard dishes, but none of the specials. The service was slow and got a few of our orders incorrect (kind of ok we were a party of 6) and the music is way too loud in there! Everyone could only speak to the person next to you.
  
  Takoyaki - can't go wrong this was good
  Chicken heart skewers - good
  White proper fried chicken - good
  Fried egg - 2/3 people enjoyed
  Hamachi carpaccio - staple ; good
  Tako wasabi - marinated raw octopus - good
  Chicken heart skewers - good
  Monk fish liver - pretty good
  
  The chicken ramen was a 'dipping ramen' you grabbed your noodles and dipped it in the broth. Except it wasn't broth it was more like bouillon fish paste with water...it was perplexing... like what is going on here. So 5 stars because that's very unique I've never seen that before but I just didn't like it at all, 3 of us ordered it and none enjoyed. Boodles however were cooked justttt right.
  
  Beef tripe, chrysanthemum and nectarine - hmmm that's a very interesting dish right? it's probably good! No, not really. The chrysanthemum was the main ingredient which really has no flavor.. not very different from arugula the nectarine was good but very few pieces and same w/ tripe. The 3 ingredients had no cohesion just thrown in a salad bowl.
  
  Bacon wrapped mushroom? Hmmm sounds interesting! But again the bacon was a bit undercooked and the mushroom added no notable flavor.
  
  IG : @masturplater

• Tiff C.

  star star star star star_border 1 June 2026

  **Rating is rounded up solely because of the great service I received.**
  
  Food wise, I am going to say 3.5 stars because I wasn't entirely impressed by some of the dishes we tried that night. There was just to two of us, so we decided to order a bunch of small dishes and share a ramen. Initially we were going to get 2 bowls, but our server Helen was super informative and suggested we get small plates to share and share a ramen bowl, so we did just that.
  
  The dishes that stood out to me were the Hamachi Carpaccio and the sea bass karaage. Hamachi was super fresh and melt in your mouth and the karaage was battered perfectly and deliciously deep fried. Skewers were okay, we got the beef tongue and chicken gizzard to share. Beef tongue was a little tougher than I like but both skewers were tasty and still on top of my list for the night. Helen let us know that although a lot of people know Izakaya Sozai for their ramen, that is not their specialty. I am glad I got to try it after all these years because to me it was still a solid bowl of ramen. It is not heavy and packed with punching flavors to your taste buds, but you could tell it was made with a lot of love. It tasted like a homemade broth with good flavor but not TOO much. I'd definitely recommend trying it if you're there though.
  
  We also ordered salmon tartare and ankimo pate. These two were the least liked by the both of us. The pate lacked flavor and the two ankimo pieces were quite small. The bread served with both the tartate and pate was not toasted enough and really soggy. Not the way the bread should be served for both these dishes. The tartare was okay.. also was bland and lacked flavor. I would definitely pass on those two dishes.
  
  Service was great. The girls manning this crazy restaurant are all amazing at what they do. I can only imagine how tough it is because they are always soo busy. Big thanks to Helen, she's amazing!