Sushi Boat Restaurant

This place closed and was not good, actually sucked.
I am excited to say that my friend Michael has taken it over and remodeling it.
He is a outstanding sushi chef that owns Sakura Sushi on 26^th and clement in San Francisco.
Cant wait for them to open.

I’ve been here a handful of times– usually just before I am catching a movie with a friend for a quick bite. I’ve normally come at lunchtimes, when the place is a tad busy from the surrounding office building (s). The service has always been good on those occasions. The sushi is average.
However, recently went there for dinner for the first time. Was catching a 7:30 p.m. show and my friends and I decided to have a casual dinner there, and showed up about 6:15 so we wouldn’t be rushed. Let me start by saying getting there early was the best choice we made that evening.
When we walked in, there was only one other table with 2 people at it, the place was empty. There was a very frazzled waiter running around… we just went and sat ourselves. We waited about 5 minutes and finally flagged him down asking if we could at least order drinks. We got our drinks at about 6:30 and got to order our sushi (finally). We ordered 4 different rolls– that’s all. We got one roll at a time staggered out over the next 50 minutes. Sure, he brought us salads in the middle to compensate, but what we couldn’t figure out is how in a restaurant where we were the only diners (the other table had left before we ordered) does it take almost an hour to make 4 sushi rolls? I’ve eaten at some of the nicer sushi restaurants in the Bay Area when the places were packed and have still gotten served in less than half that amount of time.
Had the waiter offered up some sort of a discount for the insanely long wait I think I would have rated them higher, but we basically got an explanation of «we had a to-​go order come in after you ordered, so we’re slow». LAME. If a place can’t handle one to-​go order and one small order from in-​house diners, you have bigger problems.
Probably won’t be back… sorry Sushi Boat.

Decent but if you order a fish dish it may not be the fish you intended on eating.
The Sushi is pretty good though overall.

I went here for dinner with my bf. We live nearby and didn’t want to venture too far so we decided to come here. The restaurant was located on the side/​front of a business building in the same parking lot as the small movie theater. When we entered the restaurant there were already about 4 other small groups of diners there. We waited to be seated since we weren’t sure what to do. The hostess was MIA. She finally came out after I took a few steps further into the dining area looking for someone to seat us. There was only one person at the sushi bar, boats not running at all, and so we sat at one of the tables.
We were given our menus and water right away. We ordered miso soup, edamame, and 4 different rolls. The miso soup was ok. It had an off taste to it. Like it was old or something. The edamame was ok, can’t go wrong with that. The rolls, however, wasn’t that great. I’ve had better at other places. The first roll was kind of lacking in flavor. All I could taste was rice. I had to dip the roll into soy sauce for flavor, and I never use soy sauce when I eat sushi. The other two sushis, which had tempura prawns had an weird taste to it. It could’ve been the ingredients they used or the sauce they had on it. It tasted tangy. The last roll was a baked one. I believe it had scallops on it. The roll had lemon slices in between eat piece of roll, which made the roll taste very lemony, which I did not like. The sauce they used on top of the roll tasted like hot mayonnaise. It just grossed me out. It was like eating a spoonful of mayonnaise that has been sitting out in the hot sun.
The dining experience was awful. We were seated next to two groups of annoying girls who were making fun of other people in the restaurant. They were in their 20s!!! Apparently, they never left high school.
Overall, the food was bleh, service was on and off, and the ambience was eh.

I really hate to give bad reviews, especially in such hard times for restaurants. but really, I think I am doing everyone a service on this one.
I am a die hard lover off all things uni, so naturally I ordered the uni sushi from a waiter who did not seem to understand a word I said. a note on the service. It almost seemed like one person was running the kitchen and the front of the house at the same time, aided by inept servers who seemed more like bussers. yeesh!
The uni came out years later and after inspection, any normal person would have not ventured to put the slightly greying uni anywhere near their mouths. My friend gently told me to put the uni down and back away from the table. I, being hard headed and very hungry did not abide her well intended warning. Into the gullet went the uni. I so wish I hadn’t done that… Uni is such a delightfully unique experience when fresh — sweet, briny, custardlike on the palate. Now just imagine the opposite. I can’t thoroughly describe slightly putrid uni. Suffice to say, it just didn’t taste right, kinda like a slimy moldy sock.
At any rate, hopefully mine was a unique experience. I have heard that everything else was pretty decent on the menu. I’ll get the bento box next time.

I REALLY want to give this place 4 stars :(
Throughout the years I’ve been here quite a few times, and I really wish
I had written a review when they still had the awesome sushi master.
Lately it’s been really different. they have 3 quasi-​servers who barely
speak English (and definitely don’t try) who have to hold their fingers on
the menu to remember which rolls I’m ordering. The manager is mostly
in the kitchen getting the take-​out orders ready and never checks with us
unless we’re waving our arms…
What happened, Sushi Boat?
The reason I come back is because the food is good. SOME rolls are
pricier than other places (12 – 15), but the good ol staples are actually
pretty reasonable. Spicy tuna/​hamachi rolls for $ 6 is really not a bad
deal for fresh fish and 6 – 8 pieces… but I’m still butt hurt that the boats
are always on, without fish on them (they have funky jap toys tho!) and
I never see the friendly sushi masters… :(

This is my favorite sushi restaurant in Marin. I’ve come here for special occasions before. Let me tell you some of the best parts about this restaurant:
* Of course, the great food. Great quality– portions are normal sized. This is one of the few restaurants where I really love the oshitashi (steamed spinach) and the hiya-​yakko (cold tofu). These are two of my favorite Japanese foods and some restaurants make them totally different. Not knowing what’s more authentic, I whole-​heartedly love the way Sushi Boat makes these dishes.
* The service. The sushi chef, the owners (???) Sophie and the guy who may be her husband, the usual waiter (Sophie’s nephew?) are soooo great. They sometimes give you a little bit of free food, and always strive to give you the best service possible to make your meal perfect.
* The décor. This restaurant is decorated so cute! There is a giant dolphin sculpture in the entryway that I always talk to a little bit when I walk in. There are, of course, the boats. There are a lot of plants, and now there is also a big TV (which generally I wouldn’t like, but the Planet Earth series is always playing, so no complaints from me).
* The sushi special (at lunch). I have been vegan for a while now, but I used to get the sushi special all the time for lunch. It was about $ 13 and you get a whole boat-​full of good sushi. Such a deal! Especially when the restaurant tends to be quite pricey otherwise-​particularly for dinner…
* The patio. Now granted, it’s at the edge of an office complex, along the parking lot. But even with such limitation, the outside patio is a fine example of why Marin is such a great place to be. Across the lot is a gorgeous view of the hills.
Now the only reason I’m not giving five stars is because occasionally everything goes to crap: one time my mom and I were eating here, and someone started cleaning the floor with stinky chemicals right under our feet. Another time, a friend’s sushi was *frozen* which I take as a really bad sign (though he had specifically ordered a fish which the staff had seemed to try to suggest he pick something else-​anything else). Another time, there were two brand new servers (they’re gone now), and I basically did not get any service at all that visit.
But that’s three visits out of the maybe 50 times I’ve been here. When it’s good, it’s good, but when it’s bad, it’s horrible (like the rhyme: there was a little girl, who had a little curl…). Try it for yourself.

Can we say slow service and mind-​blowingly overpriced sushi?
Yes we can. And it’s pronounced «Sushi Boat Restaurant (on Smith Ranch Rd).»