Sato Sushi - San Jose

It’s rare to find a sushi restaurant where both the fish and rolls are exceptional. Typically, if the fish is outstanding, the rolls are average, and if the rolls are fancy, the fish tends to be just okay. But at Sato, they offer the best of both worlds. The menu is quite extensive, including various bento boxes and Korean dishes (the chefs are Korean, and I believe the owners are too), ensuring there’s something for everyone. Let’s begin with the fish. We almost always start with a hamachi and salmon sashimi appetizer, and we occasionally add albacore. The salmon is usually fantastic, while the hamachi can be hit or miss—it’s sometimes outstanding and other times just okay. The albacore is good, especially when you ask for it with a little tataki sauce, which enhances the flavor significantly. Now, about the rolls. Sato serves the BEST spicy scallop hand rolls I’ve ever tasted. They load them with an abundance of scallop and drizzle them with roe, daikon sprouts, sesame seeds, and a sweet sauce. Make sure to ask for it to be "not so spicy," as their regular mixture can be quite fiery. The sweet sauce helps balance the heat. Another exceptional roll is the Harley Davidson roll, which is packed with a crab and spicy tuna mix, cucumber, and topped with even more crab and spicy tuna, all drizzled with the same sweet sauce used in the spicy scallop rolls. This creates a tall, striking, and delicious roll. One standout dish at Sato is the Korean Chirashi. This dish features four types of fish (tuna, salmon, albacore, and snapper, I believe) diced into small squares, along with roe, slices of jalapeño and garlic (which I usually remove), served over a bed of lettuce and rice. It comes with a small bowl of Korean chili bean sauce, which is sweeter than spicy, allowing you to use a generous amount without it becoming too hot. The entire dish is FABULOUS—a refreshing and healthy meal. Plus, they serve plenty of fish, ensuring that when mixed together, you get a delightful balance of fish and lettuce flavor without the rice dominating. The bowl is enormous—definitely too much for one person to finish alone. Since we love Sato's sushi, we usually share this dish among 4-6 people, leaving room to enjoy more sushi. One tip for dining here is to sit at the sushi bar. When you talk to the sushi chefs—try to sit near Hiro, the head chef who always sports a cowboy hat—make sure you sound knowledgeable. I've noticed that my experience at the bar has consistently resulted in excellent fish, while phone orders for takeout have yielded some lackluster fish. It seems they might reserve their freshest options for diners they believe can appreciate the difference.