A glamorous cocktail bar that might make Tokyo (or Bangkok) jealous

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Ingi “Shota” Son knows how to put on a show. At The Shota, his one-Michelin-starred omakase counter, he and the other chefs have been known to break up the 17-course meal by impersonating a decapitated tuna. For a restaurant that costs no less than $300 per person, it’s a refreshingly playful attitude, enough to make The Shota (which has been temporarily closed since March) stand out in SF’s crowded fancy sushi scene. 

With his latest venture, Son is lowering the price of admission — but keeping the showmanship. 

At the 5-week-old Bar Shoji, you can enjoy a cocktail and a made-for-TikTok fondue burger, which arrives at the table flanked by a scalding platter of melted cheese, for around $50. The upscale Japanese cocktail den has been in the works for years, Son says. But it gained momentum (and a fair amount of media buzz) after he recruited Thai chef Intu-on Kornnawong to join the project late last year. With Kornnawong on board, Bar Shoji became not just a refined cocktail bar but a destination for stunning rice bowls, aged sashimi, and oysters packed with Thai-Japanese flavors. 

“I’ve been thinking about what’s good bar food in San Francisco,” Son says. “And I always try to give people an experience. Like, they’ve been seeing these things on social media, but you can have it here if you come to Shoji.” 

And they are coming to Shoji. On the Monday night I visited, every seat in the dark, intimate room was full. A group of lanyard-toting office workers was crowded into a corner booth, delicately sipping cocktails while making safe-for-work conversation. Across the room, a couple of 30-somethings wearing Patagonia and Allbirds climbed into stools at the eight-seat bar. 

Reservations open a week in advance, and you’ll need one. The Friday night prior, Shoji managed to pull off 200 covers, Kornnawong says — an impressive turnover considering there are only 35 indoor seats.

The menu lends itself to a light meal of small plates to be snacked on while you drink. If you don’t like the idea of cobbling together items, there are dishes large enough to call a meal, including the most popular items: uni amaebi donburi and the burger. 

The former will be a welcome throwback for fans who fell in love with the takeout-only spinoff Yubu by The Shota during the pandemic. After years of being asked if he’d ever bring back the popular donburi, Son was happy to put one on the Bar Shoji menu. He’s using sushi rice from the same farm, seasoned with the same blend of vinegar and umami add-ins like nori powder. On top, he layers sweet Santa Barbara sea urchin, soy-marinated sweet shrimp, salty ikura, and a sunset-orange egg yolk.

It’s just barely outshined by the burger, which Son says is a take on the viral creation popularized by places including American Diner in Tokyo. At Bar Shoji, the kitchen uses Painted Hills brisket and a beef-tallow brioche bun that holds up surprisingly well even after being soaked in molten cheese.

Kornnawong’s Thai roots show up in dishes such as Marin Miyagi oysters, which swim in a tangy beet chile jam and get texture from a sprinkling of fried shallot. Ceviche starts with in-season local halibut that gets a blast of Thai inspiration from a tom kha-style sauce and spicy-sour nam jim. It’s the most decidedly un-Japanese item on the menu, though Kornnawong nods to the restaurant’s theme by serving it with nori rice crackers for dipping. 

Son put together the cocktail menu himself, with the goal of spotlighting the breadth of Japanese spirits by pairing them with uncommon Japanese ingredients. The Kabosu plays off a classic margarita but swaps in the rare Japanese citrus kabosu, which has a sour, tart flavor that’s like lime, lemon, and yuzu in one. Riffing on an old-fashioned, Son came up with the Noguchi, which stars wagyu-fat-washed Japanese whisky alongside the richness of Okinawan black sugar and shiitake mushrooms. For a lighter drink, there’s a take on a martini that adds barley shochu to Japanese gin before getting a floral lift from a touch of cherry blossom. 

With dark burgundy velvet drapes blocking out any lingering daylight, the bar feels a world away from the sleepy streets of downtown. A towering, regal mural in gold and blue depicts prowling tigers and sprawling trees, echoing the artwork Son saw in Kyoto’s Nijo Castle, which dates back to the golden era of shogun and samurai. It took six months of revisions to perfect, Son says, because he kept asking the designer to add elements. 

He’s taking the same approach to building out Shoji, which operates as a coffee and matcha cafe by day before busting out its sultry, shochu-soaked alter ego at night. Down the line, Kornnawong will turn the 35-seat back patio into a separate concept, where she’ll have space to cook the kind of food that has established her as one of the city’s most exciting talents. 

There’s no timeline for when that will happen, since both Son and Kornnawong want to focus first on tweaking Bar Shoji to perfection. But there’s little doubt that it, too, will be worth the wait. 

Eat Here Now is a first look at some of the newest, hottest restaurants around – the ones we think are worth visiting. We dine once, serve forth our thoughts, and let you take it from there.