Downtown’s new shrine to beef is the ultimate expense-account splurge

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.

Ordering a slab of beef at the new Superprime Steakhouse might feel like stepping into an episode of “Portlandia.” Not only can you select your steak based on size and cut, but you have the option to pay a premium for a cow that spent its life in a nature preserve on the snowy shores of Lake Utonai in Hokkaido, Japan, or grazing in the rolling hills of Tallangatta Valley in Victoria, Australia. It’s part protein, part Colin the Chicken parody.

However, according to chef and owner Marc Zimmerman, the reason Superprime provides such intimate biographical details about the cattle it serves is both simple and sincere: “We’re chasing down the best beef we can find on the planet.” 

Zimmerman, who made his name in the meat game at Alexander’s Steakhouse, opened Superprime in July. The boutique steakhouse took over the SoMa space in the shadow of Salesforce Tower that previously housed his Japanese “listening bar” Yokai, which opened in 2023. Zimmerman won’t go so far as to say he knew back then that he’d flip the space to the upscale steakhouse it is now. But he designed the kitchen to produce a lot more than Yokai’s menu of grilled skewers. “I won’t call it a grand master plan. But there’s always been a thought of doing this.”

Superprime’s menu might not be extensive, but it is impressive, offering perhaps the greatest selection of beef you’ll find in the city. To those who had the pleasure of dining at Zimmerman’s wagyu-centric Gozu before its closure in 2024 (that space is now occupied by his California cuisine concept The Wild), do not expect wagyu beef tartare and beef-fat-infused desserts. Yes, Superprime is a temple to premium beef — but this time Zimmerman is keeping things straightforward. “I think, when I was a 30-year-old chef, I was more worried about showing people how good I am at things,” he said. “Now I’m just focused on extremely high-quality products, live fire, and salt — and just letting it be this simple, beautiful thing.”

But simple does not mean inexpensive. The menu includes a “monster” porterhouse: 2.5 pounds of local Flannery Beef holstein served with tallow butter for $310. But two diners — or perhaps, as I saw during my meal, a solo steak-lover charging the meal to a corporate card — are likely to be satisfied with either the 18-ounce dry-aged New York strip ($115) or bone-in ribeye ($115). The latter comes from Australian farm Wanderer, which finishes its free-range, grass-fed cattle on barley. The result is a steak so intricately marbled it cuts like butter — and eats almost as richly, too.  

No doubt, you’ll want to prime your stomach with a least an item or two from the non-steak sections of the menu, which include fluffy Hokkaido-style milk buns ($10), a smoky-sweet skewer of grilled scallop with yuzu kosho ($10), and a take on Caesar salad that stars broccolini and Dungeness crab, with a powerfully savory bonito emulsion. 

Then, as Zimmerman puts it, “it’s time for beef.” True carnivores will be most excited by the wagyu portion of the menu, which includes five varieties available as 1.5-ounce skewers or in 3-ounce increments. For those who just want to dabble in the world of luxury steaks, the most affordable options are a $19 skewer of tri-tip from Black Hawk Farms in Kentucky. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, a mere 1.5 ounces — about the weight of a golf ball — of olive-fed Kawai Family Butcher’s wagyu ribeye will set you back $100. 

Zimmerman points out that there’s probably nowhere else in San Francisco you can even taste A5 Japanese wagyu, the rarest and highest quality, for less than $40. But at Superprime, you can order a skewer of Chateau Uenae’s prized Hokkaido snow beef for $37. It will arrive cooked to a perfect medium-rare and might just shock you with its unctuous sweetness and velvety texture. To say it “melts in your mouth” may be a cliché, but it’s true. 

Zimmerman acknowledges that the wagyu offerings are for a “splurge, luxury moment,” which happen more often than you might think in this AI-mad city. The chef had been keeping an eye on the state of downtown, and when JPMorgan Chase leased 65,000 more feet of office space just across the street, and the remote work era seemed to be coming to a end, he gambled that there would be a demand for a not-too-serious but swanky SoMa steakhouse. He kept the set of vintage 1970s-era JBL Pro Series studio speakers that were installed when he opened Yokai. On any given night, you might hear the Crusaders or Miles Davis blasting through the dining room. 

He’s been leaning toward groove-driven jazz funk, an approachable subgenre that might rankle purists. But like Superprime in contrast to Gozu, it’s a little more fun. “It makes you feel like you’re cool,” Zimmerman says. “You’re sitting in that room, and you’re drinking a great wine, and you’re eating a big chunk of meat, you got some friends with you, and you got the music on — you just feel great.”