Hikari Sushi & Bar

Wanted to try this place after passing by it during a previous trip to Japantown. We came at 6:00 PM, and we were seated immediately. Plenty of other parties were there, but it was not too noisy. You order on a screen at your table, and you need to wait for them to unlock your screen remotely so you can order. You can order four rolls/dishes at a time, and you can reorder (not just a one-time order). We got the Dragon Roll, the 49er Roll, the Cherry Blossom Roll, and the Double Spicy Salmon Roll. Plenty for 3 people! Each of them had so much fish, they were so generous.Dragon Roll: 3/5, standard unagi roll. The shrimp tempura was crispy. Nothing spectacular but good portion sizes.49ers Roll: 4/5, loved the lemon on top, it made the salmon taste so refreshing! Giant pieces of salmon on top and inside the roll.Cherry Blossom Roll: 5/5, such large and juicy pieces of fish! Loved the tobiko on top.Double Spicy Salmon Roll: 5/5, loved the spice combo of spicy mayo and sriracha. Again with generous pieces of salmon.The rolls are slightly more expensive but they're large and have big pieces of fish, and the experience of the trains really makes it. This place healed my inner child, I couldn't stop laughing in delight when our food came out. You return the train after you take your dish with a button behind the screen. The service was incredibly fast -- each roll we got took around 5 minutes to get to us, even as the restaurant got busy. We didn't order a bento box, but a nearby table got one and a robot came by and served it! This place was so much fun. Would definitely come here for a quick sushi meal that's way more fun than conveyor belt sushi.

I really enjoyed this restaurant! With so many sushi places in Japantown, this is a solid option for people with kids. The food comes out fast and the bullet train keeps the kids occupied long enough to forget that they are cranky and hungry. Everything we ordered was yummy, especially the aburi nigiri. I would recommend the aburi options that do not have the sauces on top- why mess with perfection!! I can't really comment on the service since the restaurant pretty much runs on technology but the one time we needed a human server they were there right away to assist. Overall this is a great place to go if you're not trying to spend your whole paycheck on dinner. We ordered 4 sushi rolls and 4 aburi nigiri and the bill was $118. I feel that is still quite competitive and the food was good. We will definitely come back!

After a long day in the city, my boyfriend and I were trying to find a good place to eat while in Japantown. He suggested sushi, and we stumbled upon Hikari while looking at our options. I wanted to go here because of the mini Shinkansen conveyors! When we arrived, the place was packed, but we threw ourselves on the waitlist and got seated after ~20 minutes. We sat facing the conveyors and had a nice little spot on the corner. I loved that the ambiance of the restaurant was reminiscent of our trip to Japan -- the place was filled with vibrant colors and I found the bright lights and self-order tablets so convenient. There was a lot of background noise though, so keep that in mind when you come here. Service in terms of drinks and some small sides were fast; staff balanced out what they could among the chaos of a packed house. We ordered the following:- Spicy tuna handroll = super cheap but had amazing quality compared to other sushi places. This was my favorite of all the handrolls I had. You can really taste how the tuna balances out with the cucumber, rice, and seaweed. - Salmon sashimi = I was skeptical about pricing at first, but loved that the quality of the salmon used was noticeably different from other places. You are paying for good fish here! - Spicy salmon handroll = tasty and light despite being packed with rice and salmon. This would make great afternoon snack to be honest. - Otoro nigiri = OUR FAVORITE. The otoro was smooth and melted in your mouth. That with the rice was so flavorful and honestly this was well worth the price. - Toro nigiri combo = since we couldn't get enough after the otoro, we got the combo. These fatty fish on rice were so satisfying to eat. Each of the three pieces had a smooth texture and good flavor but did not leave us feeling groggy. - Maguro sashimi = good quality cuts and tasted even better dipped in soy sauce! - Miso soup = tasty and was not watered down. This miso soup wasn't made with half effort. It was made with the perfect balance. - Mixed tempura = nice light but crunchy batter. My favorite was the eggplant and squash pieces because they literally melted in your mouth! - Sapporo = bf got this and noted that it tasted different than when he orders Sapporo beer at other places, and that quality was like when we went to Japan! - Passion green tea = even though while ordering it said "sweetened" I loved that it wasn't too sweet! Definitely a great post plate cleanser! I have to admit that among the more affordable places to eat sushi in San Francisco, Hikari the best among those I've had. I love that the concept here is fun, the food is of fantastic quality, and that it's well worth the prices. Excited for another round in the future!

I really loved everything we ordered here. The food was very fresh and tasty! The train the food comes on is super cute and they got our food out FAST. We got saba, Hawaiian roll, Mexican roll, fried crab, grilled squid and miso soup. Their menu has sooo many options too, so there's lots to try! Cant wait to come back :)

Excellent traditional Japanese sushi. I truly felt like I was in Toyko. I loved how they use the train to deliver the food order. The sushi was super fresh and perfectly made. This place isn't made for many large groups so I suggest if you want a table for 4 plus make a reservation.

Hikari Sushi & Bar is a good sushi restaurant in SF Japantown (across the street from the plaza), that serves sushi via a bullet train belt and entrees via robot. We came on a Saturday for lunch and there was a good, long wait for a table. Once seated, there were no menus provided...we had to order from a screen at the table. I ordered the sashimi combo ($19.95) and the beef teriyaki bento ($23.95). The sashimi combo came with 3 pieces of tuna, 3 pieces of salmon, and 2 pieces of yellowtail. The tuna and salmon were really good, but the yellowtail tasted a tad fishy. The beef teriyaki bento box came with a California roll, 3 mini gyozas, edamame, salad, rice, and miso soup. All of it was fairly good and it was a lot of food. My friends enjoyed the sushi rolls they ordered. All of the sushi was delivered to the table on the automated bullet train conveyor belt and the bento box was delivered via robot. It's a fun way to receive your food. Service was okay. They only allow 2 credit cards per table, which was inconvenient. Other than the long wait, the restaurant was enjoyable to eat it.

The service was very nice and accommodating. They were jam packed and they gave us a couple options for our party of 5. We decided to wait until a table opened up, which wasn't long at all, maybe 8 minutes. This was a first experience for me and ordering and receiving sushi from a little table side train was awesome. Sushi tasted delicious and we had a fun night. We order a bunch of sushi that was all tasty.

I never knew train sushi was a thing. I feel like I can never go back to a sushi boat since this is made fresh and sent directly to your table. I love that the bullet train is quite literally Japan's JR Shinkansen train and it even goes through the scenic route on the way to you. You simply order from your table, they send it over, you remove the dish, and hit a button to send the train back to the kitchen. I wonder how efficient this is when it's super busy and all of the tables are full but I absolutely love the concept.The food is pretty solid, but a key thing that differentiates them from other sushi places is the amount of seared (alburi) sashimi available. The service is exactly what you'd expect when everything is ordered via touch screen so the check was a bit slow. Otherwise, this is central in Japan town meaning you can easily get some shopping done and grab some dessert.

We loved the sushi here! Everything was fresh & surprisingly good quality, especially for a bullet-train sushi restaurant. Food also comes out super fast, maybe within 5 minutes of ordering on the iPad. That said, a bit expensive for what you get. I believe the handrolls were around $6, which is normally the price you pay at a higher end restaurant that specializes in quality handrolls. For 4 people, the bill came out to around $130, which I think is relatively expensive -- we didn't feel like we ordered much either. So, if you want to show off the Japanese food scene in SF to a visiting family member, I would not take them here. However, if you want a fun, easy dinner out with your friends then this is the place, but you probably already knew that :)

I love this place! My friends and I come to SF to relax once every few months and this is often where we would have lunch. I can't say much about the service - everything is served by the trains or a (very cute) robot, so not much interaction with the staff is necessary... Which makes it hard when we need more water and/or ginger. There's a menu in every booth and you can take your time to look through and order what you want. Since you can order whenever you want, you can stagger what is ordered and how they come out. When the rolls are completed, they send it on the little trains that would stop at your booth. It's fun to watch what others order! This time, we ended up with 4 rolls and an order of shrimp tempura. The rolls came out as they were completed on the trains while the shrimp tempura was brought by the robot. I think it might have been a little lost since we saw it pass us and had to come back. Nonetheless - the robot did its job! Overall, the rolls were good, but a little on the pricey side. We've had several of the rolls here and while we liked some more than others, they have always been tasty.I'm sure we'll be back as it's conveniently located across the street from the Japantown shopping center and we can always go across the street for some dessert afterwards.