Aphotic, San Francisco CA

We did the pescatarian tasting menu front and center of the zephyr of a kitchen and the experience was perfection and what S. F.was, is and needs to continue to offer. Bravo!

Sit at the bar! Food is phenomenal. Very creative and flavorful. The rest of my party did the drink tasting menu and are still raving about it to this day. Service was as expected for this caliber of restaurant aside from them missing not one, but TWO dishes we ordered. Disappointed because it was the milk bread dish and oysters I was excited to try. A little dark for my taste in atmosphere, but still very nice! Plus reasonably priced for the quality.

Incredible ambiance and service, lovely location. Really great food as well. Overall one of the best interiors and ambiance’s in SF though

We had some hiccups in the beginning but the staff was overly accommodating. Once we started our meal everything was served quickly. The experience was impeccable and I will definitely be back when they reopen in February. (They will be adding a non alcoholic pairing which is incredibly exciting).

Overall the food was delicious and felt very comfortable with the amount given. My favorite dish was the Scallops. The scallop was cooked perfectly and paired well with the sides. From beginning to end I was impressed with how well the food tasted and how the meal progressed

I can’t say it enough but the service here was top notch. I felt very taken care of and everyone was incredibly attentive during the course of our meal. For the cost and quality of food/service I would highly recommend checking them out!

As suggested by the name, the interior of the restaurant very much reflects the deepest parts of the ocean where sunlight can reach. The ambiance of the restaurant is dark, a bit haunting, but not in a bad way.

We sat at the bar and ordered the a la carte menu, (FYI you can't get the tasting menu at the bar) however many items on the menu are found in the tasting as well.

Starters, we had the octopus carpaccio and skate cheek karaage and milk bread. The octopus came with citrus and toasted focaccia. The dish was a bit bland, could use a bit of sour note since the citrus just tasted sweet. Fish in the Karaage was soft at the bite, served with some yuzu. Milk bread was served up warm, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside with a side of dungeoness crab curry. Just a personal preference, but I did think the crisp on the outside of the milk bread overpowered the softness of the dish.

The dish that wasn't very good for me was the prawn risotto and sea urchin even though it has good reviews. To start, the presentation looks pretty unappetizing. Kind of like someone made a bunch of spit and covered the risotto in it (sorry for mental image but I could not unthink it) It almost completely covered the uni, so you don't actually see what's underneath. The foam tasted fine. Flavors were there but the rice was a bit under cooked for our looking, almost gritty on the teeth, not creamy as risotto should be. I'd pass on this dish next time.

Finally we had the miso black cod. I quite enjoyed this dish, the fish was light but sweet and melted in the mouth. Served atop a bed of sushi rice with beurre blanc, delicious.

Now for dessert, we had the oyster ice cream and banana tiramisu. The oyster ice cream was such a pleasant surprise, I'd never tasted anything like it. It's paired with a mignonette foam and is very delicate. Portion size could be bigger because I was craving more! The second dessert was like a deconstructed tiramisu, good but nothing outstanding.

Service was excellent, the staff were attentive and super clean at the bar. It was quite entertaining watching the bartenders make beautiful looking drinks.

Phenomenal. 10 courses of stellar seafood plus the scallop and seared bluefin tuna skewer. The hokkaido milk bread with curry crab hollandaise sauce was ridiculous. Gotta give props to the kitchen for pulling off the oyster ice cream (wouldn't need it again but it was interesting lol). The standard bag of take home treats even included a bottle of their housemade fish sauce (garum). Service was pro level and warm. Only minor issue was the music (80's hits that didn't exactly set off the moody deep sea interior vibe). That being said, we'll def be back.

One of, if not the best restaurant interior in the city. Their attention to detail with everything, the staff, the plates, the utensils for each course was top notch. The food was beautifully presented but not one of the dishes was a knock out. Definitely go for the experience

Fantastic staff and ambience and some really interesting dishes. The oyster ice cream was an unexpected standout. However, some dishes were muddled with a variety of tastes which don't necessarily mesh as a whole. Although I'm not a drinker, the other five people in my party were and they reported the mixed drinks to be a mixed bag. Not sure if the overall dinner was worth the expense.

Absolutely amazing everything was impeccable. The service and atmosphere were first class and of the dishes that we tried, the skate and the milkbread appetizers, the oysters, the shrimp risotto, and the tiramisu were particularly noteworthy. Flavors blended so perfectly that it was nearly impossible to stop eating even when we were utterly full. I even reheated some of the risotto of the following day and it was still astonishing. I can't wait to return. The specialty cocktails and mocktails were also noteworthy, completely unique and exceptionally concocted. Delicious! Delightful! Don't miss it!

Went as part of a wedding party and had the tasting menu with 10 courses. It was an amazing culinary adventure with the sea. Everything has an ocean element, from oyster ice cream (unexpectedly delicious) to a seaweed martini (interesting but odd.) The service is perfectly timed and coordinated by a wait staff that must have been trained as ninjas! They explained each dish and the wine pairings. High dining with the high seas!

Had dinner with friends here – it's awesome! Seafood galore, creative and tasty dishes. High-end dining, the chef explains everything. Super classy interior and got a private room for our party of 6.

We did the cocktail tasting (plus a la carte menu items). I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed with fooddrinkservice. Everything was perfect.

Great experience and their seafood focused menu was a delight.

Definitely deserving of their star ️and I look forward to revisiting their menu in the future.

It’s cliché to say this, but the experience really does start when you open the front doors to this restaurant! Michael and his team do an excellent job of taking care of you and the Chefs know how to execute the perfect tasting menu.

I highly recommend the anchovy to start with paired with their Sauvignon Blanc.

The atmosphere is stunning and the whole service team is highly professional.

Decent food - some of their dishes standout and others are very mid. I would recommend checking it out for sure because the service and ambiance are amazing! But they can def use some work on their main proteins - a little bland

Phenomenal restaurant with even better service. All seafood but definitely a lot of creative preparations.

I actually ordered two of the bread/crab dish. It was so good.

Cool table side martini preparation, though they didn't give me the option to pick vodka or gin.

Super cool space, really feels like you're somewhere unique and not just another nice restaurant in SF.

Highly recommend if you love seafood. There was oyster ice cream. It's worth trying.

Aphotic opened in the middle of 2023 is the next hit of San Francisco. Aphotic or "absence of light" where less than 1% of light shines through the sea refers to their mission to using unique ingredients of the sea to creating new culinary and extraction techniques to seafood cuisine. Aphotic also explains their moody interior and ambiance. Aphotic offers unique cocktail menu and feel free to ask the well knowledgeable baristas about their recommendations. We were fortunate to dine with a local regular who highly recommended the cocktail tasting menu the next time we return. Walk ins are available on the bar. This place does not disappoint-I would definitely come here to impress a date and anniversary celebrations. Their oyster ice cream is definitely a unique dessert-very potently oyster and leaves you with hints of chestnut undertones.

There is definitely a lot of thought put into every course. Everything was special/had its own twist but not everything tasted good. I felt for some of the courses, the ingredients didn’t integrate well. Like for this sashimi fish, I could barely taste the fish…instead there was this very distinct, overpowering herb flavor that just didn’t work with the fish (btw it’s not shiso or anything I’ve tasted in sushi). It could just be me though. Service and atmosphere were amazing!

From our dinner, we only enjoyed the caviar/chip dish that was served in the beginning. Most other dishes we weren't able to finish, and found taste disagreeable.

* amuse nigiri: tastes stale, like it's been sitting out for too long
* caviar/chip: delicious, favorite dish
* risotto: terrible flavors, annoying foam
* skate main: bland and uninspired
* soup: flat, weird after-taste
* japanese milk bread w/ crab: this was 2nd favorite, didn't enjoy the aioli, but has potential to be a refined lobster roll
* reimagined oyster w/ foam: awful, just please stop serving this
* dessert concoction was served with a plastic wrapper *still on*
* finishing chocolate cookie with caviar: unholy combination of flavors; please stop serving this

We really wanted to like this place, but required a cocktail just to bring our taste buds back to sanity.

Ambiance and service: clearly a lot of money was spent on design and ambiance, and service staff (other than the plastic wrapper forgotten on dessert) was professional and available. Unfortunately, the energy just isn't there. Angler, another seafood focused restaurant, is warmer, higher energy, more fun, and with more upbeat service.

I don't understand the glowing reviews for this restaurant. They don't make any sense.

Aphotic is a restaurant shooting for the stars, with conceptually amazing food and drink, anchored by an in-depth fish aging program and an in-house distillation facility for entirely custom spirits. No one else in the city is doing this. And yet the results are simply good, occasionally great, but rarely as amazing as I expected given the tools at their disposal.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed my visit: the staff and service are excellent and accommodating, the food is very good and well balanced, and the cocktails were as a whole also tasty. But having tried 8 drinks with their cocktail tasting menu (I love that they do this), and evaluating their cocktail program on that basis, I'd say that - while it has some great drinks and a lot of promise - it ultimately falls short of the incredible possibilities their in-house distillates provide.

Although they use some of these distillates (essentially strongly and uniquely flavored spirits made in-house) in their drinks, I found the flavors they added to be too subtle to be of major note in many cases. Perhaps it's just a matter of preference, but if we're going to have nori or citrus marigold in a cocktail, I want that flavor to stand out a bit more. As it is some of the drinks, like a Penicillin variation, don't taste different enough from the standard you might get at another quality bar (and for a lower price, albeit with less cool glassware). They were uniformly good, but mostly lacked enough uniqueness or a "wow" factor (with a couple exceptions). It feels like a somewhat wasted opportunity.

That said everything is certainly quite good. As a restaurant and bar program they are also very new, some 6 months from opening I believe, so there is plenty of room to grow into their potential and I have high hopes that they will do just that. So I will certainly be returning to see how things evolve in the future and I hope their innovative approach brings them years of success! We need more places blazing trails like this, even if the results are not always as spectacular in practice as they have the potential of being. Shoot for the stars and land on the moon? I'll take it.