City of Sonoma
Why go
A Japanese restaurant with Japanese food, not an American restaurant serving Japanese food is the local reputation.
Great sushi place and friendly service. Their chirashi is outstanding and not an afterthought. They even included toro in it. They aren’t messing around.
The real deal. Raised in Tokyo, proprietor Shige Mori brings a food sensibility far more nuanced than a typical Japanese menu. Sonoma Magazine called Shige 'a spot that feels transplanted from a funky Tokyo suburb directly into Sonoma,' meaning this is a Japanese restaurant with Japanese food, not an American restaurant serving Japanese food. The menu runs from perfectly executed salmon nigiri to monkfish liver, salted sardine, and the deliberately cryptic 'Shige Panic Roll' whose description is simply a row of question marks. Izakaya skewers, braised pork belly, chicken curry, and tonkatsu round it out. Their Chirashi is excellent and they include toro and other premium fish in the dish. Great and delicious value. Two locations: the Sonoma flagship (Tue–Sat lunch and dinner) and the original Cotati spot on Old Redwood Hwy. Cotati is the original; Sonoma is the flagship. Both carry the same DNA.
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