Yokai

If you need a post-work drink and snack in SoMa that’s not at a dark pub or hotel bar, Yokai (by the Gozu people) is a solid option. The industrial-chic Japanese restaurant doubles as a listening bar with shelves lined with every record imaginable. Once you slide into a leather banquette, focus your attention on the menu of whisky highballs, wine, and cocktails, and the mostly successful shareables. The charcoal-grilled salmon belly skewer melts like butter, and the wagyu gyoza is a mouthful of straight-up luxury, but the scallop tobanyaki and a too-sweet strawberry kakigori range from forgettable to just fine. This place gets the job done if you’re in the area (and if the company card is on hand since the skewers add up).

photo credit: Joseph Weaver