Chicken out

TBD (FiDi)

RESTAURANTS • First Word

The Skinny: New FiDi izakaya TBD is a bit of a full circle moment: After nearly two decades of eating across San Francisco, one of my few regrets is never making it to the original Akikos, a Folsom St. omakase trailblazer opened by the Lee family way back in 1987. Son Ray Lee took over the business in 2009, the same year I interned for a nearby cookbook publisher, trudging past this restaurant every day. I didn’t exactly have omakase budget back then, and in 2023 Lee moved Akikos to a glittering high-rise in the East Cut, soon after he opened the exclusive Friends Only in Nob Hill. But now Lee has turned the former Akikos space into TBD, with Hina Yakitori chef Tommy Cleary running this grill.