TBD izakaya debuts Tuna Wellington

A new San Francisco izakaya has landed in the old Akiko’s space, and the reason people keep talking about it is not subtle. It’s a tuna Wellington — tuna wrapped in nori and puff pastry — at a restaurant still called TBD. That kind of dish can read like stunt food. But here it’s doing something more useful. It tells you exactly what this place is trying to be: Japanese in structure, loose with genre, and very interested in getting downtown diners excited again. Early reactions suggest it’s working, even if the room is still finding its rhythm. (hoodline.com) ### What is TBD, exactly? TBD is a new modern izakaya in Union Square at 431 Bush Street, in the original Akiko’s location. It’s the project of Ray Lee — the chef behind Akiko’s and Friends Only — and Tommy Cleary, whose Hina Yakitori made him one of the Bay Area’s best-known yakitori specialists before that restaurant closed (hoodline.com)bsessive live-fire chicken cookery. (kqed.org) ### Why is the tuna Wellington the hook? Because it instantly explains the pitch. This is not a conservative izakaya doing standard skewers and sashimi with a few twists. The Wellington has been described as tuna wrapped in nori and puff pastry, and it sits alongside dishes like truffle agedashi tofu, soufflé chawanmushi, and dry-aged sashimi(kqed.org)oncept dishes that get passed around group chats. (hoodline.com) ### Is this just a gimmick place? Probably not — and that’s the important distinction. The louder dish gets the attention, but multiple writeups point to the yakitori program as the real backbone. Cleary’s whole reputation comes from binchotan-grilled chicken, and TBD carries that forward with dry-aged chicken and boxed skewer(hoodline.com)s still technique, not just social-media bait. (kqed.org) ### How expensive is it? It looks flexible by San Francisco standards, but not cheap. Cleary’s old Hina format was a $165 tasting-menu splurge. TBD is meant to be more approachable. One diner can apparently get out for about $50 with a modest order, but a full meal with sashimi, hot dishes, yakitori, and a finishing pot can climb well past $1(kqed.org)t undersells how fast an ambitious order can stack up. (kqed.org) ### So where does the “rushed service” talk fit? That’s the soft-open catch. The restaurant is drawing heavy curiosity, and early buzz tends to compress a room before the team has fully settled into pace. Public diner reviews on OpenTable are very strong on food and service overall, but those are still a tiny sample size. So the fairest read (kqed.org)eady visible and the consistency is still catching up night by night. (opentable.com) ### Why does this matter beyond one restaurant? Because Union Square badly needs restaurants that feel like destinations, not placeholders. TBD gives a prominent downtown address a fresh identity and does it with chefs who already have real followings. In other words, this is not just another opening. It’s a test of whether San Francisco diners will still travel downtown fo(opentable.com)es. (opentable.com) ### Bottom line? TBD looks like a serious restaurant wearing a playful jacket. The tuna Wellington is the magnet, but the real story is a high-profile chef team trying to build a more repeatable, less formal kind of Japanese destination in downtown San Francisco. If the service smooths out, the place could become one of the city’s harder reservations for exactly the reason (opentable.com)kqed.org)