Japanese Restaurant Near Me at the Ferry Building: Delica's Deli Counter

Delica has sold Japanese deli food inside the Ferry Building since 2003, and it is closed on Sunday. Shop 45 in the marketplace at 1 Ferry Building opens Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 5 pm, and a bowl of gyu-don costs $16. If you want a japanese restaurant near me on the Embarcadero that works for a quick waterfront lunch, this counter sells by the piece and by the pound.

Delica's own history page says it was founded in 2003 as part of the Ferry Building Marketplace, the year the restored terminal reopened as a food hall. Its goal was to bring the Japanese-style deli to the United States. In Japan these shops sell sozai, ready-made side dishes that people buy by weight for lunch or to round out dinner at home, and they sit in every department store basement.

The name comes from the word delicatessen, and the house motto is Japanese flavors meet California ingredients. In practice that means organic spring mix and Russet potatoes beside hijiki seaweed and burdock root. It has now worked from the same building for more than twenty years, and the current menu PDF on its website was last updated on October 16, 2026, so the prices below are the ones posted at the counter this autumn.

Most of the menu is sold by weight from a glass case. The hijiki and soybean salad, made with seaweed, soybeans, konnyaku and fried tofu skin, costs $18 a pound. The spicy burdock root salad and the green bean salad in sesame dressing are $17 a pound each. The wasabi garlic potato salad, made with house wasabi mayonnaise and edamame, is $16 a pound.

Fried items are priced by the piece. A tonkatsu pork cutlet in house-made panko costs $3.50, as do a potato croquette with caramelized onions and the sweet and spicy chicken. A fried shrimp cake and an agedashi tofu steak with Far West Fungi mushrooms cost $7 each. Pointing at the case and building a plate this way is the most flexible lunch in the building.

The lunch combinations are the better value, and the menu says they are for ordering in the restaurant only, not by phone. Combination one, two salads and a main item, or a salad, a soup and a main, costs $16.50. Three salads cost $15.50. Two salads with white rice cost $14.50, and a salad and main with rice cost $15. These prices undercut most sit-down lunches on the Embarcadero.

The 4-item bento costs $17.50, and an assorted nine-piece sushi bento is $19.50. An honest call: the sushi bento is the weakest choice in this case. The deli salads and fried items are what Delica makes in-house every day, and they are the food you cannot get at the sushi counters elsewhere in the marketplace. Build a combination plate instead.

When the wind comes off the bay, order a hot bowl. Gyu-don, thin Angus beef simmered with white onion in a lightly sweet soy sauce, costs $16. The beef curry with Yukon potatoes costs $16.50, or $18.50 for a large, and the vegetarian mushroom curry topped with fried lotus chips is the same price. Tempura udon with a shrimp and vegetable kakiage costs $17.

Organic tofu miso soup costs $5 a cup or $6.50 a bowl, and the cup is enough beside a curry. Note that the house mayonnaise contains raw egg, a warning printed on the menu, which matters for pregnant guests choosing among the salads. The menu also flags that agedashi tofu may be fried in the same oil as animal products, so strict vegans should skip it.

Delica has no reservations and no table service. Seating in the Ferry Building is shared, either at the benches inside the long nave or outside along the water behind the building, where ferries come and go. The quietest time is right at 9:30 am opening or after 2 pm. Weekday lunch between noon and 1 pm brings the Financial District crowd, and the line moves at deli speed.

Saturday is the busiest day in the building because the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market sets up outside, and Delica is closed Sunday, so Saturday is the only weekend option. Come before 11 am on a Saturday to beat the crowds. For a large group, the shop offers catering but asks for 72 hours' notice and charges cancellations made within 24 hours in full.

Take your food outside to the back of the Ferry Building, where benches face the bay and the Bay Bridge. From there it is about a thirty minute walk north along the Embarcadero to Pier 39, passing the Exploratorium science museum at Pier 15 on the way, or a short walk south toward the Rincon Park bow-and-arrow sculpture, Cupid's Span. Both walks are flat, and the bay views make a takeout lunch feel like a picnic.

If Delica's case is picked over late in the day, the Ferry Building has other counters under the same roof, so you will not leave hungry. But for Japanese food sold by weight, this is the only option in the marketplace, which is why the earlier visit pays off. Embarcadero BART station is about a five minute walk from the front door.

Address: Delica, 1 Ferry Building, Shop 45, San Francisco, CA 94111, in the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero. Hours from the official site: Monday to Saturday 9:30 am to 5 pm, closed Sunday. Transit: Embarcadero BART and Muni Metro station, and the F Market streetcar stops at the Ferry Building. Parking: the Ferry Building's visitor page names the lot at Embarcadero and Washington as its preferred, validated option, $14 for the first hour with a validation from most shops or $20 without. The Embarcadero Center garages a few blocks inland have an entrance at 175 Drumm Street.

Prices from the official menu PDF: gyu-don $16, beef curry $16.50 regular, tempura udon $17, 4-item bento $17.50, sushi bento $19.50, tonkatsu $3.50 each, potato croquette $3.50 each, hijiki salad $18 a pound, combination one $16.50. Ask the Karpo APP for a waterfront walk to pair with a Ferry Building lunch.