Tokyo Table Trip

Logo discover 8a060a5a25d78a2d81322b0a16884eb1c05869ebadb772a16350e198984e5cfb

BACK

Some under-the-radar sushi shops in Tokyo

mirugai

Hi all,

I've gotten curious about Jizouzushi or Sushi Imamura. Any recent experiences with them? I'd be attempting to book by calling myself, as a foreigner, with just enough Japanese to get by---worth a shot or no chance? In general I'm always happy to hear of any relatively welcoming under-the-radar shops that are fun, delicious, and not trendy at all. :)

Add photos

34 Comments


1. Jizosushi: This is a mysterious restaurant that's supposedly open only 3 days a week. I've heard that their sushi is on an extremely high level. I'm asking my hotel concierge if they accept reservations from non-Japanese speakers; if there are any updates I will share!

2. Imamura: They moved locations recently and I heard there might be a sous chef serving nigiri now (?) Would also love to learn more if anyone has gone!

Some other shops I've come across that look pretty interesting - if anyone has any experiences with these (especially from the perspective of a foreigner who speaks no Japanese), that would be very helpful.

3. Sushi Komari: The "chef" also works as a broker at Toyosu market. Lunch looks like especially good value at ¥8,000 for ~15 pieces of sushi. Looks like he uses aka-shari but the course is light on simmered items. https://www.sushi-comari.com/en

4. Sushi Seishin: Looks like a shop that serves orthodox, bulbous, aka-shari based nigiri (reminds me of Tomidokoro). The chef is active on Instagram (@n.o.sushi) and frequently posts openings. Lunch at ¥6,000 looks like incredible value.

5. Sushi Kanesho: Saito-san actually gave this shop an "A" rating on his sushi guide so I'm quite interested in checking it out. The shari is white-vinegared based, supposedly with a muted presence, and the simple neta preparations would appeal to traditionalists. There are some good value lunch sets once again (https://restaurant.ikyu.com/108876/lunch)

6. Ishimaru: The nigiri looks stunning but no idea if they accept reservations from foreigners

7. Sushi Hojo: Apparently the chef worked at Miyako Sushi (famous, of course, for being the site where Sugita-san trained) and Sushi Sora in Mandarin Oriental so he speaks good English. http://sushi-hojo.jp/

8. Sushi Molinari: The chef worked at Kosazasushi and you can see the influence in the large pieces and anago preparation. Seems like a nice and casual spot for lunch. http://www.sushi-molinari.com/

If you're a boring traditionalist like me, one shop you might want to check out is Sushi Isshin in Asakusa [don't mistake it for the one in Akasaka!] which I plan to visit in a few months :) [https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131102/13005044/] In the same vein, Matsuno Sushi looks absolutely delicious to me (https://sushi-blog.com/entry/shiinamachi-matsunosushi)

And for standing sushi leaning towards the high end, I've heard Bullpen ("Burupen") is pretty decent: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1317/A131712/13263649/

1674113373 Reply
Add photos

@Just_Ingest This is an amazing list! Really helpful for discovering new places. Of these, I’ve only known Bullpen (plan to compare it against Tachigui Sushi Akira soon)

Ishimaru has piqued my interest.

1674120003 Reply
Add photos

@Just_Ingest great list, thank you! Komari is on my radar as well... looks like a fun counter.

1674120705 Reply
Add photos

Great list. I added a few of these to mine. I've only been to Seishin out of these and I can recommend the 6k lunch.

1674123143 Reply
Add photos

@Just_Ingest wonderful list.

I actually planned to visit a number of the shops on the list. But only in may.


1. Ishimaru - you can drop them a message on line to book and they open for reservations 1 month ahead.

2. Matsunosushi - open for reservations 30 days ahead. Looks absolutely delicious to me too.

3. Sushi ichigo - can reserve anytime. This was a b+ on saito-san's list and he allows you to request for nigiri-only. His IG account looks funny to me,with lots of awkward selfies with his neta and laments about his neta and his low tabelog score but he is still featured in sushi books based on what I interpret from Google translate.

4. Sushi araki- ex-takamitsu chef who does alot of extremely low temperature aging. Spotted this from sushi_architect ig. Tabelog score isn't high but form looks good.

5. Sushi sagawa- ex-sous chef at ranmaru. Visiting purely because he served me at ranmaru and he was very hospitable and spoke good English. Only accept lunch reservations for non-members. Again can reserve anytime by dropping him a msg on IG. Though he seems to have increased his pricing recently, so CP value is low.

1674125823 Reply
Add photos

@thetokyogourmet How was the vibe at Sushi Seishin? Any chance it's foreigner-friendly? :)

@Yeehow Thanks for sharing your list! I've never heard of #4 and #5 before.

1674175136 Reply
Add photos

Adding Sushidokoro Takehara 鮨処たけ原 in Ebisu to my own list (https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13274085/). Looks interesting and easy to book!

1674334365 Reply
Add photos

My concierge just informed that neither Jizosushi nor Sushi Oku will take reservations from non-Japanese speakers.

Way to include yourselves in the Michelin guide, guys!

1674353129 Reply
Add photos

Probably they didn't wanted the Michelin star in the first place. We should probably start a thread on those sushi restaurants not accepting non-english speakers.

1674362359 Reply
Add photos

Just FYI, Sushi Sagawa says on their Tabelog that they have stopped doing lunch and that they only accept reservations from members. Don't know if this is accurate.

1674449382 Reply
Add photos

@guest you are probably correct for sushi sagawa. I have DM the chef and as I made my reservation in Nov, it is still confirmed.

Unfortunately, it is no longer available for the others.

Another place on my list with good CP with a low tabelog score would be sushi tsugumi. They seems to directly source from fishermen, hence the low cost. It used hard shari, hence may not be suitable for everyone.

https://s.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1329/A132904/13265567/dtlrvwlst/

1674482853 Reply
Add photos

@Just_Ingest Sushi Seishin is casual and the chef very relaxed.

1674589213 Reply
Add photos

Hmm. Now I have more to consider for my trip. I am looking at Mizukami vs. Ebisu Endo for last night in Tokyo. Now I'm thinking Komari would be excellent. Do you think Komari is okay with non-Japanese speaking foreigners? We would love to support this new shop, opened in 2022. Also looking at Sushidokoro Yamada. So hard to choose between them!

1680456027 Reply
Add photos

Komari is ok with non-japanese speaking foreigners. Though it has quite a unique flow, ending with maguro before anago.


Sushidokoro yamada is a good place for aged sushi and it depends on whether you will like a straight-on nigiri place without gari and tsumami.

If you already got a place at mizukami/ebisu endo, I am a bit perplexed why you would want to give it up to go to komari. Unless you are a sushi connoisseur/maniac like saito-san or Justin or localtaste, there is no particular reason for you to go to the less obscure places when you can get a more renowned place.

1680485491 Reply
Add photos

Appreciate your thoughts. We had not secured reservations but saw that they were open, so we did not have to give up one. I was curious if some had a preference for one shop over another before we made a reservation.

1680540739 Reply
Add photos

@goochmonger I haven't tried Endo but had an excellent nigiri-only lunch course at Mizukami very recently. I would certainly recommend it. The whole staff is very comfortable hosting foreign visitors and were lovely all around. I'd happily visit again for the full dinner course (also available at lunch) next time I'm in town.

1680551350 Reply
Add photos

Went to Mizukami and Ebisu Endo before Covid and liked the former more since it is more traditional. Revisited Ebisu Endo two weeks ago and it wasn’t as good as before Covid. Texture of the Shari is too much and too chewy. If I were choosing, it is an easy choice

1680668689 Reply
Add photos

I thought Yamada was an exceptional restaurant and the nigiri would rank somewhere in my top 8 list. Aging was certainly a theme, but I thought the course on the whole was less about aging and more about uncovering all the goodness in inexpensive and/or uncommon ingredients and pairing them with very good shari. The course was masterfully balanced with "weird stuff," some of which actually tasted amazing and which you can only sample at this restaurant, as well as more conventional Edomae pieces which were executed at a very high level. I almost burst out laughing when he served a piece of bincho maguro (i.e. albacore, which gives me Sugarfish "dunk the fish in ponzu sauce" vibes) but was left in silence after I tasted it and thought about how good it was.

I don't necessarily recommend it for beginners because it may be weird as heck, but if you love nigiri and have eaten at a fair number of sushi restaurants, I'm confident you'll know exactly why the place is so different, in a good way. It is unquestionably on my list of places to revisit.

1680789954 Reply
Add photos

Justin, can I ask what is your ranking for top 8 for nigiri?

1680843946 Reply
Add photos

My ranking is always changing (the more places I visit) and some meals can be wildly different across multiple visits. But as of today, for nigiri, I'd say the places I'd give a 9/10 or more are Sushi Ao, Shimizu, Sushi Ichijo, and Chikamatsu; while the places I'd give an 8 to 9 out of 10 are (not in order) Namba Hibiya, Inomata, Yamada, Hashiguchi, Tomidokoro, and Tenzushi (which I think is highly inconsistent and can be either a mediocre or mind-blowing meal). Please note I haven't been to Sugita/Arai/Amamoto yet :')

1680853963 Reply
Add photos

Thanks. Can I ask how did you get a reservation for chikamatsu?

1680856090 Reply
Add photos

By a connection :P

1680870732 Reply
Add photos

Justin, do you have any review of sushi kanesho?

1680939165 Reply
Add photos

@Just_Ingest Thank you for the rankings! We were unsuccessful in securing reservations for Sushi AO during the last Omakase release. Are you aware of another method to make a reservation for this shop (like hotel concierge), or do you think if Omakase reservations aren't available, there is little chance for access. It looks like Ichijo, a 9/10 on your nigiri rating, does have some availability for reservation through ikyu.com at a relatively good price compared to some others. Sushi Geek also rates this shop highly. Sushi AO is descendant of Jiro-school. How would you describe Ichijo? More of the Shimazu-school?

1680990840 Reply
Add photos

@goochmonger Yes, Ichijo is a fan of Shimizu and models his sushi after Shimizu's style, which is pretty different from Jiro's style.

Unfortunately, AO can only be booked via Omakase now. Even the concierge at Tokyo Station Hotel, who is on very friendly terms with Okazaki san, is unable to book directly.

If you want to try Jiro style and would like to book via a hotel concierge, I recommend Mizukami.

<this is the sushi geek, btw. can't log in to my account anymore on TTP and the password reset email doesn't arrive to my email account. shrug>

1680996263 Reply
Add photos

Thank you, Sushi Geek! Would you recommend full Omakase for dinner at Mizukami or nigiri only? Do you think nigiri only is enough for full meal based on your experience?

1680998184 Reply
Add photos

On Endo, I had a similar experience as DanielfromHK. Went 3 years ago and it was quite nice, but went again 5 month ago and it clearly went a bit downhill: lower QA, service and neta quality overall. Inconsistent shari. I thought I maybe went in a bad day but the datapoint from Daniel makes it a bit disappointing.

1681051053 Reply
Add photos

Updating with a review on sushi araki.

Personal experience / Disclaimer

I have been to a number of sushi restaurants: namba hibiya, sushi ikko, sushi obana, sushi takamitsu, sushi takaoka, takamitsu, ishiyama, Ichijou, hakkoku, inomata, hashiguchi, yoshitake etc. Please take my review with a grain of salt.

Ambience

It is located in the residential area, 1 min walk away from senzoku station. It is not a glitzy place and definitely decor could be much better, though I have heard it was supposed to be relocating.

Style/shari

Nigiri sushi and tsumami are interspersed. Aging is practised but I felt that aging was done to make the most of his ingredients, rather than to be a business card.

There are a couple of interesting tsumami not commonly found at sushiyas like swordfish skewers and ika somen.

Traditional edomae sushi like hamaguri, kampyo, anago, akami(6 days aged with a piece of seaweed between the rice) are done pretty well.

There are some improvements which can be made in terms of the neta prep for the hikarimono e.g. kohada,aji and iwashi. I would have preferred a stronger hikarimono preparation whereby a stronger sourness will induce more sweetness/umami. Chutoro also tasted abit funky.

Shari size is smaller and salty, not to my preference but I like it surprisingly and temperature control was good.



Hospitality

Chef Kosuke araki looks serious in YouTube videos but he is very friendly and hospitable. He doesn't speak much English and also has an assistant who speaks some English as well.

I was worried with my kids making a din, running around the restaurant and rejecting food would be a complete nuisance and unacceptable. He translated to us and said don't worry, he has a 9 year old and 4 year old and they are equally picky, eating only salmons. On learning that my smaller kid likes seaweed, he kept on offering her seaweed to the point that we were joking she is having "nori omakase". Just to add, we were the only guests at that timing, so we didn't cause any trouble for other guests. 2 hours went by in a blink of an eye without any worries of kids misbehaving and feeling unwelcome.

Ingredients

There are no otoro or branded uni like hadate/higashizawa. Uni is decent at this price, but don't expect it to be mind-blowing.

Reservation Method

Reservation made by hotel concierge 3 months ahead.

Price

It costs me 42,000jpy for 2 adults, 1 add-on of hamaguri, 1 add-on of uni, 2 kampyo maki, 1/2 kappa maki and "nori omakase" for the kids.

Personal rating: 7.5-8/10



Conclusion

This is definitely the no. 1 counter sushi restaurant which I hope to revisit in the future if I am bringing kids.

1684167949 Reply
Add photos

A review on sushi isshin.

Saito-san ranks it as B+ on his sushi guide.

Personal experience / Disclaimer

I have been to a number of sushi restaurants: namba hibiya, sushi ikko, sushi obana, sushi takamitsu, sushi takaoka, takamitsu, ishiyama, Ichijou, hakkoku, inomata, hashiguchi, yoshitake etc. Please take my review with a grain of salt.

Ambience

It is located behind sensoji, 17 mins walk away from asakusa station. It used to have one Michelin star and the decor is abit dated.

Style/shari
I ordered a set of 20 nigiris. Nice warm acidic akazu-based shari which worked well with all the neta.
Almost all the neta was sliced and rested upon start of service for effficiency(I presume). Neta were quite thick and slicing of maguro was mainly done by the taisho while the sous chef handled the other pieces. Nigiri was mainly moulded by the sous chef besides the maguro pieces. Traditional edomae pieces like tako, engawa, aji, akagai, clams and hamaguri were done very well. Hamaguri and clams were of a large size, which shellfish lovers would love. Kurumaebi was humongous but there was a lack of sweetness.
Multiple sushi pieces were served on the plate at the same time (e.g. at one time Aji, iwashi and engawa served together).
Serving speed was super blitzing fast, the course was finished in less than 30 mins.
It is more of a style preference with some of the neta being a tad colder than I preferred.
There were 1-2 pieces whereby the nigiri moulding was abit soft and the rice seems to crumble when I held on to it.
No kohada and tamago were served during the course.



Hospitality

Taisho takashi hashimoto and his sous chef are very polite and welcoming. His sous chef speaks decent English and is able to explain all the ingredients well and even offered to put 4 seats together like a bench so that my kids would be sandwiched and not be running around. They gave thumbs-up and smiled at the kids from time-to-time.

Ingredients
Maguro and uni are decent, but again don't expect mind-blowing stuff.

Reservation Method

Reservation can be made by ikyu, jpneazy or hotel concierge. Easy booking 1 mth ahead by ikyu.

Price

It costs me 45,100jpy for 2x 20 pcs nigiri course, 1 kampyo maki for the kids.

Personal rating: 7.5/10



Conclusion

This is definitely a restaurant to visit at least once for experienced sushi lovers who likes edomae prep work and is easy to book.

1684250927 Reply
Add photos

A review on sushi ichigo

Saito-san ranks it as B+ on his sushi guide. Hikari hayakawa has recommended this place on his book and sushi-blog has a very good review of this place.

https://sushi-blog.com/entry/sushi-ichigo

Personal experience / Disclaimer

I have been to a number of sushi restaurants: namba hibiya, sushi ikko, sushi obana, sushi takamitsu, sushi takaoka, takamitsu, ishiyama, Ichijou, hakkoku, inomata, hashiguchi, yoshitake etc. Please take my review with a grain of salt.

Ambience

It is located in setagaya, 7 mins walk away from chitose-karasuyama and is bright with nice natural light.

Style/shari
I made a reservation via JPNEAZY and requested for nigiri omakase. The shari was akazu-based, acidic and salty. It felt punchy due to the saltiness rather than the sourness, but the saltiness did not felt overpowering. For those who like very acidic shari(shimizu style), they might not like it, but the shari was close to perfect for me.

Sushi are on the large side and I almost couldn't find a flaw with any piece, everything tasted great and the shari complemented all his neta. Everything was so good that I didn't count the number of nigiris I had. The otoro had abit more sinew than I preferred but it was still very delicious. Kohada was nicely marinated with a good balance without being too sour.
There is also restrained creativity displayed whereby asari clams were served as nigiri instead of the usual hamaguri. The only thought i had was wow! Didn't expect asari clams to work so well as a nimono too.

Hospitality

Taisho tatsuya higuchi and his okami-san are very humble, polite and welcoming. They let us in when we reached 15 mins ahead of time. It is probably the first sushi counter meal whereby my kids were entertained enough to keep on staying in their seats as okami-san firstly brought out small fish toys to entertain the kids. Towards the end of the meal, when the kids were getting frustrated and wanted to get out, taisho higuchi-san brandished out his stash of inflatable toys for the kids to choose to settle them down.


Ingredients
Everything was great, despite not being "branded" or being humongous in size. Ogawa uni was sweet and nice. Kuruma ebi was not big but full of flavour.
Don't come in expecting for humongous neta, Santa Barbara uni or display of maguro receipts beside their sushi.

Reservation Method

Reservation can be made by tabelog or hotel concierge. They do not seem to really have a specific reservation window, you can make a booking many months ahead.
JPNEAZY has stopped accepting reservations for restaurants outside their list, so probably tabelog or hotel concierge is the way to go.
They do have both Twitter and Instagram accounts, so reservations could be made there too, though I haven't tried.

Price

It costs me 40,100jpy for 2x nigiri omakase course, add-ons for 1 zuke, 1 chutoro, 1 uni, 1 Kurumaebi, 1.5 kampyo maki and 1 egg.
This is a very good cost performance for what you are getting.

Personal rating: 8.5/10

Conclusion
I do not know why it does not have a higher tabelog rating(3.18) but it is a almost-perfect edomae sushi restaurant in my book whereby taisho uses his technique to maximise the taste of the ingredients without using any luxurious/supersized sushi neta. This is definitely on my revisit list.

1684367808 Reply
Add photos

Thanks a bunch for these very enjoyable reviews Yee How! Love that you're travelling the off-the-beaten path and great to hear how each place has their own strategy of accommodating kids.

Your review of Sushi Ichigo has got me very interested. According to Hikari Hayakawa, the taisho doesn't overdo things and his shari is in fact seasoned with just one kind of akazu (i.e. it's not blended). Looks like it worked out very well based on your descriptions. At any rate, this seems like the kind of sushiya that a lot of people on this site would like. Do you have an idea of how it might compare to places like Keita or Suzuki? Also, how was the pacing of the meal (hope it's not like your experience at Isshin, lol)

I don't understand why some places go "super blitzing fast." They'll probably cite "sushi is a fast food" as the reason, but I think that in the current era, it's just discourteous to spam 20 pieces in 30 minutes. It's almost as if they want to get you out of the restaurant as fast as possible, which I also don't understand because you're paying quite a hefty amount, and Isshin doesn't look like it's popular enough to do 5 turnovers a night. I had a similar experience at Senpachi where the boss did 12 pieces of nigiri in 18 minutes. That was simply not fun for both the taste buds and the stomach.

Hope you're enjoying your trip and looking forward to more reviews!

1684373590 Reply
Add photos

@Justin if I did not remember wrongly, sushi ichigo was using a particular brand of mizkan akazu. Been to Suzuki years back and i remembered he uses a blend of akazu and komezu for sweetness and sourness, so it wasn't that sour if my memories are correct. Keita I haven't been to yet.

The pacing at sushi ichigo was just right, it was like 1.5 hrs for 18 nigiris.

I don't know what's the rush for isshin too hahaha. I was contemplating if I was the only customer, would they finish in under 15 mins? I just hope it's their style of delivering nigiris fast as there were no one coming in after we left.

1684514434 Reply
Add photos

A review on sushi morinari
Sushi-blog has a very good review of this place.
https://sushi-blog.com/entry/sushi-molinari
Sushi Lehman has also written an article on this. On a side note, sushi Lehman also has a nice note.com page below which has some paid content and also a nice article of him eating sushi 365 days a year(highly entertaining stuff!)
https://www.enjoytokyo.jp/article/200851/
https://note.com/sushimania/


Personal experience / Disclaimer

I have been to a number of sushi restaurants: namba hibiya, sushi ikko, sushi obana, sushi takamitsu, sushi takaoka, takamitsu, ishiyama, Ichijou, hakkoku, inomata, hashiguchi, yoshitake etc. Please take my review with a grain of salt.

Ambience

It is located 1 min walk away from tsukiji station and is located below jige tsukiji, just take the flight of stairs down. It is bright and airy and there have been people describing it as an art gallery with pieces from taisho okazaki's father. I personally felt that it has the ambience of a study room of a sushi and arts lover as there is a table seat near the counter with 4 sushi books on top, with one of them being "Edomae Sushi" by Kikuo Shimizu. If not for the constraints of time, I would have gladly sat down and slowly browse through the books there.

Style/shari
The shari was warm, komezu-based, sour and the sourness brings forth the sweetness of the rice. It is very refreshing such that you are able to finish the whole course even though the sushi are probably the biggest pieces I have ever eaten. Neta are also very generously sliced, with a very humongous hotate nigiri being one of the highlights of the meal. As expected from a kozasa-sushi lineage, traditional edomae pieces like kohada, Aji, hamaguri and anago are great. Kurumaebi, torigai, akagai, hirame are pretty good too.
Maguro is likely not hon-maguro as the taste is mild and it lacks the aroma of hon-maguro, again no complaints for the price, just don't come expecting too much. And personally I value a well-prepared zuke more than a fatty Oma otoro these days.
Tamago is just made of eggs and yam without shibaebi, so folks who are allergic to prawns can enjoy them easily too.

Personally, I would much prefer a more punchy shari, but I must say his shari works well with most of his pieces. There were 1-2 neta which I felt the temperature could be warmer, but otherwise I would rate his sushi favourably. Any experienced sushi fundamentalists/traditionalists will love the large rustic sushi made in traditional edomae style.

Hospitality

Taisho morinari okazaki and his okami-san are very polite, gentle and have their own way with kids. Okami-san, offered various juices for the kids to choose from a tray to start. I believe taisho okazaki is a very sharp person, upon noticing 1 of my kids is 2 years old, he immediately gestured to okami-san to change the plate, chopsticks and chopsticks holder to a small tablecloth. Okami-san also brought out a tablet with translation app to ask "How would the kids like their meal to be? ", which was a very nice gesture. When my elder kid refused to eat sushi, taisho okazaki immediately started offering tamago. Okami-san also brought out fruits to keep kids busy when they started to get unsettled.

Ingredients
Most stuff was good/great, except the uni+ikura bowl which I thought was pretty bad. The uni did not have either sweetness/creaminess and ikura did not have an interesting texture/aroma. Again, no luxurious items like caviar, keiji, awabi with liver sauce and nodoguro are used.


Reservation Method
Reservation can be made by tabelog or ikyu every 2 weeks. They seems to release their slots on Saturday if I recall correctly. And tabelog reservation window seems to open a few hours before the ikyu one.

Price
It costs me 34,100jpy for 2x meigetsu course(16 pc dinner nigiri), add-ons for 1 hamaguri, 1 hotate, 1 kampyo maki, 1 egg and 2 juices.
This is a very good cost performance and I will happily pay for this.

Personal rating: 7.5 - 8/10

Conclusion
This is a sushi restaurant with good cost performance and is easy to book. I would be happy to revisit this restaurant if I am a local suddenly craving for a good quality sushiya serving big edomae sushi using modern warm rice.

1684514568 Reply
Add photos

A review on ishimaru
Sushi-blog has a very good review of this place.
https://sushi-blog.com/entry/omiya-ishimaru

Personal experience / Disclaimer

I have been to a number of sushi restaurants: namba hibiya, sushi ikko, sushi obana, sushi takamitsu, sushi takaoka, takamitsu, ishiyama, Ichijou, hakkoku, inomata, hashiguchi, yoshitake etc. Please take my review with a grain of salt.

Ambience

It is located 6 minutes walk away from omiya station and is located on the second floor of a building in a side alley.
It is like a hidden restaurant which is brightly-lit and is able to seat up to 8 persons.

Style/shari
The shari is akazu-based, warm, small-sized, chewy with a firm centre and mild. It seems like the shari is a blend of yokoi kohaku. Personally, I feel that it has individuality for a Shari, especially from a taisho who has not trained at a sushi restaurant. At the same time, I personally feel that it is not punchy enough to suit all the netas and it is a very ginza-like shari. No issues with temperature control.
I felt there were issues with compactness between shari and neta. Some of the other guests were raving oishi about their torigai, but I felt there it was unbalanced like it was not sushi but 2 seperate entities: good shari and good neta. Furthermore, the small sized nigiri was not helping.
Pretty good pieces were tairagai(with a piece of seaweed between the shellfish and rice), kasugodai, uni supplement and minced medium fatty tuna temaki was pretty good. Shiromi tasted pretty one-dimensional.
Tamago was pretty good and it was a first for me to have pineapple as dessert and it was very sweet.
Big eaters will not be full after the meal, me and my wife had to eat a couple of cheese tarts at omiya station and we are not big eaters.

Hospitality
Taisho numari hiroyuki and his sous chef were very polite and was smiling at all times. They did not engage us too much due to language barriers, but service was top-notch. They printed an English menu to let us know what items are for the day, offered a matcha cake to my elder daughter in case she is hungry before her kampyo maki arrived and numerous pieces of nori to satisfy both my kids' cravings. Even when my kids threw a tantrum, taisho hiroyuki just gave a gentle laugh at the sight of it and reassure you it is okay. At the end of the meal, taisho also gave his business card and napkin like sawada.


Ingredients
Neta sourcing was good. No otoro provided for lunch and uni only provided as supplement


Reservation Method
Reservation can be made by line 1 month ahead. They accept foreigners and they might mention that they can't speak English, just tell them that you can communicate with them with a translation app and they should accept your reservation.
https://lin.ee/I7idLl4

Price
It costs me 39,050jpy for 2* lunch nigiri courses(15000jpy per pax before tax), 2 * uni supplements(2500 jpy per pax before tax) and 1 kampyo maki(500 jpy per pax before tax).

It has one of the best accounting for a sushiya, whereby they provided you a receipt with a breakdown of individual addon items and price.

Personal rating: 7.0-7.5/10

Conclusion
Honestly, I am a bit disappointed as I have pretty high expectations coming in. I probably will not revisit again in the near future unless there are improvements to nigiri moulding and neta preparation.
With that said, the service is top-notch and it could be a good option which is easily bookable for sushi beginners if you have plans to be in the area.

1684711028 Reply
Add photos