Hello, I am planning a food-focused trip to Japan in Sep’23. I know that there are an endless number of options and I was hoping to get some advice from the community re. my sushi picks in Tokyo. This will be my 2nd visit to Tokyo. The last time I was there was a long time ago and I was fortunate enough to dine at Sushi Iwa, Sushi Taichi & Daisan Harumi and liked them in that order.
I don’t think I enjoy extremely sour (Keita?) or salty shari but I would like to try a few different styles if possible. I would like to concentrate on nigiri more than tsumami but since I would like to plan a few meals, I can mix it up. I’m looking at about 6 meals, maybe 2 in the ¥40k-50k range, 2 in the ¥30k-35k range & 2 in the ¥20k-25k range. Weekend lunches would work!
I was planning to stay at Four Seasons but I read that the concierge at Tokyo Station Hotel might be better. Should I look into switching to that? I do not speak Japanese but I can try to request friends who do to call on my behalf if that helps (the friends do not live in Japan though so they may not have a Japanese phone number in case that’s needed). My only priority is deliciousness. Don’t really care about prestige or cool pictures or stuff.
Based on my research, I’ve come up with a few names:
- Sugita: I wasn’t planning on using Tableall. Taking that into consideration, should I even think about this or forget it and not even try?
- Hashiguchi: I’m not sure if they allow solo diners to make reservations?
- Kimura: Aged fish sounds interesting. Ichimura san in NYC used to do this and I loved his sushi! Don’t know if a reservation is possible here though.
- Hatsunezushi: Do they also age fish?
- Tachigui Sushi Akira
- Harutaka: Jiro Style
- Inomata: Since this is also aged, I guess this could be a backup to Kimura?
- Tokiwazushi: I understand that this is Mizutani style but what is this style? I think this may be an option for a Saturday lunch
Of course a whole bunch of other places came up in my research - Saito (I wish! :), Sushisho Masa, Keita, Namba Hibiya, Ryujiro (heavy on the salt?), Sushi Ao, Hashimoto, Sushi Watanabe, Hakkoku, Suzuki, Ishiyama, Namba Hibiya, Sawada (strangely the reviews I saw were mixed), Amamoto, Arai, etc. to name a few.
I would appreciate any feedback on the above and suggestions to improve my list! Thank you all very much!
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Keita will be similar to Taichi, I believe he worked at Taichi for a while, so If you enjoyed your visit to Taichi, Keita is a pretty good option!
re: Aged Fish
Inomata
Hatsunezushi
- I believe they dry age, maybe not as a primary focus, but they definitely dry age. I think they want to just maximize the flavors of any fish, whether it be through aging or not.
- Also expensive and hard to get a res so why I didn’t even try. YMMV!
- I think also on contention for top sushi in Tokyo
- I often found seats on omakase.in for reservations
I think this blog does a good job of categorizing sushi shops by style https://www.sushisibz.com/sushi-styles/ with many of the shops you’ve listed organized accordingly.
Casual Revolving Aburi Sushi Tora
- I will always shill this place because it’s just so fun and so good, especially for the price.
- Very very good if you’re around Shibuya and down to take a 15 minute train west
re: Harutaka/Jiro Style
- Also worth considering Sushi Sho Goryou [not to be confused with the Sushi Sho Empire], the chef happens to also be named Sho
- I met the sushi chef & the chef who prepares the otsumami funny enough at Pizza Studio Tamaki Roppongi
- They speak great English and should be pretty foreigner friendly
- According to this link, the head chef studied at Harutaka for 8 years.
all other thoughts
- hakkoku was just OK to me. Good, but I was expecting a lot more
- have heard fantastic things about hashimoto, but super hard to book
- Shunsuke should be an easier to book Namba Hibiya [but still difficult, I couldn’t find any seats the 2 months I was there]. This was Sushi Namba’s old location before Namba moved to Hibiya. His #2 guy now runs Shunsuke in the OG location. Should be noticeably cheaper
- Have not been to Amamoto, but Chef Akira Yoshizumi up in San Mateo said he was very impressed with Amamoto when he visited. But Amamoto is also very popular
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Thank you so much! This is extremely helpful. Haha, I was thinking that because I’m starting my research in April for Sep, I have plenty of time but the more time I spend reading about reservations there, the more I feel I’m already too late : ) But Tokyo has so many delicious options, hope I manage to get to a few!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I wasn’t aware of Aburi Sushi Tora but I’ll definitely look into it. Also Sushi Sho Goryou. If there are any more spots that you highly recommend, please let me know. Thank you once again!
I’ve never stayed at Four Seasons or Tokyo Station. Of the 10 or so hotels I’ve stayed at, Shangri-La had my favorite concierge service (meaning they get an A++++ instead of just an A+). They were able to book Jiro next day in its heyday after Jiro Dreams of Sushi. No other hotel concierge was able to book it.
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Just curious if you’d made any decisions - I’m going in August and have been using your topic and @ set0312’s for reference.
Many locations seem impossible to access and even if entered via online concierges or other means, not English-speaking tourist welcome.
Hi, sorry for the late reply. Yes, it’s proving to be a challenge to say the least Places that do not accept reservations through hotel concierges, places that only accept hotel concierges, a whole bunch of online concierges each with their own pricing and I’m shocked at how many places refuse reservations (at least through online concierges) for solo diners (some places allow them through Tableall that charges a ridiculous overhead).
A few places that I’ve see work through hotel or online concierges are Inomata, Hashimoto, Sushi Take, Ginza Kyubey, Ryujiro, Namba Hibiya (this was a surprise!), Sushi Ryusuke, Sushi Suzuki
