I obviously have not eaten sushi anywhere near this level / caliber (for many reasons including $$$), but I thought it was interesting how it sounded like the article-writer was looking for a different kind of novelty, je-ne-sais-quoi show, or otherwise deeply meaningful life experience from the meal.
Like the fish picks I can understand as a criticism of same-ness in bromakases but some of the other frissons of dining:
The sense that anything could happen was sometimes contagious. One night at Jewel Bako, the couple next to us insisted we run off with them for a weekend in Cabo. (We politely declined.) A few years later, at 15 East in New York, on our first night out after our child was born, we bonded with our neighbors over our admiration for the chef Masato Shimizu (who now runs Sushi Masato in Bangkok). The bill never came. These new friends paid for our meal.
I dunno, they declined running off for the weekend in cabo with the couple so I’m not sure why these are posited as examples. I guess they’re offered as symptoms, or just literary quirks of their experiences, but this seems to be looking for something more than just interesting / highly curated and novel and/or challenging fish.
Or am I really missing something and everyone is out there having life-altering experiences at these $$$ sushi places ???