When you read through some of the rambling on other sites where people have the audacity to criticize everything from food over prices to service yet can’t even spell the most basic ingredients right (“naguro”, “oto” and “kohado”. I kid you not.) it makes you wonder.

Anyways, if you happen to be in Tokyo I would suggest you check out the restaurants at the market, especially the two Daiwas (築地卸売市場６号館). Obviously their sushi is a much more “raw” variant but for what it’s worth they are really good. Important that you go really early (before 7AM) and avoid the weekend post-party crowd.

After seeing your blog entry, I’m really exicted about seeing Jiro next time I visit Tokyo in May (hopefully he is still there). I wanted everybody’s opinion about my options though – usually I just go to Tsukiji for a transcendant sushi experience (can’t beat the freshness), but I wanted to try the combination of incredible sushi with the extras that a 3-star mich rating gets you in Ginza. I don’t mind paying Y35000 for good omekase sushi, and I speak broken Japanese but have no issue bringing a fluent, tokyo-accented friend to cover me socially. My question is: is this the best place to drop $450 for sushi? Or should I try mizutani, kyubei, saito, sawada or sushiko?

I’m looking for the restaurant that’s going to leave a lasting impression, food quality second to none, but most of all, somewhere where I can have a real “experience.”

I have to say that I was nervous because there were so many mixed reviews on this restaurant and some of the comments were that they were not to accommodating to foreigners and no one in my party of three people spoke Japanese. This restaurant is also on Youtube—Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations.

I have to say it was an amazing experience and the sushi is fantastic. The famous sushi chef Jiro Ono and his son carefully make each piece-so there is a high level of personal attention. We had altogether 19 wonderful pieces and it was the right amount of food since we were getting quite full by the fourteenth piece. The order of each piece is not random–they crafted the sequence so you can enjoy each different flavor of fish.

Overall a great experience–yes they don’t speak much English but we were not looking for a tourist friendly restaurant, we wanted very local authentic Japanese sushi. One thing for sure is that they take a lot of pride in their work and it shows. We respectfully responded; we just politely nodded, smiled, gave a thumbs up and said Oishii.

I’m going to tokyo in about a week or so and I’m wondering if you could recommend me the best sushi place to go for under $150 per head that I can get omakase meal like this one above. I’m very interested in going to Jiro as long as i dont have to pay $400 something per head, if you dont mind could you let me know of the price?

ps: amazing food collection you have here on your blog.

thanks.

Great to be following you on Twitter as well. I’m salivating for sushi after reading this and it’s only 8am here. My favorite spot in San Francisco (Zushi-Puzzle) served an amazing range of toro if you were lucky enough to catch it (bad pun). Chef Roger would call the extremely fatty cut the “grandma” because you weren’t allowed to use your teeth, just let it melt and use your tongue. Thanks for sharing this adventure.

Neal