This is a strange topic at the prompting of my wife when reading over my shoulder while I was submitting my restaurant suggestions.

From our Fall weekend in Singapore she stopped of in Tokyo (first time) to stay with friends. One of her experiences was the Tsujiki Market, official name is the Tokyo Central Wholesale Market, the early morning fish market.

More germane to the forum:

Yamato Sushi
Tsujiki Fish Market
33-3547-6807

It is a sushi counter that is beside where they bring in the fish everyday. What more is there to expect than 'great' sushi. The tuna was the best had (cf'd San Francisco, Vancouver, HK, Toronto and a couple other places in Tokyo). Actually tuna is all that she remembered but everything was good.

Not the best review but if you don't go to this restaurant all the ones adjoining the market are suposed to be pretty good.

Even I can't wait to try this place.

Good Eating!!!

sounds neat.

My Tsujiki Market tips:

get there early, we showed up at 6:30am to catch some live auctioning of tuna

wear clothes that can get a little splashed or dirty (lots of melted ice water on ground)

watch yourself as the lift drivers and movers of fish really don't care if you are in the way. I was soooo close to one lift carrying tuna, that as it went by the teeth from the tuna tore a 6" rip in my shorts. Kid not!

We went a little earlier than Sweet Willie recommended. We cabbed it over to "ski-jee" (as they pronounce it in Tokyo) after a night in Shinjuku.

We watched the fish being unloaded. We watched the fish being "painted" after the auction. We watched the circular saw remove the "heads." We ate at a little spot in the middle. Having hot sake and fresh fish was a truly rewarding experience.

And just to add to this thread..


Can you say Cheap! Besides eating some of the best sushi I've ever eaten, these places are dirt cheap by NY/LA/SF standards. Maybe about $10-12 bucks a person. And you sure get your moneys worth.
I can never eat sushi again in the states.

SweetWillie, maybe a sushi run in January? http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/biggrin.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dhammer53:
And just to add to this thread..


Can you say Cheap! Besides eating some of the best sushi I've ever eaten, these places are dirt cheap by NY/LA/SF standards. Maybe about $10-12 bucks a person. And you sure get your moneys worth.
I can never eat sushi again in the states.

SweetWillie, maybe a sushi run in January? http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/biggrin.gif</font>

Fugu is in season in January!! http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/smile.gif

I was just there during thanksgiving week.

Weird to have sashimi in the morning but the lines in front of the restaurants were crazy at 7am. Anyways, the restaurants were charging US$9 per piece of sashimi...

Instead, we went to the fish market and bought some fresh cut pieces. Off to the supermarket to get wasabi and soy sauce and it's a picnic somewhere.
We got about a kilo for about US$5. What a deal.

The tuna was so fresh and delicious. Uni fans will love it there also.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GadgetFreak:
Fugu is in season in January!!</font>

Tony Bourdain of the show "A Cook's Tour" had a variety of preparations of Fugu, he personally was not impressed with fugu overall. He liked the idea of being able to say he ate it.

From my experience, Fugu is more suitable for hot pot or fried Fugu. Actually fried Fugu is very delicious. For sashimi, there are so many better fishes. But, if have a chance to try course meals, you will be satisfied overall (taste and experience, e.g. when they serve hot pot, Fugu cut is still moving).

Just FYI: there's a whole little alleyway full of tiny sushi joints, but the two that tends to draw the crowds are indeed Yamato Sushi and -- my favorite -- Sushidai. Take the chef's recommendation (they have a couple of price levels to choose from, Y3000 is OK in my book), it remains the best sushi I have ever had anywhere, period.

I just wanted to put my $0.02 in on this...

My wife and I went to Sushidai, and I second jpatokal. The chef's recommendation is the way to go, and it's the best sushi I've ever had.

I am a confessed Sushi addict, and making my first trip to Japan in two weeks (business). I am SOOOO looking forward to eating Sushi in the land of the rising sun. I have never met a piece of Sushi I didnt like...and would like to try some of the more unique cuts that are unavailable in the US...fugu, et all.

Any suggestions?

(My Japanese associate mentioned Whale & Horse sashimi. :eek: )

You can't go wrong with the Tsukiji places discussed above... but for cheaper eats, I love the Bikkuri Sushi kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) chain, known for the huge size of their portions (and fresh fish too) at Y130 and up per serve. They're a small chain with only a few outlets, the most accessible of which is probably in Shibuya:

Find your way to the Tokyu Toyoko line station, but don't buy a ticket, just pass by the ticket machines and cross a road on a covered overpass. A few shops in the other side you'll see Bikkuri on your left (no English signage IIRC, but it's the only sushi place thereabouts).

jpatokal's tip: ask for "bintoro" @:-) (a different tuna species -- not to be confused with real toro at 4x the price!)

There's a Bikkuri in Roppongi as well. You'll get to see how the "in and fashionable" eat sushi.

I just had sushi at Tsukiji and cannot emphasize how fresh it tasted. However, for those of you who are skeptics, my cousin gave me a piece of advice to see if a place keeps their stuff fresh.

Order one order of egg. Eat it, without soy suace. If it tastes at all stale, run from the place as fast as you can. Enjoy!

I have to say I certainly don't feel tempted to eat Sushi in the morning. Maybe some grilled fish with rice, soup and pickles, yum, but I couldn't take wasabi and salty soy sauce at 6 a.m. For fish in Japan I prefer the grilled fish set in the morning, Sashimi for a lunch appetizer and Sushi as a prelude to Toban-Yaki or some grilled seafood dish at dinner time. A few pieces of good quality sea urchin, mackerel, fish roe or fatty tuna are great but to replace the whole dinner with just Sushi isn't. The one exception is to use a kaiten Sushiya as a snacking opportunity before going for a night out.

In Saveur magazine, they come out with the Saveur 100 which lists food items/restaurants they found profound.

Sushi Sasaki was listed as being very close to the Tsukiji fish market and VERY Good. ^

--

I am a confessed Sushi addict, and making my first trip to Japan in two weeks (business). I am SOOOO looking forward to eating Sushi in the land of the rising sun. I have never met a piece of Sushi I didnt like...and would like to try some of the more unique cuts that are unavailable in the US...fugu, et all.

Any suggestions?

(My Japanese associate mentioned Whale & Horse sashimi. :eek: )

Here's what I do when I am in Japan.

I learn names of sushi in Japanese (or at least bookmark that page in the phrasebook) and a couple of phrases like "could I please have..." "would you mind if I asked you...", and then I do not grab sushi from the moving conveyor belt but I order them from the chef who is working there.

The place - any sushi place - immediately feels warmer. It's far from the sense of belonging but it's the first step. It will enhance your experience.

Here's what I do when I am in Japan.

I learn names of sushi in Japanese (or at least bookmark that page in the phrasebook) and a couple of phrases like "could I please have..." "would you mind if I asked you...", and then I do not grab sushi from the moving conveyor belt but I order them from the chef who is working there.

The place - any sushi place - immediately feels warmer. It's far from the sense of belonging but it's the first step. It will enhance your experience.

I start by not going to places with moving conveyor belts and then just asking the chef for o-makase, whatever he wants to serve me. I come well-padded with crisp 10,000 yen notes, pay whatever I'm asked. I repeat two or three times and then I get more selective, once the chef knows I'm somebody who means business.

I start by not going to places with moving conveyor belts and then just asking the chef for o-makase, whatever he wants to serve me. I come well-padded with crisp 10,000 yen notes, pay whatever I'm asked. I repeat two or three times and then I get more selective, once the chef knows I'm somebody who means business.

The budget option (which also works well for those on shorter visits) is to turn up at Tsukiji early in the morning. Join the longest queue outside the numerous sushi 'restaurants'. Be friendly with everyone around you (hopefully, you will already have 'bonded' with the people you'll be sitting next to). Once you get in, communicate to the chef that you will leave it up to him (likely to be a him I'm afraid) to serve you whatever he thinks best up to a limit of ... minimum 2,000yen, but you'll do much better with at least 4,000yen. You should be able to do this with sign language - just show him the money.

If you get on well with the person sitting next to you, they may help by furnishing you with the names of whatever fish you are eating. It's a bit disconcerting the first time to have your food and relishes plonked straight onto the counter (no plates) but its all part of the experience.

I've managed to do this a couple of times. Both times I sat next to wonderful women who were obviously passionate about good sushi and seemed happy to share their enthusiasm with a receptive visitor. I've been spoiled for conveyor belt establishments ever since and can't eat at them any more.

I start by not going to places with moving conveyor belts and then just asking the chef for o-makase, whatever he wants to serve me...

Don't be too quick to dismiss places with conveyor belts. The kaiten zushi outfit in B2 of the Hat at Roppongi Hills is actually extremely good, everything made in front of you, and you can ask the chef to make anything that you don't see. I had some fantastic toro maguro there a few weeks ago, at about 1/3 the price of the (admittedly overpriced) sushi joint at the Hyatt.

Don't be too quick to dismiss places with conveyor belts. The kaiten zushi outfit in B2 of the Hat at Roppongi Hills is actually extremely good, everything made in front of you, and you can ask the chef to make anything that you don't see. I had some fantastic toro maguro there a few weeks ago, at about 1/3 the price of the (admittedly overpriced) sushi joint at the Hyatt.

I've been there a couple of times. It is OK, nothing spectacular. Not that cheap, either. You can go to one of the mid-range chains like Sushisei (http://www.tsukijisushisay.co.jp/) and get much better value for money. Now, if you want the real deal, you ought to hang out with my friend Nagayama-san, the author of this book (http://www.piebooks.com/english/art_popular/main2.html#11).

The budget option (which also works well for those on shorter visits) is to turn up at Tsukiji early in the morning. Join the longest queue outside the numerous sushi 'restaurants'. Be friendly with everyone around you (hopefully, you will already have 'bonded' with the people you'll be sitting next to). Once you get in, communicate to the chef that you will leave it up to him (likely to be a him I'm afraid) to serve you whatever he thinks best up to a limit of ... minimum 2,000yen, but you'll do much better with at least 4,000yen. You should be able to do this with sign language - just show him the money.

If you get on well with the person sitting next to you, they may help by furnishing you with the names of whatever fish you are eating. It's a bit disconcerting the first time to have your food and relishes plonked straight onto the counter (no plates) but its all part of the experience.

I've managed to do this a couple of times. Both times I sat next to wonderful women who were obviously passionate about good sushi and seemed happy to share their enthusiasm with a receptive visitor. I've been spoiled for conveyor belt establishments ever since and can't eat at them any more.

If you end up at Sushi Dai in Tsukiji, which has previously been recommended in this thread, they've got a menu in English, and the main chef loves practicing his English (seemed actually disappointed that I spoke Japanese). The standard omakase there is something like 3900 yen nowadays and is very good quality for the money, as others have said.

Pointfreak! mentioned wanting to eat fugu--is that something they normally serve in sushi shops, or do you have to go to a fugu place? The only time I've had it was during a full fugu course. Pretty dull, actually--I can think of many better ways to spend my money.

"Upmarket" and "Kaiten Sushi" might be contradictory terms ... but there's a fancy-pantsy "sushi train" which is worth checking out at Central Mikuni's:
http://www.jefb.co.jp/tokyo-shokudo/

Prices are roughly twice what you would pay in a regular kaiten sushi place. But the price comparison is erroneous because you are not buying the same stuff - Mikuni's quality is much better than your bog-standard kaiten.

(Go to the octagonal hall at the Southern end of Tokyo Station - Marunouchi side/ The entrance to Central Mikuni's is a staircase leading down to the basement).

"Upmarket" and "Kaiten Sushi" might be contradictory terms ... but there's a fancy-pantsy "sushi train" which is worth checking out at Central Mikuni's:
http://www.jefb.co.jp/tokyo-shokudo/

Prices are roughly twice what you would pay in a regular kaiten sushi place. But the price comparison is erroneous because you are not buying the same stuff - Mikuni's quality is much better than your bog-standard kaiten.

(Go to the octagonal hall at the Southern end of Tokyo Station - Marunouchi side/ The entrance to Central Mikuni's is a staircase leading down to the basement).

There's a kaiten sushi place at the Mikuni in Tokyo Station? The things one learns in FT. That's why I say Tokyo is like an archeological dig. When you first get there, all you see is flat, uninteresting plains of sand and dirt (for which 1.5 days should be enough). It is only when you start digging (sometimes literally, since some of the best stuff is in basements), that you find the gems.

Pointfreak! mentioned wanting to eat fugu--is that something they normally serve in sushi shops, or do you have to go to a fugu place? The only time I've had it was during a full fugu course. Pretty dull, actually--I can think of many better ways to spend my money.

I believe I mentioned that the "place" for fugu is Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. Now I know that you Tokyo centric people mind find it a bit far but on the second floor of the fish market you will find fugu restaurant after fugu restaurant. You can have a full set menu including all the trimmings for about 3,000 Yen.........You can also just have the Sashimi option or Tempura only option for much less!

My favorite Kaiten place around here(Kyushu) in the Sushi Daijin nothing less than 350 Yen per plate with the heavy duty nigiri 1000 + Yen. It is kaiten but the quality is good!

I believe I mentioned that the "place" for fugu is Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi.

Yes - and the date to go there is Feb 9th. "Fugu no hi"
(from Fu = 2 / Ku = 9)

I believe they hold some kind of Fugu festival and send a gift of some Fugu to the emperor. I wonder if he eats it....

Yes - and the date to go there is Feb 9th. "Fugu no hi"
(from Fu = 2 / Ku = 9)

I believe they hold some kind of Fugu festival and send a gift of some Fugu to the emperor. I wonder if he eats it....

Sadly I will be out of town on the 9th.....Please go in my place :D .

Fugu is wonderful because it has a non oily light taste......

There's a kaiten sushi place at the Mikuni in Tokyo Station? The things one learns in FT. That's why I say Tokyo is like an archeological dig.

Quite. I travelled to Tokyo on a dozen of occasions and each time I like it more and more.

Will have to try this Mikuni kaiten when I'm in the city next.

FT is absolutely invaluable.

For the budget minded, Fugu was a "Free" December special in NH F last year! I enjoyed it.

For the budget minded, Fugu was a "Free" December special in NH F last year! I enjoyed it.
Ah, yes, NH F for the budget minded . . . ;)

I'll be trying it myself in April, though. :D