Originally Posted by
od_sf
When I ate there in November 2019, Chef Mizukami made me sushi. But, the sous-chef appeared just as experienced and capable - I wouldn't have cared the slightest if I sat with him instead. He also appeared more chatty than Mizukami san. The nigiri molding is such a small part of the overall experience. Ingredient/produce selection, preparation techniques of neta, type of shari and vinegar selection and strength, temperature control - all of these things are as important (or more) than the nigiri molding technique. In my opinion, People overestimate the importance of sitting with the head chef. Also, all the folks sitting with the sous-chef were Japanese when I visited.
It’s interesting because when we met him at Jiro he was very talkative and taught us about rice techniques that we still use at home, and introduced us to Jiro alumni Shiro so we could try his restaurant back in Seattle.
For me it’s not so much about who is placing the sushi in front of me, it’s the act of automatically placing foreigners in one group and Japanese customers, local or visitor, in another, or at another counter. That’s the major turn off. I know there may be cultural or practical reasons why a restaurant may prefer to do this, but it’s just uncomfortable.
When we went to (I think it was Bentenyama), everyone was separated, we were required to only order from the English menu and I could see foreigners and Japanese were served from different pieces of the same type of fish with different quality, and I watched this very carefully. It was a big turnoff and we never went back.
It just never happened at Taichi, probably because of the clientele, but I’ll ask the concierge to inquire and we’ll see what happens.
After going to Japan for over 25 years I’ve learned to just roll with about 99.9% of different cultural idiosyncrasies especially related to visitors, even had one experience at all all-Japanese resort in Kyoto where we went into a full onsen pool and watched everyone immediately rush out, but the restaurant seating thing just pokes me the wrong way, especially as we’ve only had the one experience with it.
Anyway, wherever we end up, I’ll come back to post a review. I’m sure either option will still taste wonderful especially as we haven’t had any sushi at all since returning from Tokyo in July.