Chapel Hill Guy

Interesting discussion.

I'd suggest you take a look at this piece:

Tyranny–It’s What’s for Dinner

How did the diner get demoted from honored guest whose wish was the waiter’s command to quivering hostage in thrall to the chef’s iron whim?

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...an-restaurants

jib71

Good to know. Thank you. Some of the best meals I've had are at restaurants where the owner/chef is a cantankerous s.o.b. with high standards.

5khours

Been a sushi hound for almost 40 years. All you need is a good chef who knows how to select fish and you get a pretty darn good meal. Never been to Jiro's but I'll try it on my next visit to Tokyo. I've done sublime before so I'll be interested to see if he can really take it to the next level.

hineygate

I tried to find Ikekan but google turned up nothing. Is that the correct spelling? Thanks for your advice.

jousis

I think this is the one:
http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13013628/

Address (search in google maps):
東京都港区六本木6-15-19

In Ropongi Arms building.
六本木アームス　２Ｆ

gnaget

What you have to do is activate Japanese language input and type the word with roman characters with it set so that it converts to Hiragana. Often that might be enough.

In this case the search required the kanji for kan, so it's hopeless if you don't know what the kanji is supposed to be. Also you would need to fight with the software because it will try to convert ike to the kanji for "pond" whereas in this case it's written in hiragana. But of course you wouldn't know that.

The only time that things come up in roman characters on google maps is if the place has a website that reads those characters or non-Japanese have reviewed it. The danger with latter is that it might guide you to the wrong location because the foreign reviewer has the wrong address.

I am not sure what ikekan means in this context. "Can go with intuition"? I think the default from the keyboard input is going to be "pond interval".....

jousis

Quick tip:
Google search , いけかん　食べログ (or いけかん ぐるなび).
Both gurunavi and tabelog will return results even if you search only in hiragana (Maybe google does that...not sure).

AlwaysAisle

Ikekan (すし屋のいけ勘) has a website, Japanese only. But you can see some pictures on the website and get some idea.

Menu
Dinner Omakase JPY 8000. 1 small plate item, 1 grilled item, sashimi, and sushi

Lunch: regular nigiri JPY 1260, tokujyou (superior) nigiri JPY 3675

Pictures of inside of the restaurant

Ikekan is located on 2nd floor of Roppongi Arms building.

Dinner: 6 p.m. – 11 p.m. (Saturdays and national holidays 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.)

Lunch: 12 noon- 1 p.m. (no lunch service on Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays)

Closed on Sundays and Mondays if national holiday

Cash only on lunch

hineygate

Thank you all so much. I look forward to trying Ikekan on my next visit to Tokyo!

bocastephen

Just curious if anyone knows of, or tried any of these places

Choushimaru (http://www.choushimaru.co.jp/grand_menu/index.html)

Sakura Sushi Tobu Hope Center, 1-15-9 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Uoriki Kaisen Sushi, 3 Chome-14-5 Kotobashi, Sumida, Tokyo, Japan

joejones

I love Choshimaru but their locations are all very inconvenient from central Tokyo -- you have to go out into the 'burbs and/or walk a good distance from the nearest train station. The cost-performance ratio is hard to beat, though.

(Oh, duh -- I mentioned Choshimaru near the top of this thread)

bocastephen

Whoops I missed your review...I don't mind taking the train out, but is Choshimaru strictly conveyer belt? I thought it was more traditional service like Zanmai.

MINAZO

I love Choshimaru, too. There's one near my house and I'm frequent there.

Yes,they have conveyer belt but you can order whatever you want and chef behind the counter will serve sushi for you. You can even order the sushi exist on the conveyer belt.
They have some seasonal specialties, too.

Different from the cheapest conveyer belt sushi, the whole sushi is cooked by chef not by machine. Only exception is the rice for "Gunkan-maki" which (I think) shaped by machine.

+1

jamar

Not so much if you're already in, but it looks like they have one in Narita, and not too hard to get to from Narita Station or NRT, assuming I'm remembering correctly that "ウィング土屋" is around the Aeon Mall.

Takahiko Katsuki

もし現地に日本語の堪能な友達がいらっしゃるのでしたら
北砂にある『海幸』がおすすめです

http://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1313/A131303/13003016/

築地からは少し離れてしまいますが。