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This is in the basement of an office building near Ginza station. There is a single wooden counter around which there are just ten tables.
We had the usual range of sushi items, starting with flounder (which did not have a lot of taste but avoided chewiness) and a squid ("aori") which sadly was distinctly chewy. Eniada or young yellowtail was better, at which point we moved on to the usual trio of tuna: naguro, partially fatty and fatty "oto". These were excellent, though not a patch on the ones at Sushi Mizutani two days earlier.
Kohado (a type of shad) was pleasant, as was the tasty horse mackerel that was in season. "Shako" is a type of shrimp (mantis shrimp) that was very pleasant, as was salmon roe. Sea eel as the final savoury item was not as tasty as two others I had on this trip. Finally the egg custard cake which traditionally finishes a sushi meal appeared.
The temperature of the rice was correct (i.e. room temperature rather than fridge temperature), and reputedly they keep each fish at a slightly different temperature. The rice tastes more heavily of vinegar than some, but I gather this reflects the particular style of the sushi chef rather than it being objectively better or worse than a more lightly vinegared style.
I was surprised at the gulf in the taste of the fish between here and Sushi Mitzutani: there was clear blue water between the two sushi places that Michelin gave three stars to in 2008 in my view. Hence on the food I have scored this 6/10.
The service was another matter. This is a restaurant that you can only make a reservation at if you are eating with a fluent Japanese speaker. The person I went with has lived in Japan for six years and teaches cookery; he also felt the sushi to be good but not the best he had eaten. However from the moment we sat down, the old gentleman who runs the place, and the chef who served us, regarded us with barely concealed contempt. They spent their time glowering at us throughout. The fish came at a very fast pace, and when at one point Stella stopped for a few moments towards the end and explained (via our translator) that she just needed a moment, they just took her sushi away regardless. "The customer is always right" is not a concept that has caught on at this place.
At the end I bowed to the owner as I gather one is supposed to do (despite our poor treatment), and thanked him in my poor Japanese and he looked away and sneered rather than acknowledge me. This was literally the only example I have ever encountered in Japan of rude service, whether at high end dining places or the cheapest and simplest cafe, and it seems to me wholly unacceptable whatever the culture. It would appear that they really don't want foreigners to come here, in which case it would have seemed logical for them to decline being in the Michelin (as a few places in Tokyo did) and remain with their local regulars. Instead they seem happy to take gaijin money, but not to manage even the semblance of courtesy. One other person who has eaten here this year (an American food writer) told a similar story, incidentally.
The bill, by the way, is absurd JPY 30,000 per person for the food alone, which was almost twice that of the vastly superior Sushi Mitzutani (also 3 star Michelin) and was the most expensive food bill of the entire trip.
The inaccessibility of this place may in itself seem a paradoxical attraction to some people, but it is really not worth the effort in my opinion.
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