Sukiyabashi Jiro
When Elsa accepted the offer to move to Japan, I knew one of the things we had to do was try at least one of the many world class sushi restaurants in Tokyo. With our ten year wedding anniversary in May of this year, I began to make those plans far in advance.
In January, I began my reservation-making quest with the legendary "Sukiyabashi Jiro", made famous by the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi". Unfortunately, there is an answering machine that basically says they are not taking reservations. According to our super helpful front desk staff, this means you have to know somebody. We don't know anybody.
From here, I sought out another three-star Michelin place, Sushi Saito. They do take reservations, but only starting from the first of the month, every other month. This system is reasonable, but with a May deadline approaching, I couldn't afford to wait until May 1st and risk not being able to get a reservation - so, back to the drawing board.
Outside of the three Michelin star joints, there are a few two-star places as well. The first on my list is also called "Sukiyabashi Jiro", but run by Takeshi Ono, the younger son of the legendary Jiro Ono. I called in February trying to make a May 25th reservation, but learned they only take reservations two months out. Undeterred, I waited patiently for March 25th to roll around when I could pounce on those May 25th reservations. On the morning of the 25th, I went to our apartment front desk ladies (who helped me with the whole process of making Japanese restaurant reservations), and they secured a 7:30pm reservation for May 25th.
The fun didn't stop there there though. Because these restaurants are so highly sought after, you have to pay a deposit of 20,000 Yen, about $200 USD. Again, our front desk helped me out with this. With the deposit paid, all there was to do was wait and then show up for delicious sushi on May 25th.
The restaurant is a solid hour away by train from our apartment, so with a babysitter arranged, Elsa and I set out for the Roppongi Hills section of Tokyo. This was our first time in that specific area of Tokyo, and we'll definitely need to go back. The place was bursting with life and tons of stuff going on. (Yokohama has nearly zero night-life, so it was fun to see people out and about after 7 pm.) We, of course, had an important date so couldn't be bothered with Taiko drumming and gin tastings this time around.
Once we got past all the craziness, we found the restaurant located in a very quiet, but high end section of Roppongi.
We arrived early (7:15 for a 7:30 reservation), and waited outside the door until 7:25. When we entered we were seated at a small table away from the bar to wait until the experience began. It was here that I snapped a quick pic of the place:
There are only 8 seats (two out of frame to the right) in the place. We were lucky enough to be seated in the center, with Chef Ono literally right in front of us. I did my best to use Japanese, making sure to ask if it's ok to take pictures, etc... His English is pretty good, though, and it seemed like he wanted to practice. He asked what we did for work, and when I said that Elsa works for Nissan he got very excited. He is the proud owner of a Nissan GT-R.
Chef Ono (right). Apprentice (left)
This ended up being a huge relief. Walking into a place like this isn't the most relaxing thing in the world. There are typically rules about how to dress, behave, eat, etc… But having the chef open up and spend most of his time talking to us made the whole experience better. Elsa was seated next to a woman who seemed to want to break every etiquette rule that she could, which helped ingratiate the two of us with the chef. The whole pace of the meal seemed to focus around us, which we weren’t expecting. It goes to show that being mindful not to perpetuate the “gaijin” stereotype, and speaking a little Japanese really can go a long way.
If you don't know, these types of high end sushi places are all done Omakase. That means you don't order anything. The chef will simply put sushi in front of you. For places of this caliber, this results in the customers getting to try the very best quality and variety of fish. In total, we ate twenty pieces of nigiri sushi. They ran the gamut in styles. Of course, we had the staples of tuna, but we also had arkshell, boiled prawn, smoked bonito, flounder, uni, geoduck and more.
Though I had asked and was told that taking photos was totally fine, I didn't want to sit and take a picture of every single piece of sushi that was put in front of me. So here is a sampling of some of what we ate:
How was it? Well, incredibly delicious. The pieces I expected to blow me away the most ended up not being that way. I was very curious to see what the best fatty tuna in the world tastes like. It tasted phenomenal but not blow your mind away better than some more affordable places we’ve been too. There were a few pieces that really took me by surprise, though.
The first big surprise was prawn (or giant shrimp). Shrimp is super common at sushi places but for the most part you find it raw. That was not the case here. Chef Ono had freshly boiled giant prawns. They were packed in rice and then chopped in half. We were instructed to eat the tail half first because the head half has a more distinctive flavor (fresh brains). I almost messed up and ate the head first, but Elsa quickly corrected me before bringing shame to my family. Both halves were absolutely crazy good. I also enjoy a good raw shrimp, but these were unreal - essentially perfectly cooked, mini lobster tails.
The shrimp also helped make the night a little more interesting...
The Chef has two (or three maybe) apprentices. They are responsible for basically everything. They bring Chef Ono the fish, the make sure the rice is fluffed properly, etc... Basically, they ensure that Chef Ono can stay in one spot and have everything he needs for all the customers.
Anyway, the chef was not happy with some small detail about how the shrimp were being peeled and cut, and began getting upset with the main apprentice. He was speaking very soft Japanese, but I know enough to understand he was telling him "every day it’s the same thing with you". It was clear Chef Ono is a perfectionist and Elsa and I were both talking afterwards about how rough a job being his apprentice must be.
At some point after shrimp, a large piece of something unidentifiable but also incredibly delicious looking was brought out. Chef Ono explained to us that it was a smoked bonito, and showed us a photo of how it was prepared. It was definitely the most unique sushi I've had, with a fantastic smoky flavor.
The biggest surprise, which I'm sorry I don't have a photo of, was Eel. It was explained to us that he only uses saltwater wild caught Eel as the flavor is completely different from farm raised freshwater. Elsa and I both agreed we've never had eel as delicious as this. It just dissolved in your mouth with a subtle sweet flavor. It was bonkers.
Our final piece of sushi was a sweet egg omelette, which is dessert-like in its flavor. From there, we finished our sake and paid our bill. We said thank you to the chef and were on our way. In total, we were inside for an hour. The pace was brisk and it flew by once things got started.
Would we go again? Yes, but don't know if we will. The price tag is high and easily the most expensive meal I've ever had by a mile. I've also heard about other high-end places that are similar that I want to try, so would definitely branch out to some other places before returning to this particular one. Still though, it was the best sushi we've ever had and an experience that we'll likely never forget.
