過大評価された寿司
At JapanVisitor.com, we get numerous inquiries about making sushi bar bookings - mainly in Tokyo - which we pass on to our sister site, GoodsFromJapan.
Tokyo's top sushi bars are finicky places that generally don't take reservations directly from anyone living outside of Japan. Visitors must make bookings through their hotel concierge or through their credit card company. An often-encountered problem, however, is that the hotel concierge will only contact the restaurant once the guest has arrived, which, in the case of the more popular restaurants, is too late already.
Furthermore, sushi restaurants in Tokyo are, generally speaking, not particularly hospitable to non-Japanese. At rare best, foreign diners are made to feel welcome, usually they are tolerated, and quite often they are made to feel distinctly unwelcome, except, maybe, when their money is being taken at the end.
I have generally stopped going to sushi bars in big Japanese cities for the very reason that the chefs are often surly, sour old dinosaurs who feel so secure on what is seen as one of the pinnacles of Japanese culinary culture that acting hospitable - at least to non-Japanese customers - is below them. Hospitality is left to the often genuinely nice, but frazzled, overworked middle-aged woman who runs around the sushi restaurant for them.
There are, of course, exceptions to the "grumpy sushiya-san" rule, but once you've sat down and started ordering - only to then find that you're not really welcome - it's kind of too late without creating a scene.
One example is Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten, which has somehow convinced the Western press and culinary establishment that it is the top sushi restaurant in Tokyo (and by extension, Japan), has been awarded Michelin stars, but which rushes guests through its USD300-equivalent course in just 30 minutes - in many cases actually asking people to eat faster as the clock ticks down. Sukiyabashi Jiro is well-known, too, for not liking non-Japanese guests, unless they happen to be President Obama, for example, who was taken there by the Japanese prime minister.
I have never eaten at a sushi restaurant where the bill has come to more than about 7,000 yen, and I never want to. Sushi is a piece of fish on rice. A course of sushi is a glorified snack, not a feast. The best course of sushi I have ever eaten cost me less than 3,000 yen. It was at a tiny, out-of-the-way restaurant on Sado Island. It tasted great mainly because the fish was clearly very, very fresh. It tasted even better because the middle-aged male owner was welcoming and hospitable.
All the same, it was pieces of fish on rice. Sushi-making is called an art. Cooking fish and chips is an art if you're good enough at it. Sushi is great once in a while, but it's not the stuff gourmet's dreams are made of.
To get sushi that fresh in Tokyo, you have to pay about the same as it cost me to go to Sado and back, but without the warmth of atmosphere, and quite possibly with scowls and asides in Japanese at your expense.
If you want great food in Tokyo, go to a place that serves Japanese cuisine that has variety, is exquisitely prepared and cooked, and where there is a bit of fun in the air. The last such place I went to was a kappo restaurant in Yokohama. It was intimate, the food was multifarious and exquisite, the chef and waiting staff were chatty, and although it came to about 20,000 yen each, we really felt as if we'd dined, been looked after, and wanted to come back.
High-end sushi bars in Tokyo may give you enormous cred when relating the experience to colleagues back home, and if that's what you're after and money is not an issue, then best of luck with getting a reservation.
© JapanVisitor.com
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| Sushi restaurants - are they overrated? |
Tokyo's top sushi bars are finicky places that generally don't take reservations directly from anyone living outside of Japan. Visitors must make bookings through their hotel concierge or through their credit card company. An often-encountered problem, however, is that the hotel concierge will only contact the restaurant once the guest has arrived, which, in the case of the more popular restaurants, is too late already.
Furthermore, sushi restaurants in Tokyo are, generally speaking, not particularly hospitable to non-Japanese. At rare best, foreign diners are made to feel welcome, usually they are tolerated, and quite often they are made to feel distinctly unwelcome, except, maybe, when their money is being taken at the end.
I have generally stopped going to sushi bars in big Japanese cities for the very reason that the chefs are often surly, sour old dinosaurs who feel so secure on what is seen as one of the pinnacles of Japanese culinary culture that acting hospitable - at least to non-Japanese customers - is below them. Hospitality is left to the often genuinely nice, but frazzled, overworked middle-aged woman who runs around the sushi restaurant for them.
There are, of course, exceptions to the "grumpy sushiya-san" rule, but once you've sat down and started ordering - only to then find that you're not really welcome - it's kind of too late without creating a scene.
One example is Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten, which has somehow convinced the Western press and culinary establishment that it is the top sushi restaurant in Tokyo (and by extension, Japan), has been awarded Michelin stars, but which rushes guests through its USD300-equivalent course in just 30 minutes - in many cases actually asking people to eat faster as the clock ticks down. Sukiyabashi Jiro is well-known, too, for not liking non-Japanese guests, unless they happen to be President Obama, for example, who was taken there by the Japanese prime minister.
I have never eaten at a sushi restaurant where the bill has come to more than about 7,000 yen, and I never want to. Sushi is a piece of fish on rice. A course of sushi is a glorified snack, not a feast. The best course of sushi I have ever eaten cost me less than 3,000 yen. It was at a tiny, out-of-the-way restaurant on Sado Island. It tasted great mainly because the fish was clearly very, very fresh. It tasted even better because the middle-aged male owner was welcoming and hospitable.
All the same, it was pieces of fish on rice. Sushi-making is called an art. Cooking fish and chips is an art if you're good enough at it. Sushi is great once in a while, but it's not the stuff gourmet's dreams are made of.
To get sushi that fresh in Tokyo, you have to pay about the same as it cost me to go to Sado and back, but without the warmth of atmosphere, and quite possibly with scowls and asides in Japanese at your expense.
If you want great food in Tokyo, go to a place that serves Japanese cuisine that has variety, is exquisitely prepared and cooked, and where there is a bit of fun in the air. The last such place I went to was a kappo restaurant in Yokohama. It was intimate, the food was multifarious and exquisite, the chef and waiting staff were chatty, and although it came to about 20,000 yen each, we really felt as if we'd dined, been looked after, and wanted to come back.
High-end sushi bars in Tokyo may give you enormous cred when relating the experience to colleagues back home, and if that's what you're after and money is not an issue, then best of luck with getting a reservation.
© JapanVisitor.com
Goods From Japan delivered to your home or business
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