Jia Jin L.
Google
Rather average. The best dishes were the grilled goma tofu in a honey laced sauce, the hokkigai with a toothy texture and air of the sea, the firm and flavourful kanpachi zuke, and the DIY kanpyo “maki” aggressively seasoned with wasabi. The hanjuku ikura was a first and also nice and creamy. Those dishes were worthy of a high end sushi restaurant.
But many other dishes were also lacking. The akami zuke didn’t have the depth of colour and flavour one expects from the cut, the anago was falling apart, and the tamago was clearly overcooked and hard along the edges (you can literally see the hard browned edges travelling a good distance inward, unlike a well executed castella/pudding style tamago, which should have a paper thin browned layer).
There was also no attention to detail paid to the vibes and service. You could feel the pressure emanating from the chef as he called out for the hotate of his isobeyaki, and it didn’t come, only for him to call again. My gari went empty and the chef didn’t notice for 3 nigiris after, until I politely requested some. Some basic interactions were reserved for Japanese guests, which didn’t make me feel valued. (e.g. Both other groups were told that there was only the anago and kanpyo maki left, and asked if it was okay. We were only asked if we wanted supplements by the disciple after the meal, which felt like an afterthought.)
It was a pity. The ¥10-20k sushi omakase scene in Tokyo is heating up (e.g. 鮨 まさ, 佐野鮨), and having tried about 10 other places in the past few months in this price bracket, I felt they could do much better.
