[balex]

I had a very fine sushi experience at a comparatively unknown place in the Ginza. Sushi Mizutani was set up by a sushi chef who used to work at Jiro, which is one of the most famous sushi-shops in Tokyo. He worked in Yokohama before coming back to the Ginza. A sushi connoisseur friend said that he reckoned it was currently on very good form and better than Jiro.

The shop is in the basement of a nondescript building in the Ginza; small, with only about 8 seats at the counter. The fish is all beautifully laid out in wooden boxes, covered with white cloths.

I won't try to give a blow by blow account of the sushi, as I wasn't taking notes or photos, but I had some sashimi followed by sushi. I did not choose the pieces myself but let Mizutani choose for me. After about 3 orders of sashimi, the highlight of which was some stewed abalone, which had a sublime cheiness, like a very good bit of boiled octopus but infinitely more unctuous and flavoursome, we moved on to sushi.

The sushi presentation style here is rather unusual -- you are given one piece at a time, and he brushes each piece with shoyu before serving it to you. The preparation is very beautiful and soothing to watch. The individual pieces were sometimes quite striking; one piece was of two small fish, which might have beem smelt or some small sardine like fish, which had been slightly pickled; they were wrapped rather beautifully around the rice.
There were two or three sublime pieces -- one was some giant clam, and there was some very good pieces of white non-fatty fish as well. Some maki to finish.

I particularly liked the sequence of the meal; there was a good variety of textures, and some switching between very rich, fatty pieces, like some very fine Hokkaido sea urchin and plainer white fish.

While I was there three young very casually dressed young Japanese men came in. They sat down, said "omakase shimasu" and sat bolt upright without saying a single word for the rest of the meal. There is a mildly hypnotic effect of watching a great sushi master at work; the movements of the hands, the assistant passing things, the general feeling of harmony you get in the middle of a great meal.

No English spoken or written anywhere -- in fact not very foreigner friendly at all - I asked a friend to ask a very well connected Japanese to make the reservation for me so I would be treated right.
Very expensive but worth every yen for what some people consider to be "the best sushi in Tokyo -- and therefore in the world".

(Posted wirelessly from a Lufthansa plane back to Europe -- ain't technology grand. )

[Rose]

Oh, thank you for that report, the meal sounded amazing. I've often thought that sushi chefs consider their skill as much a performance as anything else and if you do not pay them appropriate attention they are offended ( and therefore give you correspondingly less wonderful fish).

[mongo_jones]

balex, on Sep 23 2006, 06:08 AM, said:

Very expensive

i'm a little scared to ask: what is "very expensive" in tokyo?

[Orik]

mongo_jones, on Sep 23 2006, 01:42 PM, said:

balex, on Sep 23 2006, 06:08 AM, said:

Very expensive

i'm a little scared to ask: what is "very expensive" in tokyo?

Suprisingly, it's less expensive than "very expensive" sushi in nyc.

[Maurice Naughton]

Orik, on Sep 21 2006, 04:10 PM, said:

mongo_jones, on Sep 23 2006, 01:42 PM, said:

balex, on Sep 23 2006, 06:08 AM, said:

Very expensive

i'm a little scared to ask: what is "very expensive" in tokyo?

Suprisingly, it's less expensive than "very expensive" sushi in nyc.

Gee, that helps a whole lot. Please, how much did the shushi cost? Or is it a secret?

[balex]

Maurice Naughton, on Sep 23 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

Orik, on Sep 21 2006, 04:10 PM, said:

mongo_jones, on Sep 23 2006, 01:42 PM, said:

balex, on Sep 23 2006, 06:08 AM, said:

Very expensive

i'm a little scared to ask: what is "very expensive" in tokyo?

Suprisingly, it's less expensive than "very expensive" sushi in nyc.

Gee, that helps a whole lot. Please, how much did the shushi cost? Or is it a secret?

26,000 Yen. Which is actually not that bad on a quality/price ratio considering what good sushi costs in London or NY.

[mongo_jones]

that's about $222. not bad at all for a contender for the best sushi in tokyo. the very high-end in l.a and nyc is much higher than that.

how did they treat you once you were in?

[Orik]

And approximately the same price as Jiro and Kyubei.

I think now is the time when Tokyo is the cheapest it's been and the cheapest it's going to be in our lifetime.

[balex]

mongo_jones, on Sep 24 2006, 12:35 AM, said:

that's about $222. not bad at all for a contender for the best sushi in tokyo. the very high-end in l.a and nyc is much higher than that.

how did they treat you once you were in?

They were courteous but not super friendly. The atmosphere was not extremely formal, just very ... controlled.
At the end, (my Japanese is really limited), there were some communication problems, and I sensed their patience starting to fray a little.

I don't know if this was because I had an introduction or not, so YMMV. The next day I got an email forwarded through my "connection" asking if I had enjoyed it.

[balex]

Orik, on Sep 24 2006, 01:51 AM, said:

And approximately the same price as Jiro and Kyubei.

I think now is the time when Tokyo is the cheapest it's been and the cheapest it's going to be in our lifetime.

I think that's right -- particularly after London, it seemed almost good value.

[balex]

This place just got 3-stars in the new Michelin guide.