Calling a restaurant “the best in the world” or awarding it with one, two or three stars is a very Western notion. If you ask any well-travelled foodie ( including me ) what is the best sushi shop in Tokyo, she would mention Sushi Saito, Sukiyabashi Jiro or other sushiyas…

If you don’t read at least a little bit of hiragana, you might look for the Suzuryu building for a long time. Like many high-end restaurants in Tokyo’s Ginza, Sushi Yoshitake (3F, Suzuryu Building, 8-7-19 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo, tel. 03-6253-7331) is located in an ordinary office building, on an ordinary…

Eating the freshest fish possible is part of the fun when visiting the biggest fish and seafood market in the world. Daiwa Sushi (Tsukiji Market Part6 Bldg. 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo,tel. 03-3547-6807) hides in one of the busy alleys of Tsukiji and is definitely worth the over an hour wait- the…

When you sit at a 7 places sushi counter, you will most likely end up making conversations with your neighbours. My neighbours at Sushi Saito ( Jidousha kaikan Bldg. F1, 1-9-15 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo,tel. 03-3589-4412 ) – a nice Japanese couple who comes to this sushi bar regularly and who…

If there is one sushi den in Manhattan that could be easily compared to top sushi restaurants in Tokyo, it would be Sushi Azabu. The location of the restaurant couldn’t be more unassuming and is typically Japanese. It is hidden in a basement of Greenwich Grill ( probably owned by…

After eating in all these “alpha” sushi places in Tokyo the standards for fish and rice get pretty high. I don’t want to sound snobbish – the first time I went to Japan I was so ignorant, I thought that sushis are the most basic meal to prepare, something everyone…

Harutaka (1*, Kawabata Building 3F, 8-5-8 Ginza, tel. 03 3573 1144 ) – the last sushiya from the sushi from Tokyo series this year. And my favourite so far. Harutaka Takahashi ( left) comes from Sukiyabashi Jiro “school”, so you can see many similarities with Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi (and, I…

I find it hard to believe myself but I’ve been three times in Nobu over a stay of two weeks in Tokyo. Why go to an international chain when Tokyo has so many exciting local places to offer? Well, the first time I went there was out of plain curiosity.…

During this trip to Tokyo I started with Sushi Mizutani, then Sushi Kanesaka and ended up at Sushiko Honten (6-3-8 Ginza, tel. 03 3571 1968 ). Ironically, my favourite of all the three was the latter, the sushi place that has only one Michelin star, the least from all the…

Some say that Sushi Mizutani is the best in Tokyo, while Hachiro Mizutani san is one of the best sushi masters in Japan. And if one can rate sushi places with stars that were first meant to rate French cuisine, Sushi Mizutani together with Sukiyabashi Jiro are the only sushi…