If you love your sushi, you have seen the documentary about Jiro. And also if you just love great documentaries. Can I say that I was enchanted by the pieces of vinegared rice topped with raw fish shown in this documentary? That is certainly how it felt to me. The accurateness with which the fish is handled and served. The simplicity of the menu. The minimalism of the surroundings. The extreme focus on quality, expertise and knowledge about the food served. I had to experience this for my self.
During our nearly three weeks in Japan, the only table booking I made was for the restaurant of Jiro Ono’s son in Roppongi. Jiro being a sushi chef more than 80 years old who still gets up every morning to run his three star Michelin restaurant. His son Takashi has opened his own restaurant in Roppongi Hills, also holding Michelin stars but “only” two. I felt that this was the better choice for me. 
Upon entering we were greeted and immediately led up to counter where we were placed right in front of Takashi’s working station and the extremely friendly English speaking sous chef asked us whether we had any special preferences or allergies. No, so we jumped right into it and started with some wonderful sashimi, the only thing during this lunch for which we used chopsticks. We did as the others and ate all the offered sushi with our fingers, cleaning them in between on a small wet towel already placed on the table.
I cannot even recall how many pieces we had in total. In the end we were offered some special pieces on top of the menu and I chose to try the o-toro, fatty tuna. It is the most precious piece of the huge fish and it definitely melts on your tongue but I must say that I enjoyed the lean and medium fatty tuna just as much.
All in all this was incredible sushi and I do not know how to ever go back to “western sushi”, we need avocado, cream cheese, mayo and garlic in order to give taste to the fish and rice combo. Here it was all clean and simple.
Sukiya-bashi Jiro is a fantastic sushi experience, it is also an expensive one. We paid about 25000 yen per person. But first and foremost for me it was the encounter with a group of seriously dedicated people for whom quality is all. This I will remember and be inspired by.
I cannot tell if this is the best sushi in Japan. I tried no other place. This might sound strange but there is so much great food in Japan and sushi is just one part of that.
If I should say one negative thing about this place it should be the fact that there were no locals. At all! We could hear from the conversations with the sous chef that all other guests also had seen the documentary. Takashi even offered us to take a photo with him in the end. Well, I will just try to ignore that part of my memory of this place because the sushi was sublime.
I have not had sushi since.
Sukiya-bashi Jiro – Roppongi
The place is easy to find, just grab the “floor guide” of the Roppongi Hills shopping area when exiting the metro station.
