Sushisei Honten

Not knowing where to try sushi at the Tsujiki market, I turned to Unilocal for advice and this place was high up on the list. We had a wonderful meal and the sushi was undeniably the freshest I’ve ever had. The wait — on a Saturday at 1pm — wasn’t so bad. Probably 10 – 15 minutes. I wish there was more diversity on the menu, it felt somewhat limited, but I would definitely recommend. The quality and the freshness of the sushi was a notch above everywhere else I’ve had sushi before.

This is probably the best sushi I’ve ever eaten in my life. Everything was extremely fresh as I swear that piece of fatty tuna was still wiggling on the rice. We got here at around 3p.m. during golden week and there was no wait. I ordered the chef’s sampler plate and it was definitely a treat. While the toro was out of this world, it was also the best Uni, and salmon roe I’ve ever had. The sushi chefs here are extremely fast as people are in and out rather quickly.
5 stars!

Sushi sei was featured in Lonely planet as one of the best places to go and have breakfast close to the market. This place is very popular around as we had to wait for sitting for about 15 minutes. The restaurant is also very small, but very quick and efficient. People are in and out within 30 minutes. There are several sushi places close to the market and a lot of them had long lines. However, as a tourist with no clue about Japanese I had to go to a place where I knew they had english menu and pictures of what I’m ordering! Needless to say the food was still very good and the fish very fresh. Although it’s popular between travelers, the restaurant was manly visited by locals. They offer sushi for about ¥500-¥800 a piece. So it can get pricey if you order piece by piece. They also have bowls and sashimi options that have a good variety of options so you can try different things. Some of their bowls were between ¥2400 and ¥3200. Overall, a good place to try out if you are in the fish market area.
Some of the best options were the fatty salmon, the tuna and the sardine.

The best sushi I’ve ever had. Staff was fun and the customers were great too. We were the only foreigners and they were happy to have/​help us.

This place is a bit hard to find as there is no sign in English. We only realized we had been standing in front of it when a small crowd of eager diners began to line up. We lined up at about 10:30am on a Sunday and were served by 11am. The sushi is, for the most part, deliciously tender and well-​prepared. You can order each piece a la carte, and I recommend trying the three types of toro (lean, medium, and fatty) side by side. I got the skipjack just to see what a different, less common fish was like and it was quite rubbery. Stick to your favorites, and go a little bit out of your comfort zone here, but not TOO far. While this is definitely one of the more popular sushi spots near the fish market, contrary to what you might hear, not everything is going to be better here.

Its where the locals go as Sushi Dai and Daiwa are swamped with tourists.
Pro tip: This place is NOT in the market proper, but rather a little bit off the side. If you are facing the main entrance, where folks will walk into the wet market, you will want to go left. Its in a block, just left of the main fish market, in one of the alleys.
The sushi is of course good. We had 3 plates,. sashimi, sushi and omakase. Both my kids are new to sushi and they loved the sushi here. You can convert anyone to love sushi here. I never liked ikura much and the ikura here was awesome. The uni was out of this world and the saba was so good.
Ohhhh lawd. how will I ever eat sushi again.

I have nothing else to say besides it was the best sushi I have ever eaten. I was simultaneously so happy and depressed to know that I will never have sushi that fresh again. I can’t recommend this place enough. After wondering through the market for hours, this was a nice reprieve. We were seated immediately and served within minutes. The tuna, salmon, yellowtail, etc just melted in our mouths. If I am ever in Tokyo again, I will absolutely go back!

My Japanese uncle who has eaten at the other sushi shops in Tsukiji and also at Jiro swears that Sushi Sei has the freshest and best quality sushi in Japan. The chefs at Sushi Sei must train and work in the back for 3 – 10 years before they can start making sushi. The restaurant is at Tsukiji Market– the fish is as fresh as you can get.
Because Uncle knew exactly what he wanted we skipped the omakase (the set plate, cheaper price) and ordered individual pieces. We had the fried akagai, ika, ama ebi, tai, tako, ikura, uni and a couple of other pieces I don’t know the name of. The ama ebi was my favorite, however everything was amazing. I prefered the ika with salt rather than shoyu, like my Uncle suggested. Order the tamago at the end of your meal. Ask the chefs for «butsugiri no tamago» aka a huge piece. They’ll think you’re cute and hopefully give you a bigger piece :) The tamago was the best I’ve ever had.
There are two Sushi Sei’s in Tsukiji. They will both be packed– find the one with the shorter line. The sushi chefs switch between restaurants, there is not one that is «better.» Sushi Sei used to have only Japanese customers, however it was filled with foreigners last time I was there.

We chose this place because it was one one of the few opened between 5 – 7 in the Tsukiji Market area. We started with several pieces of tuna and ended with suggestions from the locals which was all very good. It was all fresh and delicious! The chef and the locals were very helpful! We recommend this place should you find yourself in the mood for sashimi!

I guess Sushi Sei is Tsukiji Shijo’s saving grace for all the people that can’t/don’t make it out to Sushi Dai or Sushi Daiwa due to either:
a. Getting tired of waiting in line
b. A strong belief that time spent waiting in line can be better invested on other things (e.g. sleep)
c. Poor scheduling which renders visits to the market on a Sunday morning when the main market is closed (along side Dai and Daiwa)
That being said, the Tsukiji Sushi Sei is the main storefront for the nationwide sushi chain that prides itself in getting some of the freshest chu-​toro one can find in all of Japan. That being said, the chu-​toro here is indeed fresh and does meet the expectations of any self-​proclaimed sushi nut, but with one caveat; this particular branch is used to being inundated by foreign visitors and serves its sushi as such.
Myself and my fellow diner ordered the omakase (the non-​Takumi/​Nagomi one) and whereas all the neta were fresh and delicious, everything came out all at once. (cue gasp if you’ve ever watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi)
In the spirit of being a good Unilocaler, my omakase (November) contained:
Akami
Aji
Ika
Iwashi
Sayori
Amaebi
Kohada
Buri
Chu-​toro
Ikura
Uni
Zuwaigani
Sushi Sei is more than adequate if you’re looking for some place to save you from disappointment from having missed out on Dai/​Daiwa/​Sukiyabashi/​Satou or many of Tokyo’s other fine sushi establishments, but if you want to bypass the trouble of standing in line or even waking up in the wee hours of the morning, you should probably look to taking your money (and lots of it) to some of the more established Ginza giants.

This is the sushi bar I love to go even I spend $ 50 on taxi to get there when I am in Tokyo. There are quite a few sushi bars in Taukiji but the style and sense of Edo remains at the only this one.
If you are Americans and would love to eat sushi in Tokyo, the is it! Trust me!

This sushi restaurant, located in the heart of the Tsukiji fish market, was absolutely incredible. We ordered salmon, snapper, tuna, scallops, and shrimp. The fish was incredibly fresh, the rice was hot, and the seaweed was the best seaweed I have ever eaten. And the place is very reasonably priced. Each piece of fish is between $ 2 – 3 and the tuna roll was $ 8. The restaurant was so good, that my family and I ate there twice in three days. By far the best sushi we have ever eaten (we are from California, so we have eaten plenty of good sushi before). This place is a must!

Oh, hello there! Is it currently 6 in the morning and you are desperately searching Unilocal for sushi after confronting the absurdly long line at Sushi Dai? Well rest easy, fish lover. Sushi Sei is here to help.
I’d imagine that Sushi Sei is incredible at any time of day, but it really came through for us in the wee hours of a weekday morning. Like so many foreigners before us, my wife and I followed the well-​worn path to Tsukiji at 5am to catch the tuna auctions. Sadly, and probably also like so many foreigners before us, we got there just minutes too late to get tickets. And so we and about 50 other people marched over to Sushi Dai to try to salvage the painfully early wake up by eating some delicious sushi. Again, we were just minutes behind everyone else as a queue at least 2 hours long had already formed. I don’t know about you, but hungry, chilly and tired is not a state in which to wait in an epic line no matter what the quality of the toro is.
And so feeling a bit lost, we hunted around for an alternative. Our spirits were lifted a bit after sampling some small, hot items and strolling around Tsukiji. And then, we turned down one of the vibrant streets in the market and stumbled upon Sushi Sei. It was about 7am and they didn’t open until 8, so we strolled and shopped a bit longer and returned to the restaurant at about 7:45. We were 2^nd in line and in the next 15 minutes, about 10 other people queued up behind us. This first group pretty much filled up the place, so if you want to get your breakfast sushi on early, just make sure you show up a bit before they open.
The quality of the food was outstanding. We did the basic omakase menu which was around 3500 yen per person. No fancy presentation, just delicious, fresh sushi. A perfect way to start the day.
So if you missed out on Sushi Dai or just didn’t want to put up with the wait, do not fear: stroll around the market, shop and snack for a couple hours, then head on over to Sushi Sei. Your morning will be saved.