umai sushi kan

Ah, here it is. I couldn’t believe how long it took me to find this place on the web. If like Jamie W. and me, you have no tolerance for long lines, you will likely come upon this place once you’ve done the obligatory circuit around all the sushi spots in Tsukiji Market. It’s seriously the last place before you raise your arms in defeat and leave the market for the nearest Family Mart. After all, it was 9:30AM, and we were not sushi-​in-​the-​morning types. Or so we thought. I momentarily gave pause before entering because it was the one place that not only didn’t have a queue but had tables readily available (photo:
).
Jamie showed no such restraint and I just followed him in. They obligingly gave us half a table for six, and their photo menu was easy to peruse. So much so that we stuffed ourselves since we were in Tsukiji after all. We started with the ￥1,100 Tekka Don, thin slices of fresh maguro draping lazily over a bowl filled with rice (photo:
). It was absurdly simple and absurdly delicious. We followed this with their big special the ￥2,980 Tenchoh Osusume Nigiri, which was a full platter of artfully presented sushi, all the chef’s choice as to what would be included with each nigiri quite unique (photo:
). The standout on the platter had to be the whole conger eel brushed with soy sauce.
This dish came with a warm Chawan-​mushi (photo:
) and a Miso Soup with a fish head bobbing at the surface (photo:
). Feeling we needed to take full advantage of all the fresh fish, we additionally went for Hamaichi and Ebi Nigiri for about ￥800 (photo:
). Yes, it was starting to add up, but it was quite tasty. I noticed on all the foodie blogs that this one never gets mentioned, and I may not be privy to some insider information about this place. However, Jamie W. and I were pretty pleased with our meal here which included service from a veteran waiter who went above and beyond to overcome our language barrier.
FOOD — 4 stars… very fresh sushi and plenty of it if you’re willing to pay
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… pretty standard but clean
SERVICE — 4 stars… strong area here and they managed the turnover efficiently without rushing anyone
TOTAL — 4 stars… the line did start to form when we left but I say take advantage of the comparative unpopularity of this place… it more than met our expectations

I think this restaurant is most popular with tourists as a majority of the people visiting when I went were not from Japan… But that doesn’t mean it’s not good.
The sushi is very fresh and the sushi chefs were nice. If you speak Japanese they will be especially happy to have a conversation (at least the one I was talking to). You just have to be willing to pay the price for fresh sushi. It’s pretty expensive and I think the plate I got was the special for around 2000~3000 yen but my friend took the higher value plate.
Also, if you visit around lunch time, be ready to wait at least 15 minutes to get inside. People will be lining up fairly early just to eat here as well as many other places in the area. This one seemed to have the least amount of people at the time, so we just went with it for convenience.