Numazuko Shinjuku Honten

I first learned about Numazuko from my co-​worker who said he «crushed» plates of sushi at this great conveyor belt sushi restaurant. I decided that this would be a great «first» meal in Tokyo. I didn’t expect to get lost trying to find it. For the record, Shinjuku is not hard to navigate — especially with a Pocket Wifi and Google Maps. However, Google Maps has the wrong address. Use the Unilocal one — it’s the new address for Numazuko.
We arrived around 6:30pm — prime dinner time. There was a line about 10 people deep ahead of us but the wait went by fast. Most people went in, ate quick, and then left. The turn-​over rate is very high so don’t be discouraged by the line. We sat right in front of the chefs on the bar side (there’s a side with booths for larger parties). The food on the conveyor belt was constantly replenished by the sushi chefs so don’t fear picking off the line. We ended up ordering quite a few plates from the chefs themselves since we didn’t see a lot of what we wanted.
The fish was fresh and we ended up spending around $ 35USD for two people — a great deal considering how I did splurge and spend $ 5 on a plate of uni.

It’s good for what it is, conveyer belt sushi. Worth going to so you can have the experience. Pales in comparison to other sushi joints in Tokyo (for obvious reasons) but is better than like 80% of sushi places in the states! Check it out!

From Long Beach California, me like!!!
I like the medium fatty tuna its really good and unagi is the best.

We went there twice while in Tokyo. Best sushi we’ve eaten in along time. The price is right. The people are friendly and the fish couldn’t be any fresher. You won’t be disappointed if you eat there

This restaurant is great if you want to experience the conveyor belt sushi. They have a pretty good size menu with tons of pics (thank god) and an english menu. The color of the plate determines the price of the dish. The prices are displayed all over the restaurant so you know exactly how much you are paying. You can pick food from the belt or you can tell the server what you would like and they would make it right away for you. Also they have tea cups and hot water in front of each seat so you can have as much green tea as you want. I just loved how efficient they are. The best things to order were the salmon, the sardine and the eel. Overall, a good place to experience at a reasonable price.

When people think of conveyor belt sushi, they think of cheap, supermarket-​type sushi that maybe a teenager goes with friends/​on a date to appear more sophisticated.
At least, I thought so. Nothing could be farther than the truth with Numazuko.
Numazuko is a chain of conveyor belt sushi restaurants all over Tokyo. Earlier reviews warned of a long line. But I went at 4pm on a Sunday to the Shinjuku outlet and was quickly seated.
You can grab plates of sushi off the conveyor belt but if you want the freshest stuff, order directly from the chef. Thankfully, they have an English/​Chinese/​Japanese menu and lots of pictures! (Although our rapid pointing confused the chef, and he eventually asked us to order through the Chinese-​speaking waitstaff! Haha)
Numazuko has all sorts of sushi and sashimi, from your standard tuna/​salmon options, to lightly-​seared sardines/​fluke (my favourite), to tuna/​salmon bellies (really affordable), to some really funky stuff. Vegetarians rejoice! There are quite a number of options for you and they go beyond the typical pickles/​inari with rice. I had the pickled eggplant and wasabai sushi (made to look like fish) and the natto with ladies fingers. Dee-​lish!
I’d recommend skipping the vanilla sushi and going for the more premium stuff. We enjoyed pretty much everything except for the house special tower of baby sardines on rice. Pricey, tasteless and a nightmare to eat.
Prices start at 90 Yen per plate (of two pieces) and go all the way to 500+ Yen. A sashimi platter costs 2,500 Yen. We ate so much that we had to be rolled out of there and it cost us USD30 per person (not including sake). The sake is pretty affordable too at USD $ 15 for a 750ml bottle but it gave us a headache. Stick with beer or green tea!

For our last meal in Japan, Stephanie S. and I were debating between Ichiban and sushi. Sushi won (but it was pretty close!), so we looked up a sushi place in Shinjuku.
Google maps doesn’t lead you directly to the spot, so look around the nearby streets. We had to walk up and down some streets to actually find the restaurant! Luckily, we found it when we did because after we got seated, a huge line formed. They have a ton of counter seats and a few booths (fits around 4 people).
Each item is placed on a colored plate, and each plate corresponded to a price. You can also order off the menu if you don’t see an item floating around. We got to try a bunch of different fish, and all of them were delicious!
When you’re done eating, they’ll come by and count up the plates for you. Price point was pretty awesome, so go crazy!
Side note: The servers there speak Japanese and Chinese. That was pretty awesome. :)

Came here as a party of two around 8pm and was seated right away. We found this conveyor belt sushi restaurant from a quick google search, and it took over an hour to find because we were looking at the TripAdvisor address info as of 1÷5÷16, and the restaurant has moved as one other Unilocaler mentioned. Not seeing the Unilocal tip submitted, we spent an hour walking through the underground Shinjuku station and asking several security guards for help. As the Unilocal tip states, the restaurant has moved out of the station and is now much easier to find. It is closest to the E9 exit of the nearest subway station.

Good and affordable kaiten sushi! Would recommend if you’re looking for a quick lunch

Love this place. Will visit ever time I come to Tokyo! The selection is great, staff are helpful and friendly. And easily lose all inhibitions when eating here as the the sushi is so incredible. Take a look at my pics and it doesn’t do how fresh it really is justice. No fishy smell. Just pure indulgence. You will not regret dropping your diet after coming here as a cheat day lol.

Disappointed, given the reviews that were posted here. The fish was average, prices weren’t all that great, and the rice was not served at the right consistency.
Maybe I came in on an off night, but there are better options in the area. They had some creative options, which were nice. However, the standard options of Uni, Red Snapper, Salmon, Tuna, etc. were all fairly basic. Fish to rice ratio isn’t great, and it doesn’t help that the rice was cold and undercooked.
It’s fast, though, and very close to the train station — so if you’re looking for a quick and easy to find place after a long day, this may do the trick!

Very clean atmosphere with generous cuts/​portions of meat.
Place is very easy to find relative to the station and is foreigner friendly. Lines do form around dinner time so be forewarned!
Booths COULD accommodate up to 6 but it will be a tight fit; best to go with 4 people.
Would definitely recommend.

What a disappointment. We saw a long line and positive Unilocal reviews, so we expected a superb sushi experience. I think they just get a lot of foot traffic because they are located at the West entrance of the extremely busy Shinjuku station. We had to wait 15 – 20 minutes to get two seats, while there were lots of empty seats at the counter. We didn’t really understand why they were making people wait when there were empty seats.
So many kaiten style (conveyor belt) sushi places in Japan charge half the prices they charge here. The place feels like a sushi factory. Too big, too crowded, too loud. The quality of the sushi wasn’t even good. The sashimi and nigiri pieces were cut too thick, too big for your mouth, chewy and leathery. Yuck. We couldn’t wait to get out.

Our first taste of sushi in japan was at this hidden gem. we were lost for a good 30 mins trying to figure out where this place was on our map. we later learned it was inside the station and downstairs! we were seated within 5 mins of arrival. base on my experience from the states i didn’t expect much from a conveyor belt sushi joint. i was expecting to have average sushi. before i even grabbed any plates i asked the sushi chef behind the counter. OTORO please.
i had one bite of the otoro and it was life changing good. everything i ever knew about otoro has been thrown out the window. i grew up in hawaii and ate my share of fish. Never have i had a piece of otoro so rich that my mouth was full of oil. myself and friends ate plate after plate amazed by the quality of the fish they serve. the best part was it only cost me 30 dollars. japan you have ruin my life.

I met up with a guy in Tokyo to just get to know someone and for someone to take me out to for conveyer belt sushi (kaiten-​zushi). It’s really close to the Shinjuku station which is pretty convenient for most people in Tokyo (especially those visitors) and it was amazing.
Sushi chefs making sushi right in front of you and placing it on the conveyer belt for everyone to take — if you can’t find a certain dish (they definitely don’t put the expensive stuff on the belt), you can always ask for it from the sushi chef that’s in front of you.
I probably ate so many nigiri of tuna and salmon. The person I was with got some uni (sea urchin) which was a heaping portion.
I think it came out pretty cheaply since each dish was anywhere from a dollar to a couple of dollars.
Protip: eat lots of sushi. the wait in line isn’t too bad and be polite!

Very nice experience in Tokyo!
The sushi is fresh and this restaurant is very local. Recommend to go!

I love this place! The food tastes like upscale sushi restaurant but with affordable price. My all time favorite Toro Salmon, which is the fatty underbelly of salmon, only cost 230 yen a plate, which is just under 2 dollars. Good deal huh. Gosh they melted in my mouth with every bite. Pure joy indeed. There are a lot of other sushi varieties too. I also particularly enjoyed the Nama Uni, which is raw sea urchin, although they are a bit pricey. 400 yen for a piece, not per plate! But they worth every yen. Think of it like edible gold from the sea. They were creamy with a tinge of sweetness lingering on your tongue as you chew. Another notable one is Iwashi sushi, which is raw young sardines. The young-​sardines are transparent and shiny, and to be honest, looked kinda scary. They reminded me of the Medusa hair, almost looked alive. They were springy and I could have sworn I felt little bones crunching with every bite. Can’t say I enjoyed this to be honest, but I liked the experience.
The atmosphere here is very Japanese, so if you’re visiting like me, it is a nice experience. We ended up having 15 plates for two of us, and it was altogether 3800 yen, or about 32 dollars. Not bad for quality food for two eh?

Nos costo mucho encontrar este lugar que nos habia recomendado Unilocal.Fue como una gran busqueda del tesoro en medio de la masiva estacion de Shinjuku. Cuando lo encontramos fue glorioso. Una barra enorme que serpenteaba todo el local, con una gran cinta transportadora de sushi del real.
Niguiris de cosas que no sabiamos que eran, pero una mas rica que la otra. Muchisimas personas, una al lado de la otra, comiendo mientras muchisimos sushiman veteranos llenaban constantemente la cinta con nuevas piezas. Y lo mejor de todo es que no resulto caro.
Del mejor sushi que voy a comer en mi vida.
Solo en Japon.

This is a giant (by tokyo sushi restaurant standards) kaiten-​zushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant deep within Shinjuku station. The sushi is great for being a relatively cheap informal place like this and I had no complaints about the service. Even though it’s in a major train station, the vast majority of the customers were Japanese and the staff speaks very little English. So here are some tips for newbies like me who don’t speak any Japanese:
* It was very hard to find the place from the inside because Shinjuku station is absolutely enormous. If you can find the Keio department store and then the «MY» electronics store from outside, the best stairway down is the one closest to the main «MY» entrance. At least I think that is the main entrance to MY. Take it 2 levels down to the bottom and Numazukou is just to your right.
* When you walk in, there will probably be a line of people sitting on chairs along the front of the restaurant (inside). Some at the end of the line may be standing. Just join that line and someone will eventually come ask your party size (show them with fingers) and show you to the bar or maybe a table if you’re in a group. But it seems like the bar is where you’d like to be at this sort of place. The line moves very quickly.
* Once seated, there are insta-​hot water faucets installed in the bar along with mugs and tea packets so you can make your own green tea. Chop sticks, soy sauce, and sauce dishes are on the bar too. There’s a bucket of ginger. If you want wasabi, ask one of the sushi chefs and they will put a hunk on one of your plates. You can order miso soup (several varieties available) or beer/​drinks from the servers.
* When you see something you like come by on the conveyor, just take the plate and you stack up your plates as you finish each one so they don’t take up all your room on the bar. There is a key (with pictures) taped to the bar showing how much each plate color costs. Most were in the 180 – 325 Yen range. Some expensive or unwieldy items just go around with a little sign describing them. I assume you just take the plate and hand the sign to the chef to get the item.
* You can also order items directly from the sushi chefs based on a menu at the bar. I haven’t tried this yet. And since the item names are written in Kanji, I might have to put the menu right up to the chefs and point. Or perhaps they will understand the English descriptions. I wish the menu had pictures because I took some items from the conveyor which I didn’t recognize and am unable to identify.
* When you finish, flag down a server and make the «writing up a check» motion on your hand or otherwise indicate that you’re done and they will count your dishes and write you a ticket to bring to the counter. I paid cash and I’m not sure if they take credit cards. I ate a huge lunch for ¥2,640 ($ 22) and then later a dinner for ¥2,825.
Most of this may sound stupid or obvious to kaiten-​zushi regulars but hey – we’re all new once!

This was my first conveyor belt sushi experience and it was pretty awesome. Tons of different choices came spinning around and I was able to find exactly what I wanted for the most part. They serve several grades of tuna including some nice fatty almost white pieces. The chefs don’t seem very friendly but I assure you they are and if you’re looking for something and not seeing it they will make it for you. My surprise favorite was the seafood salad. The prices are fairly reasonable and and the wait wasn’t too bad. The place is a bit hard to find but you can find a guide that will lead you directly to it on google if you search the name.

Massive conveyor belt sushi restaurant in the depths of Shinjuku station. We read about this spot as being one of the best and most economical sushi restaurants in the area so we decided to give it a try. After some confusing moments looking for this place (with full wifi and google maps) we finally stumbled upon it.
This was definitely the biggest conveyor belt spot I’ve ever seen and it as very crowded on Friday night. We managed to snag the last two chairs and went town around 7:45. (It seemed to slow down within the following half hour.)
Sushi wise, it was pretty good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but for the price and variety it was solid. Service was good and the sushi chefs were happy to make any dishes specifically for you if you could get their attention.
Price wise, we left pretty full and only ended up spending about 55¥.
Definitely worth checking it out if you can find it!