Sushiko Honten, Tokyo - K's first visit

On our recent trip to Japan, we spent 3 days in Tokyo on our way back to Sydney from Hokkaido.  C took this opportunity to book us and some friends a spot at Sushiko Honten in Ginza on New Year's Eve.  You may recall that C has already been here once and had pretty impressive things to say about it (see his last review here).  After his rave review and saying this restaurant has ruined his ability to enjoy sushi in Australia, I was pretty keen to go and check out what all the fuss was about.  After all - it's just rice and fish right?

How wrong I was!

Without sounding like a food snob, Sushiko Honten wasn't just a restaurant, but a performance; a theatric experience that is more than just eating what is placed before you. Leaving Sushiko Honten, I had a new found admiration and appreciation of the art of sushi making and Japanese cuisine.

Sushiko Honten has been open for more than 130 years. The restaurant is small and cosy. Understated and simple. Diners are seated around the sushi bar where the chefs work.  When we first entered, there was an eerie, awkward silence - as diners sat watching their designated chef work his magic, mesmerised by the skill and performance before them. The experience didn't start and end with the sushi being delivered onto your plate.  Rather, the whole meal was a performance by your designated chef - there's very little chatter between diners as everyone is focused on the mastery that is before them.

The first dish was a combination of two types of shrimp with soy and a dollop of wasabi on top.  I have honestly never had pawns as fresh as this and it left me salivating for me.  One of our friends we dined with loved this dish so much she ordered it again at the end of her meal!  I still don't know how something so seemingly simple could have such sweetness and intensity of flavour.

2 types of shrimp - shira ebi and amae ebi

The next dish was steamed abalone with seaweed.  The abalone flesh is tender and tastes like fresh seawater.  The seaweed helped to accentuate these flavours even more.

Abalone

Crab with egg

Next, we had a crab dish with egg (and some black pepper cracked on top).  We were told the crab was sourced from Kanazawa.  This dish was a bit of a fusion dish and very creamy.

Chu-toro sashimi

Now onto the sashimi course.  Part of what was so entertaining about Sushiko Honten (or any other Japanese restaurant specialising in sushi) is being able to watch the chef's incredible knife skills.  Watching our chef, we noticed that different types of fish and even different types of tuna are cut to different thickness. It shows such incredible understanding of their produce and how to showcase each piece of fish's flavour.

For our sashimi course, we got chu toro (medium fatty tuna) and flounder. The two pieces of fish contrasted dramatically in texture, the chu toro soft and melts in your mouth and the flounder subtle in flavour and more chewy (and hence cut to a thinner width). The contrast actually helped to emphasise the special features of the two types of fish.

Sashimi - chu toro and flounder

To be honest, I was a little surprised when I saw our next dish was grilled fish but I was not disappointed. We were given grilled swordfish and o-toro (the fattiest of fatty tuna).  The fish was not overcooked and there was a real intensity of sweetness to the swordfish. As for the o-toro - well, it was o-toro - do I need to say more? It was out of this world and just melted away in our mouths.

Grilled fish - swordfish and o-toro

We then moved onto the nigiri courses.  First we got a yellow tail sushi. To be honest, it was probably my least favourite dish as the fish lacked a bit of flavour and was a little tough. That said, it was quite an interesting fish as the more you chewed it, the more the flavours came out.

Yellow Tail

Next was the squid.  This was lightly seasoned with a few drops of lemon juice and a dash of salt. I remember seeing how our chef was absolutely precise with the number of drops of lemon he placed on each of our sushi.  Just another example of the attention to detail and perfection that goes into making each nigiri.

Flavour and texture wise, I have never had squid like this. It was a perfect balance of crunch, tenderness and chewiness. I was amazed at how much the lemon and salt helped emphasise the fresh flavours of the squid.

Squid - with lemon and salt

Next we have the horse mackerel.  I am not normally a fan of mackerel but this was very different to any mackerel I've had before. The flavour of this fish is much bolder than other fish and whilst I usually find mackerel quite heavy and fishy, this one was fresh and flavoursome and lightened up by the spring onions and radish dressing on top.

Horse mackerel

Much to all of our excitement, next up was the o-toro.  I'm not sure the photos quite capture in full just how fatty and delicious this piece of tuna was but honestly, when you bite into this piece of sushi, it simply melts away into your mouth and your taste buds are taken over by the intense fresh flavours of the tuna.  It's fish on a whole new level and I think this piece of sushi alone made me realise how much there is to sushi and what I've been missing out on all this time!

O-toro
perfectly seasoned with just the amount of soy sauce the chef wants you to enjoy the sushi with. Remember not to dunk your sushi into any more soy sauce!!

My second favourite dish of the night - bafun uni (sea urchin).  My first ever good experience of uni was at Sushi Dai (Tsukiji Fish Market) in 2011 and prior to this, I never understood why people liked sea urchin. Frankly, it always tasted a little smelly to me.  Ever since my first experience of good uni in 2011, I've barely ever eaten uni outside of Japan.  Coming to Sushiko Honten, I was really excited to try this delicacy.

And it didn't disappoint. When you eat good uni, it feels like you are tasting the sea in your mouth.  It's salty, sweet and creamy all at the same time. The chef also sprinkled a bit of salt on the top to accentuate the flavours.  This was just perfect. Even better than the uni we had in Hokkaido!

Bafun uni

As we were dining omakase, it was entirely up to the chef what he serves us.  It's often dependent on what is seasonal and we definitely found that many of our dishes were different to what C had on his first visit.  Seasonal produce aside, we suspected that our chef was mildly amused by our delightful squeals each time he served us o-toro and so decided to kindly offer us even more - but this time lightly grilled (cue: more oo-ing and ahh-ing in delight).  We were in o-toro heaven.

Next we had a kawahagi fish with liver.  It's the first time I've had fish with liver in this way and was a little hesitant but it turns out quite enjoyable.  The liver was like Foie Gras of the sea and the texture of the fish in contract with the liver also elevated the dish.

Now onto the last few dishes of the omakase.  The first being miso soup, followed by grilled shitake mushroom and anago (saltwater eel) nigiri.

Miso Soup

Shitake mushroom nigiri

The intensity of the mushroom flavour and umami on this nigiri was delicious.  The mushroom was grilled just enough to give it that dry outer layer but still retaining the mushroom juices on the inside.

Anago nigiri

Anago is saltwater eel.  I've never had it before and was surprised by its soft, melt in your mouth texture, compared to the more chewy and bolder flavoured unagi (freshwater eel) that I am use to having in Australia. The flavours were subtle and the marinade did not overpower the delicate flavours of the fish.

This was the end of our omakase.  Our chef then asked us if we were full or wanted any additional items. We agonised momentarily about whether to call it a day or indulge in another piece of that amazing o-toro nigiri again. In the end, we opted to go for our friend's motto (who also decided to have one more of the shrimp two ways that we first ate) - if you like it, you have to eat it twice! And with that, we each ordered ourselves another o-toro (whilst quietly ignoring what the monetary carnage would be at the end).

O-toro - look at that glistening fat

One thing that people may forget when scoping out restaurants in Tokyo is how hard it is to get bookings at good restaurants. Many restaurants only take bookings on certain days, force you to get hotel concierge to make the booking or even decline to take reservations from foreigners.

In comparison to many other top flight sushi restaurants, Sushiko Honten was extremely easy to make a reservation at. We didn't need to jump through elaborate hoops, we were told to book through a hotel because we were foreigners and the person taking our booking spoke some English. And it was the best meal we had in Japan.


Sushiko Honten: +81 3-3571-1968
Address: 6-3-8 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan