Matsuri Restaurant — Restaurant in Frankfurt

Very authentic - too authentic for some, it seems. Expect a Japanese izakaya and real sushi/sashimi. No vegetarian options, no noodles, etc. And no Western-style sushi (e.g. california rolls) either. As the chef will tell you on the phone, and at least half a dozen signs outside and inside the restaurant will tell you (rather rudely): raw fish only (plus appetizers, sides and desserts).

The outside of the restaurant isn't very inviting, and only fans of traditional izakayas will enjoy the inside.

The restaurant is run by the chef and his wife only, and the chef is rather slow at preparing sushi (not just because of he's carefully preparing high quality dishes), so expect long waiting times (as indicated in the menu). The place wasn't even half full and the dishes took a long time to arrive.

They're both friendly, but it seems a lot of people expect dishes that they don't offer, and they're seriously fed up with it, it seems. Expect to be lectured in many ways, if you can't convince the chef that you know proper Japanese sushi/sashimi and how to eat it. I told him in Japanese that I used to live in Japan, and that was the end of that for me.

The food is prepared with a lot of love, and the fish is of high quality. And as I said, very authentically prepared. But also rather pricey.

Just the sushi rice confused me a bit, it had a rather strong sweet-sour flavor (instead of being just lightly vinegared), which was very weird and not authentic at all, at least not in my experience in the years I spent in Japan. Others wondered about the sweetness of the rice as well. It was also colder than I ever received my rice, even though I arrived at opening time.

Honestly, I think he's a hobby cook but surely not a sushi chef trained in Japan.

All in all, I'm not sure I'd recommend a visit here to anyone who hasn't been in Japan several times. But those who have, and don't mind the lecturing (in a rather rude voice - probably due to the language barrier), and have no other source of authentic sushi/sashimi, it's definitely worth a visit.

Last minute add: the chef can get very angry if you have atypical requests (as per Japanese customs) - not at me, but a couple that obviously hasn't been in Japan ever, made a request (I think for soy sauce even though the dish was already flavored) that made him quite loud. Not pleasant for the other guests either. Thus I'll remove another star.

Aaand I saw the chef put some food into his mouth while preparing sushi, with the same bare hands. So hygiene isn't up to standard as well, neither in Japan nor Germany. There goes another star and the small chance of my...

Sashimi was really quite good, as well as other food items we ordered. Most importantly, the tuna and salmon was very fresh and tasty. I only give 2 stars because the atmosphere and the owner runs the place are really way too odd for my taste.

The owner is barely intelligible in German, which usually I wouldn't care about (although I personally also wouldn't exactly celebrate this fact if I'd been running the place for almost 20 years). But it's just really not helpful if you are trying to ask questions about the food items or the "rules" of how to eat things - especially if the owner conveys that there are very strict rules on how to eat certain things the right way but it is just not immediately clear what this right way is. What really got on my nerves, though, was the never-ending barrage of "jokes" of the owner which I witnessed he's repeating essentially with every guest and which may be called quirky initially but just become old if they ultimately turn the dinner into some kind of slapstick performance. (Yes, haha, very funny to pretend to trip and spill a drink, to pretend to pour soy sauce in your drink etc, but not all evening long.)

Lastly, a place may be charming despite or even because it is run down a little. However, same as with the jokes: it's just not "a little", but to my taste is crossing into territory where it's plain uncomfortable. Also, if I'm charged 7,50 Euro for a bottle of water, I expect the ambience to reflect that I'm not eating at some...

You have to have some humor yourself to appreciate the swagger of the chef. It is someone who respects and loves the food he prepares and hope whoever eats it feel the same way. He spends time ‘teaching’ every table that wasabi and soy sauce should not be mixed together for a better experience. I personally enjoyed him doing so as it created some more communication between the chef and customer. Not to mention the million hand drawn posters emphasizing that he sells only raw fish, no avocado no vegetarian etc. which cracked me up so badly ( if you look close enough there are tiny spelling mistakes everywhere🤣) One last thing, very nice...