Sushi Tei — Restaurant in Jakarta

If you're up for fusion sushi, this is the place to be. This isn't the first sushi restaurant in Indonesia. But arguably, sushi-tei popularized and redefined the genre in Indonesia since it opened up shop over a decade ago.

There's a reason why there is always a queue on Friday evenings and weekends here in the Kelapa Gading outlet (or wherever else, I imagine). I guess it's a balance between price, sushi menus that are catered to the Indonesian taste buds, as well as a variety of choices.

Best seat in the house (at least for me) is at the sushi bar where the dish is always an arm's length away on the conveyor belt. The problem with this is that we are always at the whim of the restaurant. They do have a system of what menu to put on the belt and when. But you can always order something to the waiter/waitresses.

Menu wise, they do have a lot of variety. But sometimes I can't help but feel that they keep rehashing older dishes with slight adjustments and selling them as a new dish (a la Pizza Hut). But then again, how much can you innovate out of sushi?

The interior design of the new shop in Kelapa Gading is a bit better than the old one back when they were still on the 1st floor. Brighter and slightly bigger. The seats on the bar are also better this time around. Wider and better cushioned.

So to sum up, if you want traditional sushi, this isn't the place to be. Yes you can get the more traditional dishes in sushi tei, but the experience is different. What they do excel in is fusion (or westernized) sushi where they use more ingredients in one dish mixed with a lot of mayonnaise/cream cheese/avocado (calories ahoy)! But apparently this is what the Indonesian market wants....

I had a bad experience when i went to Sushi Tei MKG a couple of years ago when a mouse decided to run on the sushi conveyor belt right in front of us (knocking all the sushi plates along the way). What did the store decided to do? They told us the mouse is from outside of the store, and gave us free dessert as "compensation". At that time i didn't think much of it, just thought to myself "Welcome to Indonesia" and that's that.

Went back to the same outlet just a few days ago to give it another go. Sat next to the conveyor belt, took 4 plates of sushi. First thing i notice? All the sushi are warm...and I'm thinking to myself, this doesn't seem right. But doesn't want to made a scene and just carry on eating. First roll, suddenly my son started making a funny face, told me that the fish "tasted weird", and sure enough the fish on his sushi roll gives off a strong odour. We just decided to stop eating, leave whatever leftover we have on the plate, get up, paid for the Sushi and left as i dont want to take the risk of getting food poisoning from eating a spoiled fish in a warm sushi roll.

Maybe i overreacted, but being a big Sushi chain, twice coming in, and twice having a not so pleasant experience. Maybe it's our bad luck. But don't expect to see us coming in to this outlet of Sushi...

I usually come here at dinner time (7-8 PM), and expect a long queue at those times. The interior of the place is classy, good lighting and ambience, perfect for a sushi date/family time. The staffs are attentive and kind. The conveyor belt sushi experience is well replicated here and is always a fun experience to grab the revolving sushi as it comes by.

However, some of the sushi from the belt are often cold/not fresh anymore... so I still suggest customers to order directly with the waiter there to get fresh ones made. Food-wise, sushi tei has a tremendous variety of japanese cuisine available, but the go-to menu I always order are namely: salmon belly miso soup, kanimayo tobiko maki, tunasalad crispy mentai and salmon sashimi. The mayo at sushi tei is definitely the star of the show for many of its best-selling items but it can sometimes me too filling at times. The sashimi here is quite fresh, the chicken nanban is also extremely juicy.. Try more of their menus without mayo to obtain a more authentic sushi experience.

Price is quite fair, I would rate my overall experience with Sushi Tei a 4 star as the quality is fairly consistent and definitely within standard for a popular sushi chain...