Benten Sushi — Restaurant in Hakodate

Most authentic sushi and omakase experience I ever had! Japanese hospitality at it’s best! If you are in Hakodate I highly recommend eating here. My mother and I called ahead of time and booked a table for dinner. The restaurant is run by a ln elderly couple who runs it out of their home so it feels as if you are stepping into their house and experiencing something very unique. The lady speaks good English and we easily communicated on the phone. When we arrived they were waiting for us and offered us options of where to sit and asked us for our food preferences. The sushi master was extremely attentive to detail, hospitable and warm. He uses a little translation gadget to communicate in English which really adds to the experience and makes it very funny! He prepared omakase for us which was the best we had so far in Japan and I have been here 11 times so that says something! Everything sas very fresh and masterfully made! The restaurant was mentioned in the Michelin guide a few years back and I believe it deserves to be there still! We also had some hearty fish soup and he gifted us some extra pieces of sushi! All for 4500 yen! Value for money is unparalleled. They called for our taxi to come pick us up and they talked to us while we waited. We laughed a lot and he showed us some magazines where his restaurant was mentioned. When the taxi arrived they came outside to bid us farewell and waved to us until they could no longer see us. The whole experience was so touching and emotional. I felt like we were visiting a relative’s home instead of a restaurant. I...

This sushi master has truly perfected his art. By far the best omakase we have ever had (better than a famous Michelin starred sushi restaurant we went to in Otaru) and all at an unbelievably affordable price of 4300yen. Nestled under a serene mountain landscape in a residential area, each piece of sushi was a work of art - the freshest fish that is the most expertly prepared on top of perfectly balanced sushi rice. Along with the owner’s warm hospitality, I cannot rave about this place enough. We were lucky and was able to get a table walking at 6pm but some nights they could be fully reserved. We loved it so much we came back a second time as the last meal during our one month stay in Japan. Truly...

little comes close to the value a 4,700 yen omakasae can provide, for 16 dishes no less. but what made this experience invaluable was knowing the sushi master is a friendly old chap who has been doing this for 43 years no less, with his wife, on their own. i don’t think we see enough people committing their lives to a single trade for their whole lifetime, and with such unfaltering enthusiasm to boot.

couldn’t have found a better way for this omakasae experience to have turned out (my first, despite years of sashimi fueled gastronomical adventures)

ft. obligatory picture he asked if we could take (which he communicated through a smol translator...