Sushi Inomata — Restaurant in Kawaguchi

Absolutely loved this place, it was the best sushi I’ve ever had. If you didn’t already know, this is an omakase restaurant where Chef Inomata serves you individual pieces of sushi one by one. For context, the only other super fancy sushi place I’ve been to is Omakase in San Francisco. This will be a very detailed review, so buckle in!

Overall, 18 pieces of sushi were served. I also added on an additional shrimp and a different kind of clam at the end, so I ended up trying 19 different kinds.

Squid. Some citrus was added, which made it very refreshing and a great first bite. The texture was very nice, substantive and nicely chewy. Marbled flounder. Very clean flavor with a bit of nice chew. Tasted very good with the soy sauce brushed on top. Shrimp. This was a shimaebi shrimp from Hokkaido. The best shrimp nigiri I’ve ever had. It was so fresh, but still had a nice initial bite. I often find raw shrimp to be a bit too slimy, but it was not the case for this one. Japanese bluefish. More tender, fatty, and flavorful than the previous pieces. Similar to tuna. Sea urchin. This was from Hokkaido, and apparently cost 5000 yen per piece. Simply put, the best uni I’ve ever had (and I ate lots of uni in Hokkaido) and one of the best bites I’ve ever had. Such a nice sweet, oceany flavor. My favorite piece. Chutoro. The perfect piece of chutoro. Bonito. I think there was some green onion with it, which paired well with the fish. Had a bit more of a cooked taste than other pieces. Crab. This was hairy crab from Hokkaido. I also tried this in Hokkaido, and it was amazing, but this bite beat any of the ones I had before. Amazing, probly my second favorite piece. Whale. This was from the tail of a sei whale. They asked if I was okay with it before serving. I did feel bad, but ate it anyways. It was very interesting, like a combo of fatty tuna and wagyu. Really good. Salmon. A piece of king salmon topped with kombu. The kombu added nice flavor and texture, and the salmon was top notch. Akami. The perfect piece of lean tuna. Razor clam. This was grilled and served in an open hand roll. The aroma of the grilled clam was simply incredible. The texture was really firm and chewy, and the flavor clean. The best clam I’ve had at a sushi place. Chutoro. This was the same place as before, but it was soaked in soy sauce for an hour. It tasted pretty similar, but I did slightly prefer this one. Otoro. Some Otoro is too fatty. This one was not. Even though it was very fatty, it still had a nice initial bite. Delicious. Sillago. I think it had some vinegar, it was a bit sour in a good way. Tasted somewhat similar to mackerel. Tuna hand roll. This was made with four of the tunas served previously (lean, chutoro, Otoro). They are quite generous with the amount of tuna. Delicious. Dried gourd roll. I think it was kelp inside? It was light and refreshing, slightly crunchy and slightly chewy. Tamago. They serve the cake kind. A light and sweet way to end the meal. Clam. A different kind of clam. Sweet, chewy, and refreshing.

That’s it for the food! This place keeps it simple and only serves nigiri, which I like because the other stuff usually just fills me up.

In terms of service, it was also great. Chef Inomata didn’t talk much (maybe because many diners were foreigners), but was quite friendly. His wife was quite good at English though, and throughout the meal she would tell us more about the fish. For example, she’d tell us the price of the uni, or show us info about the fish in a book. I also asked her a few questions, which she answered very nicely.

The meal cost 88,500 yen. It was a bit more expensive because I ordered 2 extra pieces. Coming from the US, this is definitely worth it for the quality, experience, and service we received. I had some of the best bites of my life here. Highly recommend checking this place out!

As a final side note, this is one of the few fancier Japanese omakase restaurants that lets you make...

I really wanted to love this place. It has unbelievably good reviews on sushi-expert blogs and, indeed, the ingredients are all extremely high-quality, often unusual, and delicious. But the price is just unbelievably high--38,500 yen (£229 or $278)--and it quite simply doesn't justify it. That's even taking into account the rare sushi ageing techniques that are used: they're interesting, and make a difference to several of the courses compared to other similar restaurants. But they're nowhere near impressive or unique enough to justify the astronomical price.

For that price, you'd expect a huge number of courses, and you'd certainly expect that courses you have to skip due to allergies (several, in the case of my friend who dined with me) would be replaced with an alternative. You'd also (minor point, but still) expect to be able to pay with card. None of these are the case.

The restaurant is also quite a long way out of the centre of Tokyo: the long travel there, along with the previous reviews I'd read, created a very high sense of expectation. Alas, those expectations weren't met, and we left with a real sense of disappointment. Unless you're specifically interested in the kinds of aged sushi on offer here, you're almost certainly better staying somewhere central and visiting one of the innumerable better-value (and still extremely high-quality) sushi...

My first proper omakase experience and sushi Inomata doesn’t disappoint me. Restaurant has confirmed me the menu didn’t have any ingredients that I am allergic. Food wise, Nigiri are shaped nicely and rice are seasoned well. Seafood quality is definitely top notch. Unfortunately I don’t speak Japanese, otherwise Chef Inomata sounds like a kind, talkative person with other Japanese customers. The partner (another staff) did provide the best service as she can with her limited English. She explained each dish well with a help a book, map and of course google translate. My personal favourites are Bonita and the Tuna (Akami, Chu Toro, O toro). The aged fish make them more tender, maybe a bit more flavour as well. The only downside is it’s location which technically is not in Tokyo although it’s not far. It did require us to travel for a longer time. Also consider its location, the rent should be lower so the menu should be a bit cheaper. I personally don’t think ¥44000 per person is fully justified when other omakase provides similar quality with a lower price tag and locates in Tokyo. But on the other hand, the restaurant is only managed by the chef and his partner which limit the number of guests to serve. Overall I do think it is a great sushi restaurant, I might come back when I visit...