Otaru Masazushi Main (Hokkaido) — Restaurant in Otaru

It was fortunate to get a private room at 11a.m. on a weekday without a reservation but I think this restaurant is popular so it's best to make a reservation.

You can easily order by touch panel. It gives the option to include wasabi or order wasabi on the side.

They have other shops, including ones in Shinjuku and Ginza. The price is far more expensive there than at this main shop in Otaru. The rent costs a lot more in Tokyo and they have to ship down all the seafood....so you'll pay for that premium if dining at the same shop at a Tokyo branch.

There's even a waiting room to keep customers happy with free wifi. It also prevents people from having to stand out in the cold. If going in the winter, the streets are slippery and icy, so take care!

The food took more time than I expected to come but this is a slow food place. If you want fast food, go to the fish market next to the station.

The sets in the photo...I think we're 2500 and 3000 yen? The uni-ikura bowl was 4500yen for a small bowl. It comes with a small bowl of Tororo kombu soup. I'd you know quality sushi and like to eat in peace, this place is for you. Not a big amount of food but this is good since you'll want to stay hungry to eat all the sweets down the street, shopping on the main Otaru strip.

If you're a tourist unsure if what's good sushi, you probably don't need to come here...and just finding the cheapest deal around should be fine.

The service was professional. Not what I would call friendly but very...

Omakase - READ BEFORE YOU BOOK

Came here for the ¥14,000 lunch omakase after seeing reviews from vloggers. Had pretty high expectations, of course.

Overall ambience was good with attentive staff, with easy parking outside. But the dining experience was a disappointment.

We were served by a younger chef who merely laid the food on our plates, with one/ two words about the ingredients. Then he went back to serving three patrons next to us while chatting away animatedly with them.

We understand that there’s a language barrier and don’t mind minimal interaction but overall food presentation and preparation seemed to lack meticulous thought for the price point.

Sashimi were sliced simply (see picture). Food was fresh, but so was all other seafood that we’ve had from the seafood market and even supermarkets in Sapporo. Was expecting more from an omakase experience, not just fresh ingredients !

The only dish that made an impression was grilled middle fatty tuna which costs only around ¥1000?

We will consider dropping by next time for sushi sets (eg Takumi set - 12 pc sushi with uni and salmon roe). That will be good value.

Unfortunately omakase was a huge letdown and IMO not...

We traveled a long way to visit this renowned restaurant, only to experience differential treatment. I’m not being overly critical—we were among the first group seated, with five people in total (three of us and two Japanese guests). We all ordered the omakase course for 15,180 yen. Since we were seated close to the young, bespectacled chef preparing the fish, we could clearly observe from the sashimi course onward that he intentionally reserved the two best and largest portions, while the rest of us received inferior cuts of fish with smaller servings. At first, I thought the chef was distributing randomly, but with each dish, those two larger portions consistently went to the Japanese guests—too coincidental to be unintentional. For example, when it came to shellfish, the three of us shared one piece cut into three portions, while the neighboring guests each received a half-piece of the same ingredient. This happened with every dish, including tuna and sea urchin. It was truly baffling. I won’t...