Daiwa Sushi — Restaurant in Tokyo

They discriminate against foreigners. 歧视外国人，千万不要去。 I regret not going through the 1 star reviews earlier. Seafood on the sushi was fresh, which shd be a given. I assume all other restaurants located in the market should be about the same on this. The sushi rice did not taste like sushi rice. It was hard and there was no hint of vinegar at all. The topping and rice did not go well together.

I was served by an older chef, a middle aged man, who was cheerful and smiley. The positive experience ended there. The chef asked me if I would like to have wasabi on my sushi, I said no (and even signalled an 'x' with my fingers to make sure the msg got across). 2/3 of my meal came with wasabi. It was obvious the chef's heart was not on his work. Or maybe he is new. The nori on my sushi came unwound on a few occasions, and some of the sushi he served would not stand upright. The sushi rice fell apart and the topping fell off in the serving dish before I touched them.

My sushi was served in pairs. He would put down 2 sushis in one grip. Other chefs who were serving japanese customers (ordering the same set) served their sushis individually, and made sure each sushi was well moulded before letting it on the serving plate. I think that is why the locals love them.

3 others seated beside me were foreigners and they were served in the same way as I did. I read of other 1 star reviews that also spoke of similar experiences.

Maybe they felt foreigners did not know better? Not knowing the culture does not mean we should be treated sloppily. They should still serve us what we paid for. This is basic business ethics. Or maybe they feel foreigners are easy money. It is obvious that smiles does not equate to respect or welcome in this place.

From my observation, it seems they do not like to serve foreigners. If they had any integrity, they should have said no to non-japanese speaking customers, like some established Japanese restaurants. But here, they take you in, smile at you and deliberately serve you food of subpar quality. It is deplorable.

I am glad I went at a time when i did not have to wake up early or wait long. And I sincerely hope no others have to go through what I went through. I do not recommend patronizing this shop. Looking at past reviews, I have a feeling they have been doing this for quite a while and as they have continued to enjoy rave reviews from visitors, they now feel it is fine to practice this discrimination. Such unethical practices should not be encouraged. They give a bad name to the reknown Japanese standards of...

From someone who speaks Japanese. Read IT, before you get tricked!!

We got there at 4:30, waited for an hour in the freezing cold air, then got to get in the restaurant as the first round customers. They can only speak a little English, and at first they just served you normally. The OMAKASE(eat whatever they serve you) course includes 9-10 sushi and miso soup, green tea. The chef just won't stop saying "Sushi, Oishi(delicious) in Japanese which was really annoying but I thought he was just trying to be nice. Then after they served you all the sushi, said, "this is the last one, if you want more you should order" IN JAPANESE, one of them kept saying "last, last", but his pronounciation was bad, it sounded like "Lastow" and I'm pretty sure no one but me understood what he was saying. Then the chef started to show everyone scollops, saying "good?". And of course it looked good, so they all said yeah. And for some reasons, everyone, including me, who didn't say a thing, got an extra 300 yen scollop. I was not happy, but thought Id better let it go. Then my friend who cannot speak Japanese asked me to ask the chef how much for an extra uni(sea urchin), he said 700, we considered we can't afford, said we didn't want it, which somehow displeased him. He called us not cool, asking around but won't order. I told him we're poor students and can't afford super expensive extra uni. Then he gave us an expression that's nothing but mocking, saying "Oh, is it so? Then why don't you earn more so that you can come and eat more?" Finished eating, we paid and I was not surprised to see that everyone else paid nearly twice as much. Guess they just ate whatever they were served. I went out telling my friend how rude the chef was and what a crazy trap this is. She told me that the other sushi restaurant next to it, serve you better and more sushi and at least respect you.(though the line was longer)

So it depends. If you want to eat not so bad sushi and be tricked just cause you're a tourist, go and wait in this line. Oh I forgot to mention with a stomach strong like me, there's still a chance that you'd be suffer from a short stomachache followed by finding the restrooms in 10 minutes. If you want the best taste and the best services, better wait in the other line next to it that is...

DON'T COME HERE IF YOU'RE NOT JAPANESE. EXPECT A LIFE-CHANGING OMAKASE EXPERIENCE ELSEWHERE IN TOKYO.

Because I had come on a weekend morning, Sushi Dai's line had already been down the block by 430 when I arrived. The guy in front of me, whom has been there before, say in general it could be 4 hours from now until we eat. I don't know about you but I don't think any food is really worth 4 hours of waiting considering the fact that in Tokyo you can expect higher omakase, albeit at a higher price point.

So instead, I headed over to wait in line for Sushi Daiwa. There I met 3 other Americans and when we got seated we were given one particular chef while the other Japanese people that waited in line behind us got who I assume is the head chef (given his old age and the way he presents himself among the other chefs). We were given a total of 9 pieces and they all came one right after the other. We were given only the names of the fish in Japanese and nothing more. The chef seemed to speak a bit of English but he did not really seem to want to bother giving out any descriptions or simply slow down. The entire meal of omakase lasted literally 12 minutes. We were practically rushed out of the restaurant while the other local Japanese people still ate. I know because I took pictures of each one and it is timestamped.

While the otoro, ebi and uni were fairly good, everything else turned out to be mediocre. For an omakase meal, it should last way longer than a mere 12 minutes.

In addition and this is my main gripe, the other Japanese people were given different nigiri while us foreigners got the bad stuff. Throughout the meal, I would glance over and see completely different nigiri than what us 4 were being served. I'm not a sushi expert so I cannot comment on what they had that was different.

In conclusion, I'm frustrated at this whole experience and will never return again.

TLDR:

-foreigners are given different nigiri -foreigners are not treated with the same level of service as Japanese people -short omakase meal; felt very rushed -you're way better off at other sushi...