Nihonbashi Kaisen Don Tsujihan Kagurazaka — Restaurant in Tokyo

Highly, highly raved on almost all of my social media platforms. Was it worth it? It's not mind-blowing, but it is a really good bowl of seafood don. We queued for about 30min at around 8pm, and we were probably the last group of customers in. There are menus and signs in English, and the staff could also converse pretty well in English too.

I had the Matsu Couse (2,200yen) and the first thing on my mind was that the bowl was a work of art. Just a heaping mound of cut and shredded seafood topped with a healthy amount of ikura plus a spoonful of uni atop. Beautiful! I tried a slice (out of three total) of the sea bream sashimi but it was alright. I then dug into the seafood don and while the seafood were fresh I thought that I couldn't taste the individual flavours of the different seafood within. The uni, noticeably, was less sweet and briney than the one I had for my omakase the day before.

At the halfway mark, I asked for the sea bream broth to be poured over. The broth was so delicious, especially with the yuzu shavings adding a fresh zestiness to the bowl. They will also ask if you want to add extra rice, which I gladly accepted. Loved the warm heartiness of the rice porridge but do remember to choose which seafood you wouldn't mind eating 'cooked' - I made sure to finish the uni and tuna as I preferred them raw.

Overall, it was a delicious meal at a reasonable price, but I wouldn't want this experience to be marred by queueing 1+hour for it. Also, the seafood and broth has shrimps in it - while the chef can remove the shrimps from the seafood for your don, the sea bream...

We arrived at the restaurant around 2 pm during lunchtime, so fortunately, there was no long wait. The complimentary appetizer, tuna sashimi, was presented with lots of sauces that overwhelmed the natural flavor of the fish, making it difficult to truly appreciate its taste. The highlight of the meal was the zetaiku don, a seafood bowl that differed from the traditional sashimi presentation. Rather than sliced fish, this dish featured chopped and mixed seafood, resembling almost like a salad bowl. However, the mixture of different fish types made it challenging to identify the specific flavors of each fishes. The sea urchin, unfortunately, had a slightly bitter taste instead of the anticipated sweetness reminiscent of the ocean. It would have been preferable if the restaurant offered real wasabi to accompany the dishes. On a positive note, the soup was outstanding. With the soup delivering a rich umami flavor that was incredibly satisfying.

Lastly, I was surprised to see the main chef using his hands to handle the iPad and cash. In Japan usually it's expected to have another staff member to handle the payment, as the main chef's hands are typically dedicated to only handling the food and...

I've been to this restaurant several times including the first time few years ago when it was introduced to me by my Japanese friend. The food here is really delicious and the price is much lower than you may expect for this kind of meal. So I won't comment the food here. But I noticed that the restaurant got degraded in its quality of service. Or maybe the service is just unstable lately. I visited it last time with a friend around 3pm, out of pick hours, and I would say the service was quite ignorant. We wasn't offered towels and no free water when our tea was over (you can expect towels and water even in very cheap Japanese restaurants usually!). We were only customers in the whole restaurant and the staff totally ignored us unless we call them. But the worst thing is that the chief was using his hands in gloves for both meals and taking payments! Me and my friend were shocked. Just right before that he was cutting raw fish with his hands and now he is handling dirty cash with the same gloves... I had a thought that maybe the service degraded due to so many customers are foreigners and they may not have high expectations. But this unhygienic service is...