Nihonbashi Kaisen Donburi Tsujihan Nihonbashi — Restaurant in Tokyo

If you come here and see a huge line that is wrapped around itself at least 2-3 times, know that you are in for a 2+ hour wait and ask yourself if it is worth spending your time in Tokyo being in a queue for a no-frills limited-menu meal that will probably take about 35 minutes. Because I think the majority of people who leave a mid/bad review do so after they've felt it wasn't worth their time (because it certainly is worth the $). I had about 19 hours in Tokyo and I didn't plan to eat anywhere except here. So to me, it was worth the time and money. I was shopping in the Kappabashi area so I wasn't far metro-wise, and I got on the queue about 30 minutes before opening on a Saturday. The line was about 35 people deep by then. Almost everyone was a tourist from either the US, Australia or Korea. I got in for the second seating, which was around 12:30 p.m. I was done with lunch by 1:05 p.m. Before they start service, the staff comes out with menus and take orders, so that as soon as you are seated, they have the sashimi prepped or served to you. The sashimi was four slices of fish with a sesame-soy sauce. It was salty and a bit nutty; I did not need that much sauce on the fish and wiped most of it off. Per the instructions at the table, you are asked to save a few slices for the second course. Then you get your kaisendon with a seafood tower on top of the rice, which I found perfectly seasoned and not hot or too cool. The seafood was so fresh and tasty, I barely needed any soy or wasabi. I ate about half or nearly 2/3s of the rice; it was honestly hard to stop because it was so tasty. Then I placed my bowl on the counter, and they asked if I wanted more rice (just rice -- not seafood + rice), which I declined. Then they poured over the hot sea bream broth. That broth is so amazing. I could have had 10 bowls of that broth alone, it was so flavorful. I added the sashimi slices to the broth for that second course, mixed everything, and slurped up everything in my bowl. Most of the diners had chosen to add rice to their bowls for the broth; I thought it was just enough food (I didn't want to overeat, since I knew I would be snacking the rest of the day while I was shopping). And that was a 35-minute meal. Cash only; you get up and pay at the hostess stand when you're ready to go -- no asking for the bill needed since the counter seating is so limited they know what everyone ordered.

I would 100% eat this again; I have been dreaming about that hot sea bream broth ever since. Would I return to this location knowing the average wait time is at least 2 hours? No -- I'd come during off hours like between 3-5 p.m. or I'd try another location. But I don't regret waiting my first time and I loved...

We specifically chose your restaurant around 4:00 PM on October 23rd to celebrate my mother's birthday, hoping for a memorable and pleasant experience. However, the result was extremely disappointing and even unsettling. Incident Report (Serious Hygiene Risk) The three of us ordered the Special Deluxe Seafood Rice Bowl set. During the meal, while my mother was drinking the hot water provided by the restaurant, she was shocked to find a piece of disposable chopstick wrapping paper floating in her cup. This immediately raised severe concerns about your hygiene standards, leading us to suspect the cup might have been reused or improperly cleaned after a previous customer. Failure in Service and Management Response Staff's Inadequate Reaction: We immediately alerted the present staff to this serious hygiene issue. The employees (who appeared to be foreign staff) reacted with vague, confused, and helpless apologies. They failed to immediately recognize the severity of the situation and only offered a casual verbal apology, attempting to gloss over the incident. Lack of Accountability: Given the major hygiene lapse, no manager or responsible person came forward to explain the situation, apologize properly, or offer a solution. This clearly demonstrates a critical failure in your company's employee training. Casual Checkout: Finally, upon payment, the cashier also offered only a brief, casual apology, and the incident was "closed" without resolution. Our Demands and Questions We chose your establishment for a cherished family memory. Instead, the experience was utterly ruined by your low standards in food safety and customer service. As a recognized company, we question: How are your hygiene and safety standards and employee training conducted? What is your crisis management procedure for such a serious health incident? We have already contacted your company regarding this. We expect you to give this severe customer experience failure serious consideration, provide a clear explanation, and offer a reasonable solution. A simple verbal apology is insufficient to compensate for the distress caused and the damage done to your...

Very popular restaurant in the Nihombashi area. Cash only. Foreigner staff. English menu. I had the "matsu" donburi for 2200 JPY after waiting 30 minutes in line.

I will admit I am not quite sure how to rate this. On one hand, this is a very interesting culinary experience. The tastes are all very strong, but they somehow interact very well like a carrousel of flavors in your mind. Sometimes the crab comes strong, sometimes it is the urchin, sometimes it is the ikura. This gets complemented by the soy sauce that is given mixed with egg yolk, to help give more power to all falvors. To further the experience, you can have sea bream soup ("taidashi") poured into the rest of your rice, where you top up with some sashimi to have an ochadzuke additional experience. The sea bream soup ("taidashi") is already rich in flavor, but it is complemented with some citrus add-ups that bring further stimuli to the senses. When you considering all that, it feels like it is undeniably a great culinary experience. However, that being said, I can't help but to also think that this is a great culinary solution to handle left over of top ingredients in a way that it's still very interesting. When you see them preparing the dish, you can see that the bulk of it is already blended together in some kind of paste, which is topped by the ikura and the urchin ("uni"). Because of that, the serving is somewhat industrial and the name of the game is rotation. You are expected to eat and leave, so that the line can move on. When considering this latter perspective the experience feels a little bit less magical. Conclusion is that it is worth eating it if the wait is not too long, like 30 minutes or so, but not worth waiting more...