Sushi Hanaoka — Restaurant in Tokyo

After finishing the omakase course at Hanaoka, I was really disappointed with the service and overall experience.

First, the chef had barely acknowledged us throughout the entire night, including his staff. He spent majority of the time speaking with the other Japanese patrons and only spoke to us in English when presenting a course. He made zero effort to acknowledge my mother and I. Like another reviewer mentioned, if these fishes are so delicate/rare, why not have a printed list of the course so that people can look it up to see?

Secondly, I had wrote in my "allergies" that we did not want shirako. The replacement for this dish was extremely poor. Why present us with a poorly and overcooked fish instead of just preparing us the same steamed egg without the shirako? This was extremely poor effort on Hanaoka, extremely lazy.

Lastly, I did not appreciate how the female waitress embarrassed my mother when she stood up because she was not feeling well. Mind you, this is my mom's first time in Japan and her first omakase experience (not mine). She stood up for a second from her seat and the female waitress shouted out, "Are you OK? Do you want us to stop your course?" And the room suddenly got quiet. Why would you stop the course when we are paying for it? Instead, she should have offered her less rice with the nigiri but she did not present this option until later. This place is poor and the price...

Possibly the best meal of my life so far?

I made a Friday 8:30 PM reservation weeks before arriving in Tokyo on a solo trip. I was the only foreigner and one of two women, but was absolutely made to feel part of the small eight seat group the whole time.

The chef was incredible, I loved watching him carefully make every single item right in front of us. You can tell he is a perfectionist in his craft. There was also a woman who spoke very good English, who was able to explain in depth to me about what I was eating.

I drank sake and wine pairings with all the courses as well. Everything was so good I don’t even know where to start. The stingray liver was a bite of heaven placed directly into your hand. I wasn’t even sure what I was eating some of the time—but just go with it!

Eat everything, and don’t be afraid to ask polite questions. I consider myself to have a pretty adventurous palette, but not the most extreme, and I loved it all.

By the end of the evening, I was using Google translate to talk to the others at the table. They recommended some places for me to go on the next leg of my journey in Kyoto, and I was so happy to be able to communicate with others.

I will absolutely come back. Just be sure to go hungry… It lasts 2 1/2 hours and the food just keeps on coming. Everything was incredible and was around $140 USD, which is an insane value...

(EDIT TO ADD: We just came back from a 1-Michelin star Omakase where the price was double, and we’re now even more sure that Sushi Hanaoka is a highly underrated hidden gem!!!)

We made a dinner reservation here the day before and it was such a good experience dining here! Chef was very kind and welcoming. We could tell that his English is limited but we appreciated that he made the effort to have small conversations with us in English besides just introducing the fish and dishes. The cod liver sushi was my favourite and I had never tasted anything like it!!!! It was so creamy and fresh. The sardine one also really stood out for me. We were also very lucky to be able to taste a rare deep sea crab that night. Apparently, it was so rare to come by that it was only the second time that Chef served it at the restaurant. It was like tasting the entire ocean. Chef also offered different sake recommendations to match the dishes coming up. The price was also reasonable. We had a lot of sakes and drinks and the whole bill came to just over ¥41,000. We really enjoyed our experience here and highly...