Sushi Iwa — Restaurant in Tokyo

Unfortunately I cannot give more than 4 stars. When I first looked at the restaurant and menus, I knew it would be expensive. But I was hoping to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday with a bit more quality (all around). It is definitely NOT bad. But I cannot recommend it.

To start, the atmosphere - It is the classic high-end counter-experience place. Decoration is almost the same as every other place I have been to (where I pay more than ¥10'000 per person). The staff wearing kimono is a nice touch but expected from these places.

The service - I want to give a bit more since they were indeed friendly but I cannot. I have been to at least two other high-end restaurants and the sushimen are more communicative with the customers - of course I am a new client and foreigner but so I was at the other places. The reason why I won't give 4 stars to service (and pull this review a bit higher) is the amount of pieces that were already sold out. We had at least 5 different pieces sold out.

Finally the food - it was great without being memorable. It is 10 times better than sushiro. But it is not as good as other high-end. Even the chutoro (my favorite) was only good; I have had chutoro before that literaly left me speechless for 1 or 2 minutes, melting in my mouth, that to this day I can remember clearly.

I really appreciate the experience. But it was not nearly as...

I wanted to like it but it wasn’t so good. I ordered the highest grade sushi lunch set. The Otoro cut was not a high quality cut of fish and was fiberous/chewy. It seemed better for that slice to be diced into a hand roll and not used for premium sushi. The chawanmushi included in the meal had chicken and fish cake. For pairing with premium sushi having chicken chawanmushi was not ideal for my taste and usually would expect crab inside or other seafood to match the meal. The chef at first selected cooked shrimp and then put it away and selected premium shrimp. At another point the chef modified my sushi after serving on my plate because he forgot a topping. Overall it felt like the experience was not so refined as I expected. Not terrible but not great compared to better options in Tsukiji. For the price charged it should be...

Our initial request for a 'horigotatsu' table (to ensure my elderly in-laws were comfortable) was met with a wonderful surprise: upon arrival, we were immediately seated in a private room with the requested recessed seating! The food was the star – absolutely sublime sushi, which normally carries a much steeper price tag. The second pleasant surprise was the value; for such an upscale venue, the lunch prices were incredibly reasonable, and we gladly took advantage of the well-priced Cava selection. The service was excellent, though we noticed the pace naturally slackened a bit as the room filled up during the lunch rush. A genuinely great experience from...