Sushi m — Restaurant in Tokyo

Best sushi meal of my life (and I have sushi several times a month back home in Seattle).

An innovative embrace of the art of sushi. New experiences without losing touch with the roots. Every course presentation and each interaction with the staff was thoughtful and also approachable. As primarily English speakers with only very basic Japanese, but who also love fine dining and will eat anything not moving, we felt welcome here and really appreciated the staff’s extra effort to give thoughtful descriptions of each course in English.

What that set this experience apart: sushi textures and cuts, finishes for each piece of sushi, varying amounts of wasabi depending on how much punch the chef wanted to achieve, seasonality of ingredients, a delightfully thoughtful Standard alcohol set menu pairing with uniquely sourced selections, an equally thoughtful by-the-glass selection of non-alcoholic drink pairings for my 18 year old daughter, stupendous presentation (live fish, smoke, nitrogen) for certain dishes.

Small details that really made me fall in love with this place: the extraordinary ~8 meter wood countertop from the same long cut of wood + the matching sushi chef’s cutting board with its beautiful well-earned arc from regular use; the extraordinary deep red patina on the chef’s rice container (I commented to him how beautiful it was and he said he had been using it for five years); the unassumingly friendly smiles on each staff member’s face as they described each dish and sourcing to us in careful detail; and, the darling sushi eraser bento and sushi lollipops they gave my daughter as a small congratulations gift at the end of our meal (we came here as part of our trip to Japan to celebrate her 18th birthday and high school graduation).

My hot take on restaurants outside of France vying for a Michelin star is that they try too hard to satisfy a rubric that does not apply to their local cuisine’s art form. Sushi M has figured this out: they are engaged in their own unique creative endeavor, done for the love of the art form of food, eating, and service. They are innovators with a vision all their own. And they also exemplify what all restaurants at their pinnacle should embody: a sense of place and time, of relationships with ingredients purveyors and customers, and most of all a sense of in-the-moment community-building and joy of craft.

Special thanks to the sushi chef and the sommelier for their charming and thoughtful tastes and hospitality, as well as to the sous chef and team for an excellent experience. We are looking forward to returning on our next trip to this...

My first time in Japan after only coming here once before at a young age. My mother and I are Singaporean, and we've always loved eating omakase and sushi in Singapore. We really wanted to have a go at omakase in Japan and seeing as it was my mother's birthday, Sushi M seemed like the perfect choice with its great reviews and atmosphere.

Sushi M did not disappoint. Upon entering, we were helped with the storing of our jackets and warmly greeted by the team. Somehow, by luck, we were the only guests at that time slot as everyone else that day had booked the later dinner slots. The team and master sushi chef (Master Chef 'Itamae') prepared the dishes in front of us and engaged with us in english throughout the dinner. It was a fun and authentic experience.

There were two types of food served during the meal, one set of cooked food prepared by a chef in the kitchen behind, and a set of raw dishes served by a master sushi chef in front of us. Meals were served alternating, which was good as it maintained a balance between heavier cooked dishes and light refreshing cold dishes. You had to choose a wine pairing for the meal, you could go for one wine per dish or a glass of sake for the entire meal. As we weren't heavy drinkers, we took the sake, which was smooth and very fruity. A recommendation by one of their members.

Some dishes we had included smoked mackerel, the sweetest uni I ever had, pen shell clam, and a really delicious fried fish (I never knew fish scales could be fried to a chip! The flesh itself was super melty). It ended off with a beautiful house made strawberry jam and brown sugar ice cream. All of which were delicious from start to end.

Would highly recommend Sushi M to anyone looking for an authentic omakase experience in Japan. Won't spoil the meal for you, so here are just a few...

This is a fairly pretentious experience, without the quality to match. We (a couple dining with pairing for two) spent ~620€ on the tasting menu with the basic wine pairing and found it all a bit unnecessary and disappointing.

The start with the pros, the nigiri were phenomenal. However, that was where the positives ended.

Regarding the pairing, the one non-local wine (European) was a very entry-level Burgundy, which was mediocre at best. The other pairings were okay but we just didn’t see a need for cocktails to be in a tasting menu. We had asked for a bottle instead of the pairing but the prices were (even more) extortionate.

The food dishes other than the sushi were quite easy to forget but not bad. We would have much preferred a focus on the sushi which was standout. The chef was very flexible with my partner’s quite extensive dietary requirements, which was kind.

There was plenty of dry ice and theater, which, if that’s your thing, then great, but it didn’t manage to distract us from the underwhelming meal.

The atmosphere was very formal and you had to basically whisper as you could hear a pin drop. The service was very good but no vibe and generally a very stuffy experience.

For reference, we tried plenty of other omakase menus and other higher end meals during our two weeks in Japan. This one felt most like a tourist trap with a layer of flashiness on top that was not matched by quality, unfortunately. It is priced at a ridiculous price point. This would have felt expensive at 50% of what we paid. We would recommend you take your cash elsewhere in the city where you can eat and drink much better and have a...