Sushi no Midori — Restaurant in Tokyo

This is my forth visit to Midori, and my last to this specific branch/ outlet in Ginza. My dining experience was regrettably in contrary to the other positive reviews:

Quality: The sushi served were tasteless (even soy sauce and wasabi could not revive their blandness); texture was limpy instead of being fresh, firm and bouncy; Tuna had thick sinew, a white muscular fibrous thread through the fish that renders the fish texture to be unpalatable and like chewing a rubber band (normally this sinew is removed even at cheap supermarket sushi packs but I'mguessing Midorikept this to save on "off cuts" from slicing and removing them) 🙃 The sushi rice was dry, hard and under seasoned. Another reviewer mentioned he's had better sushi from supermarket in Korea, I agree. I've had better from Hong Kong. You can get better quality from even unknown sushi chain while in Japan.

Quantity: Reviewers rave about the thickness of the sushi. I ordered the sushi platter 12 pieces with a miso soup and crab innards salad for ¥2600 (¥2810 inclusive of tax). This is NOT expensive. But, in Tokyo, at this price point, you get pretty decent good food. To put it into perspective, you can get a decent lunch buffet, eat-til-enough at Kura and Sushiro, or even two bowls of ramen of Michelin ratings; or a high end Tempura or Tonkatsu set meal with Michelin rating.

Service: I've been to restaurants whereby restaurant staff would come out and check on the (awaiting) consumers; offer a preview of their menu, a hot drink, offer a heat pack or even just a nod or smile. During my two hours queue on a 13c day, the staff only came out to yell out the numbers. Upon entering the restaurant, most restaurants staff echo "welcome" in Japanese. No, not at Midori. This is the only restaurant in Japan that I had to request for refills of tea. Having waited for 2 hours in the cold - a girl wants tea 🥺😭 Staff at Tenya (a cheap Tempura chain restaurants) was more attentive. When processing the bill, the staff did not say a word. A little interpersonal interaction in addition to money changing hands would be nice 🤔

Time Value: Two hours. I was waiting to check in my hotel room so I had time to dispose of with frivolous abandonment 😂

If, after all, you must go because it is on your list-of-to-do-and-dine; I suggest the Midori at Seibu Department where you can pick from a kaiten (conveyor) belt and if quality fails you can stop at one or two plates.

In my observations: Over 80 percent diners here are tourists (the locals order a la carte which on my day of visit was available in Japanese menu only). During my wait for food, at least three tables left their platters unfinished. While I don't encourage food waste however I can understand when you are on a holiday, tummy space is precious real estate like...

Walked pass at lunchtime and saw a queue so decided to try it for dinner.

Located just off the Ginza train archers, this restaurant had a waiting line outside with a electronically ticketing system. We waited outside in the drizzle and rain( thankfully with an umbrella ) for about 15 minutes prior to admission which was about 730 on a Saturday evening.

We sat down at table 14 , close to the entrance with views of the counter and there was an electronic iPad which we could make our orders with.

we ordered to sea urchins, a platter of seafood Nigiri‘s with some sashimi of tuna salmon, prawn scallops and a whitefish followed by the soybean sushi wrapped of seafood.

The amouse was crab brown paste with crab meat in a salad lead which was nice, the brown crab meat was rather intense fishy taste.

The sea urchin was good, fresh but difficult to eat with chopsticks and requires a spoon.

Rest of the dishes took almost 40 minutes to arrive which was firstly the soy bean seafood wrap which was quite nice and had about four or five different seafood pieces in such as tuna, salmon and white chewy fish. The platter that we ordered came in two Parts which made the presentation less impressive having seen it on other tables. For the sashimi component, the tuna and the salmon was good. The prawn was pretty poor quality and so was the scallop and there was a very chewy whitefish which we didn’t quite like.

The sashimi platter was okay, the eel was quite fishy and disappointing; with the two pieces of sushi was good. The other sashimi items such as the whitefish again was not great but extremely chewy. The maki roe was quite fishy and maki with sea urchin was good but the fresh sea urchin was much better.

The service was quite slow and not great as they made a number of mistakes all night, kept dropping off food at the table and we had to tell them that we did not order that dish. We also had to Google translate inform that our dish/ seafood platter only partly arrive and also we had been waiting 40minutes for it. For that, complimentary miso turned up.

The beer was good value as was the ameshu soda drink.

Disappointed by the visit, was expecting...

revisited 4pax dinner @ sushi midori on 10.12.2023

we prebooked the ¥5830nett Fuji set

first time I try this set..it was good..no let down ..better and worth the ¥1900 more c/w the ¥3960 set I always take

crab salad ok nothing c/w teppanyaki 10’s

sashimi has like 1botan ebi and 2 of chutoro, hotate, kampachi, salmon..good standard not the best cut..of course botan ebi best..hotate was second best..

sushi was great.. salmon, tai, crab, otoro, uni, ikura, tamago, maki, and anago ..all were superb including tamago..

anago really impressive as long as the chopstick 😎

we added a akagai just ¥500

we prebooked & prepaid 2pax dinner 5pm @ sushi midori no ginza on 7.7.2023^^

there was a huge crowd of like 30 outside.

we waited say 5mins..restaurant ran through the 5pm reservations & we were seated

the set was all ready prepared.

this the most expensive optimal set 13 top quality sushi items plus botan ebi head 😀

prices gone up 10% from previously-still ¥3960 price as delicious as the sushi 😎

my first comment to Lisa…this set doesn’t look that good c/w a previous visit sushi midori @ kichijoji

& we both felt the sushi rice here not good not so nicely vinagared & texture old not fresh

ikura was good..uni ok standard but far cry from hokkaido quite fair I guess

chutoro & otoro were great not the thickest cut

there were 2 shellfish & one crab, one anago & a unagi like spider maki way..all good

the katsuo was good

tai was non descript

overall stiil good just not as good as kichijoji & umegaoka

we added alacarte akagai ¥550...