Sushi Tsu — Restaurant in Tokyo

We got the omakase sakura lunch sushi course and it was good, but nothing mind blowing. The whole experience was also good, but could be better. As we arrive there were already 4 people seated on the counter (they seemed to join the 11.30 omakase course with some appetizers and were waiting for the sushi). There were 2 people who arrived right before us and even though there were 2 seats right in the center (in front of the chef), they were seated right next to the center front seats (we don’t know why but I have a theory). And we were seated right next to them, close to the end of the counter seats.

Shortly after we arrived, there were two gentlemen who booked (I’m guessing for counter) but they seemed to have overbooked so they were seated on the table. I overheard the complaints later, but this is another point taken off the restaurant.

The 11 counter seats were finally full when one solo traveler (whom I ended up talking to) arrived at the same time as another Japanese couple (who got the center front seats for some reason).

The wait for the sushi was in fact quite long after we were seated as the chef was the only person doing the prep. In fact, at some point, he asked the waitress to help peel the shrimp. I could tell the vibe was off, he seemed to want to get the service started but had a lot to do (unsurprisingly since he was the only chef serving 13 people).

As the service finally started, the nigiri sushi came one by one after quite some time in between, and though the chef were making jokes along the way with other Japanese patrons, especially the ones who got the front seats, he really didn’t do so with us (the foreign patrons), and of course this is due to language barrier as well but, it felt a little unfair since we all paid the same price and didn’t get the same treatments.

My theory is that maybe the japanese couple was purposely seated in the middle so the chef could easily converse with them, but I’d gladly try very hard with my beginner Japanese for some small talk if allowed.

Luckily the patron next to me started conversing with us and the experience started picking up as it felt like we weren’t the few students ignored by the teacher at school. And of course, I cannot even imagine being the two patrons eating at the table.

Towards the end of the service when tamagoyaki was served, the chef seemed to have finally feel at ease, I made the remark in Japanese that the tamagoyaki looks like castella. And he replied that it is castella, jokingly. That was a nice exchange though I wish this was the entire service.

If this can be improved by the restaurant, I’d recommend the place, but at this moment, the experience was disappointed especially comparing to an omakase experience we have had overseas (not in the...

We liked the food here but we were very disappointed with the service. We were seated in a room which we thought was ok as we could talk. But the room was stuffy and hot. I specifically asked to have the air con turned on but was ignored. Until towards the end of the dinner when I used a pamphlet to fan myself, then they finally turned on the air con. Instead of serving the sushi one after another, we were rushed to finish the food. The waiter used his hand gesture to make us pass him the finished plate. We didn’t mind passing the plates but the hand gesture was quite rude.

We actually had to ask the waiter to slow down serving the dishes. They served the tuna roll with seaweed when we still had food on the plates. The seaweed was all soft when we finally ate the roll. He came twice asking what desserts we wanted when we still had lots of food on the plates.

It was an unpleasant experience. For the price we paid, I would not recommend this place.

For all the...

Because we were fortunate enough to get a counter seat, our chef, Nakajima-san, who doesn't speak much English, was kind enough to show us a picture of every dish from a printed encyclopedia, with him telling us the name in Japanese (and English, if he knows it). The ingredients were fresh, of course, but the preparation was exquisite. For example, some dishes came two ways: plain for wasabi/soy sauce, and the second salted and eaten with wasabi only. The anago (sea eel) was baked but retained a melt in the mouth softness. Even the end-of-course tamagoyaki (toasted omelette) looked and felt like eating a fresh-out-of-the-oven castella. The sushi rice was a tasty savory blend (instead of the common vinegar/sugar base), but we had to ask for less of it or we couldn't...