TOKYO SUSHI ITAMAE SUSHI Akasaka — Restaurant in Tokyo

We had read so many good reviews & saw a very flattering endorsement from a fave YouTuber, but sadly, we were disappointed overall.

An FYI, alcohol orders have a requisite charge of 300¥ per person, yielding several slices of pickled cucumbers which we assumed to help prevent drinking on an empty stomach.

It happened to be just a minute away from our hotel. We checked our shoes & were led to a table, then soon after received our oshibori. We then waited. And waited. And wai... ordered some beer. And waite... ordered sushi with tempura & chawan-mushi. The tempura arrived first, followed by the chawan-mushi; I am used to restaurants that typically serve the lighter fare first as is the standard for serving your orders, though it probably becomes null with non-sushi.

Anyhoo, the tempura was greasy and had a heavy batter, and the piece of whitefish was terribly dry & flavorless.

The chawan-mushi custard was nice, but over-powered by the strong-flavor ed & briny ikura. The fish pieces within were not as fresh as one should expect.

The nigiri sushi was not especially fresh. Perhaps living in Los Angeles and having a couple of great sushi places nearby has spoiled me. But really, the fish was cut very thinly, much like what one would get from Mitsuwa or other inexpensive grocer. The two orders of a "citrus" combo were presented "differently;" "slapdash" is what the hubby said. The ankimo was somehow dry. The rice was over-cooked/soggy/sloppy.

We spent about $60 for 12 "basic" nigiri, a small tempura appetizer, a small chawan-mushi, & 2 bottles of Suntory (their only beer). I, personally wish we'd have opted for the homey place around the corner. Well, we now know not to trust foreigner reviews ;) & continue to typically...

I hate leaving bad reviews but unfortunately I did not have a great experience here. We ordered a bunch of nigiri, a couple sushi rolls, and squid tempura.

I usually love squid, but this stuff was ridiculously chewy and nearly impossible to bite into. Tempura batter was pretty much flavourless. The rolls were just ok.

Nigiri was decent - I’ve definitely had much better in Tokyo, especially for the price. Speaking of price, I realized while eating that some of the nigiri we were served was not what we ordered, but was replaced with a cheaper alternative. For example, we ordered 2 pieces of extra fatty tuna and 2 pieces of medium fat — instead we received medium fat and regular tuna. Also ordered 2 torched salmon with miso and was served soy marinated salmon instead. I wish I had realized before we started eating, as I would have addressed it with the waitress. I’m not sure if this was an honest mistake or if they were trying to cut costs/because we’re tourists? Staff spoke limited English (which is totally fine, I don’t expect them to). But because of this I didn’t feel confident in trying to explain the situation, once the evidence was already in our stomachs 😂

If I were to eat here again, I would stick with just nigiri and confirm that what I received is actually what I ordered. But with so many options for good sushi in Tokyo, I would take my...

I usually don't provide negative feedback but somehow this dinner in the whole of my 10 day japan trip made me did it. I think something is not quite right with the Google rating and comments.

First, the sushi is not better than any conveyor belt sushi place. From a price vs quality perspective, a lot of budget/casual sushi beat this sushi place hands down. Spend your previous time in Japan elsewhere to have better quality sushi.

2nd the tempura is average but their price is defintely much higher than chain tempura restaurant.

To add insult to all these, they even charge a 330 Yen cover charge per person and in return provided an appetiser that we do not like. I am SHOCKED as I did order sufficient food. They also made no mention of cover charge and again, except for Izakaya type of places, I never had paid cover charge in Japan.

I alsonnoted half the place was occupied by foreigners. Maybe they view this as a one time business for them given not many...