Isamizushi — Restaurant in Yamanouchi

A nice and cozy restaurant, with warm people. The couple who run this restaurant are upbeat, never hesitating to laugh, offer help and generally make customers feel at home. The atmosphere (and air) here are warm even in the winter, and the place is decorated thoroughly with a lived in feel. Over the course of my meal I found myself bonding just a little with the restaurant's owners and the other customers.

It feels like every small detail here is done right. The chopsticks break cleanly with a satisfying snap. There are floor cushions for a truly local-style meal. The salmon and tuna sushi have very sticky rice so you can actually flip them over and dip the fish WITHOUT it falling off. All of this for prices you would expect to see on cheap sushi anywhere else in the world.

In addition, I have not even discussed the yellowtail, or Japanese amberjack. I ordered grilled yellowtail and it came steaming hot. There was a truly shocking amount of meat on the fish, which offered both a deep umami taste and a long sought-after satisfying fishy taste that wasn't repulsive at all.

Overall, I had a VERY satisfying dinner here. If I stayed here I would probably...

This was hands down the best sushi we’ve had in Japan so far. Tucked away in a cozy little spot, it feels like stepping into someone’s home rather than just a restaurant. The place is run by the sweetest old man and woman, who give the whole experience a warm, family-like touch.

The vibe is incredibly authentic: wooden interior, small counter seats, aquariums with fish quietly swimming around you, and the chef carefully preparing each piece of sushi right before your eyes. It doesn’t get more real than this. Watching him work with such calm precision adds to the magic of the meal.

The sushi itself? Absolutely insane. Fresh, melt-in-your-mouth fish with just the right amount of balance and flavor. Nothing fancy or overdone, just pure, perfect sushi the way it’s meant to be. And the best part for travelers is that they even have an English menu, which makes it very approachable without losing any of its charm.

It’s a hidden gem, the kind of place you stumble upon and never forget. Authentic, welcoming, and unforgettable – exactly what you hope for when eating...

I love places like this. You walk in and there's some old local dude drinking beer at the counter. The owner is standing there shooting the breeze with him, and there's the occasional burst of chat. It feels like the real deal.

I am rather long-legged so sitting up at the Japanese table wasn't the most comfortable, but hey, that's the deal.

The sushi was very nice - a salmon set, some tempura, and a couple of mixed sushi platters. We do speak some Japanese, but an English family came in later and seemed to navigate pretty well with the owner's help. We washed it all down with a couple of nice cold bottles of Kirin beer (not Ichiban, alas). All very pleasant.

The only thing I didn't rate massively was the uni (sea urchin) but I suspect that's because the uni we had in Aomori was the best I'd ever had, so everything else pales into insignificance beside it.

I would...