Japan is in the middle of a boom of cheap, high-quality restaurants these days. Not just French or Italian places: quite a few sushi shops, Sushi no Midori among them, now have lines you usually wait an hour or more to get through. Triton at Tokyo Skytree is one of those sushi shops with a queue. The main shop in Hokkaido is said to be famous, and this branch supposedly serves sushi of almost the same level.
Aji (horse mackerel)
First of all, the neta is big and fresh. And the prices are reasonable, of course. You can eat your fill for under 3,000 yen a head.
Ika (squid)
It is fresh because of the fast turnover, I guess. With this much popularity, there is no way the fish sits around.
Salmon
There are pricey items like crab too, but I went mainly for the ordinary stuff. Maybe because the fish quality is good, even the plain sushi is all fine.
Shrimp and avocado
So-so, but edible.
Tamago
Well.. ordinary.
Akami (lean tuna)
The taste is decent across the board.
Anago (simmered conger eel)
But nothing feels particularly special either.
Katsuo (bonito)
They use good fish, and that is why people line up, I suppose. I think we queued for about an hour that day too.
Aburi salmon
That is what I remember it being, anyway.. and as always, oily fish tastes better seared.
Can’t quite remember what this was..
Eating this much and still coming in under 3,000 yen a head, the value for money is really outstanding. With the recession, places with good value have become hugely popular, and I am not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It does feel a little short of what I would call a truly great restaurant. But being able to eat Hokkaido’s famous sushi without going all the way to Hokkaido, and to enjoy eating out at a price that does not hurt at all, is a good thing. I expect places with this kind of concept will stay popular for a while.
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