Sushizanmai has been all over the news since the start of the year, so I dropped in for the first time in a while. When I visited the main branch in Tsukiji years ago I was really impressed, but since then the number of branches has exploded and the quality has become hit-or-miss, so I had stopped going.
New Year Premium Bluefin First-Auction Festival
Sushizanmai is famous for its maguro in the first place. Even outside the festival, the maguro sets are decent value for money.
Asahi Super Dry Extra Cold
Maybe because the Asahi Beer headquarters is nearby, they were selling Extra Cold, which is Super Dry chilled and distributed below freezing. The head is smoother than regular Super Dry and it goes down really crisp. The head settled a bit while I was taking the photo, though..
The neta
Hmm.. it is what it is. The turnover is fast so it is fresh, but.. well..
Honmaguro 5-piece nigiri set
I ordered the menu item from the promotion.
Close-up of just the otoro
If you only think about maguro, there are not many places that do it this well.
Anago
This is another signature dish at Sushizanmai. Even at that jumbo size it is soft and goes nicely with the sweet sauce.
Aosa-jiru
Miso soup with seaweed in it. It is one of my favorites and the portion is generous, but the seaweed was not top quality.
Anakyu hosomaki
The name anakyu comes from anago plus kyuri (cucumber), and maybe because their anago is so good, this hosomaki is pretty good too. Excellent value for money.
Ebi and akagai
I tried some of the regular sushi menu too.. it was so-so.
Bincho maguro
The maguro is reasonably above average.
Tamago
Finishing a sushi meal with tamago, as always..
The downsides of this place are that it is a bit noisy because it is so popular, and that apart from the maguro and anago there is not much sushi that is really tasty. I was worried about how many branches they had opened, but for ordering a few pieces of maguro and having a casual drink with some anakyu, it is still a perfectly decent sushi place.