After my visit to Naniwa Sushi I got hooked on sushi for a while and went around the sushi places in town that are supposed to be famous. This was one of them, but it was just so-so for its reputation. It felt less like a great place to eat and more like a place for entertaining clients.
Premium sushi (tokujo)
Neatly presented. The taste wasn’t bad, but the portion was a bit small; it felt more like something to go with drinks than an actual meal.
Today’s sake
Rihaku, named after the poet Li Bai, is a local sake from around here. It has to be at least junmai ginjo before it’s reasonably drinkable.
Grilled nodoguro
Nicely fatty, but the portion was way too small. Like they just brought it out for a taste…
Extra orders: tamago, sazae and nodoguro.
Sazae (turban shell)
The difference from Naniwa Sushi is obvious. Naniwa only brings in the good-quality stuff that came in that day, while this place buys decent fish in bulk, so there’s no way around it. It really drove home that the more famous a sushi place gets, the more limits it’s bound to have.
Nodoguro
It’s in season and tastes good, but again the portion felt a bit small… It might be Edomae style, but even so, the rice isn’t at that high a level.
Nodoguro close-up
Not that it tasted bad; what’s disappointing is that it didn’t seem to bring out 100% of the ingredients’ potential.
Miso soup
A soup loaded with shijimi clams. It tasted good, but the one I ordered at the start only came out after I’d finished all the sushi. -_-;; Price-wise it’s an average place, but I didn’t feel any urge to go back. Well… it’s still way better than what you’d get in Korea..