Let's talk about sushi...

[coldarchon]

http://www.magpictures.com/jirodreamsofsushi/#

cant wait to see this film

 

[impolyt_one]

old man Jiro has a policy in his restaurant of not serving customers who can't speak Japanese - this is more common in Japan with these kinds of foods, usually because Japanese cooks are apprehensive about serving traditional Japanese food to people with foreign palates and expectations - but it's said that Jiro has this policy because he just doesn't like foreign people, lol.

His son (who is in his 40's himself) runs a branch inside Roppongi Hills, like a short 10 minute jaunt from my house - his son's store costs half as much for the omakase, has two Michelins instead of three, and being that it's inside Roppongi Hills, is welcoming of foreigners and he speaks a tad bit of English to boot - I know which place I'd rather eat at if I was gonna throw $300 at one of the Onos for sushi.

 

[samblackbones]

Anyone Tried Kazu in Studio City (LA?)
or Urasawa?
I've hit some pretty decent spots in la recently, eg. Asenobo, Nnako (sort of progressive menu) and heard that Kazu is where its at.
Problem with eating high quality sushi is getting used to it. Now I really can't stand the average sh*t and really don't like rolls.
That being said there are always spots where you can get good Omakase for less than 75 bucks.
Anyone in Orange county should check out Angotei (Costa Mesa) and Sushi Wasabi (Tustin). Traditional and great quality fish.

A pro tip someone gave to me about sushi joints: Always try the egg, b/c a really quality place will put the time and effort into it to please non-gringo customers, and a ****** place will just have it to have it. If the egg is good, chances are the staff knows whats up.

 

[indesertum]

http://www.andyhayler.com/show_restaurant.asp?id=481

wow some harsh stories here

although this guy http://www.luxeat.com/my_weblog/2011/12/sukiyabashi-jiro-ginza.html seemed to have it ok.

 

[itsstillmatt]



http://www.andyhayler.com/show_restaurant.asp?id=481
wow some harsh stories here
although this guy http://www.luxeat.com/my_weblog/2011/12/sukiyabashi-jiro-ginza.html seemed to have it ok.

That fish looks almost incredibly pristine. I do have to say, though, that of all the food reviewers on the nets, Andy Hayler does the best job as far as my tastebuds and preferences go.

 

[indesertum]

the dude's been to an incredible amount of places

 

[itsstillmatt]



the dude's been to an incredible amount of places

He has, but I can't remember the last time I disagreed with him. Loved his write up of the atrocious Coi in San Francisco. He also isn't overly pretentious, doesn't present himself as a superstar and doesn't constantly misuse words like so many food bloggers.

If we are looking for a restaurant in a place we don't know, his site is always the first we check.

 

[impolyt_one]



http://www.andyhayler.com/show_restaurant.asp?id=481
wow some harsh stories here
although this guy http://www.luxeat.com/my_weblog/2011/12/sukiyabashi-jiro-ginza.html seemed to have it ok.

The second guy seems to be happy he got in, but really, he was going to get in and get decent food and treatment - he went for the full omakase lunch at 35,000Y... that's nearing $500 these days. That's normal - Japanese restaurants of this echelon cost the same at lunch and dinner, whereas most restaurants across the city have cheap lunch deals. It's the same price for lunch and dinner at high end sushi, tempura, kaiseki, etc places because it's the same food and experience and there's only one menu they make - but naturally, far fewer people out there who want to drop $500 a head on lunch in Tokyo, since the choices are so numerous at lunch. Plus, most people don't go out at noon with the intention of eating a couple pounds of food and a liter of alcohol while talking to somebody for a couple hours, which is why you normally pay for that kind of seat time at dinner here... I think anyone with $5-600 to spend on food and drink per person could probably get a Sukiyabashi Jiro honten lunchtime reservation within this week, so long as they get reserved by and go with at least one Japanese person so that they know who to wrestle the credit card from when it's done.

 

[indesertum]

^i want to try mizutani whenever i go to tokyo. jiro sounds unpleasant.

He has, but I can't remember the last time I disagreed with him. Loved his write up of the atrocious Coi in San Francisco. He also isn't overly pretentious, doesn't present himself as a superstar and doesn't constantly misuse words like so many food bloggers.
If we are looking for a restaurant in a place we don't know, his site is always the first we check.

i feel like his preference is very french. i agree with everything you said. no flowery bullshit prose and he's pretty stingy with his scores.

 

[impolyt_one]



^i want to try mizutani whenever i go to tokyo. jiro sounds unpleasant.

That's probably wise, tabelog has Mizutani in 1st place. tabelog.com is like the Japanese yelp - though I do feel japanese eater/reviewers tend to have both better palates, as they don't lost the point of a review like yelpers tend to do, they grade pretty strictly but fairly, and the ratings are somewhat reliable as there are always hundreds of ratings factoring into the average score - and Jiro honten at Ginza ranks 91st amongst sushi restaurants in Tokyo amongst Japanese people - decidedly unspectacular: http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130101/13002260/

The top 5 for Tokyo sushi listed here: http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130101/13002260/
1. Mizutani
2. Miyako Zushi
3. Sushi Saitou (also Michelin 3-star)
4. Izumi
5. Umi

 

[indesertum]

oh shoot. going to go look up ramen and yakitori joints

 

[impolyt_one]

yeah scroll down below the first couple sets of pics and the next box contains all the genres by ranking, then you can just type in the genre name into the URL if you want, as such:

yakitori:
http://r.tabelog.com/yakitori/tokyo/

ramen
http://r.tabelog.com/ramen/tokyo/

 

[impolyt_one]

some of these people paid 14 man yen (nearly $2000) at Jiro, according to their reviews... I can't tell for how many but most people just eat in pairs here so that's probably for two, for everybody who said " my bill was 14man =0 ". Tokyo is expensive.... but $2000 for two to eat is el oh el, nobody in their right mind....

 

[itsstillmatt]



^i want to try mizutani whenever i go to tokyo. jiro sounds unpleasant.
i feel like his preference is very french. i agree with everything you said. no flowery bullshit prose and he's pretty stingy with his scores.

Yeah, his preferences are traditional.

 

[indesertum]

:0

-_- that's a lot of money for 20 odd pieces of sushi...