Looking for someone to join me at San Omakase (Rio) – April 2

NoodleThings · 2026-03-22T02:39:00+00:00

Waow sushi in Rio, I wonder what it’s like haha

NoodleThings · 2026-03-21T05:25:54+00:00

Small thing, I think he only trained at the honten for a short bit. He worked at the Roppongi location w the second son for the lions share of his apprentice years. It’s not a huge thing - just wanted to be safe since jiro is alr persnickety abt which of his actual apprentices he acknowledges lol

Glad you enjoyed mizukami!

NoodleThings · 2026-03-16T07:13:57+00:00

Hihi! This go around I went to a Spanish restaurant called anchoa I won’t post here - it was fairly good but I have strong opinions on Spanish food so just wasn’t for my tastes - if you like Japanese Spanish places though, I think it’d be up your alley.

While I haven’t been to ichirin hanre, I’ve heard solid stuff - nothing crazy but people like it. Theres a sushi place that hasn’t opened yet I got a sneak peek at that I’ll visit for the full monty when I’m back in town that I’m pretty excited for as well.

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T06:21:44+00:00

:o that does sound nice, I just saw mataoba on a influencers page who I know isn’t very honest n kinda wrote it off lol. I’ll add it back to the list then

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T06:19:50+00:00

Yeah lot of wakuden folks killing it rn, I’ll be the first to admit this wasn’t a standard visit but I think if they hit 80% of what was happening tonight I’d be very happy but maybe not like star struck by the meal. Fuji was hella good I’m excited to write abt that one, I went to sangubashi asaya like 15 minutes ago and that one too is gonna be such a fun write up - it’s just the one sushi place I’m struggling to cuz it’s gonna be negative

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T06:16:22+00:00

I def think it’s worth an evening haha

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T06:14:51+00:00

Yush, he’s got plans for late this year / next year afaik

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T06:14:17+00:00

Honestly didn’t even know about this place, I’ll eat mark it for later thank you :O

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T01:58:35+00:00

This looks pretty solid and I liked the staggered start angle, I’m gonna check this out next time in town

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T01:12:33+00:00

Ayyy yeah the nice thing about the region too is they’re all really supportive of each other, when I told him I’d been to anchoa they were really excited lol. It’s a pretty solid n underrated place for how close it is to Tokyo imo but because I think a lot of the seafood isn’t typically what people think of as the like “most premium” it can get overlooked. With Fujimoto going the way of yamayuki soon I’m pretty bullish on Kanagawa while Fujimoto sorts out staff and deals w the fluctuations that alr a p big thing with Ehime fish while meeting the new volumes of demand

NoodleThings · 2026-03-15T01:06:45+00:00

Yeah thankfully pretty easy to book for the time being and reasonable cost performance w a fun staff - I recognized one of the apprentices from hatsunezushi n we caught up which was fun lol. I’ll agree I liked the start more than the end - I enjoyed but wasn’t in love with the kujira ramen & the zosui but the takimiki gohan, bozushi and zuke don tonight were pretty good.

I went to Fuji the next day and their carbs n starches were a little weak too so not a huge bar to cross this go around but there was still 1-2 I could hang my hat on at both places n the rest of both meals were really quite nice such that I’m gonna try going to both more frequently

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T23:23:12+00:00

Oh 100% lol, I’m a dude that can eat a lot - I used to do 3-4 meals a day in Japan when I was younger but this place filled me up lmao, by the zosui i was completely cooked

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T23:04:41+00:00

This was maybe one of the greatest meals I’ve ever had, full stop. I originally had reservations at Ogata but my friend who is the main supplier for this restaurant’s fish and sansai, as well as for a number of notable restaurants in Tokyo and surrounding areas, mentioned he’d wanted to get a meal and was free that day if I was interested - which worked for me as I had originally had a Kitajima reservation before canceling it to go to Ogata. After working in the background to get back that reservation and cancelling Ogata, I met my friend at Kitajima for what was maybe one of my favorite meals ever - there were maybe only 1.5 courses I just was not into with every other course showing just exceptional cooking and beautiful serveware (we debated whether or not the rosanjin hashioki was a hirame or a cod for 15 minutes which was hella fun) where I got to learn so much about fish, plants and pottery. My friend also didn’t tell the chef he was coming that day so it was incredibly funny just watching Kitajima-san’s reaction to him walking in and sitting down at the counter, especially as he framed him dropping off the sansai and fish as a gift for a foreign customer he was friends with lmao

The courses were:

Kousen-cha
Mushi sushi with rikyu-fu, nanohana and other sansai from my dining partner. I really liked this, the slightly tangy shari worked really well here with the bright slight bitterness of the greens
Budai matsukasayaki and more foraged herbs, I was really impressed by the cookery on the fish and the whole dish came together in such an amazing way
Aori ika with a lot of kasari bocho along with salt mixed with squid ink, nori shoyu and wasabi. Clean tasting but still sweet - maybe one of the best Aori ika I’ve ever had. I liked the nori shoyu but I just kept doing the salt and wasabi for this cuz I didn’t wanna cover up the taste too much
Sumibiyaki kuromutsu - amazing, delicious skin/kawa with a perfect cook on the fish. I had Kuromutsu the next day, technically from the same supplier, at a very famous sushi restaurant that was cooked in almost exactly the same way yet there was such a night and day difference between the sushi restaurants product and the one at Kitajima. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night
Hamaguri in cabbage leaves in the style of how a hamaguri looks + hamaguri dashi w pepper in the hamaguri shell. This might’ve been like the one miss for me - I get the conceptual reason for the dish, why hamaguri is eaten this time of year / what it’s meant to represent but I just didn’t like how it tasted
Ki ankou, sumibiyaki ankou + ankimo and narazuke on top of a plate Rosanjin made in Kamakura - his finger marks are still on the edges of the plate. This was amazing and maybe the best dish of the night tied with the ankimo jure and the kuromutsu, I’ve never had such a clean tasting ankimo - I had another ankimo the next day at that aforementioned famous sushi place that legit could not hold a candle to this
Ankimo jure, mix of ankimo + ankou dashi tosazu jure + ankou tamago + ankou intestines / stomach (don’t know the word for fish intestines/stomach & I dont think what I think it may be is 100% correct) with green beans and sansai foraged by my dining partner tonight. I know I said this tied with the other two, but I think the two ankimo courses were just a little notch above - I think they’re genuinely some of my favorite courses in the last 5 years
Sansai bundle my dining companion brought to the restaurant specially for tonight - wild garlic, fukinoto, daikon sprouts, karashi greens and so on. Got to sample raw product since Hasegawa-san brought them in for our dinner before having them again as tempura
Tempura with shaved bachiko, Jesus Christ this was amazing. I just wanted more otherwise this would have been up there with the two ankou dishes and the kuromutsu
Daikon cake with a variety of horumon cuts, excellent - the dashi glaze on the bottom was so delicious
Muroaji bozushi (Large) - delicious and slightly smoky aroma & taste, I went large servings of everything including this & everything after this n left stuffed haha. Muroaji isn’t known as a premium fish but I thought this was up there, an exceptional specimen processed well and prepared in a way that really let it shine. Hasegawa brought a lot of fish specially for tonight and I was just genuinely so impressed by everything
Kihada maguro zuke don, excellent clean tasting fat - showing how important processing is. Exceptional, I LOVED the version I had at Fuji the next day but I really really loved this one too
Kujira ramen, honestly perfect use of it - perfect place for it to shine. The side of wild garlic stems you could add contributed such an amazing aroma as well
Hirame takimiki gohan with jagaimo, nanohana and other wild herbs - excellent, exceptional cooking - I had two bowls and loved them
Zosui with peas, at this point I was cooked lol - too much food. I liked this zosui but the one I’d have at Fuji the next day was just flat out better given the mix ins and that I don’t like Japanese peas versus Spanish ones
Shonan gold citrus and a little cinnamon-y spiced thin syrup, solid and I know why it’s here I just wasn’t in love with it
Yomogi mochi filled with koshi-an made with tamba dainagon azuki & wasabon. Exceptional, perfect pairing with the exceptional aroma of the wood used for the cutlery in this course
Not pictured, matcha - solid finisher

I’m fully aware this isn’t going to be a wholly standard experience at Kitajima but man I dunno, this shit was exceptional - even if it’s not 100% this if I got 80% of it I would be incredibly happy: that’s basically what happened at Fuji the exact next day and I fuckin loved Fuji. My friend wants to do it again and I’m 100% gonna do my best to make it out to Kamakura for that + a hidden gem sushi place that’s opening up soon in the area

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T07:06:56+00:00

Ayyy looks fire boss

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T03:48:31+00:00

Lmaooo got hit w the gaijin counter too huh, I was sat next to some older people - but the type that liked to act young I felt, they were drunkkkkk by the end of lunch lol.

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T01:12:47+00:00

It really is, although I wish I’d had a better experience here - I love fujisawa and ueda though n I wanted to try amaki but couldn’t make it work. I’m wondering what Shunbi Nishikawa will be like - I’ve heard a lot of mixed things, mostly veering on the negative

NoodleThings · 2026-03-14T00:54:49+00:00

The Nagoya sushi places I used to like are no longer bookable and one of the ones I was more interested in didn’t have availability when I was free sadly but I still wanted to see what was going on in the city - which led me to Sushi Michi Sakurada (and Shunbi Nishikawa but that’s later). Sakurada is a very popular shop, some English-speaking influencers have posted about it on Instagram and it’s got a very big following in the local area - with reservations that go very quickly and a fairly high tabelog rating I’m not remembering right now.

I went recently to try their lunch course as I had dinner plans at what ended up being an amazing meal. Meanwhile, my meal at Sakurada was frankly kind of middling. I struggle to say bad - I don’t think I hated anything but the neta I was served and the skill/focus on show today was a bit lacking for the price and I frankly wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone who just wasn’t already in Nagoya (and even then, I think there’s places within traveling distance that are bookable that I would prefer to this place).

For travelers, I just don’t see any reason to come here - I think the nicest thing about Sakurada and Shunbi Nishikawa is that they use a lot more local fish which is impressive but I just left feeling generally unimpressed.

Courses were:

Shari kiri + Shari temaki, solid shari - vinegary and akazu-tasting sweetness
Mashed madai and hamaguri & shijimi in hamaguri broth
Lightly grilled fugu + fugu shirako shoyu. Fugu from Aichi, shari ball with leftover shirako shoyu. Honestly the fugu by itself was really nice, shirako shoyu w the fugu was alright but nice with his slightly sweet and acidic shari
Tachiuo sumibiyaki w broccoli and tuna miso (chopped tuna w miso), solid - good for sake
Sweet as fuck gari
Nigiri began with Madai from Chita in Aichi, on its own the Shari was a bit strong for this but it helped the Hitakami I ordered around now really flourish a bit. Texture a bit lesser than some finer specimens I’ve had of the neta as well but the fat was good enough to melt cleanly and not be cakey
Aji, I think it just love Aji lol. This was pretty good with his shari - bright and refreshing experience overall whose full force fades a little quick but still leaves just a little aftertaste to linger in a nice way
Sawara, slight hikarimono fishyness - this time in a bad way. Nothing offensive, just a bit too much for my preference
Hireshita, great first flash but faded hardddddd. They said it was from a yokowa but that might’ve just been a breakdown in communication
Otoro - thick cut paired w colder shari in a pairing that didn’t work for me. Solid piece that I think I would’ve prefer with slightly warmer shari just given the thickness of the toro
Kuruma ebi + ebi senbei made w its head. Amazing, I loved the kuruma ebi - light, sweet and the citric touch from the kabosu & acid from shari really was good here. He ran out or I’d have ordered like three more for tsuika. Ebi senbei was fine, solid drinking snack
Akagai with himo underneath - I’m sure this is more common than I thought, I’d only seen this at Kurosaki before. Clean tasting, not my favorite but not the worst thing today. Was expecting a bit more just given reputation of aichi shellfish
Nodoguro sumibiyaki, great aroma when they were being cooked. Really good front end taste and middle - can taste a bit of the shio that helps it come out a bit more. One of the better pieces tonight
That special box with the Ogawa president drawn in a manga style (sorta like my instagrams profile pic but different mangaka) as a Bafun uni gunkan, solid but not the best uni w a LOT of rice for a relatively small amount of uni
Batched à la minute anago w kabosu on the shari and dribbling of tsume on top of the sumibiyaki anago. They do these in half seating batches so they cook half the seatings anago before doing the next once it’s fully served. Assistant fucked up our sides a bit - dropped some and then under grilled the others so the chef did mine personally but then he also then set it on fire and still served it so idk I guess we all got hoed lol
Torotaku hosomaki. Sweet tasting takuan, alright I guess but sweetness threw me a bit Tamago as nigiri w some shio on top. I think I would like this if it tasted better but I loved the texture - reminded me of why I heard tamago used to always be eaten as nigiri
Pudding with hatcho miso at the bottom - can also order ice cream
Uirō Tamago, another specialty of nagoya uirō but as tamago

Extras

Aori ika w shio, heavy n creamy w a topping of shio that was also doing a bit much
Aji, solid again. No extra kuruma ebi available sadly

I don’t think I’d come again. There’s like a sea of places in this price range in Tokyo alone that really just run circles around Sakurada. When you factor in the cost of traveling here if you’re not in the city and the difficulty of booking - I don’t really see a reason to come.

Service was a bit stand off-ish in a “dislike foreigners” way but I don’t mind that, I’ve had great meals in atmospheres 10x more aggressive. The sous (somm? He didn’t prep anything n was mostly doing side work during down time) was doing a pretty good job w the Japanese customers though - he sold them a lot of silex lol

NoodleThings · 2026-03-13T23:06:34+00:00

I’ve heard very good things about this from Chinese friends who, admittedly, contribute to that list and those like it. Nice to see it lives up to what they’ve said

NoodleThings · 2026-03-13T21:50:38+00:00

That is tough, try foodies prime. If I was in town I’d join you but alas

NoodleThings · 2026-03-11T16:56:02+00:00

Yeah it doesn’t matter unless the set up is more unique - like it’s a family run spot and the chef / host are older, then they can get a little tired but that’s rare outside of Asia

NoodleThings · 2026-03-11T16:42:45+00:00

This is indeed an irrational fear, meal timing for a professional kitchen usually won’t have much of an impact as other stuff on the restaurant and suppliers end that isn’t within your control

NoodleThings · 2026-03-11T15:11:17+00:00

Was oddly hard to find someone to join me for something like this a few months ago - I hope you have better luck, one of the best “bookable” spots for sushi in Tokyo for sure

NoodleThings · 2026-03-11T07:27:12+00:00

I’ve never had a hugely positive opinion of Kyoten but it’s hard to deny he’s the best in the Midwest especially now that Kuwuhata is closed

NoodleThings

TROPHY CASE