A note on the words: gari is pickled ginger served alongside sushi to cleanse the palate between bites, and red vinegar (akazu) is aged sake-lees vinegar used to season the sushi rice with a mellow tartness. Kobujime is fish cured between sheets of kelp to infuse it with umami, while kakushi-bocho are hidden scoring cuts sliced into the fish—here used on bluefin tuna—to tenderize each piece. Toro-taku is a classic roll pairing rich, fatty tuna with crisp pickled daikon radish.
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Sushi Tsu on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. This time I paid a long-overdue visit to “Sushi Tsu”. More than half a year had passed since my last visit.
I was thinking of booking lunch this time as well, but to my surprise the price had gone up a bit. Well, these days everything in the world is going up except our salaries! ToT. Ah well, it can’t be helped! More than that, I was just looking forward to Sushi Tsu after so long.
Let’s get right to it!
The Sakura lunch course — 16,500 yen
Back in the day it was a 5,500-yen lunch, ha.
Then 12,000 yen, and now 16,500 yen! So the price has been steadily climbing. It might be a good idea to come eat here sooner rather than later!
And so, we get right started.
It looks great! Sharp and crisp, it makes you sit up straight just eating it.
First was flounder from Choshi, with a light sprinkle of salt.
It melts… Delicious! It’s delicate, yet the flesh has plenty of umami, and the salt tightens it up nicely.
An exquisite balance of vinegar. You can really trust a sushi restaurant where the silver-skinned fish is thoroughly delicious!
Next was kue (longtooth grouper) from Kochi. They said it had been aged for 14 days, and the fat is rich while the umami is concentrated.
Tender, and the savory flavor spreads across the mouth…! This is delicious.
Sakura masu, cherry salmon. Salmon varieties have become quite common even at high-end sushi restaurants lately.
The melting, fatty flesh is delicious. I wanted to eat more of this sakura masu!
Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) from Choshi. It was prepared kobujime, cured between sheets of kelp, and they said it had been marinated for about eight hours.
Taking a bite, there is a gentle aroma of kelp.
Kajiki, swordfish. They said it had been lightly marinated.
This swordfish had apparently been aged for an astonishing 25 days. They say they only use the core part that remains.
One wrong step with aging and the whole thing goes bad. They said they arrived at this through trial and error, ha.
When you taste it, perhaps thanks to the aging, the texture is softly melting in the mouth.
It makes you wonder, was swordfish always this delicious? Aging really is impressive, ha.
Next was the shima-ebi, a favorite of mine. This too had a soft, melting quality that dissolves into pure deliciousness. Unbeatable! The shrimp is so good!
For this zuke maguro, soy-marinated tuna, they said they use tenpane, a rare cut from within the lean!
Speaking of tenpane, it is the leanest of lean tuna! A rare cut, indeed. A cut you hardly ever get to eat.
Naturally, it is delicious. It even moves you!
Next was tuna again.
This time, bluefin from Shiogama in Miyagi! Thanks to the kakushi-bocho, hidden scoring cuts, the fatty tuna simply melts.
It pairs brilliantly with the rice seasoned with red vinegar. So good.
Next was nodoguro, blackthroat seaperch, grilled until the fat is practically bursting.
Delicious, ha! A whole new dimension of deliciousness. Rich in fat, yet not heavy at all. Pop it in your mouth and it gently crumbles away to nothing.
And your mouth is left completely full of umami. Nodoguro really lives up to its name!
Bafun uni. It’s only once in a while you get to eat genuine raw sea urchin like this. Truly precious!
A supreme uni where the umami and sweetness gently spread. It really is a cut or two above any sea urchin bought elsewhere.
They said the anago – conger eel – was a large one from Tsushima, and it certainly is big.
I forgot to take the photo.
Man, delicious as always. Among the sushi restaurants I know, it really is the very top!
I’d like to come back and recharge after a while. Hopefully! I hope “lunch” caps out around 15,000 yen, ha.
If it goes up too much, it really will be out of reach. In exchange, they are more than welcome to go all out on the dinner prices!
Sushi Tsu (Sushi / Roppongi Station, Nogizaka Station, Azabu-juban Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★★☆ 4.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
