A note on the words: omakase is a chef-selected course meal, here served as nigiri rather than alternating with appetizers. Hirame is flounder, akami is lean tuna, buri is mature yellowtail served with hidden cuts scored into the flesh, and biwamasu is a trout from Lake Biwa, said never to go out to sea. Sumi-ika is golden cuttlefish seasoned with salt and citrus, kinme is fatty splendid alfonsino, and katsuo is bonito. Chutoro is rich medium fatty tuna, bafun uni is sea urchin, torigai is cockle, here said to be from Miyazu, kamatoro is the marbled tuna collar, aji is horse mackerel, here said to be from Kyushu, and anago is conger eel simmered and grilled with sweet tare. Gari is mild pickled ginger, and maki are rolled sushi wrapped in seaweed.
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Sushi Dokoro Suzu on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. It is hot! Sushi time! So I decided to look for a sushi restaurant in Akasaka that I had not visited yet and book a table. This time it was “Sushi Dokoro Suzu”, located right beside Tameike-sanno Station rather than Akasaka proper. Just moving around in this scorching heat had me drenched in sweat. Arriving at the shop around 11:55, it seemed they open at 12:00, so I waited outside for a brief moment. Customers kept gathering for the 12:00 opening. And then, doors opened! Inside, there is a long counter with sunken horigotatsu-style seating. That might be a little unusual.
They ask for your drink order, but there is no menu, so the style is simply to say what you want to drink.
Leaving the sake selection up to the chef seems like the easiest option. As for me, I asked for a cold tea…
Lunch omakase — 9,900 yen
The course was the lunch omakase for 9,900 yen!
Looking around, half the guests were from overseas — Chinese tourists, Chinese speakers who were fluent in Japanese, and Japanese pairs! There really are a lot of overseas visitors around these days.
After a short while, the taisho, the head chef, arrived and the course got underway.
Gari, pickled ginger. Mild and mellow with very little sourness. Delicious!
Starting off with hirame, flounder. Clean and light, yet packed with solid umami and so delicious!
The chef was also explaining each fish in English for the Chinese guests, which was educational, ha.
“Tuna,” as he introduced it! The moist, rich lean akami cut practically melted in my mouth. Delicious!
It had a firm, plump flesh, but hidden cuts scored into the meat made it flake apart gently and effortlessly in the mouth.
He explained this one as “yellowtail.” And honestly, how impressive is it that the Chinese tourists understood it right away in English!
I thought it was salmon, but it was trout! Biwamasu, no less. That is the trout native to Lake Biwa. It might be my first time eating it. It had plenty of fat and was delicious! Apparently biwamasu never goes out to sea, and it has a gentle texture that makes it very easy to enjoy.
This one was served with salt. Sumi-ika, golden cuttlefish, sweet and meltingly delicious. The salt together with a sharp squeeze of citrus is great.
The kinme, splendid alfonsino, was rich in fat. Its sweetness really stands out.
Zero of the fishy smell characteristic of katsuo, bonito. Really good.
Just as it looks, plump, springy, and sweet! The sweetness of the shrimp pairs exquisitely with the sushi rice. I could eat any number of these.
Chutoro, medium fatty tuna — it melts away even more than the akami earlier, so delicious!
Sea urchin, bafun uni, served gunkan style, on rice ringed with a band of nori. On a sea urchin scale, I would say it ranks somewhere at the lower end of the top tier, but it was delicious all the same.
This was truly superb as well. Apparently this torigai, cockle, is from Miyazu in Kyoto. Around Amanohashidate, if I recall correctly? Quite delicious.
Kamatoro, the tuna collar cut, lightly cooked and marinated. The fat content is incredible — take a bite and the juices burst forth.
For a lunch course, an awful lot of pieces keep coming out, ha.
This is aji, horse mackerel. This aji was also sweet and tasty. Apparently it comes from Kyushu, and the chef mentioned it has been tough getting fish in with all the recent rain.
Conger eel, anago, simmered and grilled, then finished with a brush of tare sauce. Fluffy and delicious. Apparently it is conger eel from Tsushima.
Phew! Completely full. Thoroughly satisfied.
All told, quite a generous course of 13 pieces plus maki rolls (though that might vary depending on the day, ha). For 9,900 yen, is this not quite a bargain?? The taisho was friendly and chatted easily with us, making it very enjoyable! Some places alternate between small dishes and nigiri, but having a course made up entirely of sushi was wonderful for satisfying that sushi craving. With this much volume for 9,900 yen, it definitely makes you want to visit again. I think I will find some time to go back! Thoroughly satisfied!
Sushi Dokoro Suzu (Sushi / Tameike-sanno Station, Kokkai-gijidomae Station, Akasaka Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★★☆ 4.0
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
