HoKat Food Blog: 寿司大 (Tokyo)

On our second day in Tokyo, we got up bright and early in the morning to go to the Tsukiji market for some sushi breakfast. The Tsukiji market opens at around 4am for fish auctions, and the restaurants in the inner market have early opening hours. The most popular and famous restaurants in the Tsukiji market are 寿司大 and 大和寿司. When we went to Tokyo more than a year ago, we tried both of these restaurants to get a direct comparison and we would rank 寿司大 as the better of the two.

We arrived in the Tsukiji market at around 8am and there is already a long line outside of 寿司大. There were about 25 people in front of us in line, and we waited 45 minutes before getting seats.

My husband and I both ordered the Omakase, which means chef’s choice of sushi made from the best fish of the day. For appetizers, they gave us a free seafood miso soup and a generous piece of tamago which contains bits of scallion in it. The first piece of sushi served is our favorite, which is Toro. The Toro is so smooth and fatty, with no tendon at all. It requires no chewing effort and just slid down our mouths. However, it is not the most fatty that we’ve had. The next piece of sushi is a kind of white fish called 眞子鰈. It doesn’t have much taste to it but we can tell it is a fresh piece of fish.

After the piece of white fish, the chef served us a generous piece of Uni (sea urchin) sushi, which is one of our favorites. The taste of sea urchin is rich and strong, while the texture is extremely soft. There is usually a sea water taste to it, but the ones you eat in Japan have a fresh sweet taste.

Since it is autumn season, the fish in season is 秋刀魚 (Saury). This fish has a strong distinctive taste to it, a little bit like Mackerel. My husband really enjoyed this fish and he ordered a second round. After this, we had a thick piece of clam sushi. The clam is firm but not hard, and it is pretty refreshing. The next piece of sushi is regular tuna. The tuna is so firm and fresh. The tuna that we can get from the United States is usually frozen which means there is some moisture inside the fish. The tuna that you can get in Japan has never been frozen which makes such a huge difference.

Next comes something we have never had before, which is a piece of sushi made from pieces of tiny shrimp combined together. There is not much taste to it at all. Raw shrimp is not my preference. Let’s just say I won’t order it again.

To fill the customers’ stomachs, the chef also served four pieces of tuna and yellowtail with cucumber roll. There is nothing special about these rolls. The ones we can get from Oishii are more original and flavorful.

At this point, I was so full that I asked my husband to eat my yellowtail with cucumber roll. The next piece of sushi is salmon fish roe. The roe is so pure that there is no fishy smell at all.

Saving the last for best, the chef served us a piece of warm Anago (sea eel) sushi. The chef has picked all the bones out from the sea eel. It is so soft and the special sweet sauce on top makes it absolutely delicious.

Even though we already had 10 pieces of sushi each, we were craving for more, so we ordered another piece of Toro, two pieces of Uni, and a piece of Saury to complete the meal. There is only one word to describe this meal, Ichiban.