Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi

When Chiz and I were in Melbourne, we saw the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi. If you have not seen the movie, it is about Jiro Ono, a famous sushi chef in Tokyo. The movie explores his constant quest to perfect the art of making sushi. It also deals with his sons, both of whom trained under their father. His eldest son will inherit his father’s business and his youngest son opened his own sushi restaurant in Roppongi. It was surprisingly an enthralling movie that makes your mouth water. Here is the trailer:

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This movie elevated Jiro Ono into legendary status and of course made us want to try his sushi! His restaurant isn’t only known for amazing sushi… it’s also known as one of the most expensive sushi restaurants in Tokyo. In order to experience this sushi, in the most reasonably priced fashion, we decided to eat lunch at Jiro Ono’s son’s restaurant in Roppongi Hills. His name is Takashi, and since he trained for many years under his father, his restaurant is supposed to use many of the same techniques and have many of the same flavors. We went on this gastronomic experience with our friends, Marc and Sachie.

We have taken pictures of most of the sushi we ate at Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi, but sadly we missed a few pieces in the excitement. Here are the picts, with the best description we can give about what it is and how it tasted:

Ika / Squid – This wasn’t the first piece, but we were unsure if we could take picts at first. Usually Ika can be tough and chewy, but this melted in our mouth and the sauce complimented it perfectly. The rice is obviously an important part of making the perfect sushi. His was beautiful and uncrushed, but had a slightly different taste from others I have eaten. Possibly a bit more vinegar or a special type of vinegar? Also Shari – sushi rice – should not be bigger than the Neta – fish – itself.  For the most part it never over powered the fish and was a perfect compliment to it.

Sayori / Needle Fish?(That’s what he told us) – It didn’t have a very strong flavor, but was nice. He also made fresh ginger that he kept replenishing when we would finish it. You could really taste that it was hand-sliced pieces of ginger due to the thickness of it. The flavor also had a bit more tartness to it than others I’ve had, which I liked. It really served the purpose of cleansing my taste buds for the next piece of sushi.

Tuna – We also had fatty tuna too, but I guess we forgot to take a picture of it… Of course fatty tuna is aways a favorite!

Kohada / A Type of big Sardine – as he described it. For Marc and I, it brought back some memories of the Jewish high holy holidays and eating herring – This is a good thing!

This is part of a huge scallop – it is the part which is connected to the shell. This was my first truly memorable piece of sushi. I have never had this part of the scallop from such a large creature. I thought it would be very tough, but it just had a slight chewiness to it that was magnificent.

A cool little cloth set up to wipe your fingers – since sushi is best eaten that way!

Aji / Horse Makerel – This fish usually has a strong taste and not everybody’s favorite.  However, the sushi he made was quite easy to eat and did not have the particular taste that Aji usually has.

Ikura / Salmon Roe – This is usually one of my favorite pieces of sushi, and it didn’t fail to deliver here. The quality of the salmon roe was evident since it had a very mellow flavor without the usual “fishiness” that it can often have in other places.

Akagai / Red Clam – This is Chiz’ favorite.  If you eat this sushi at kaiten zushi, it has a bit of a watery taste to keep the Akagai from drying out .  This sushi was different, the Akagai was not dry but did not have a watery taste.  You can simply enjoy the taste that the Akagai has.

Kuruma Ebi / Imperial Prawn – My next truly memorable piece. He sliced the shrimp into two halves, the head and the tail. The tail was good, but I really enjoyed the sweetness from the brains of the head. I know it sounds gross, but these brains tasted similar to crab brains that have a subtle sweetness that is delicious.

Uni / Sea Urchin – This is also a favorite of mine and this piece didn’t disappoint either. Takashi explained that usually with uni, the fish to rice ratio is usually not right. Most chefs don’t put on enough uni, resulting in the last few bites tasting only of rice. He did not skimp on the uni, and it was like a burst of flavor in our mouths! The fish melted perfectly with the rice, and as he  predicted, there was perfect harmony the whole way through!

Saba / Mackerel – The Saba is usually served as “pickled”.  “Pickled” does not really express how it is cooked but since it has a vinegary taste, it is usually translated as such.  Since sushi rice also has a vinegary taste, it is always difficult not to make the sushi very vinegary.  This sushi was quite nicely balanced and easy to eat and even the taste of the Saba did not melt into the sushi rice.

Me and Chiz

Marc and Sachie

Anago / Eel – The next memorable piece, it just melted in my mouth like a piece of butter. It was amazing!

Tamago / Egg – Chiz’ was sliced into two, but he left mine as one big piece. I have heard that one of the ways you are supposed to judge the quality of a sushi chef is on their egg. I have to say, I don’t think that any of us have ever eaten anything quite like this tamago zushi. Even the color is very different to what I have eaten in the past. It was more like a cake than egg, fluffy and sweet. This is why people eat tamago zushi as the last piece like desert! The presentation was also beautiful, the way it hugs the rice in a little triangle. The last of the memorable pieces and the perfect ending to an amazing meal.

I expected we would leave hungry from this expensive meal, but on the contrary, there was plenty of sushi served. It was undoubtedly the most expensive lunch though any of us ever had, and probably will ever have, at just under $200 U.S./per person. The experience was lots of fun and many of the pieces we ate were by far some of the best slivers of fish on rice we have ever put in our mouths. It most definitely ranks as one of the best sushi experiences I have ever had, but I’m not sure it is worth the steep price. Takashi mentioned to Marc at the end of the meal that we would never be able to eat sushi again after this experience. While we understand his point, we disagree with the sentiment. We could have each had 10 meals for the same price at Midori Zushi, which is also incredibly good. Is Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi 10 times better than Midori Zushi? I’m not sure about that… I will say that the service was impeccable and Takashi and his staff were very friendly. I was impressed that he came around the counter at the end to take a picture with us, but I guess it would have been rude not to for the price we paid! He probably should have done a little dance too!

It was absolutely worth the experience, especially for people like us who love food! Thanks to Marc and Sachie for joining us and making it such a fun afternoon!