All this time at home for quarantine is making me reminisce our honeymoon.  In particular, this post is for our first meal – in Tokyo, Japan.  We have to say, it is some of THE best sushi we’ve ever had in our life.

Doing a lot of research before hand to make our honeymoon itinerary (yes, I am that type of person lol – I don’t want to miss anything, and I like to have things organized), I researched the best sushi places in Tokyo that is open kind of late since we wouldn’t be landing in Tokyo until 5pm local time.  I eventually settled on “Sushiryori Inose” as the reviews were stellar and I read that the service and food is better than the famed Jiro’s sushi.

This place is a small local restaurant and only seats about 10-12 people.  A cute elderly couple owns the place – the husband being the sushi chef, and the wife being the server/hostess.  Since this is a local restaurant, I saw some reviews that they don’t understand much English.  As a result, when I made reservations about a month prior to our visit, I had one of my friends who spoke Japanese make the reservations for me (haha – thankfully he is fluent).  Before going, I also knew that this place takes CASH ONLY, and is an omakase-style restaurant. (*”Omakase” means “I will leave it to you” in that the sushi chef prepares what you eat, and you don’t order from a set menu).

***ARRIVAL IN TOKYO

As soon as we landed and got checked into our hotel, we took the local train and used Google Maps to get to our 8:00pm local time reservation.

When we arrived, the wife of the establishment graciously welcomed us in after we said we had reservations.  They knew a little bit of English, but luckily I knew some words and phrases to converse with them.  Once the other parties (2 other parties were seated – a total of 10 of us) were seated at about the same time as us, the sushi chef began his art.

Enough talking — below are the pictures of our spectacular dinner!  I can’t remember everything I ate, but I will include some comments or remarks 🙂

First up- Otoro! (the fatty part of the ahi) – it melted in your mouth like butter, you didn’t even have to chew!

Before the sushi chef gives you each course, he actually shows you the fish he’s about to serve you.

I can’t remember, but I think this was hamachi (yellow-tail) – and he brushed some rind from yuzu (a Japanese citrus lime) on it, and the flavors together were phenomenal.

Iwashi nigiri (sardine) with minced ginger on top.

Amaebi (sweet raw shrimp)

Ikura! Salmon Roe Eggs

Uni (raw sea urchin) – I usually do not like uni, but this one was delicious!

THIS was our FAVORITE.  It is seared otoro (fattiest part of the Ahi), served with some spring onion underneath it.  It was perfectly seasoned, and when you put it in your mouth, the otoro just melted on your tongue, and all the flavors came together perfectly.  My husband was in pure ecstasy when eating this.

Hotategai – raw clam

Bonito nigiri – also very delicious, it was similar to maguro (ahi tuna)

The sushi chef also made us a cute little design out of cucumber, along with tamago 🙂

Negitoro roll – so much melt-in-your mouth otoro, you can barely see the green onions in there haha.. SO GOOD

When he found out we were on our honeymoon, he gave us a tamago (egg) “cake”, turned off the lights, and everyone in the restaurant sang us a song haha.  We also mentioned we were from Hawaii, and the wife brought out a little photo album of them in Hawaii years ago – so cute!

At the end, we were stuffed, but we each got one more order of the seared otoro, and negitoro roll.  

While my husband and I didn’t drink, the other patrons in the restaurant were, and it is welcomed to share with the husband and wife owners 🙂

We didn’t want the night to end, but we were jet lagged and exhausted, so we asked for the check – I thought for we’d be spending at least $200 for the two of us since dinner was amazing, but the check only came out to about $80 per person – approximately $160 in USD $!  (*And, since it’s not customary in Japan to tip for great service, no tip amount is added).  What a steal!

If you are ever in the Tokyo area, I encourage you to try this place out.  We stayed in Shinjuku and it was a little far away (30 minute travel time), but it was so worth it.

You can check out Sushiryori Inose’s reviews on Tripadvisor here.

On the Tripadvisor link above, you can also get the address, hours, and other useful information 🙂