Sushi Kaneko / Hatsunezushi

⚠️ Kaneko-san left Hatsunezushi in 2022 and Nakaji-san is back after an aborted attempt to open a sushi restaurant in Milan, so this review is no longer relevant.  My current review of Hatsunezushi is here.

 "Sushi Kaneko" (鮨 金子) / Hatsunezushi (初音鮨)

⭐⭐⭐

🍣 Sushi / 📍 Kamata

📓 Visits: 1 (Kaneko) / 7 (Hatsune)

You won't find Sushi Kaneko on Tabelog or in any directory because it's actually a lunch course served by Nakaji-san's apprentice at Hatsunezushi.  I'm choosing to review it separately because it's a very different experience from the full dinner course and even, much to my disappointment, the shorter 1 hour dinner course that was run for a limited period.  You can read my review of Hatsunezushi .  This lunch course is priced at JPY 22,000 inclusive, 40% of the cost of the full dinner course.

I sensed things would be different when the usual presentation of tuna was much smaller than usual and from a 92.2kg fish from Ohata.  The signature otoro aburi and the maguro temaki were not included.  Ika was unadorned instead of including the usual sublime combination of karasumi.  The uni was unremarkable Hokkaido aka uni.  As for the tuna that was served, akami lacked the deep iron flavours of a prime specimen.  On the other hand, tekka maki was huge and excellent.  Hotate was sweet, massive and the best I've ever had.  Aji had been transformed by 3 weeks' aging and was epic in its own way.  A one-week aged katsuo had an incredible depth of flavour.  Kohada was as special as always.  A new item of amai ebi with ebi miso was great.  So I still had some close-your-eyes-reel-back-in-your-seat moments.

As usual, someone has done the job for me of photographing the course :)  You can view pictures here and here.  The contents of the course are exactly as I had them.  There's also a review and pictures of the current full dinner course here.

I've drawn up the following table so you can easily compare the two courses.

	lunch (22k)	dinner (55k)
Taco (otsumami)	○	○
Edamame	○	○
Hamo junsai soup	○	○
Kohada (nigiri)	○	○
Akami	○	○
Chutoro	○	○
Chutoro	○	×
Tsubugai	×	○
Ayu	×	○
Hotate	○	○
Uni	1 type, aka	2 types, superior
Mirugai	×	○
Managatsuo	○	○
Hamo, hamo-ko yakimono nigiri	○	○
Togarashi, katsuobushi, nasu (otsumami)	○	○
Aori ika	○	+ karasumi
Awabi	×	○
Aji	○	○
Amai ebi, ebi miso	○	○
Shako	○	○
Katsuo	○	○
Kani risotto	×	○
Otoro aburi	×	○
Miso soup	○	○
Maguro makimono	Tekka	Futo
Kanpyo	○	○
Tamago	○	○
Ice cream, American cherry	○	○

Dinner is very expensive and the lunch course covers a large portion of the dinner course so from that perspective it's good value.  But the USP of Hatsunezushi is its opulence and that was completely missing from the lunch course.  Without the otoro aburi and the maguro futomaki or temaki it's just not the same.  These were included in the special one hour dinner course, as was the ika karasumi.

Takumi Kaneko has been working behind the curtain for a number of years now at Hatsunezushi and I have no criticism of him: he interacted with all guests, has an outgoing personality and it was a pleasure to be served by him.  I don't think you could tell the difference between the same sushi served by both chefs.

Hatsunezushi was not just my favourite sushi restaurant but my favourite restaurant in Tokyo overall.  I can't see myself going back here for this lunch course but I'm considering going back for Kaneko-san's dinner course.  If you've never had aged sushi but have been put off the price of the full course at Hatsunezushi, Kaneko-san's lunch course is a good introduction but it's very far from the complete Hatsunezushi experience.  Time will tell how close his dinner course is to Nakaji-san's.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1315/A131503/13017742/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.7

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy: TableCheck or Omakase.  Non-refundable, 100% pre-payment.  Plenty of seats available for the same week.

📍 Location: as Hatsunezushi.

Visit July 2021

(Menu contents as above)

💴 Damage: 22,000

⏱️ Time taken: 1h30m