Sushi Taira

Sushi Taira (すし 田いら)

⭐⭐⭐

🍣 Sushi / 📍 Motoazabu

📓 Visits: 1 (2022)

Pretentious is how I'd summarize Sushi Taira.  "The counter is made of a single piece of Kiso cypress that is over 300 years old."  It's nice, but I've seen more impressive counters and I would have traded cheaper wood for more space between diners.  "Please refrain from taking photos of both food and non-food items in the restaurant."  OK, this isn't the first restaurant with that policy but what's the problem?  Turns out photos are actually allowed anyway.  "Please understand that we do not allow word-of-mouth posting on social networking sites such as Google and food logs."  Well there were already Tabelog reviews when I went.  You might politely request that people don't post reviews if you're that worried about getting a bad review but unless we all have to start signing NDAs before we go to restaurants (way things are going, wouldn't surprise me) this is unenforceable.  Then the cancellation policy: 5% if you cancel at any time, 30% 60 days prior, 50% 30 days prior and 100% 15 days prior.  What does the restaurant actually lose if you you need to cancel a month or two in advance?  Throw the fish back in the sea?  Recall the fishing boats or something?  It's ridiculous.  The restaurant's location is not disclosed.  Again, this is meant to give the impression of exclusivity.  The Tableall write-up leads on this point and then goes on to present a Google map and the restaurant's address at the end of the page.  Best of all, "If you are late for your reservation you may be charged a fee".  Now that I had to test.  How much would it be 5,000?  10,000?  300 yen?

All that might be enough to put anyone off but I'd heard the sushi was actually very good.  So I waited until there was a slot available a couple of days ahead when I knew I wouldn't have to cancel and before the price went up from 30,800 + service to 36,000 + service in January 2023.  The 22k nigiri-only lunch stopped in September 2022.

I arrived 10 minutes late (didn't want to risk 15 in case of a large fee :)  All that happened was I had 10 minutes less to eat my tsumami than the other guests.  The best piece in the course was the uni but that's simply about sourcing rather than anything else.  The madai was great, sumi ika almost perfect and the anago good.  The pick of the tsumami was the sawara aburi, which I rated 8/10.  But those are all the positives.  Ankimo had a mild taste and wouldn't need grated yuzu had it been better.  Tuna was from Oma but the otoro had a lot of sinew.  Akami was thin and didn't have a deep flavour.  Chutoro also had a mild taste.  Kuruma ebi was served with ebi miso, which I couldn't taste and was a bit tough, probably due to the delay in serving.  Rice was fairly sour and soft.

I'd read that service wasn't the best.  The chef does indeed admonish his assistant but I've observed worse and for me service was very attentive and dishes were properly explained.

Overall, not as disappointing or poor as Sushi Masuda but still too much to fault at this price.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130702/13271063/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.95

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  Plenty of seats available, but note the stupid cancellation policy.

📍 Location: 

102 Style Motoazabu, 3-2-13 Motoazabu.  1F multi-tenant building.  Dial "1-0-2-[呼出]" on the auto-lock to enter.
Map data ©2022 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ❌ No

📅 Visit Autumn 2022

Nameko; Ginnan
Matsukawa karei, caviar
Hato?
Hokkigai
Ezo awabi
Kaki, nori
Sawara aburi
Ankimo
Sumi ika geso
Genmai temaki
Kohada (nigiri)
Madai (nigiri)
Shime saba (nigiri)
Kinki shio-yaki
Ni-hotate (nigiri)
Shirako donburi
Sumi ika (nigiri)
Otoro (nigiri)
Akami zuke (nigiri)
Chutoro (nigiri)
Akagai (nigiri)
Kuruma ebi, ebi miso
Bafun uni
Maguro temaki
Owan
Anago (nigiri)
Tamago
Yonashi

💴 Damage: 33,880 (30800 + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 2h5m