Sushi Satoru

Sushi Satoru (すしさとる)

⭐⭐⭐

🍣 Sushi / 📍 Ebisu

📓 Visits: 1

Sushi Satoru was another one of those restaurants pre-announced as featuring in the 2024 Michelin Guide Tokyo.  But when The Guide was published, it was amongst the inaugural list of "selected" restaurants that haven't actually achieved a Star.  Do you congratulate the chef or commiserate him?  The restaurant is generally only open for dinner but I went for one of the occasional nigiri-only lunches.  All of the sushi in the set was excellent, very good or good.  The nigiri are medium-sized and the neta are sliced thick.  Rice is a little chewy and mild in flavour.  Tuna is supplied by Fujita: three nigiri (though no otoro) and a makimono are included in the set.  The chutoro was lacking in fat for my liking, as was the aji, which is no longer at its seasonal peak.  The signature items are the opening nigiri of nasu, the closing ohagi nigiri and the negi toro.  The nasu is good but as always I'd rather eat fish; the negi toro is large but I've had better and I'd rather have tamago than ohagi.  The best pieces in the set were probably the hirame and the amadai which was unusually seasoned with sudachi and salt.  After the set (which comprised 12 pieces and took exactly an hour) chef takes additional orders.  My choice included kohada, which ended up being the most disappointing piece on the day, tasting a little fishy.  If you don't order anything else you may have to wait until everyone else has finished before you get the ohagi.

This is one of the most intimate omakase sushi restaurants in Tokyo.  The counter seats six diners closely together.  The half-hexagonal shape means everyone is very nearly equidistant from the chef.  Satoru-san along his wife, who acts as okami, jokes away the whole time time.  If you don't have near native-level Japanese and an appreciation of Japanese culture you're going to struggle to fully understand and participate in the conversation, so if you don't speak Japanese your reservation might be refused.

Dinner is priced at 15k and lunch at 12k.  15k for dinner is exceptional in this era of skyrocketing sushi prices.  Satoru-san, who trained at Hatano Yoshiki and is just 28 years old, is on the beginning of his journey and it seems like his plan is to build a loyal customer base to follow him on that journey rather than, straight off the bat, charge prices near the top of the market and attend to customers who never return.  Overall this was very good sushi but the chef felt exposed with the hikarimono, there was nothing remarkable in the set and when the signature items miss the mark this isn't really a place I'm going to go back to just for the food.  It takes years to perfect sushi and Satoru-san is just at the beginning of that journey.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13273246/ 

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.9

📱 Booking: Via LINE @sushisatoru or by phone.  New booking periods open on the first of every month.

📍 Location: 

3-3-9 Ebisu.  10 mins from the East exit of Ebisu station.
Map data ©2023 Google

📅 Visit December 2023

🕛 Lunch

Nasu
Hirame
Amadai
Kamasu aburi
Aji
Chutoro
Akami
Chutoro zuke
Kawahagi, kimo
Uni norimaki
Ni-hotate
Toru taku
Owan
+Kohada
+Karei
+Amai ebi
Ohagi nigiri

💴 Damage: 14,500
⏱️ Time taken: 1h25m