The first thing I thought of when we decided I would go with Lingon to Tokyo for his work trip was CAN WE EAT AT JIRO??? Haha. We had him book the hotel right away, and then gave the hotel waaaayyyyyy advance notice to make the booking at Sukiyabashi Jiro. Jiro's booking policy is such that you can only make a reservation on the first of the month for the following month. The wait was painful. But, on the first of the month preceding our desired reservation date, I received the long-awaited email with good news saying we had a reservation. WHOPEE!!
To be very honest, the main reason why I wanted to go to Jiro was because of the fame factor that the chef has due to his documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I must admit to not being very much of a sushi connoisseur - to me, sushi is pretty much bad, OK, good and great, so I thought I probably would not have been able to appreciate it that much, if it should have been be appreciated so.
Anyway, we got to our hotel, and upon check in, the hotel concierge came up to us and gave us an envelope with our reservation details in it, and said, "you won!" Yes, that pretty much summed up how I felt since getting the good news. Before, I kept telling Lingon, "Jiro chooses you, you don't choose him", and then after it became "Jiro chose us!" Pretty lame, but yeah.
Off to Jiro we went. I got lost trying to find the place, thankfully I was pacing around the block, when I finally spotted Lingon who figured I would get lost, and to my immense surprise and happiness he knew where the place was. I was about 3 minutes away from being late for our 5.30pm reservation, and the instructions specifically said not to be late. We headed down the stairs, to the front of the restaurant that I immediately recognized from the documentary, and arrived ever so slightly early. There was another group there. The hostess came to check us in, and the other group, who booked through AMEX, found out they were at the wrong branch. I felt so bad for them!! Note to all, CHECK WHICH BRANCH OF JIRO YOU ARE BOOKED FOR! They got sent off and I wonder if they made it on time. Strange because the restaurant seemed rather empty the whole time, except for 2 other people who were Jiro's friends who came in a little after us.
We were seated. I asked about photos, and it turns out we could take photos of the food, but not of Jiro at work. I did take some secret ones which sucked, so oh well. Here is one.
So, the food. There were 18 pieces in all. The fish was of good quality, but nothing too life-changing. Some of the pieces that were wrapped in seaweed were rather poorly wrapped, with the end of the seaweed wrapper sticking out. Mushroom was not impressed. I wonder if Obama had better wrapping. It seemed like Jiro was too busy entertaining his friends to care about how our sushi really looked. He also seeemed to tell us we were eating it wrongly, gesturing slightly with his hands, but we spoke no Japanese and he spoke no English, so everything was lost in translation then. Also, each piece of food came out relatively quickly. I felt I did not have a good chance to chomp on my food in a slow leisurely pace and I felt rather rushed for the most part. That made me sad, considering each chew was probably $2. I wonder if there was a way to ask him to slow the cadence down but, again, language was a barrier.
Well, here are the pictures of the food and the descriptions. Lingon really liked the gizzard shard. I really liked the ark shell. The boiled prawn was a ginormous monster and tasted kind of like lobster.
Glad for this experience, to experience one of the most famous sushi masters at work. For a meal starting at ¥30,000, it's a hefty price to pay. Maybe I'm not as into high-end sushi, or simply unable to appreciate it. Would I do it again? Probably not. Was I glad I checked the box? Definitely.
Here's my parting shot with the man himself. :-)
To be very honest, the main reason why I wanted to go to Jiro was because of the fame factor that the chef has due to his documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I must admit to not being very much of a sushi connoisseur - to me, sushi is pretty much bad, OK, good and great, so I thought I probably would not have been able to appreciate it that much, if it should have been be appreciated so.
Anyway, we got to our hotel, and upon check in, the hotel concierge came up to us and gave us an envelope with our reservation details in it, and said, "you won!" Yes, that pretty much summed up how I felt since getting the good news. Before, I kept telling Lingon, "Jiro chooses you, you don't choose him", and then after it became "Jiro chose us!" Pretty lame, but yeah.
Off to Jiro we went. I got lost trying to find the place, thankfully I was pacing around the block, when I finally spotted Lingon who figured I would get lost, and to my immense surprise and happiness he knew where the place was. I was about 3 minutes away from being late for our 5.30pm reservation, and the instructions specifically said not to be late. We headed down the stairs, to the front of the restaurant that I immediately recognized from the documentary, and arrived ever so slightly early. There was another group there. The hostess came to check us in, and the other group, who booked through AMEX, found out they were at the wrong branch. I felt so bad for them!! Note to all, CHECK WHICH BRANCH OF JIRO YOU ARE BOOKED FOR! They got sent off and I wonder if they made it on time. Strange because the restaurant seemed rather empty the whole time, except for 2 other people who were Jiro's friends who came in a little after us.
We were seated. I asked about photos, and it turns out we could take photos of the food, but not of Jiro at work. I did take some secret ones which sucked, so oh well. Here is one.
So, the food. There were 18 pieces in all. The fish was of good quality, but nothing too life-changing. Some of the pieces that were wrapped in seaweed were rather poorly wrapped, with the end of the seaweed wrapper sticking out. Mushroom was not impressed. I wonder if Obama had better wrapping. It seemed like Jiro was too busy entertaining his friends to care about how our sushi really looked. He also seeemed to tell us we were eating it wrongly, gesturing slightly with his hands, but we spoke no Japanese and he spoke no English, so everything was lost in translation then. Also, each piece of food came out relatively quickly. I felt I did not have a good chance to chomp on my food in a slow leisurely pace and I felt rather rushed for the most part. That made me sad, considering each chew was probably $2. I wonder if there was a way to ask him to slow the cadence down but, again, language was a barrier.
Well, here are the pictures of the food and the descriptions. Lingon really liked the gizzard shard. I really liked the ark shell. The boiled prawn was a ginormous monster and tasted kind of like lobster.
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| Hirame (sole fish), sumi-ika (squid), buri (yellow tail), akami (tuna), chu-toro (semi fatty tuna), oo-toro (fatty tuna), kohada (gizzard shard), akagai (ark shell), aji (jack mackerel) |
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| Hamaguri (boiled clam), saba (mackerel), kurumaebi (boiled prawn), sayori (needle fish), uni (sea urchin), kobashira (baby scallops), ikura (salmon roe), anago (sea eel), tamago (egg) |
Glad for this experience, to experience one of the most famous sushi masters at work. For a meal starting at ¥30,000, it's a hefty price to pay. Maybe I'm not as into high-end sushi, or simply unable to appreciate it. Would I do it again? Probably not. Was I glad I checked the box? Definitely.
Here's my parting shot with the man himself. :-)
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