Sushi Tokami (鮨とかみ) @ Ginza, Tokyo

Cuisine: Sushi

Map: Sushi Tokami (鮨とかみ) @ Ginza, Tokyo

Charged Price: JPY10,800 per person without alcohol

Visited: 13 November 2015

Food: 9/10

Atmosphere: 8/10

Value for money: 7/10

Services: 9/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]

Hiroyuki Sato of Sushi Tokami is, in my humble opinion, a non-ordinary sushi master at his age. Not so much fancy for his almost flawless execution but things could be just so ozzzzz. Yeah.....it's umami in Japanese, I guess. This tiny sushi bar, of 8 seats, on basement floor of Seiwa Silver Building in Ginza is defitely an extraordinary one with future.

Sushi Tokami (鮨とかみ) @ Ginza, Tokyo

Seiwa Silver Buidling

where great sushi are prepared!!!

the energetic Hiroyuki Sato at his work

look like a delicious roll

The very first to arrive was Oyster Boiled with Daikon (7/10). It might not be standing out for this cold appetiser but surely enjoyable. Then the very first nigiri was Hirame (平目) - Flounder (8/10) which was fresh and possessed the right chewiness texture. Just only the overwhelmed fragrance of wasabi that was irritating. Sumi Ika (墨いか) - Cuttlefish (9/10) on the other hand was tender but with texture. Nice explosion of flavour without fishy saltiness.

Oyster Boiled with Daikon

Hirame (平目) - Flounder

Sumi Ika (墨いか) - Cuttlefish

After that, Baby Snapper (8/10) was brought on. Not sure whether I got the name right. What I heard was Katsuo (鰹) which usually means bonito but it was baby snapper for this incidence. Not a big deal though. Nevertheless, rather on the side of sourness piece of Akami Zuke (赤身漬け) - Marinated Red Tuna (9/10) came in rich taste and melted-in-mouth texture. Afther that, the perfect piece of Chu Toro (中とろ) - Medium Fatty Tuna (10/10) arrived in style. It just melted right away leaving so much of flavour behind.

Baby Snapper???

Akami Zuke (赤身漬け) - Marinated Red Tuna

Chu Toro (中とろ) - Medium Fatty Tuna

Moving on to kind of marinated sushi, Kohada (小鰭) - Gizzard Shad (9/10) at this instance was well made with excellent quality. Kuruma Ebi (車海老) - Tiger Prawn (10/10) was surely one of the very best alongside Sushi Saito and Sushi Mizutani. Nonetheless, Kisu (鱚) - Silver Whiting (8/10) which was just an oridnary fish, somehow presented itself rather ok. Sawara (鰆) - Spanish Mackerel (9/10) showed lime aroma with almost perfect mind-blowing texture.

Kohada (小鰭) - Gizzard Shad

Kuruma Ebi (車海老) - Tiger Prawn

Kisu (鱚) - Silver Whiting

Sawara (鰆) - Spanish Mackerel

The very last range began with Saba (鯖) - Mackerel (9/10) which was so sweet, so smooth and so without sea breeze aroma. A kind of shell, Hamaguri (蛤) - Clam (10/10), was the next one. It came with a kind of rather sweet sauce. Crisp, fresh, bouncy, and balance. Ikura (いくら) - Salmon Roe (10/10) which is one of my all time favourite had come just before the smoothy Anago (穴子) - Sea Eel (10/10) arrived. 

Saba (鯖) - Mackerel

Hamaguri (蛤) - Clam

Ikura (いくら) - Salmon Roe

Anago (穴子) - Sea Eel

As in other sushi restaurant, the Hand-rolled Tuna (10/10) and Sweet Omelette (9/10) came to be the finish items. The maki was at the very level of satisfaction. On the other hand, the sweet omelette was excellent too. It was just the texture that still cannot beat Sushi Mizutani. But the burnt caramel on top layer was definitely gorgeous. Surely look forward to the next visit at Sushi Tokami. Cheers guys!!!!!!!!!

hand rolled tuna

sweet omelette

miso soup with egg

Sushi Tokami (鮨とかみ) @ Ginza, Tokyo

Floor B1, Ginza Seiwa Silver Building (銀座誠和シルバービル)
8-2-10 Ginza
Chuo-ku
Tokyo 〒104-0061
Japan

Open Hours: Mon-Sat from 12:00pm - 02:30pm for lunch and 05:30pm - 10:00pm for dinner

Tel: +81 (0) 3 3571 6005
Web: http://sushitokami.3zoku.com/

Sushi Omakase by Chef Misaki at Nippon Tei @ Ratchadamri Road, Bangkok - ซูชิ โอมากาเสะ โดย เชฟมิซากิ ร้านนิปปอนเต @ ถนนราชดำริ กรุงเทพฯ

Cuisine: Japanese

Map: Sushi Omakase by Chef Misaki at Nippon Tei @ Ratchadamri Road, Bangkok - ซูชิ โอมากาเสะ โดย เชฟมิซากิ ร้านนิปปอนเต @ ถนนราชดำริ กรุงเทพฯ

Charged Price: THB3,500 per person without alcohol

Visited: 7 August 2015

Food: 8/10

Atmosphere: 6/10

Value for money: 8/10

Services: 9/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]

For years I have been a regular customer of Nippon Tei at Ratchadamri branch. Nippon Tei does offer variety of Japanese dishes which are traditional style: from ramen to donburi to sushi. Just over a year ago, they managed to bring in Chef Misaki to run over the sushi counter. Indeed Misaki San does perform his role pretty well. I do personally like his sushi style. It is comparable to those in Japan. For those who have never been to Nippon Tei, it is pretty easy to access here. If you come via BTS, just drop off Ratchdamri station and Nantawan Building is right there. For those who drive, there are plenty of spaces to park in the building.

Sushi Omakase by Chef Misaki at Nippon Tei

Chef Masahiro Misaki

For the night, sushi omakase course was priced at THB3,000++ and it came with 2 appetisers, 12 pieces of nigiri, 1 hand-roll, omelette, and soup. Apperisers started with uni with seaweed (7/10). It was light and cold. Fresh with tanginess and balanced out with sweetness of uni. The second starter was grilled tuna (8/10). The fillet was from the head part which offered fattiness and tenderness. The lightly burnt aroma was fabulous. It came along with grated turnip.

appetiser 1: uni with seaweed

appetiser 2: grilled tuna (head meat)

From starters, Misaki San then introduced us to lighter style of fish first: i.e. white fish. Just fyi, it is the traditional practice that wasabi would be grated just when needed, which is the practice here too. For rice, there were 2 different kinds in which I believe one of them had been made with red vinegar. If I have to choose a word to describe texture of rice here, it would probably be "al dente".

The first of nigiri was mako garei (marbled flounder) - 真子鰈 (8/10). This marbled flounder is usually best during Summer and it is now towards the end of the season. It was fresh with natural sweetness. The charming point was chewiness but tender texture. Then it was kisu (Japanese whiting or sand borer) - 鱚 (9/10) to follow. Usually, this can be found all year round in Japanese restaurants. However, Summer tends to be the tastiest season for kisu. The texture of kisu was indeed soft and not fatty. It was bittiness too. You may be familiar with kisu from tempura dish. Then barracuda - 梭子魚 (6/10) was followed. This one was lightly torch-burnt before being served. The aroma was a bit like saba. It was so-so for me but surely some may like this kind of sushi. Before moving on to red fillet, Chef Misaki put 2 pieces of pickled turnip for each of us. It was wonderful. A bit of sweetness and sour. Crisp on the bite. It washed out flavour left behind away.

mako garei (marbled flounder) - 真子鰈

kisu (Japanese whiting or sand borer) - 鱚

barracuda - 梭子魚

pickled turnip

Moving on to red fillet which is a fattier range of fish. The 4th nigiri now was akami zuke (marinated red tuna) - 赤身漬け (10/10). It was the highlight of the meal for me. Perfectly well marinated with balance in flavour: sour and saltiness from shoyu with sweetness and complexity from mirin perhaps. It was supremely tender. It would be difficult not to fall in love. In a short time, chutoro (medium fatty tuna) - 中とろ (9/10) was then followed. Excellent character of melt-in-the-mouth. The effect of sour taste cutting through fattiness was fabulous. The last of this fatty range was nodo-guro (rosy sea bass) - 喉黒 (9/10). It was so  similar to toro in term of texture. Natural sweetness was the key. Combining a bit of burnt bouquet, it was one not to be looked over.

akami zuke (marinated red tuna) - 赤身漬け

chutoro (medium fatty tuna) - 中とろ

nodo-guro (rosy sea bass) - 喉黒

fresh rosy sea bass

The 7th nigiri belonged to snow crab - 楚蟹 (7/10). Crab, for me, was the favourite. This one was nice with sharp character of crab. It was just not my kind but still good. Shinko (baby gizzard shad) - 新子 (8/10) was then followed. Shinko is a baby kohada (gizzard shad). Many might not like this kind of marinated sushi but I do. There were 5 little of them in a bite. I like the fact that citrus aroma from lime zest was distinct such that fishiness had been eliminated. By the way, this is the season of shinko. Out of this season, you may only find kohada. Moving on to shell range. It was tairagai (pen shell clam) - 玉珧 (7/10) for the night. The main character was crunchiness. Not much of flavour though it was rather unique. Next was shima aji (white trevally) - しま鯵 (9/10). Who does not like shima aji? I guess it is difficult to hate it. Not an expensive kind of fish but full of flavour and tender texture.

snow crab - 楚蟹

shinko (baby gizzard shad) - 新子

tairagai (pen shell clam) - 玉珧

shima aji (white trevally) - しま鯵

Ten has passed and the 11th belongs to public favourite: ikura (salmon roe) + uni (sea urchin) - いくら + 海胆 (9/10). Creaminess and sweetness to go with crunchy, salty but sweetie salmon roe, it was just like heaven spooning out each bite. Last of nigiri was then anago (sea eel) - 穴子 (7/10). It came with classic nitsume sauce. It was nice but not yet excellent. The only down point bit was texture. I felt that it was a little overcooked.

After a short while, tuna hand-roll (8/10) was handed over to me. The roll was filled with plenty of fatty tuna from neck part. Only if the nori was crisp, this could be a near perfect roll. As usual, the course came to the end with tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) - 卵焼き (8/10). Almost like the texture of those famous in Japan. Creamy and smooth. Sweet but not overwhelming. Custard like texture in fact. Miso soup was then followed as usual.

This was an excellent performance by Misaki San and team in my opinion. Service here has as well been at the top notch, including friendliness of Misaki San himself. It was expensive but worth an experience. Personally, I shall return there from time to time.

ikura (salmon roe) + uni (sea urchin) - いくら + 海胆

 anago (sea eel) - 穴子

tuna hand-roll (neck part)

tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) - 卵焼き

miso soup

Sushi Omakase by Chef Misaki at Nippon Tei @ Ratchadamri Road, Bangkok - ซูชิ โอมากาเสะ โดย เชฟมิซากิ ร้านนิปปอนเต @ ถนนราชดำริ กรุงเทพฯ

Floor B, Nantawan Building
161 Ratchadamri Road
Lumpini, Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330

Thailand

Open Hours: daily from 11:00am - 02:00pm for lunch and 05:00pm - 10:00pm for dinner

Tel: +66 (0) 2252 9438
Web: http://nippontei.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/nippontei

Sushi Cyu (鮨忠) and Carnival Japanese BBQ Restaurant @ All Seasons Place, Bangkok - ซูชิชู แอนด์ คาร์นิวัล @ ออลล์ซีซั่นส์เพลส กรุงเทพฯ

Cuisine: Japanese (sushi / yakiniku)

Map: Sushi Cyu and Carnival Japanese BBQ Restaurant @ All Seasons Place, Bangkok - ซูชิชู แอนด์ คาร์นิวัล @ ออลล์ซีซั่นส์เพลส กรุงเทพฯ

Price: THB2,000 per person without alcohol (what we paid for)

Visited: 23 September2014

Food: 7/10

Atmosphere: 6/10

Value for money: 7/10

Services: 6/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]

Sushi is something that has been in the high popularity in Thailand for quite a period of time. Recently, the trend of sushi omakase, meaning "leave it to the chef for the choice of sushi", has increase its footmarks rapidly for examples Sushi Kanda at Thonglor, Yashin by Tenyuu at Thonglor, Fillets at Portico, and Sushi Ichi at Erawan. Most of them, indeed, come at very high price tag that would cost around THB5,000 per person. I am, personally, not a fan of such "low value for money" fancy thing, apart from when visiting Japan.

Nevertheless, a good friend of mine had visited Sushi Cyu at All Seasons Place and it reminded me to give it a visit and review. I kind of recall that I previously had tried it before but that was many years back and it was not that impressive. However, the story of this visit was different and it was delightful to be more precise. Of course, I made a reservation a few days in advance. When I arrived at the sushi counter, there were around 5 customers during the meal (10 seats counter). Staffs were nice and polite throughout the course and sushi chefs were taking care well of their customers. By the way, there are 2 parts for this restaurant: one is sushi and the other side is Japanese BBQ.

Sushi Cyu (鮨忠)

Sushi Cyu and Carnival @ All Seasons Place, Bangkok

Japanese atmosphere

season for shells

Sanma or Pacific Saury (秋刀魚)

At the time of visit, it was September and September is the season of Sanma. In addition, 2014 is the year Sushi Cyu celebrates its 10th anniversary and they had sanma promotion. It was, hence, just why not. We went straight for both nigiri and sashimi: Sanma (Pacific Saury) - 秋刀魚 (7/10). In short, they were fatty and sweet, and pair pretty lovely with ponzu sauce.

While I usually opt for sushi, with rice to fulfil my appetite, Deadly Bunny would normally chooses to have sashimi. Once again she did miss to go for Omakase Sashimi (7/10). It comprised of 10 different kinds and they were pretty good. A particular attention should be paid to uni or sea urchin for the course. It was creamy, sweet, and fresh: pleasant quality indeed. If uni is not something you dislike, I would see no reason for ones not to like it. I wish the quality would be like this when I next visit.

Sanma Sashimi (THB120)

sanma dipped into ponzu

sanma nigiri (THB120)

Omakase Sashimi (THB1,300)

uni sashimi

For Omakase Nigiri (THB1,580), I would say that this was a rather good one. Knife skill and selection of sushi choice were good. Rice was at enjoyable temperature and texture. Sour taste from mixture of vinegar was balance, I would describe. It was milder than many top sushi places in Japan but at noticeable on palate. Below are what were served for the course in sequence.

Hirame (Flounder) - 平目 (7/10) : Mild and light with additional dimension of chewiness

Hirame (Flounder) - 平目

Aji (Horse Mackerel) - アジ (8/10) : Fatty, tender, and sweet. I just love it.

Aji (Horse Mackerel) - アジ

Koban Aji (Pompano) - 小判鯵 (6/10) : I am sure it was pompano but not sure whether the Japanese name was right. Anyway, I had tried this once a while back and absolutely love it but not so sure where. This time, it was still lovely, medium fatty, and savoury. However, I could still get a bit of fishy scent though.

Koban Aji (Pompano) - 小判鯵

Ikura (salmon roe) - いくら (7/10) : Darker in colour than usual. Sweet with mild natural saltiness. Like it.

Ikura (salmon roe) - いくら

Toro (fatty tuna) - とろ (7/10) : Ok, this was some good toro but not excellent. Flavour from fatty layers did not explode quite well as expected.

Toro (fatty tuna) - とろ

Uni (Sea Urchin) - 海胆 (8/10) : Once again, so good and in line with sashimi one.

Uni (Sea Urchin) - 海胆

Akami (red fillet of tuna) - 赤身 (6/10) : Marinated in mirin + shoyu, I suppose. Good flavour with sweetness balancing saltiness. But texture was too soft.

Akami (red fillet of tuna) - 赤身

Negi-toro Temaki (fatty tuna hand-roll) - ねぎとろ手巻き (7/10) : Delicious minced toro with chopped spring onion. Classic hand-roll definitely.

Negi-toro Temaki (fatty tuna hand-roll) - ねぎとろ手巻き

Anago (Sea Eel) - 穴子 (6/10) - Served with salt and a touch of lemon juice. Good flavour of salt but a little over grilled to my liking: i.e. lack of tenderness.

Anago (Sea Eel) - 穴子

Tamagoyaki (Japanese Omelette) - 卵焼き (7/10) : Good creamy tamagoyaki. Nice sweet palate but not overly sweet. A very good one in Thailand. But don't expect to see the level of those famous joints in Japan.

In short, I do like it and will sure return.

Tamagoyaki (Japanese Omelette) - 卵焼き

miso soup with clam

Sushi Cyu and Carnival Japanese BBQ Restaurant @ All Seasons Place, Bangkok - ซูชิชู แอนด์ คาร์นิวัล @ ออลล์ซีซั่นส์เพลส กรุงเทพฯ
Fl. 3, CRC Tower, All Seasons Place
87 Wireless Road
Lumphini, Pathum Wan
Bangkok 10330

Thailand

Open Hours: daily for lunch 11:30am - 02:00pm and for dinner 06:00pm - 10:30pm (05:30pm - 10:00pm for weekends)

Tel: +66 (0) 2251 1995
Web: http://www.sushicyu.com/