Sushigin (すし銀), Roppongi (Azabu Juban)

Tokyo will surprise you every time – there’s always something hidden away, even without resorting to secluded areas or invitation-only restaurants. We went to Juban specifically looking for something new, and since the really delicious-smelling giraffe curry place is takeout only, we had to keep looking. Much faffing around with French and Italian places later, we ended up settling on sushi next to French.

Downstairs and through opaque doors, Sushigin isn’t super-inviting. Based on the inside appearance, the look of the counter and chefs, and the quality of the food, I’d have to guess that this is one of those places that’s open at lunch mainly to make a buck by providing some food while they’re getting ready for dinner. There weren’t any other customers.

Lunch sets were Y1500 (plus some mystery charges that I think made the total bill Y3400 for two) and were either chirashi or nigiri sets. Chirashi was not the ‘chopped’ chirashi that I like, with lots of little pieces of things placed, nay, scattered over the rice – it was more like a kaisen don, with whole slices of everything filling the top half of the bowl. Fortunately I ordered the nigiri, which was 7 pieces (including good quality items and not a bunch of bintoro) plus a few slices of egg, plus pickles, plus soup, plus a whole tekkamaki. Tolerable value, and it came with a 20%-off coupon, so maybe we’ll try it again. Not for dinner, since it looks like it could be painful.

Fish heads, fish heads,
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