Eating sushi at Tsukiji market, a classic Tokyo adventure. Tsukiji has been the main Tokyo fish market for decades and now is finally slated to move to a new location. I was in Tokyo in September 2018, just days before they would host the last tuna auction open to tourists. I never made it to one of these auctions or in the inner market, just I cannot imagine myself awake at 4am in the morning.
But I did visit several restaurants in the so called outer market, a web of alleys full of sushi restaurants. One of the most famous is Sushi Zanmai. Here’s how a dinner in September 2018 went.
The visit
Sushi Zanmai is a popular sushi chain in Tokyo. The locations in Tsukiji are open 24 hour a day at the time of this post (who knows… things may change now that the market is closing). Statues and posters of the flamboyant owner makes the place easy to spot.
The second distinctive feature of Sushi Zanmai is the incredibly over the top noise made by the cooks to greet every new customer stepping in.
The best is to seat at the counter and order sushi directly from the cook, but they also have table seats.
The restaurant has a focus on tuna, but serves all kind of sushi.
I had one of their tuna sushi sets:
The set consisted of eight nigiri sushi (two with regular sushi, two with fatty tuna, two with medium fatty tuna, and two seared), plus three small rolls (maki) and two battleship rolls (gunkan maki) with minced tuna. I calculated that by ordering the set basically you get the three small rolls for free plus the miso soup.
The miso soup comes in an oversize bowl. It is one of their signature dishes so to speak.
The set was very good, all super fresh. The sushi cook added maybe too much wasabi to the rice for my taste, but it was easy to remove.
I also ordered some deep fried tuna (picture above) and two amberjack nigiri and two tomago nigiri (omelette) to close the dinner (picture below).
The check
Overall I spent 5,045 yen (45 USD). Not cheap, but reasonable for the amount and quality of seafood. Honestly, I find the tuna set offered by Itamae Sushi better value for money (it costs 1000 yen less and the only difference is one fewer piece of fatty tuna replaced by regular tuna and one fewer gunkan roll). Having said so, I looked around and 3000 yen (before 8% tax) seemed to be the standard price for this tuna set in the area.
In general, I am not particularly enthused by the eating options at Tsukiji, but Sushi Zan Mai does the job.
Where in Tokyo:
The location visited is in: 4 Chome-11-9 Tsukiji, Chūō, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
They have several locations in Tokyo: check their website or even better this review.
They have another location equipped with a conveyor belt just next door in an alley.