I was escorted to this restaurant by a friend during a visit in Tokyo in June 2018 and we had an excellent dinner. If you like uni (sea urchin) this is a great place. Uni has become a fashion for fine dining establishments. It is difficult to find any upscale restaurant that ignores it nowadays. I even had a burger with uni once in Hong Kong! It is a fancy ingredient. But to taste the real deal you need to be in Japan. Hokkaido is perfect, but Tokyo is supplied with all the uni you might ever fancy.
The visit
The place, located in the so called Tsukiji outer market, specializes in sea urchin. At the entrance they have a sign indicating from which regions in Hokkaido they have fresh uni available for the day. The sea urchin from different regions varies greatly in taste and texture.
This is a casual place. We were escorted in a air-conditioned room with counter seats and we were promptly handed wet towels and an appetizer. This is the kind of compulsory appetizer you get in some Japanese restaurants to justify the cover charge (better than in other restaurants where the cover charge is levied with nothing in return; worse than in those restaurants that do not ask you for this… Japan is not consistent).
The appetizer was smoked duck meat and uni. I must say it was delicious, a very creative and thoughtful combination. Worth the 500 yen I guess.
Their signature dish is a rice bowl (donburi) with five varieties of uni that may change daily.
The picture above shows the varieties that were available for the day.
And this was the majestic bowl with uni. I could taste the different textures and slightly different levels of sweetness in the different types of uni. A very delicious dish. The dish also came with a piece of nori (dried seaweed) that could be used to prepare a hand roll filled with rice and uni of course; a couple of pieces of cucumber, some shreds of nori and a couple of pieces of pickles were also provided to help modulate the flavor. Personally I did not add any soy sauce, I just wanted to enjoy the original unadulterated flavor.
I also made sure to order some tuna sashimi, two pieces of medium fatty tuna (my favorite) and two pieces of regular lean tuna. This was some of the best tuna sashimi I ever had: fresh, big meaty pieces and absolutely tasty. Worth the hefty price tag.
The check
We spent around 8,000 yen each (around 71 USD). That’s not a cheap meal by any standard, but fresh uni is expensive and the prices were in line with other establishments. I would say that the sashimi was also not absurdly priced given the size of the pieces. Actually, I might go back just to eat sashimi next time.
It is not clear what will happen to this part of Tokyo now that the Tsukiji market is relocating for good, but I am pretty sure these restaurants will stand, at least in the short term.
Where in Tokyo:
Tsukiji Itadori Uni Tora Naka-dori Branch
1F, Kaneshin Suisan Bldg., 4-10-5, Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Restaurant information in Japanese.
At the moment open daily from 7am to 11pm (last order by 10pm).