restaurant review: sushisho masa in tokyo - best sushi i've ever had!

(Tokyo, Japan).

The chef's selection of the day's catch.

I absolutely love sushi and I've been lucky to try a lot of great sushi places.  Some places I've been to before and enjoyed include Urasawa, Hama Sushi (in Little Tokyo), Sushi Gen, Sugarfish, Nozawa Bar, Nobu, Matsuhisa and Echigo in Los Angeles; Sushi Yasuda and Jewel Bako in New York; and Sukiyabashi Jiro in Roppongi Hills ... However in my recent trip to Tokyo, the place that rose above them all was Sushisho Masa in Tokyo.  

 

Sushisho Masa is at B1 - there's no english sign.

It's a tiny, nondescript little basement restaurant, but the chef, staff, food and overall experience were divine.  The sushi I tasted there was not only fresh (which one would expect in any high-end sushi restaurant in Japan), but the flavors and presentation by this chef was surprisingly unique and artistic.  It was definitely the best sushi experience I've ever had in my life.  Ruth Reichl (former NY Times food critic) wrote an amazing blog about it (see here), and her enthusiastic review was one of the reasons I wanted to try out this place.  You need to book at least a month in advance and I had our hotel concierge book for us.

The restaurant only sits about six people but the night we were there, there was only one other couple who arrived about 30 minutes after we began our amazing omakase (chef's choice).  The chef seemed pleased that we were willing to try everything and had large appetites - so much so that I think he gave us over 30 pieces of sushi!  At some point, I had to admit defeat and the chef seemed almost sad.  Anyways, I wish I could describe each piece but alas words fail me.  However, I can say there were flavors that I had never truly experienced before - and that's saying a lot given how much I've eaten in my life.  The chef was also lovely and funny, and his staff was ultra-attentive.  Below is a picture show of my meal - hope you enjoy!  

The meal was probably around $200 USD per person with 2 carafes of sake.  Actually much more affordable than Jiro (of the I Dream of Sushi fame), and arguably better.  (It's actually really hard to get reservations to Jiro - we had to use a personal contact who knew Jiro personally in order to get reservations - so if you can't get into Jiro, you can still get world-class sushi by coming to Sushisho Masa.)