Tsukiji Market (築地市場）is a wholesale fish market on the outskirts of Tokyo that provides the freshest fish to the city’s best sushi restaurants (even Jiro’s!). It’s always been one of the top tourist destinations in Tokyo, but I’ve always managed to miss the opportunity to go. So this time I looked up the schedule, set my alarm clock for 4, and even went to bed hungry to prepare myself for the deliciousness that would await me at the market.
I awoke to a sunny morning that seemed just a bit too bright for 4am and scrambled for my phone. Apparently I had set my alarm for 4PM instead of 4AM (perhaps my unconscious wanted to sleep in a bit more), and it was already too late for us to get to the tuna auction. Since it was still only 6AM, we decided to still make the trek out to try our luck at Sushi Dai(寿司大）, rumored to be one of the best places for a sushi set in Tsukiji.
We got there around 6:30AM and there was already a line around the corner for Sushi Dai. The restaurant is extremely small with only 10 seats, but the line didn’t seem that long at first and we decided to wait. Little did we know that it would take us 3.5 HOURS to finally get inside!
As we waited we saw all the fish market vendors zoom by with amazing speed and obstacle avoidance skills on these things. They looked like accidents waiting to happen and didn’t seem to try too hard at avoiding annoying tourists.
Bryan got hungry after 2.5 hours and decided to grab a onigiri (rice ball) from the convenience store nearby. I asked him to hide it when the waitress came out to take out orders as it might have been considered blasphemous to eat crappy food before sushi.
While we were waiting, the waitress came out and asked us for our selection and whether there’s anything we don’t eat. There are only 2 omakase (a set where the chef decides what you eat) menus to choose from, a 7 piece set for 2500 yen and a 10 piece set for 3900 yen. The set also comes with miso soup and an extra piece of sushi of your choice.
After 3.5 hours of waiting, 30 minutes of which is spent looking through the glass watching other people eat, I’m pretty sure anything would taste like heaven. When we finally sat down, I could barely contain my excitement! We were greeted warmly by the master chef who also apologized for the long wait.
He then rewarded our wait by starting with a generous piece of otoro（大トロ）, straight from the fatty belly of the blue fin tuna. I’m sorry, I know this is on the endangered fish list, but I could not possibly walk into a traditional sushi restaurant and refuse otoro!
Next up is egg omelet（たまご）. This is usually served as a topping with sushi rice at many Japanese restaurants. I was surprised because it was served warm instead of cold, and it was a bit sweet for my taste.
I think this is the sea bass (鱸／スズキ). We were told to eat it in one bite and not dip it in soy sauce.
I believe this one is the red snapper（金目鯛）
I ate the sea urchin (ウニ/海胆) ! So very proud of myself 🙂 And yes, fresh sea urchin IS very good.
We got some rolls next, which the chef also offered to exchange for another piece of sushi if we wanted.
This is chu-toro（中トロ）, or tuna. At a typical Japanese restaurant when you order tuna or maguro, you’ll get akemi, which is the leaner meat on the side of the fish. The best part of the fish is otoro, which is the fattiest part from the belly. Then there’s toro and chu-toro, which are somewhere in between in terms of fattiness and tastiness. So it ranks like this: otoro > toro > chu-toro > akemi (maguro). More info here.
This is surf clam (ホッキ貝），which was still moving when it arrived in front of us…
Salmon roe（いくら）.
OK, at this point I think I stopped paying attention to fish names so I could totally be making stuff up from here forward. This could be anything…
I think this one is the Spanish mackerel（鰆／さわら）.
Pacific saury（秋刀鱼）。
Conger eel（アナゴ）.
After we received all 10 pieces, we got to choose our extra piece off of the menu. Since we got to choose anything we wanted, I went for another piece of the fatty tuna, which is really the only thing that’s better than 1 piece of amazing fatty tuna. And since Bryan was already full (I told him to hold off and not eat the rice ball!), I got to eat his extra piece too, and got the botan shrimp（ボタンエビ）:D
Ten pieces of fish didn’t sound like much but we were absolutely stuffed. So we decided to take a walk through the actual Tsukiji market instead. We missed the early morning tuna auction and the busy time for the actual operations of the market already ended by 9am, so it was pretty empty already.
Did you know fish eggs look like zis? And aren’t you glad I showed this after all the amazing sushi pictures?
I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with the almost empty fish market, and being a non-foodie, I’m not sure if I would ever again wait in line 3.5 hours for sushi (or any other food). But if you ever have a craving for sushi at 4 in the morning and happens to be around the Tokyo vicinity, I highly suggest a visit to Sushi Dai 🙂
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