Wednesday 17 February 2010

Sushi Iwa - Ginza Tokyo

As I mentioned earlier Sushi Iwa was quite the experience. The whole restaurant is tiny and probably only seats 10 at a counter where the sushi maestro, Hisayoshi Iwa, does his magic. We arrived at about 10pm and were the only customers. Most restaurants finish early by Australian standards so it was no real surprise to not see any other customers but we didn't think we have a whole restaurant to ourselves. The sushi was divine Hisayoshi just kept serving it up. Dish after exquisite dish. He asked if there was anything we couldn't eat and we said no. Maybe we should have thought about that before we got a couple of dishes where the flesh was still twitching - tiger prawn sushi and a piece of cockle. Still, it wasn't too bad.
After an hour or so there didn't look to be an end in sight so we signalled that we were full and for Hisayoshi to suggest a final couple of morsals. The finale was sea urchin roe. During the feast we had a couple of jugs of saki - one served cold and one served hot. Sake is awesome and has as much variety in taste as wine. We love it.
I shouldn't mention the cost of this little piece of performance art and feast. Not in dollars anyway. 49,000 Yen. Ouch. Don't tell mum and dad. ;-)
Sushi Iwa is a Michelin 1 star restaurant.

Update: March 2013. We came to Sushi Iwa again in March 2013 (click link for details). Unfortunately if you're looking for Iwa he has moved on. Then restaurant now has a new owner and chef. It is now called Sushiya. It is still excellent though.

 Update: As someone kindly commented below Sushi Iwa still exists but moved to a new location:
Address
8-5-25 Ginza, Chuo-ku
TEL
03-3572-0955








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9 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 May 2010 at 06:59

    Does Iwa accommodate non-Japanese speakers? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. shane12 May 2010 at 14:36

    Absolutely. You can get by with little or no Japanese. However Iwa does speak a little English.
    Having said that though a good Japanese word to learn is "Omakase". It means "chef's choice" so the chef can choose for you the dishes that he thinks are the best. Sometimes just saying "course" means they will give you a set menu, which makes it very easy when you have no idea what to order.

    ReplyDelete
  3. M.1 January 2011 at 22:10

    Hi Shane, is the 49,000 for 1 person??

    ReplyDelete
  4. shane1 January 2011 at 23:41

    It was 49000 for both of us and we did eat a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5 July 2012 at 01:59

    we had lunch last month at Iwa. we went for omakase for the sushi and drank 3 beers.
    we paid 19000 yen for two.
    lunch is always cheaper!

    ReplyDelete
  6. shane3 November 2012 at 01:35

    Yeah, lunches are always cheaper. We went to lunch at Joel Robuchon for exactly that reason.

    I'd definitely go back to Iwa though. Two lunches instead of one dinner sounds good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous30 May 2013 at 02:03

    Sushi Iwa still exists but moved to a new location:
    Address
    8-5-25 Ginza, Chuo-ku

    TEL
    03-3572-0955

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. shane5 November 2013 at 17:23

      Thanks for that. I will definitely look up Sushi Iwa the next time I go to Tokyo.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous17 February 2014 at 00:18

    Iwa still exist. Same spot, though not easy to find if you cant read Japanese. Had dinner there today. Great value for Tokyo. And yes, English is spoken. I called them up to book before arriving. And they take Mastercard.

    ReplyDelete

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