Unauthorized

This is the only Michelin three-star sushi bar in Japan, and I was eager to compare it to what I consider the greatest master of sushi/sashimi, the Japanese-born chef at New York City’s Masa sushi bar in the Time-Warner Center. Interestingly, Michelin has given more 1, 2, and 3-star ratings to Tokyo’s restaurants than in any other major city in the world, which caused quite a huff in the world’s more traditional restaurant circles. In any event, the choice of this restaurant also seemed controversial, but the extraordinary quality of the fresh fish and the obvious cutting skills of the chefs were clearly on display during my visit. At this luncheon, I drank tea with an assortment of raw fish served essentially sashimi style, occasionally with rice. The freshness and purity were both extraordinary. I did not meet the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro, the 83-year old Jiro Ono, but his son, who runs this restaurant, told me it took him 15 years of apprenticeship to obtain the confidence and necessary skills to cut fish for his master of sushi/sashimi. He also explained how every different fish we ate (probably a dozen or more varieties) was served at a totally different temperature in order to highlight the texture and flavors of each fish.