Tokyo 2009: Sushi Saito
Posted on: January 15, 2010
- In: Food | Japanese | Reviews
- 23 Comments
Sushi Saito is a Michelin 3 star sushi restaurant and it is the best sushi that I’ve ever had in my life.
You can really feel the quality and effort put into each piece of sushi. Each piece of sushi holds together as you pick it up but yet crumbles away in your mouth.
The rice is prepared with red vinegar and it is served at just the right temperature. There is this sublime taste to the rice and you can feel the warmth in each and every grain. I guess there’s a reason why it got 3 Michelin stars 😀
Now I understand why the top sushi chefs have to spend many years just learning how to make the sushi rice.
Sushi Saito is a rather intimate place, with only 7 seats and I had to make a reservation about 4 months in advance in order to get a suitable date. The good thing is that chef Saito gets to give his full attention to you.
Closer look at the chef’s working space. The pots on the left are the sauces for the sushi which he applies at the end. You can see that he is leaving some maguro out to warm up to the right temperature.
There is a wet pad on the right for you to clean your fingers if you want to use your hands to eat the sushi.
Here is the man himself, chef Saito-san. He’s a really nice guy and can speak some English.
Green tea was my drink of choice. It had a rather intense taste to it.
1st course: Hirame
Flounder
2nd course: Tai
Sea bream
3rd course: Kohada
Gizzard shad
4th course: Akami
Lean tuna meat
5th course: Chutoro
Medium fatty tuna belly
6th course: Otoro
Very fatty tuna belly. Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. 😀
7th course: Sumi ika
Squid
8th course: Shiro ebi
Baby white shrimp
9th course: Kuruma ebi
Tiger prawn. The best and biggest prawn I have ever eaten.
10th course: Torigai
Large cockle
11th course: Aji
Horse mackerel with ground aoba on top.
12th course: Katsuo
Bonito with ground ginger on top.
13th course: Akagai
Ark shell
14th course: Ezo bafun uni
Bright and rich orange colour uni from Hokkaido. Sweet and creamy taste that melts in your mouth.
15th course: Kita murasaki uni
Pale yellowish colour, with a subtle but firm taste.
16 & 17th course: Anago (nitsume & shio)
Conger eel, done in sweet eel sauce and sea salt style.
鮨さいとう (Sushi Saito)
1-9-15 Akasaka, Minato-ku
23 Responses to "Tokyo 2009: Sushi Saito"
July 27, 2010 at 2:01 am
I am also going to Tokyo in October and doing my food research now. 🙂
Sushi Saito sounds like an awesome place. 10K Yen for lunch is not cheap either, especially when I’m trying to fit in a few other Michelin-starred places as well (fingers crossed!!).
I read from another blog that there is a 5500 Yen lunch course for 10 sushi, 1 miso soup and 1 hand roll. If this is true, I might settle for this as it’s easier on the wallet.
July 27, 2010 at 11:14 am
Yes that might be possible, you can probably call ahead now to ask what menus they have. Have you considered Sushi Kanesaka as well? I hear it’s quite a good place.
July 28, 2010 at 9:17 pm
I literally just tried calling to make a booking for this restaurant and spoke to someone who wasn’t very good with english. I think they told me to make a booking via a concierge??
Is there a better method to making a booking?
Do I need to find a translator?
July 28, 2010 at 11:06 pm
hi karla, you can consider calling a few times, maybe the person who picked up your call wasn’t good in English, so another time you might be lucky and the person who picks up can speak better English.
otherwise you have to get someone who can speak Japanese to make the booking for you, or follow their suggestion – get your (Tokyo) hotel concierge act as translator and make the booking for you
and for that you would have to book a hotel which is decent enough to have English-speaking counter staff
October 16, 2010 at 7:51 am
I went to Sushi Saito and to Sushi Kanesaka, both astonishing!
I’m still in Tokyo, I’ll write a better report to you when I get back home in a few days.
Best regards,
Fabio
October 16, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Sounds great and I’m looking forward to your report!! 😀
I was at Sushi Saito in October too! Amazing sushi and Saito-san was very friendly. Hoping to return this year 🙂
October 19, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Thx for the great report!
We’ve just got the reservation for Saito via a friend. Are we able to manage the dinner on our own not really knowing japanese at all? Did hear that some of the other top masters such as Sushi Mizutani are not too happy with foreign customers at all. Of course we want to make sure that we pay him the full respect. Maybe you want to join us on my account?
October 19, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Hi, thanks for your offer but unfortunately I do not live in Tokyo so I can’t take you up on it. Have no worries about not knowing any Japanese as chef Saito can speak some English and he is a very friendly person. So please don’t worry and enjoy your meal there! 😀
October 20, 2010 at 5:42 am
Thx for your quick response that helps us a lot! Pity you can’t join us – will be actually in the beginning of Nov.
Anyway hopefully we might join for a meal some other time! Appreciated
best
André
January 3, 2011 at 9:32 am
I am working on my food search for great sushi places in Tokyo (cheap or pricey does not matter as long as it’s the tastier, the best done). Your post is very helpful. My question to you: I know you loved Sushi Saito, but how would you compare it to Mizutani, Sawada, Sukiyabashi Jiro, Masa? Thanks
January 3, 2011 at 11:28 am
Hi Lloyd, I’ll be honest and say that I’d not had the chance to try the other sushiyas that you listed down so my answer is also subjective to what I’ve read online. However based on my research, if money was no object, the best would be Sawada, followed by Jiro, then Mizutani.
However one thing to note is at that the top level, I’ve noticed the differences between the places are marked by the diner’s preference in sushi rice, which as you know is the most important part of sushi. E.g. Sawada tends to be a little bit drier and inconsistent while Jiro is near perfect, Mizutani uses red vinegar, etc.
I highly recommend checking out the Tokyo forum on Chowhound, lots of good and useful information there! I hope this has been useful to you.
January 3, 2011 at 11:17 am
[…] Tokyo 2009: Sushi Saito January 2010 13 comments 4 […]
September 24, 2011 at 11:40 am
[…] I was in Tokyo. This is exactly the same situation when I booked for the Michelin 3 star restaurant Sushi Saito a few years […]
September 17, 2012 at 10:52 am
Hello! My husband and I are traveling to Tokyo in late-October, and would like to visit Sushi Saito for lunch. About how long did the lunch course take?
Thank you!
September 17, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Hi Pam, unfortunately mine was a dinner course but I should think that the lunch will last around 1-1.5 hours.
April 14, 2013 at 12:12 pm
[…] So I wasn’t really interested in comparing Shinji to the other establishments such as Aoki, Tatsuya, etc. I had something else in mind – comparing Shinji to Sushi Saito. If you haven’t heard of Saito before, it’s a 3-star Michelin sushi restaurant in Tokyo which I reviewed here. […]
August 13, 2013 at 7:33 pm
[…] This is usually the way most sushi courses end, with anago (conger eel). Most of the time you just get the one in nitsume style but something you get in 2 styles like I did at Sushi Saito. […]
The Dirty Stall 
May 26, 2010 at 8:25 am
Loved the pictures!
I’m going to Tokyo in october with a friend and we’re considering going to Sushi Saito. So do you think that making a reservation in June would be a safer choice?
Did you make the reservation by phone (in japanese or english?)? Thanks,
Fabio
May 26, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Thanks for the compliments Fabio. Yes reserving in June would be a good idea, and it can be done by phone. The person I spoke to could speak some English, enough to make a reservation. It would help if you knew some basic Japanese of course.
Dinner course is expensive – 21,000 yen. You might want to consider the lunch course which is 10,000 yen cheaper. I also would like to suggest Sushi Kanesaka as another possible place that you might want to try.
May 29, 2010 at 8:08 am
Thanks for the reply. I read about Sushi Kanesaka as well; depending on my budget, I’ll try to do both!
I’ll give you some feedback after the holidays.
May 29, 2010 at 9:33 am
Sounds like you’ve done a lot of research! I hope you have a great time eating in Tokyo then, that place is full of delicious food 😀