When my hotel concierge contacted Sushi Takamitsu in November 2017 to assist me with my February 2018 reservation, the restaurant mentioned they only accept reservation for 2 people or more. Like what!?! But luckily I knew someone who would be in Tokyo during the same period as me. And thankfully, she too was interested in checking out Sushi Takamitsu. So with that, my hotel concierge confirmed our reservation with Sushi Takamitsu for weekday dinner.

We were given 9.30pm slot and were informed that the menu was ¥20,000. I was quite surprised it was 9.30pm since I read from Tablelog that their seatings are 6pm and 9pm. Hmm…

I would usually search up the restaurant’s shopfront to help me identify the place easily. However, I forgot to do that prior to my dinner at Sushi Takamitsu. Big mistake… My friend and I agreed to reach the restaurant by 9.15pm in hope to start our dinner earlier. Thus I was in the area by 9pm. But I just couldn’t locate the restaurant’s entrance. After 10 minutes, I concluded Google map must have gotten it wrong by indicating the entrance as facing the main street. I was getting slightly frantic by now because it was nearing 9.15pm. I decided to try my luck by heading to the back of the shophouses. And along the quiet (smaller) street, a particular door stood out. However, I wasn’t sure. There was no sign to indicate it’s the entrance to Sushi Takamitsu. Another 10 minutes slipped by before I plucked up my courage to open the sliding door. And thank goodness it was the restaurant and not someone’s house. Ha.

My friend also faced some difficulty in locating the restaurant but managed to arrive by 9.30pm. So much for us trying to reach earlier. Haha. And since we were pre-informed of the menu, we commenced our ¥20,000 omakase dinner (once we were both seated) with:-

1) Appetiser (above)

2) Dish #1 (above) – Flounder (hirame).

3) Dish #2 (above) – Sea bream.

4) Dish #3 (above) – Flounder fin (engawa).

5) Dish #4 (above) – Smoked radish with mascarpone.

6) Pickle (above) – Burdock with sesame seeds.

7) Dish #5 (above) – Stuffed octopus.

8) Pickle (above) – Radish.

9) Dish #6 (above) – Squid.

10) Dish #7 (above) – Lightly charred big-eye snapper (kinmedai).

11) Dish #8 (above) – Steamed hairy crab.

12) Dish #9 (above) – Gizzard shad (kohada).

13) Pickle (above)

  

14) Dish #10 (above) – Steamed abalone, served with sauce made with its liver and sea urchin. We were also each given a ball of sushi rice (shari) to clean up the remaining sauce. Yum!

15) Dish #11 (above) – Blowfish (fugu) milt with sushi rice. And we were cautioned to be careful as it might be hot.

16) Pickle (above)

Halfway through our meal, chef-owner Takamitsu Yasuda took out a slab of tuna much to our delight. And he continued to place it proudly on his Louis Vuitton (LV) luggage which received more “whoa” and “ahhh” from us. Haha. And yes, I read that chef Takamitsu san is a big LV lover. It was amazing to personally see his LV luggages used as display counters. So cute! The expensive tuna just got more expensive being placed on LV. Keke.

17) Dish #12 (above) – Baby white anchovy (shirauo) with sea urchin.

18) Dish #13 (above) – Steamed egg (chawanmushi) with dried sea cucumber ovary.

19) Dish #14 (above) – Marinated tuna.

20) Dish #15 (above) – Medium fatty tuna (chutoro).

21) Dish #16 (above) – Monkfish liver (ankimo) and pickled gourd (kanpyō).

22) Dish #17 (above) – Premium fatty tuna (otoro).

23) Dish #18 (above) – Baby leek with miso.

24) Dish #19 (above) – Tiger prawn (kuruma-ebi).

25) Dish #20 (above) – Mullet roe (karasumi) and grilled rice cake (mochi). Such an interesting combination; A little salty, a little sticky. And very nice!

26) Dish #21 (above) – Belt fish (tachiuo).

27) Dish #22 (above) – Mackerel (saba) topped with kelp (kombu).

28) Dish #23 (above) – Leather jacket fish (kawahagi) with liver and spring onion beneath.

29) Pickle (above)

Such a beautiful sight. When I first saw pictures of the sea urchin galore on instagram, I knew I had to visit Takamistsu. The many types of sea urchin offered at Sushi Takamitsu was simply amazing! In fact, the 9 types offered during our meal was nowhere close to the 12 to 15 types he usually showcased. So I guess it’s luck if one could see some or many sea urchin types.

30) Dish #24 (above) – Sea urchin.

31) Dish #25 (above) – Sea urchin.

32) Dish #26 (above) – Seawater eel (anago) with salt.

33) Dish #27 (above) – Rolled egg omelette (tamago) made with wasenbon.

It was a fun and enjoyable dinner; Food was great, atmosphere was chilled and relaxed, and chef Takamitsu san was friendly. I noticed chef Takamitsu san using a really fancy glassware for his soy sauce cruet. It looked like the trophy which actors/actresses receive during award ceremony. I couldn’t help but nudged my friend to take a look too. Chef Takamitsu san caught on, brought it closer to us and tilted it slightly for us to see the bottom. And wow, Baccarat vase!

So while chef Takamitsu san couldn’t speak much English, I was glad we managed to interact with him since my friend could speak some Japanese and chef Takamitsu san had a westerner working in his kitchen who would come to the front and introduce some of the dishes on his behalf.

And it’s a pity we didn’t have time to order additional dishes when our meal came to the end. I was rushing to get onto the last train. Sigh. Else, I would have loved to order additional sea urchin nigiri sushi and his pressed mackerel stick sushi.

Would I recommend Sushi Takamitsu? I definitely would! But one shouldn’t just come for his sea urchin galore. Chef Takamitsu san had so much more to offer. Just like his fine taste in Louis Vuitton and Baccarat, he only used high-quality ingredients. An example would be the tuna which he gets from Yamayuki, the tuna broker at Tsukiji Market. And as an affirmation that he’s doing it right, Takamitsu has also joined the Michelin ranks. On 27 November 2018, Sushi Takamitsu was awarded 1 Michelin star by Michelin Guide Tokyo 2019.

And if one went, do let me know if chef Takamitsu san resembled the cartoon character Squidward Tentacles from SpongeBob SquarePants. I am also curious to know if I am the only one who thought so. Keke

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