Ever since my first visit to Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera in Tokyo, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
So naturally, when I returned to Japan earlier this month, I was dead set on paying the restaurant a visit again (or as it turned out eventually, three). This time, I checked out the Kyoto location, which is newer than the Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera in Ometesando, Tokyo.
If you’re too lazy to read my previous review, I’ll TL:DR it for you. Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera serves world-class sushi delivered by conveyor belt at a fraction of the price of an omakase. Take it from someone who has been to Sukayabashi Jiro and Sushi Yoshitake, three-Michelin-starred starred-restaurants, and has worked in the Japanese food industry. I know my sushi.
Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera Kyoto vs. Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera Tokyo
The layout of the Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera Kyoto is slightly different than it is in Tokyo. Instead of the chefs in the middle of the restaurant making sushi, they are in the back of the room with about 20 chairs on each side of a long bar stretching toward the entrance and the sushi is delivered by conveyor belt.
Although you don’t have the enjoyable experience of watching the chefs clean and prep the fish, every so often, they ring a bell and announce a specialty that they then walk around the restaurant with. A message appears on the screen of all the tablets, prompting you to order it, and most of the time, you find yourself giving into the pressure!
In Kyoto, there’s also not the omakase-style bar option that exists in Tokyo. It’s conveyor belt only. However, the quality does not dip whatsoever compared to Tokyo, and some pieces of sushi I found to be even more delicious than what I ate in Tokyo.
Perhaps it was because I was in Japan at a quieter time of year (January instead of November), but while I had to wait for hours during one of my visits to the Tokyo store, I didn’t have to wait any of the times I went to the Kyoto branch (twice for lunch and once for dinner on Wednesday through Friday), and there were always seats available for diners who walked in.
Eating sushi from a $788,440 bluefin tuna
When I sat down and started flicking through the tablet that you use to order, I noticed that under the bluefin tuna section, there was only one option for akami (lean) and chu-toro (medium fatty), a set that came with one piece of each for Yen 1,010 ($6.82). Usually, you have the option to order just one or the other, so that was the first thing that I found to be a bit strange. The second odd thing was that each diner was limited to ordering just one. “The kitchen must be about to run out of tuna!” I thought, and quickly ordered it, after which point I was not allowed to tap on it again to order.
The pieces quickly arrived and were incredible. Full of deep, rich flavors and wonderfully textured. Not mealy or stringy but soft and fluffy, and paired perfectly with the earthy sourness of the red vinegared rice. I also feasted on abalone, ark shell, gizzard shad, sea urchin, sardine, salmon row, sea bream, cornetfish, baby yellowtail, mackerel, surf clam, and more. All were just out of this world.
When I paid my bill, I asked the server why the tuna was limited to one order per person. He smiled, held up a finger excitedly, and started typing something into Google Translate on his phone. He tapped away for a few minutes and then showed me his phone with a proud look on his face.
The paragraph that he’d written explained that the Sushi Ginza Onodera restaurant group had won the first bluefin tuna auction of the year and to allow all the customers to enjoy such a rare and expensive fish, orders were limited to one per person. The company had paid Yen 114,200,000 ($788,440) for a 525-pound bluefin tuna caught off of the Aomori Prefecture in Northern Honshu, its fourth win in a row of the yearly auction which is considered to portend good luck. Bluefin tuna that swim through the Tsugaru Channel, separating Honshu from Hokkaido, is considered to be the best quality tuna in the world, and are referred to in Japan as “black diamonds.”
I almost fell over. For years, I’ve followed the first tuna auction of the year but never dreamed that I would have the possibility of eating the winning fish. I even knew that Sushi Ginza Onodera had won the 2024 auction, but it wasn’t even in the back of my mind that they would have allotted some of the precious fish to their kaiten sushi locations, and that they would quickly ship it to their omakase locations across the world that command upwards of $300 per dinner, but I was overjoyed to be proven wrong.
While the first tuna auction of the year is a publicity stunt and the price is inflated for the occasion, there’s no denying that it is the best fish available that day. I’ve eaten a lot of expensive food over the years, but nothing compares to this. Caviar and truffles pale in comparison to the value of the slices of tuna that I consumed. Because it’s done largely for publicity, the company makes the fish available for a reasonable amount to its diners and at just under $3.50 per piece, you can only imagine how much the restaurant is losing on food cost!
In general, as said before, the prices are incredibly reasonable. Check out the sea urchin menu which offers purple uni from Hokkaido at just Yen 1,000 ($6.75) which includes tax and service.
The bottom line
After three days in a row eating at Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera, I decided it was time for a true omakase. I ate at Gion Sushi Nakamura and I’ll do a review of that later, but suffice it to say that Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera was simply better quality at a lower price. The place is simply incredible and should not be missed if you are in Kyoto or Tokyo, even if you are not in town around the time of the year’s first tuna auction.
As I paid my bill, the waiter gave me a certificate which showed that I’d eaten the special fish. Let me know in the comments if you know what it says!
