Editor's note: in early 2014 the restaurant moved to a new address, given above. It is still tiny, with eight seats, but there is now a waiting room.
Takashi Saito is the chef/owner of Sushi Saito, a restaurant located inside a car park, yet with three Michelin stars. At the time of writing it is the highest rated sushi restaurant in Tokyo on Tabelog, the kanji-only Japanese restaurant guide, which is a sort of constantly updated version of Zagat. Mr Saito trained principally at Kyubei before striking out on his own. The restaurant is tiny, seating either seven or eight people at full capacity along the little counter. It is in a surreal location. Opposite the American embassy is a multi-storey car park; you enter the car park up the ramp, and on the right is a little door. Behind this is a red curtain, the threshold to Sushi Saito. The chef applies freshly grated wasabi, soy or lemon to each piece of sushi as appropriate; the only condiment that the diners have is pickled ginger, which had terrific flavour
At lunch you can choose from sushi menus of 10, 15 or 18 pieces, or opt for the dinner menu, which goes beyond purely sushi. We tried the 15 piece menu today. The meal began with red snapper, then iroeti (there didn't seem to be an English translation). Shad has a taste reminiscent of sardine, and was excellent.
Next came the traditional trio of tuna: maguro, chu-toro and otoro, which were velvety smooth in texture and tasted superb. Squid sushi is remarkable here, as tender as I remembered it from the first visit. A cooked prawn was followed by baby shrimp sushi, both excellent, the baby shrimp a little taste of the sea. Bonito was magnificent, the best I have tried, followed by lovely sweet baby scallops in a seaweed roll. There are two types of uni (sea urchin) served here, one quite sweet, one more briny, both top drawer. Eel was served with and without sauce. The sequence concluded with rolls of a Japanese vegetable which had no English translation.
Mr Saito speaks quite good English and is very friendly, chatting and joking with the customers. There is no sense of hushed formality, the atmosphere very relaxed. The bill at lunch, with water only to drink, came to ¥10,500 (£69), so not only is it the best sushi in Tokyo, it is the cheapest of the top places.
Further reviews: 19th Apr 2017 | 01st Oct 2010
Ian
I believe that this chefs absolutely deserve the most stars as possible, they cook to perfection. Cook not necessarily needs temperature, its about understanding and matching and manipulating ingredients. Best meals of my life was at sushi sho in yetsuya and sawada, unfortunate i didnt get a table at saito, but one day i will.
Ian Westcott
This is the "gold Standard" for sushi. His new venue opened February 1st. Very pleasant small setting bar with 8 places with Saito-san there doing all the preparation. Day before we at 3 star sushi restaurant, Mizutani where the produce was impeccable but very traditional both in the reserved service and the lack of any condiments other than fresh wasabi root, ginger and soy. Whereas Saito uses very subtle additions to his sushi, very fine zest of lemon or lime, fine salt, a spring onion and ginger puree etc, He also briefly pre marinates some fish pieces in a very light soy sauce mix. The rice is exquisite and used sparingly in the sushi pieces so fish take centre stage. Service of tea was most attentive and was a fresh brewed mug each time. Meal started with a delicious seaweed salad and finished with a miso soup. As Andy so rightly states this is the best sushi and is half the price of the other top places. The regulars who dined with us booked there next meal before departing so this is a hard table to wine a place at. However persist until you get there.
Sam
I don't think it's necessarily fair to not give a restaurant a higher score because there is no cooking involved. If running a 3 star sushi restaurant was really just a matter of good "shopping" and "cutting", wouldn't there be dozens of more sushi restaurants of equal quality?
Jen
how do i get a booking here??