Tsukiji Market is like the Sotherby’s of seafood. It’s where the highest quality fish comes to be auctioned off to the top sushi restaurants not just in Japan, but all over the world. If you are a foodie, you have likely heard that a pilgrimage to Tsukiji Market one morning belongs on your Tokyo itinerary.
Beyond that, most people seem a little unsure exactly what to do at the world’s premier market for fish. Obviously, it somewhat depends what your interests are. I’ll tell you how I prefer to attack it but first I want to dispel two myths that seem to confuse most first timers.
Tsukiji Myth One: You need to get there in the wee hours of the morning
You’ll hear a lot of stories of people arriving Tsukiji at the crack of dawn (or earlier) and may be wondering whether you need to do the same. There is only one reason a pre-dawn arrival is necessary – if you want to watch the Tuna auction. which occurs between five and six am every morning. To be one of the 120 people are allowed to observe you need to arrive by 3 to get your ticket.
If seeing people bid on fish in a warehouse before the sun rises is your thing by all means go for it. Personally I’m more interested in catching a few more hours or sleep seeing the tuna a few hours later on a lump of vingeared rice. And if all you want to do is eat the markets bounty, there is no reason to pull an all-nighter. Most of the vendors in the outer market (the retail section of Tsukiji) are open until 2pm. So you can feel free to arrive at a normal breakfast or even lunch hour and get your fill of fresh fish.
Tsukiji Myth Two: You need to eat at Sushi Dai because it’s “the best”
Sushi Dai is by far the most popular sushi restaurant in the outer market. Maybe you’ve seen your friends boasting on Instagram about how they waited four hours in line to eat here. Which may have you wondering whether you too should spend four hours of your life waiting to eat a dozen pieces of sushi.
In my opinion, there is one type of person who eats at Sushi Dai: a person who likes telling people they waited in line four hours for something. Full disclosure, I have not eaten at Sushi Dai. I am not that type of person. You may say “but Jay, I thought you were willing to do anything to try the best foods in the world.” I am. But here are a few facts I believe justify skipping Dai:
- No sushi connoisseur or publication of repute has ever claimed that Sushi Dai is the best or even among the best sushi restaurants in Tokyo. Which means you can have better sushi somewhere else in the same city without the wait.
- When you walk past the line for Sushi Dai you will notice something missing: Japanese people. The fact locals do not wait in this line should be a major tip off that it might be overhyped.
- I have no doubt the Sushi Dai serves excellent sushi at a very good price. But do you know who else serves incredible sushi at a great price? Nearly every other restaurant within 100 yards of Sushi Dai. They’re all buying it from the same market and offering similar or perhaps even more interesting omakases (chef’s choices.) I have never failed to have an amazing experience at any of the outer market restaurants I tried and never waited more than half an hour for the pleasure.
So how do I recommend hitting Tsukiji?
Show up sometime between 8-10 am. The tuna auction crowd will be gone and the lunch crowd will not have settled in yet. If it’s your first time, you can enter the inner market after 10am to see the wholesale fish. It’s cool to see once but not significantly different than other wholesale fish markets.
If you just want to eat then stick to the outer markets. When you enter there’s a Toro (fatty tuna) vendor on the right where you can buy incredibly fresh and cheap pieces of fatty tuna. Assuming you didn’t eat breakfast (you didn’t did you???) fuel up on a couple of these to get you going. Wander around a bit and see the street foods for sale including things like grilled octopus and scallops covered in uni.
When your ready to finally sit down, pick one of the omakase sushi restaurants. I doubt you can really go wrong as I have been to three different ones and had an incredible experience at each. But if you want to follow in my footsteps, here they are:
Sushi Daiwa Located right next door to Sushi Dai, it’s quite possible this place started as a way to confuse tourists looking for Dai. But don’t worry, it’s incredbile. You still will have to wait, but likely closer to one hour or less depending on the size of your crew. My 3,700 yen omakase (the only option) focused on more widely known fish included toro, uni and shrimp and included a toro roll. You can add additional pieces of anything at the end, which are bigger than the omakase size. A Japanese woman dining next to me informed me she had been to Dai and preferred this. Something to consider. Still, most of the line here was filled with tourists too smart to wait next door.
Sushi Sei Honten As you move further away from the inner market, you notice a very different vibe at the restaurants. When I arrived at Honten around 10am there were exactly zero tourists here, only older Japanese folks. The chef spoke no English (there is an English menu). If you’re feeling more adventurous the sushi deluxe platter offers a more unusual variety than at Daiwa including Horse Mackerel (my personal favorite) and Herring Roe. At 2700 yen for ten course tasting, it was a steal.
Sushi Itadori Bekkan This was my first omakase at Tsukiji and remains my favorite. It was the most expensive at 5,000 yen, but worth every penny if you’re looking for something fancier (I still don’t know what a lot of the fish were.) Also if you areinto Uni (sea urchin) like I am or looking to give it a try, they offer an incredible tasting of 5 different ones. You can really appreciate how the place the urchin was caught effects the taste (like with oysters), as well as sample the elusive funkier “Red Uni.” Note that it’s a lot of urchin, so best to split it with a couple friends.
If you still have room, grab a few more street snacks or even another omakase. Then head home for a nap. When you wake up you can feel good knowing some sucker is still waiting in line at Sushi Dai.
