CoFesta Day 3: Difference between a 20,000yen sushi meal and a 2000yen sushi meal

I am finally getting into the finale of our whole trip: a grand treat at Ginza Sushikoh, located above Tokyo station on the 35th floor, worth 20,000+++yen! (SGD250/ USD200) My Japanese friend told me that it is a very famous sushi restaurant and is difficult to get a reservation there.

Waiting...

…waiting for chef to pluck out the bones from our salmon.

Carefully slicing the tuna!

It looks like the rare and expensive blue fin tuna!?

Appetizers are squid, prawn and abalone :))

Tiny bowl of abalone soup, yummy!

Another appetiser. It was ginkgo nuts season!

We also ordered Japanese sake (rice wine) but it seems that they have more of the sweet ones and none that is "spicy" (karakuchi 辛口). Maybe sweet wine matches the sushi better? I don't mind because I prefer sweeter sake.

Close up on the remarkably delicious tuna. And yes, this one really tastes good! Very different from your regular tuna. I was pretty sure it was the fabled blue fin!

Fish and fish roe~

Real grounded wasabi!

This is the regular tuna, not bad. But the endangered blue fin was better… now I know why they are endangered...


The chef gave us this sushi reference table in english. How nice! They have prepared well for Olympics 2020!

It also has the words that you use in a sushi restaurant. Such as if you want more ginger, you say "Gari kudasai".

Ootoro (fatty tuna) sushi!

Not into shell and clam sushi… it was ok.

Very very very DELICIOUS salted grilled fatty tuna!!!! The chef even said that the wasabi has no effect at all because of these fats!

I was so full that I had to ask for less rice. But nevertheless, the chef assured me that he gave me the same amount of sea urchin (uni). It tasted really fresh and sweet!!!

The chef's original sushi, mushroom sushi with citron flavour?

Delicious anago (sea eel) sushi.

Soup was given at the end of our course, and this is when we are given the chance to order *anything* we like!!!

So I ordered grilled fatty tuna again :P
This got to be my favourite: teriyaki sauce grilled fatty tuna! NUMBER ONE!!!

Delicious ikura (salmon roe) sushi!!!

Me and my French neighbour ordering ootoro again :P
Ootoro and Uni are the most expensive sushi so if you order them, it's like you have deep pockets :)

The egg omelette (mixed with sweet potato, etc.) behind was awesome too!
I finally could not eat anymore and worried about puking out all the good stuff. So sadly, I got to stop :)

We filled the counter seats! From left: Edgar, Namira, Kaika, Gemilang, Laura/Nikita, Sebastien, Me :P, Najib, Angie, Khay, Tony, Wendy/Xiaxue, Ashley, Alodia.

And the sushi chef that made our night unforgettable!

I was skeptical if I could taste the difference between a 20,000yen sushi meal and a 2000yen sushi meal, that was why I never could bear to enter into a high class sushi restaurant. But this time, I must say, there is a big difference indeed! It really pays if you can afford to try, the quality is really different. We were so lucky that our meal was fully sponsored!!! :DDDD

So as promised, I will compare this meal with the cheaper sushi meals that I had eaten in Tokyo:

Regular sushi bento from supermarket (798yen/SG$10/US$8):

Sea urchin(uni) was not as fresh and sweet. However, they were good enough for me during my first two years in Japan, until I saved enough for more expensive meals like below↓

Ala carte sushi meal at a regular sushi restaurant in Tsukiji (2000yen):

It already tasted fantastic to me, but Ginza Sushikoh had set my benchmark to new heights!

----------
That is all from my sponsored CoFesta trip! Special thanks to METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry) of Japan for sponsoring and REVAMP corp (especially Yone and Berekk) for organising our itinerary there. I hope that there will be another sponsored trip to Japan again :P

If you have time, do catch up on my previous reports and hit that like or share button ;)

• CoFesta Ambassador Announcement
• CoFesta Day 1: Drama Festival and concert reception
• CoFesta Day 2: NHK Studio Park visit at Shibuya and live performance by Joe Inoue
• CoFesta Day 2: TIMM Tokyo International Music Market Showcase Live 2013
• CoFesta Day 3: Digital Contents Expo 2013
• CoFesta Day 3: Animate, world's biggest anime goods store at Ikebukuro

----------

PS. There is another thing that I learnt from this trip, especially from celebrity bloggers and cosplayers. You can look ordinary but become beautiful with smartphone apps. I must get my hands on one when I upgrade my plan xD