May 10, 2018
I visited Sushi Keita (鮨桂太 ) on the second day after landing in Tokyo, and while slightly jet-lagged, I was amazed by his sushi. It was a place recommended by Akira Yoshizumi who is owner and chef of the of my favorite Bay Area’s renown Sushi Yoshizumi. The quality and execution of the Edomae sushi here rivals some of the best I had in Tokyo, and at about half the cost.
Chef Keita Ayoama opened his restaurant on September 1, 2017, so it is a relatively new sushi-ya in the Tokyo scene. Located in a mixed business and residential street on the out-skirts of Tsukiji, Chef Keita and his wife run the small seven seat counter sushi restaurant.
Chef Keita Aoyama honed his skills at many renown sushi-ya’s including Hokkaido’s “Sushi Wakichi”, Ginza’s “Sushi Mizutani”, and most recently “Sushi Taichi”. This experience has allowed him to harness the strengths of his prior work experience while formulating his own unique blend of style of sushi that rivals many of the high-end sushi places I have visited, and all for an insanely bargain price at this level of quality ( ~$150 US /person )
What stands out is the sour flavor of his perfectly made shari (sushi rice). It is made of the traditional akasu (red rice vinegar) which is served at the perfect body temperature that brings out the umami of the slices of fish (neta). I loved strong and bold tasting shari which is cooked to perfection as you can taste each pebble of rice. The size of the shari is also perfect, at a medium size, which provides the perfect ratio of shari to neta.
His course starts with the ostumami (appetizer) and then nigiri.
Karei sashimi and jelly fish are paired with freshly grated wasabi.
A huge perfectly simmered awabi (abalone) is next. The whole abalone was huge prior to slicing to our individual pieces.
Monk fish collar is mixed with it’s liver (ankimo), uni, and a house made miso. It is paired with pickled wasabi stems.
Torigai sashimi was next, recommended to be paired two ways. One with freshly grated wasabi, and the other with salt.
Simmered tsubugai (conch). The sauce was awabi kimo (liver of abalone).
Grilled Hotaru Ika (fire-fly quid).
Shako with its roe in the middle and iwashi maki (gari and shisho in the middle).
The iwashi (sardine) maki was perfect looking and can’t help to show the beauty of Chef Keita’s preparation.
The last ostumami course was the kimochi yari-ika, or squid with its eggs.
Nigiri starts right off with his perfectly made kohada. You can see the rice has turned brownish from the red vinegar he uses and it pairs perfectly with the kohada.
Akami (lean meat of the tuna) that he aged for two weeks.
Chu-toro from the same tuna that he also aged the same length.
Next up was a treat for the seven of us at the counter. Chef Keita meticulously prepared the next course for 15 minutes.
You can see how he slowly uses a spoon to separate the maguro from the fascia/connective tissue.
The preparation made one of the best maguro pieces, I ever had.
A nice meaty hamaguri (clam) from Hokkaido was delicious.
One of the highlights of the night, was aji, horse mackerel. I loved how Chef Keita put the ginger and onion between the neta and shari.
Aori-ika, big fin reef squid.
Kuruma-ebi was big and plump. Literally moving 10 minutes ago.
The murasaki uni was creamy and tasted sweet and briny.
Torigai that is lightly cooked.
Katsuo toro, that was straw roasted, was stunning.
Shako, or mantis shrimp, makes another appearance as a nigiri, and I’m not complaining.
Anago, a test of any edomae chef, passed with flying colors.
The meal finishes with a tamago.
The total bill for my wife and I came out to 35600 yen, which is about $350US. This is with me ordering three orders of nihonshu and my wife ordering a strawberry sake. It is an amazing value for this level of quality and ingredients. I’m sure this will not last long, but Sushi Keita is easily one of my new favorite sushi-ya in Tokyo. Even if he raises his price, I plan to be back.