There's a middle ground between the kaiten conveyor belt and a full omakase that costs your entire flight budget. We found it. It involves an iPad, beautiful ceramics, and the best prawn we've eaten.
We'd done kaiten sushi plenty of times at this point — it's cheap, fast, and good. But this trip we wanted something a step up without going full white-tablecloth omakase. The answer was a sit-down nigiri bar where you order each piece individually via a tablet at your counter seat, and they come out one or two at a time, made fresh.
The iPad has an English option. It lists everything: nigiri, gunkan, temaki hand rolls, today's recommendations, sake pairings. You tap what you want and it arrives within a couple of minutes. The pieces come on individual hand-painted blue and white ceramic plates that are, genuinely, beautiful objects. You notice the presentation in a way you don't when everything arrives on a conveyor.
What We Ordered
We started with sake — the tablet has a short sake menu with enough description to make an informed choice — and began working through the recommendations. The prawn nigiri was the standout: barely cooked, served warm, with a clean sweetness that doesn't exist in anything you'd buy at home. The head was served separately, fried, which is either brave or natural depending on where you're from. We ate it.
We ordered a temaki — a hand roll — which arrived in a cone of nori still slightly warm. There's a reason you don't see temaki on conveyor belts: the nori goes soggy fast. Made to order, eaten immediately, it's a different thing entirely. We ordered two more.
The Setup
Counter seating only, which is correct for this kind of place. You can watch the kitchen, which is compact and efficient. The chefs work quietly, rice formed by hand, fish laid on without fussing. Everything moves at a steady pace — not rushed, not slow. The green tea refills automatically without you having to ask, which is a civilised way to run any food operation.
The bill was reasonable for the quality — significantly less than you'd pay for anything comparable in London, more than Sushiro, exactly where it should be. The kind of meal you plan the rest of the evening around having eaten.
Look for stand-alone nigiri bars — not kaiten, not full omakase. They're all over Tokyo. Order the prawn. Order the temaki. Use the iPad without shame.