Ginza Kyubey

※ Ginza Kyubey's only lunch service starts promptly at 11:30 am. Please take note when making a reservation. ——— The sushi restaurant to end all sushi restaurants, Ginza Kyubey needs no explanation. Once ranked the second-best restaurant in the world by La Liste in 2018, but famously absent from the Michelin Guide Tokyo in recent years, it is also known by the epithet “the best sushi restaurant in Japan without a Michelin star.” Even discounting its Michelin snub, Ginza Kyubey is the stuff of legend. Its first-ever head chef, Imada Hisaji, was the man who invented the battleship-style gunkan-maki. Among chefs, getting an apprenticeship at Ginza Kyubey is basically a fast-track to success in the sushi world; many of the superstars of the sushi world have cut their teeth behind Kyubey’s counter. Kyubey’s omakase courses, in terms of freshness, quality, technique and hospitality, are the omakase courses by which all other omakase restaurants are judged. Guests can opt for a nigiri-only course, which serves only sushi, but the kaiseki courses provide a more comprehensive showcase of Kyubey’s chefs’ skills, with grilled dishes, stewed dishes and more, depending on the day. Guests who need an explanation for each dish or want to add to their orders needn’t worry — English menus are available, and both wait staff and chefs speak English to some fluency. Expectedly, with counter-only seating and an extremely lofty reputation, reservations for Kyubey’s lunch and dinner services alike are scarce, and fill up rapidly. It’s a running joke among Japanese sushi enthusiasts that getting a reservation at Kyubey might be more difficult than securing an apprenticeship. Because of this, for those who won’t settle for anything less than Kyubey, it’s worth trying the other branches of Ginza Kyubey; the restaurant’s popularity has led to the birth of several offshoots, including three more in Tokyo and one in the Imperial Hotel Osaka. Nonetheless, for those who want the fullest Kyubey experience, the main branch is the way to go — just be prepared to wait.