Sushi Sohei

Restaurant Details

Beautifully executed Edomae sushi using fish from Hokkaido’s northern seas and knife skills honed at top sushi counters in Hawaii and Hong Kong define Sohei Matsukura’s young and blossoming talents.

So, when he set up his first namesake restaurant in Maruyama — a green neighborhood also home to five-digit-priced sushi icons like Sushisai Wakichi and Sushi Miyagawa — he wasn’t losing to the established competition. Sohei’s refreshing take on Edomae sushi, a Tokyo-born style, and his experience as a globe-trotter who has lived in Germany, Hawaii, and Hong Kong before opening his restaurant in 2022, set him apart.

The dining experience at Sushi Sohei is unforgettable — not due to any flashy elements, but rather for its simplicity and purity. There’s no background music or art; the counter is a stage dedicated solely to sushi. Downlighting highlights Matsukura’s movements as he removes fish from the wooden icebox and serves the morsels on top of the solid timber counter — still, murmurs of approval flow in waves as Sohei presents each timed course stately and attentively.

Sushi Sohei’s menu is anchored by nigiri, mostly featuring fish from Hokkaido’s abundant seas — so much so that guests are even asked not to take photos of the appetizers. The fish ranges from white-fleshed and silver-skinned to blue-backed hikarimono. Matsukura’s specialty is nishin (Pacific herring) from Abashiri on Hokkaido’s eastern coast. Other local highlights include nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) and scallops sourced from Yubetsu, along the Sea of Okhotsk.

Seated around the L-shaped counter, patrons enjoy a direct connection with Sohei, whose language skills, polished through his years abroad, are just about as impressive as his knife work.