[Tokyo] Sushi Sawada さわ田
Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
I finally visited Sushi Sawada thanks to a friend who managed to book out the entire counter of 6 seats for lunch! Awarded 2 Michelin stars, Sushi Sawada is highly regarded for its sushi in Tokyo and while reservation is not "impossible" here unlike Sushi Saito, I hear that it is still really tough to get a booking even though I have not attempted it myself. Planning months in advance and having a good hotel concierge will be your best bet at securing a seat at Sawada. Usually you can only order the nigiri course at lunch but since we had the entire restaurant to ourselves, we had the full omakase which included both the tsumami and sushi for ~¥40,000 per person.
Chef Koji Sawada runs the restaurant with only his wife and has a strict no cellphone and no camera policy (I had heard rumors that you can take pictures if you book out the entire counter since most places prohibit cameras only to avoid disturbance to other customers but sadly that was not the case here). At the same time it was liberating not having to worry about taking pictures and just focus on eating the food at Sawada - which turned out to be amazing and probably the best sushi I've ever had yet! I think what puts Sawada into the top echelon of sushi-yas in Tokyo aside from his skills is his supply chain where he is able to procure the best ingredients available (for example, he told us that the tuna we were having was the #1 tuna from Tsukiji Market the day before). Every single ingredient we had was of high quality including uni from Hokkaido of which the supply had been affected by the typhoon - but the ones here tasted much better than the ones we had at Sushi Sho Masa during the same week.
I didn't take detailed notes during our lunch because I wanted to focus on tasting the food but I will recount some of the highlights of the meal here. Our meal got off to a great start with some grilled ginko nuts which was followed by ika (squid) and aka uni. We were told to eat the ika by itself first before combining it with the uni which turned out to be an amazingly delicious combination. The abalone came next with its own gelatinous sauce and it was super tender and flavorful having been steamed for about 5 hours. The sumi-ika with sudachi and yuzu was refreshing while the grilled konoko/kuchiko (sea cucumber ovaries) was a real treat as it is very rare and limited in supply. The first time I had it was at Sushi Ya and it was even better here as it was freshly grilled. We ended the tsumami part of the meal with aburi otoro cubes which were seared using charcoals on top of a wired mesh - it was like a teaser to what was to come in the second part of the meal and the otoro simply just melted in our mouths.
The nigiri part of our meal started with an ikura gunkan where the salmon roe had been soaked in soy sauce for 11 hours and it was honestly the best ikura I've ever had! Sawada-san emphasized that 11 hours is the perfect time for the marination - otherwise the texture of the ikura will start to deteriorate. We then started our impressive tasting of tuna where we were treated to 4 different pieces of the fish including the zuke (akami marinated in soy sauce), chutoro, otoro, and aburi otoro. The different parts of the tuna were cut right in front of us so we can see how much of the fish Sawada-san had to trim down to get to the best parts - it was like a show and an education for us at the same time. Next I was asked if I can finish an entire tiger prawn by myself and after nodding enthusiastically the kuruma ebi with miso was placed in front of me after being cut in half. The bafun uni gunkan was another favorite of the meal and we ended the meal with pieces of tamago which were rather similar to sponge cake.
Although the price is not cheap, you do get what you pay for at Sawada and you will be guaranteed a fantastic and perhaps even life-changing sushi experience.
The hand-sewn napkin by Sawada-san's wife which we were allowed to take home with us.
Sushi Sawada さわ田
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I finally visited Sushi Sawada thanks to a friend who managed to book out the entire counter of 6 seats for lunch! Awarded 2 Michelin stars, Sushi Sawada is highly regarded for its sushi in Tokyo and while reservation is not "impossible" here unlike Sushi Saito, I hear that it is still really tough to get a booking even though I have not attempted it myself. Planning months in advance and having a good hotel concierge will be your best bet at securing a seat at Sawada. Usually you can only order the nigiri course at lunch but since we had the entire restaurant to ourselves, we had the full omakase which included both the tsumami and sushi for ~¥40,000 per person.
Chef Koji Sawada runs the restaurant with only his wife and has a strict no cellphone and no camera policy (I had heard rumors that you can take pictures if you book out the entire counter since most places prohibit cameras only to avoid disturbance to other customers but sadly that was not the case here). At the same time it was liberating not having to worry about taking pictures and just focus on eating the food at Sawada - which turned out to be amazing and probably the best sushi I've ever had yet! I think what puts Sawada into the top echelon of sushi-yas in Tokyo aside from his skills is his supply chain where he is able to procure the best ingredients available (for example, he told us that the tuna we were having was the #1 tuna from Tsukiji Market the day before). Every single ingredient we had was of high quality including uni from Hokkaido of which the supply had been affected by the typhoon - but the ones here tasted much better than the ones we had at Sushi Sho Masa during the same week.
I didn't take detailed notes during our lunch because I wanted to focus on tasting the food but I will recount some of the highlights of the meal here. Our meal got off to a great start with some grilled ginko nuts which was followed by ika (squid) and aka uni. We were told to eat the ika by itself first before combining it with the uni which turned out to be an amazingly delicious combination. The abalone came next with its own gelatinous sauce and it was super tender and flavorful having been steamed for about 5 hours. The sumi-ika with sudachi and yuzu was refreshing while the grilled konoko/kuchiko (sea cucumber ovaries) was a real treat as it is very rare and limited in supply. The first time I had it was at Sushi Ya and it was even better here as it was freshly grilled. We ended the tsumami part of the meal with aburi otoro cubes which were seared using charcoals on top of a wired mesh - it was like a teaser to what was to come in the second part of the meal and the otoro simply just melted in our mouths.
The nigiri part of our meal started with an ikura gunkan where the salmon roe had been soaked in soy sauce for 11 hours and it was honestly the best ikura I've ever had! Sawada-san emphasized that 11 hours is the perfect time for the marination - otherwise the texture of the ikura will start to deteriorate. We then started our impressive tasting of tuna where we were treated to 4 different pieces of the fish including the zuke (akami marinated in soy sauce), chutoro, otoro, and aburi otoro. The different parts of the tuna were cut right in front of us so we can see how much of the fish Sawada-san had to trim down to get to the best parts - it was like a show and an education for us at the same time. Next I was asked if I can finish an entire tiger prawn by myself and after nodding enthusiastically the kuruma ebi with miso was placed in front of me after being cut in half. The bafun uni gunkan was another favorite of the meal and we ended the meal with pieces of tamago which were rather similar to sponge cake.
Although the price is not cheap, you do get what you pay for at Sawada and you will be guaranteed a fantastic and perhaps even life-changing sushi experience.
5-9-19 Ginza Chuo Tokyo
東京都 中央区 銀座 5-9-19 ＭＣビル3Ｆ
Tel: +81-3-3571-4711
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Hi Supertaster. Great article! I used to ask the Four Seasons concierge to make reservation at Sawada before which was successful. This time we are thinking about changing hotel and would like to know which hotel did you stay that the concierge can arrange to book the entire restaurant for you.
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Thanks! We actually had a local friend book for it and he is a regular at Sawada. I'm not sure if the hotel can book out the entire counter but you can certainly try
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