Our first official meal in Japan was at Kaisen-don Ooedo (海鮮丼 大江戸), where we had sushi breakfast. One of the most visited attractions in Tokyo is Tsukiji Fish Market for their famous tuna auction. Surrounding the market are many shops and vendors, and small sushi restaurants. I’ll be covering Tsukiji Market and the other outer vendors in another post, but this one will focus on the sushi breakfast tradition. (It wasn’t possible to take a good photo of this stall as it was crowded with people.)
With the restaurants having just gotten their fish, it’s a tradition to eat at one of the nearby restaurants for sushi breakfast while the fish is still incredibly fresh. Many of the restaurants open as early as 5 AM. The two most popular ones in the area are Sushi Dai, followed by Daiwa Sushi. After much research and discussion with people who braved Sushi Dai’s line, I decided against trying it. People line up for an average of 4 hours, and it’s recommended you line up around 1 AM to eat there at 5 AM. And everyone I knew who had done it said it really wasn’t worth the wait– that the sushi was fresh but there was better sushi in Tokyo that didn’t require such a long wait.
We arrived in the area a little before 5 AM and scoped out the different restaurants. Many had lines too long for my hungry empty stomach or no line at all which also made me suspicious. Finally, I chose Kaisen-don Ooedo. It had a decent line and good reviews. The tiny stall, like most of the other sushi vendors in the area, only seats about 8 people at a time, so we ended up waiting about 30-40 minutes. The menu is displayed through colorful photographs, which is what drew me to the stall in the first place.
Once seated, we were served some cold tea and pickled radishes.I really enjoyed the pickled radishes and ate nearly the entire bowl before my food arrived.
Sashimi Combo
This is one of the largest combinations offered and it was Mr. K’s choice. It had 7 different kinds of fish and also came with a large plate of pressed and seasoned sushi rice balls, if you wanted to make your own nigiri. I forgot to take a photo of the rice but now I wish I had. I think there was enough rice for each piece of fish and Mr. K actually ate the entire plate of rice after he finished his fish.
All the fish was incredibly fresh and we especially liked the tuna belly and uni.
Tuna and Uni Kaisen Don
I chose one of their kaisen don (sashimi rice bowl). This was made up of tuna, uni and rice. The uni was wonderfully cold, sweet and creamy. It also came with a bowl of miso soup.
Overall, we had a decent meal here. The sushi is very fresh but it’s not the most amazing sushi we’ve had. It was a little pricier than I expected (3500 JPY for the sashimi combo plate and 2800 JPY for the sashimi bowl). However, it was fun to experience the sushi breakfast tradition at least once during our trip and we had fun exploring the other market vendors after, which I’ll share at a later time.
Kaisen-Don Ooedo
5-2-1 Tsukiji | 8-Go, Chuo 104-0045, Tokyo Prefecture
https://www.tsukiji-ooedo.com/
I visited Tokyo in 2014 and I loved it! The fish market is really something else though I never managed to get up in time to get there for 5 am lol. Did you get to try some of th street food at the fish market? Their tuna cakes were so good!
I did try the street food! I’ll be covering that in a separate post =)
I also did not have the patience for the lines at Sushi Dai or Daiwa Sushi. My group and I ended up at a place unattached to any building with a black tent and colorful signs consisting of both English and Japanese (unfortunately I didn’t bother to remember the name). I personally thought it was delicious, but I definitely haven’t had as much good sushi as you. Thank you for these Tokyo posts! I was just there two weeks ago, and they are bringing back good memories.
There are so many places to choose from in that area, which is so nice! I took a picture of the front so I could remember, otherwise I would have forgotten the name by now too. I’m glad you are enjoying the posts. I actually have a friend who went right after I did and I’ve also been reliving my trip through her photos. haha. I keep telling my husband I want to go back asap!
I cannot believe that anyone would wait 4 hours – that is insane! Reading your post this morning made me go get sushi for lunch today.
I can’t believe it either! I haven’t waited that long before for food. But I’ve known several people who’ve done it and they aren’t even as crazy about food as I am. haha. I hope your sushi lunch was good!