20 Heavenly Bites - an Omakase Lunch at Sushi Shunsuke

A bunch of tourists slowly began to linger around a door with no label in the Asagaya neighborhood of Tokyo, about a 30-minute metro ride from where we were staying in Shinjuku. It was clear we were all here for the same reason. Like myself, these people likely woke up to an email the day before from the reservation system Tableall, explaining that a handful of Tokyo’s most difficult-to-reserve spots had just opened up due to recent cancellations, and jumped at the opportunity to attain what the Tabelall claims is one of the hardest reservations to grab in the city. Luckily enough, I got this email a mere minutes after my alarm went off, and through somewhat crusty and blurry eyes, I reserved two seats for an omakase lunch at Sushi Shunsuke.

Most of my knowledge going into this meal came from the reservation system itself, which does a rather good job of explaining the chef’s philosophy, and why the restaurant stands above others and is worth paying a significant fee for the reservation itself. I do not doubt that Tabelall hyperbolizes what they send out to catch eager people, especially tourists like myself, by using phrases like “usually booked a year in advance.” I will bite at that any time. 

Eventually, my brother and I were beckoned in and directed to sit at a 12-person V-shaped counter next to the wall on the right-hand side, unaware that this would place us directly in front of the master chef Shunsuke himself, after whom the restaurant is named after. 

Shunsuke Takaoka is a young master chef, stocky, with brolic hands capable of cupping balls of rice in rhythm without a single excess movement. He spent 10 years studying under the sushi master Hidefumi Nanba before his Master moved to a new location and left the restaurant in the hands of his apprentice. You can read more about Shunsuke’s journey, as well as the techniques behind his mastery of sushi on Tabelall.  

I don’t have a ton of sushi experience, so going into this meal I wasn’t certain I’d be able to distinguish what sets Shunsuke’s sushi apart from the rest.  I knew this would be different than America, I wasn’t going to get some atrocity like a “volcano’s asshole specialty roll” ridden with chipotle mayo and panko and whatever other intentional diversions may exist that reduce the fish to simply a texture in hopes of hiding the poor quality. Nearly every sushi I’ve eaten in Japan so far has been superior to what I am used to in the States, even from a conveyor belt in the mountainous interior of the country. But, what I was about to eat was the product of years and years of training by a young master sushi chef so that each repetitive movement would create a bite that celebrates some of the highest quality fish you can find in the world, and as a sushi amateur, I felt a little bit of guilt going into this meal, unsure of whether this experience would resonate the way I hoped it would. It did. 

I recently watched a video of chef Lucas Sin dining at Udatsu Sushi in Tokyo as part of a promotional campaign for Nat Geo’s “Best of the World 2024” list. Lucas explained that quality of fish can only go so far - you either have the quality or you don’t. Shunsuke certainly had the quality - each bite of fish left me speechless. Sin then went on to say that it’s the shari - the rice that the fish sits on in nigiri, where the personality and beliefs of the chef come through. I learned that Shunsuke uses two different types of vinegar and breaks from the norm with certain beliefs of what pairs better with what. For example, he thinks fatty tuna, otoro, actually pairs better with rice vinegar. Regardless of what is “normal,” each grain of rice was distinguishable in every bite, not just some homogenous mass - a quality that many speak of when describing the best sushi, and a sensation I hadn’t felt so clearly before.

The omakase began with various bites of raw fish, many of which I had never eaten before. After nine wonderful bites, Shunsuke began shaping rice balls in front of us. First, 4 pieces with rice vinegar, and afterward 7 pieces with red vinegar. 

Here is what I am calling the sushi setlist. I hope that someone out there gets excited about this like a person who missed a Sunday Grateful Dead show learning what they played. “No way man? You got Tiger Prawn?!?! That’s my favorite! Tiger Prawn May ‘77 was insane!”

Seabrim 

Yellowtail 

Octopus 

Torched butterfish and radish 

Steamed oyster in dashi

Tuna roll 

Herring and sardine minced with miso 

Steamed abalone, monkfish liver and eel sauce, fried tofu and cucumber 

Spanish mackerel and miso 

Nigiri with rice vinegar:

Squid with salt and sudachi 

Sea brim

Akami 

Fatty tuna 

Nigiri with red vinegar 

Gizzard shad 

Smoked red snapper - red pepper yuzu kosho 

Tiger prawn

Sea urchin hand roll 

Sea eel and eel sauce 

Monkfish liver roll

Tamagoyaki

Monkfish liver roll is my Morning Dew I never knew about. It lasted 14 seconds instead of 14 minutes, but it opened my eyes to how nice something could make me feel.  This reference may land on few heads, but I guess it doesn’t matter anyway.

Here is a breakdown of some of the more notable bites:

The octopus was perfect. I read that Shunsuke beats the octopus with a sake bottle over 300 times to tenderize it and then slowly cooks it for two hours in broth. The result of such a tedious process was a perfectly supple bite, with none of the dreaded rubberiness so often seen in poorly cooked octopus. 

The tuna roll made me question everything, and I am trying to find words to describe just exactly why this tuna was so much better than any I’d ever eaten before. Different cuts of tuna have different levels of fattyness. The tuna roll he handed us was full of akami, the lean and dark red cut of the fish. But, it felt like many bites of the more coveted cuts of fatty tuna I had eaten before.  It actually gave me a real “Oh Shit” moment. I received a text from my friend Zoe not long before I ate this meal saying she was scared to go to Japan. She said a friend of hers went to Japan and had American sushi ruined because she saw what the real stuff was like. I think that’s a bit dramatic, but this hand roll made me really consider things. In between various rounds of sake hand selected by the chef, I damn near cried in the bathroom.

We were given a mixture of minced herring and sardine with miso. It was one of the weirder things I ate but also the most unique. I was not a huge fan of the pasty texture. It had a funky umami taste from the miso. It was adventurous but I didn’t love it.

Monkfish Liver and eel sauce - This was served alongside steamed abalone, as well as fried tofu and julienned cucumber. It was amazing. I have never eaten the liver of any sea creature before, it was an amazing bite with a creamy texture similar to foie gras and with a somewhat similar aftertaste - but still something completely new altogether.

I often avoid squid nigiri. I find it tough and chewy without any real flavor compensation. This was different. I don’t know if it is because of the quality or type of squid he served, but it was far more enjoyable. The added pinch of salt and squeeze of sudachi (a citrus very similar to lime) added some extra zing. 

Fatty Tuna - It melted in my mouth. No words. It was opulent and luxurious and oh my god so fucking delicious.

Smoked Red Snapper with red yuzu kosho was my favorite bite of the whole set. The smokiness perfectly complemented the more pungent red vinegar. Red yuzu kosho is a condiment consisting of fermented yuzu and red peppers, I believe the piece of fish was marinated in it, giving it some spice, which was a welcome change to my palette after the 15 dishes that preceded it. 

Sushi Shunsuke, at ¥37000 per person not including drinks, was by no means cheap, but it was worth it in every sense. In my last post about Kojyu Ginza, I explained why maybe not everyone would walk out of that meal content with the amount of money they spent. I think anyone who’s ever eaten any sushi will be able to understand why this meal was so good, giving me the utmost confidence that this omakase would melt the mind of anyone lucky enough to consume it. I am praying that it didn’t ruin the cuisine for me when I return home. It was the best meal I’ve ever had.

I am sorry but not really sorry for the lack of photos. I was too locked in on the meal.