15 Years of Food Travel Led me to Ebisu Sushi Kumakura in Tokyo

I have to admit that after about 15 years of traveling around the world searching for the best places to eat, I have started to become lazy. In the early days, after booking a destination, I would spend a long time researching the places I wanted to book. I would book as many lunches and dinners as possible. These days, after booking a trip, I don’t spend as much time on the food aspect of a trip as I used to. Its still an extremely important part of the trip, and most days I will at least book dinner, but its not like before. Here’s what happened:

1. There are more choices now – For example, from 2020 to 2025, the number of Michelin starred restaurants, according to ChatGPT, has grown from about 2,500 to over 4,000. In my city alone, a new one is popping up all the time. There is also more info on restaurants now with food sites social media etc, that it has become almost too much info to process.
2. Chasing the pinnacle is a losing proposition – Early on, I went to some of the best places in the world like Asador Etxebarri. These quickly became the benchmarks in my mind for what a meal should be like in a specific category. The more benchmarks I had, the harder it was to find places that would be inline. It almost became like gambling to try new places because I would hate being disappointed that a place did not live up to the benchmark.
3. Diminishing returns kick in – If you are craving ice cream, the first taste is the best. Each subsequent one will give you less satisfaction. The first 3 Star restaurant you go to will be the most memorable. Each subsequent one will become less so unless its truly spectacular.
4. Reservations are getting harder to get – Due to the proliferation of social media, once a place becomes on the food radar, spots book up fast. I remember 15 years ago, it was the French Laundry that was notoriously hard to book. Now, there are many such examples.

Anyway, all the above factors led me to book Ebisu Sushi Kumakura in Tokyo. There are TONS of sushi choices in Tokyo, and research each one was just not feasible for me. I used to create a spreadsheet and created an algorithm to score restaurants then rank them in order of booking preference, but I don’t have the time for it anymore. Also, there is the time to reward ratio which is related to #2. Lets say I spend 1 hour researching which sushi place I want in Tokyo. I then go and its a 8/10. Could I of gotten the same result spending 10 minutes on a Google search? Even if I went the quick Google way, and got a 7/10 experience, this would likely be better than spending an hour to get that extra point.

Continuing with the above criteria, I think that while there are obviously AMAZING sushi restaurants in Tokyo, the incremental pleasure I would get from my first omakase experience to now, is diminished so that my time is not well spent trying to find another special one given the potential for disappointment and time commitment. Lastly, the best places in Tokyo are notoriously hard to book. Some places exclude foreigners or are “by invitation”.

For these reasons, I chose this place by running a quick Google search of sushi places which were rated above 4.5 in close proximity to my hotel. I crossed referenced with my hotel’s recommendations (which I will never do again for other reasons unrelated to this post). Then, I chose the one which offered quick online reservations. Given that it was a Friday, I also knew choices would be even more limited.

Upon entry I was greeted by a modern looking omakase bar with a nice view over the city below. Upon sitting I saw the wooden box with fresh fish, always a good sign:

The meal started with an amuse:

Then proceeded with the nigiri. I found it odd that the chef served a fatty piece of tuna to start the meal. Usually this is served at the end. I guess he wanted to start off with a bang:

After the second piece, the meal switched back to some appetizers:

Personally, I prefer straight sushi and when there are appetizers, I prefer them only at the start of the meal. I love sushi so much, I want an uninterrupted experience. Unfortunately, after the next piece, we again switched back to small bites:

Then back to sushi, and thankfully, it was a longer run…

The chef served some really interesting pieces I had not seen before:

Overall this was a good sushi omakase. Was it the best ever? No. However, it was good enough, and give the points I made above, it fit in just right. Service and the ambiance were good. After the meal, the chef even walked us over to a cocktail bar around the corner to help us get a table. Would I return? Probably not. Would I recommend it? If you want to do minimal research, are in the area, and want an easy place to book, then yes!