Tsujihan is a kind of place where you would hardly find tourists from abroad, even though the restaurant with only 12 counter seats that serves amazing Zeitaku Don (Luxurious Rice Bowl) is one of
the most popular places around Tokyo Station for the locals who are very picky about having good fresh sashimi rice bowls. The restaurant is difficult to find on the streets and
everything in the restaurant is written only in Japanese, but that is just how local oriented it is.
Once you go inside, you may order Zeitaku Don "Ume" (990 Yen) as it is the standard and the most popular menu for the locals, although they have "Ta-ke", 1,450 Yen, "Matsu" 1,980 Yen, and
"Tokujo" 2,980 Yen respectively other than the "Ume" on the menu list (for the people who want the even higher quality).
After you order "Ume", they will bring you 3 or 4 pieces of sashimi for the appetizer with special made sauce for the main dish (sashimi rice bowl). Have 1 or 2 pieces of sashimi while you wait
for the main to come but do not finish them completely because you will need to put some of them in the "Dashi chazuke" at the end after you finish having the rice bowl (will explain what Dashi
Chazuke is later).
When the beautiful sashimi tower (the main dish) comes, pour the sauce from the top of its tower and start eating. You will realize they mix a lot of fresh sashimi including the fish, seashells,
salmon eggs, herring roe, and more on top of the rice with ground toasted sesami seeds which makes it very Zeitaku (luxurious)! We had nothing but praises for this rice bowl as it
was just exceptional.
After you finish the bowl, place it on the counter table and ask the staff for the Dashi Chazuke (it is included to your set course). Preferably say yes when they ask you if you want to add
more rice. They will give the bowl back to you after they pour some dashi (the sea bream based soup stock) on top of rice. Then you can put the rest of the sashimi from the appetizer on top
of it which makes it a perfect dashi chazuke. You can taste the rich flavor of fresh sea bream soup well blended with the rice and the sashimi that is just mind blowing without a
compliment.
If you are fussy with sashimi bowl, you will never regret visiting Tsujihan, although you would have to wait in line for at least 15 minutes for the seats, but that is just part of fun having its
exceptional Zeitaku don later.
Restaurant: Tsujihan (つじ半)
Phone: 03-6262-0823
Address: 3-1-15, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Hisae Building 1F
Nearest Station: JR Tokyo Station
Open Hour: 11:00-14:40, 17:00-21:00
Close: N.A
[Lunch] 0-1,000 yen, [Dinner] 0-1,000 yen
Credit Card: N.A
Seats: 12 seats
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