Unagi Hashimoto Tokyo Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurantはし本

Unagi Hashimoto Tokyo (はし本) is a unagi restaurant founded in 1835. It is currently run by the sixth-generation owner-chef. It is listed as a Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurant in the 2019 Tokyo Michelin Guide and is one of the 7 MICHELIN Recommended Unagi Restaurants In Tokyo. Always in search of the best unagi restaurants, we visited Unagi Hashimoto during our recent visit to Japan.

Unagi Hashimoto is located in a small house in a quiet, mostly residential neighourhood. The interior was very much what we expected in such a house – cosy and traditional. There are two dining sections on the ground floor. An inner tatami room and an outer section that has conventional tables.

It seems that the fame of the Hashimoto unagi restaurant has spread far and wide. From our observations, we estimate that about half the dining patrons there were foreigners. It was a visitor-friendly restaurant with English speaking staff and an English language menu.

Unagi Hashimoto Menu

Here are pictures of the Unagi Hashimoto Menu in English. Eels take centre stage. Almost all the items on the menu are eel items. Apart from the conventional unajyu (eel on rice) there are more unusual items prepared from eel stomach, bones and fins. It seems that nothing goes to waste. We were not very adventurous and kept to the regular unajyu. Normally, we would try to order different items. But in this case no one was prepared to make the sacrifice to try the unknown. Hence we ended up with three servings of regular sized unajyu (Yen 3,870 each).

For starters we tried some Umaki. The eggs rolls with some unagi inside were nice and fluffy. Priced at Yen 1730 for each order, we thought it was quite expensive as the quantity of eel in the egg roll was rather low.

The unajyu took around 30 minutes to be ready. It was as good as we imagined it to be. The eel was meaty and tasty. A light sauce is applied over the eel so that the natural fish taste was able to shine. It is the lightest seasoned unagi that I have tried. There is even another version where the eel is served without sauce. That remains to be tried another day. The springy, chewy rice also plays a nice supporting role in the dish.