Hinokizaka Sushi Ritz Carlton Tokyo – Beautiful Sushi

Hinokizaka sushi counter is one of four dining areas (for kaiseki, sushi, tempura and teppanyaki) offered at the Japanese restaurant of Ritz Carlton Hotel Tokyo. We decided on this elegant restaurant on the 45th floor for its impressive views and its modern setting to enjoy traditional Japanese cuisine.

Level 45 Ritz Carlton Tokyo Japanese Restaurant

The Japanese restaurant takes up quite a large space on level 45. The area is laid out in zones to serve the different types of Japanese cuisine. The sushi counter is tucked into the deepest end of the restaurant.

Here, a long sushi counter awaits. It can easily seat 8 diners with more than sufficient elbow room. A traditional sushi restaurant in Tokyo is likely to be wood panelled, often windowless and has a precious hinoki wood counter (such as the one at Yamazato Okura Tokyo which we tried on this trip) The Hinokizaka dining room is bright, modern with a sushi counter of (mostly) glossy black marble.

The natural light enabled us to appreciate the raw ingredients on display. Everything which had been prepped for lunch that day looked totally fresh and gleaming.

Hinokizaka Sushi Menu – Ritz Carlton Tokyo

Various Hinokizaka Sushi counter menus are available each day with the dinner ones being more expensive. We selected the Sushi Hama course (¥ 11,500, service and tax included) at the time of our reservation.

Appetizer and Steamed Dish

Both the dishes were beautifully presented and were the best starters served at a sushi counter that we can remember. The “steamed dish” was an elaborate version of chawanmushi, topped with a generous amount of crabmeat. This looked more like the start of a kaiseki meal.

Beautiful Hinokizaka Sushi

The types of sushi listed on the menu were : white fish, lean tuna, semi fatty tuna, prawn, salmon roe, silver-skinned fish, shellfish, conger eel Chef’s recommendation, egg omelet, sushi roll.

It is easy for me to write about this sushi lunch at Hinokizaka Sushi counter. The fish throughout the meal was top notch you can tell that from how bright and translucent each piece of sushi looks. The taste and texture were wonderful. No premium sushi items such as otoro or sea urchin was on this menu but this was good enough for us.

We also thought it was smart of the restaurant to serve the sushi on crystal plates rather than the more conventional wooden ones. They catch the light so well and, together with the translucent sushi, sparkle like jewels.

Sushi Roll, Miso soup and Monaka

The ‘heavy’ sushi items arrived to signal the end of the meal, together with some miso soup. These were the only ordinary items at this lunch.

Dessert was ice-cream monaka – a bun made of light wafer material sandwiching some ice cream inside. Nice and refreshing, and reminded us of local ice-cream sold at ice-cream carts along Orchard Road.

Ratings:
Food: 5
Service: 4
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 5
Overall Rating: 5 TOPs 

Hinokizaka Ritz Carlton Tokyo

Tokyo Midtown, 9 Chome-7-1 Akasaka, Minato City, Tokyo 107-6245, Japan

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