[Japan] Ganso Zushi (元祖寿司)

Review Location 
Dogenzaka 2-29-14, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 〒 150-0043

Ganso Zushi

I think you can probably tell by the amount of Japanese food posts I have on this blog, that I really love it. That's why this trip to Japan was such heaven for me. Another day in Japan, another day of sushi!. This time around, Rob and I opted to go conveyor belt sushi. I had gone once while I was in Hong Kong, but you can never really have enough sushi. No, especially not when you're in Japan.

This one that we went to was in Shibuya region of Tokyo, just 5 mins walk from Shibuya Station on the Japan Rail. Shibuya is such a beautiful city at night. I loved walking through all the streets here.

A fork in the road in Shibuya 

Ganso Zushi

Ganso Zushi is a sushi bar chain, and has locations all over different regions of Japan.

Inside of Ganso Zushi

When you walk inside, you immediately notice how small this place is. There is one sushi bar in the centre of the restaurant, and that's it. No tables, no nothing. The sushi bar has a conveyor belt going all around it, and sits about 4-5 people on each side. People ate fast, and customer turnover was quite high.

Sushi conveyor belt

Like all other conveyor belt sushi bars, it's pretty easy to get started eating. Sit down, help yourself to utensils or tea, and then start grabbing plates off the belt. At the end, they count the empty plates you've accumulated, and charge you based on the number and colour of plates.

Ganso Zushi Menu

You can also order directly from the chef if you don't see what you want being made. Rob and I ended up doing this a couple of times, mainly because we didn't want to wait and stalk the conveyor belt for those items. The pricing is exactly the same as the belt.

Octopus Pod Sushi, Sweet Shrimp Sushi

Hamachi Sushi

The Hamachi was Rob's favourite. I think he ended up eating 3 plates of these on his own! I don't blame him though, it was very very good. 

Tuna Sushi

Eel Sushi

Chopped Tuna Sushi

Bonito Sushi

I don't see this type of fish on Toronto menus often, so this was an interesting order. One thing's for sure, this isn't for a light tongue. It's similar to tuna, but with a denser flesh and a bloodier and fishier taste. It probably sounds more unpleasant than it was, and the green onion on top helps a lot with neutralizing the taste.

Salmon Sushi, Hamachi Sushi

Like I said in my Tsukiji Market post, the salmon here has got nothing on Vancouver. That being said, it wasn't in any means bad, but just that it isn't something I would travel thousands of miles for. And yes, more Hamachi. I wasn't kidding when I said it was good!

Dressed up Octopus Pods

These were easily my favourite sushi of the night. I'm not a huge fan of octopus, but these were amazing. Not overly chewy, and topped off with a delicious combination of mayo, teriyaki sauce, and chives. We had a couple of these that night.

Overall the sushi was decent. Not the best fish (it's really hard after you have some of the freshest ones from Tsukiji Market), but still reasonably fresh and had a good fish-to-rice- ratio. The servers are so friendly, and greeted us as we walked in similar to the way they do at guu. That really made a huge difference in the dining experience. And with plates starting at 105 yen, you really can't go wrong.