Japan: omakase dinner at Sushi Harumi – where's your sense of adventure?

While planning for this trip, I was looking up affordable places to try an omakase dinner experience. Omakase is translated as “I leave it up to you” and features a chef preparing multiple courses right in front of the diner, usually limited to a few people at a time. Eric sent me some great travel articles and I settled on Sushi Harumi for it’s good reviews and reasonable price (12,100¥ or ~$115). After several failed reservation attempts through Pocket Concierge, I was finally able to add my name to the waiting list about three weeks out. A week later I got my confirmation and time to show up: 6pm. Hooray!

My dinner was three small dishes, followed by 10 nigiri portions (and an egg omelet), then soup, dessert, and green tea. The chef’s assistant gave me a dish to display the nigiri when it became clear I was photographing each course. Heh.

Each piece was prepared with fresh wasabi, a quick basting of soy sauce, brown or white rice and placed on the counter in front of me. All were slightly warm due to the rice. For patrons it was just three of us at 6pm, two more at 6:30, and three more at 7pm so it never felt too loud or crowded.

The whole meal start to finish lasted about 90 minutes and I didn’t feel rushed at all. It was absolutely delicious and a very memorable experience.