I had my birthday dinner tonight at Kantarouzushi, a nearby shushi bar. We discovered the place a few years ago, when we lived at our old apartment. Back then it was about a 40 minute bike ride away, a trip we gladly made. Kantarou is a wonderful place, with delicious sushi that is quite affordable for "real" sushi (I mean "real" as opposed to the cheap kaitenzushi we usually eat). Yet we haven't made it to Kantarou since we moved, even though it's just 5 minutes away.
The special thing about Kantarouzushi is the preparation of the fish. It isn't just raw fish sliced up and slapped on top of sushi rice- much of the fish has been cooked or prepared as shime or kombu-jime. Shime involves the fish being marinated in a vinegar mixture, while kombu-jime has the fish being wrapped in kombu (kelp). Both techniques give the fish a deeper flavour and soft texture, while cutting any disagreeable fishy odours.
Unfortunately my camera is still being repaired and I had to use my cameraphone. But I snapped a picture of everything we ate, so for this post I'm you're getting quantity, not quality.
Sake with an appetizer of shirauo kazunoko ae (baby whitefish dressed with herring roe).
Tako yawaraka-ni (octopus braised in soy sauce), wonderfully soft and tender. I love this stuff and can no longer eat regular octopus. With freshly grated wasabi.
Hirame (flounder) sashimi, with ponzu (soy sauce with citrus juice) flavoured with negi (green onions) and momiji oroshi (daikon grated with chili pepper). A delicate subtle flavour with a pleasent firm texture.
Kisu (Japanese whiting), a mild lean fish. It was dressed with salt so was eaten as-is, a great way to eat such a delicate fish.
Tai (sea bream), clean-tasting and mild.
Kohada (gizzard shad), rich-tasting with plenty of oil. One of my favourites, so we ordered seconds.
Shinko (baby gizzard shad), the same fish as the kohada above, but tasted completely different. Shinko is too young to have much fat, so is quite light.
Sanma (Pacific saury), another rich oily fish. So good we ordered more.
Aji (horse mackerel), dressed with soy sauce, ginger and negi. Nicely oily but mild-tasting.
Ni-anago (conger eel simmered in a soy-based sauce). Rich and soft, it just melted in my mouth.
Saba (mackerel), another favourite. This is the oiliest and fishiest fish, but the shime preparation renders it almost mild.
Kujira (whale), with garlic. We didn't like this at all. I've tried whale a few times and never really liked it, but it's such a delicacy here that I assumed I just wasn't eating good whale. But if Kantarou can't make it tasty, no one can. So this will be my last time eating whale.
Tobiko (flying fish roe). Sweet and crunchy.
Tako yawarakani, the same stuff we had as an appetizer. Lovely.
Ikura (salmon roe). Unlike the soy sauce flavoured ikura I've been eating recently, this was lightly flavoured with salt. Nice clean sea flavour.
Hon-maguro chu-toro (tuna belly). Normally toro is too rich and oily for me. This toro was rich and melted on my tongue but didn't leave a yucky greasy feeling.
Saba-jiru (mackerel soup), with fu (balls of wheat gluten) and mitsuba (trefoil). The broth was amazingly delicious, both rich and delicate at the same time.

Asakusa-jiru (soup with nori seaweed). Our favourite soup, the fragrant nori giving the soup a rich sea flavour.
We finished with green tea and headed home, completely satisfied. Our favourites of the night: kohada, sanma, tako yawaraka-ni. But it was all great (well, except for the damn whale).
Kantarou-zushi
Lunch 11:30 to 2:00 Dinner 5:00 to 11:00, closed Tuesdays
03-3925-3358
4-23-7 Oizumigakuen-cho, Nerima-ku, Tokyo
Recent Comments