Midori Sushi

Good sushi doesn't have to be expensive

Midori Sushi is famous among both locals and tourists alike as the place to go for the most value for money fresh sushi you’ll find in central Tokyo. Located inside the overhead pass on the 4th floor of Shibuya’s Mark City, each evening Midori draws a long line of hungry customers in need of their daily dose of raw fish.

Outside Mark City.

Under recommendation from Yan, MJ and I made it a point to visit Midori while in Shibuya one evening. We arrived early, so there were barely anyone in the queue. Though not quite hungry yet (we just had a meal at Freshness Burger) we decided to beat the crowd.

Midori is located inside the overhead walkover.

There are a number of other branches with varied menus. Just look for this sign.

Inside.

It was the personification of a typical sushi restaurant inside, nothing fancy. Service was spot on. After thanking the waitress for seating us in English, we were promptly handed a more gaijin friendly menu instead. On the adjacent table, a woman and her mother kept insisting that she didn’t want any tea. They were speaking in a certain Cantonese so I’d assume they were Malaysian. The staff kept trying to explain that it was “service”. It wasn’t until hearing the golden word “free” that they finally calmed down. If you’ve eaten at a Chinese restaurant before, you’ll understand the paranoia.

The menu.

People will often complain how expensive everything in Japan is. They cite the cost of accommodation, transport and (more often than not) food. These people are looking around hard enough.

Remember, you aren’t living in a hotel, making trips across borders and eating at luxurious restaurants back home everyday either so you can’t expect to be doing that for cheap. I’ll leave the ranting (and tips!) on how the cost of surviving in Japan is actually comparable (if not cheaper) than Singapore to some other time. Instead the whole paragraph up there is a precursor to the fact that holy, where else are you going to find sushi like this for twenty odd dollars!

Part of the set.

I would had ordered the best set which cost about $30 but it came with eel and MJ refused to eat anything that didn’t look like salmon. The last time I ate eel, I ended up with Mick Jagger lips for a week so decided to get the one next in line. 9 premium pieces of fresh sushi, some tuna makis, chawanmushi and miso soup for approximately $25.

Sushi, soup and chawanmushi set. 1,680 yen (SGD$25).

A similar course would cost you upwards of $60 in Singapore. And it wouldn’t come close to the freshness experienced here today.

Just look at the glistening thing. Ain't it lovely.

Upper sushi assortment with soup. 1,365 yen (SGD$20).

MJ went with the cheaper set, not because it was cheaper but because he couldn’t do without his salmon. Even this set came with the trinity of awesome cuts but swapped out the sweet prawns for regular shrimp and sea urchin for the orange fish. He wasn’t quite content with that though as he ordered this extra plate of parasitical goodness too.

Noweigan Roll. 840 yen (SGD$13).

Even if it were pricier, our experience at Midori would have been a fully satisfying one. So we fully understood why people were willing to queue over an hour. Sure enough, by the time we were done with our meal, the dinner crowd was settling in.

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Sushi no Midori (Midori of Sushi)
Level 4 Mark City East
1-12-3 Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo