Sushi Dai @ Tsukiji Market, Tokyo

Mom tried multiple times to convince me not to get up early in the morning to queue up for Sushi Dai. She sometimes did have a point. We are in Tokyo after all. Any sushi joint would serve decent or better sushi. It would be fresh no matter what. Still, I've read rave reviews and my auntie and her family experienced it first hand how good the sushi here was, so I just had to try it out for myself.

So we did wake up early in the morning at 1.30am, left around 2am, then took a taxi to Tsukiji, got there around 2.30am. It took us some time to look for the place and luckily, we saw 3 tourists walking towards the shop too. We followed them of course and queued up. Guess what? There was already a queue when we got there. We were actually the 2nd group to be served.

Technically, since it's bar style, the place can only seat 13 people. They start serving you almost straight away. The omakase option is a 9 pc + 1 (of your choice) option. And by the time you're done, you will be very full. They also served us green tea and miso soup (mine had salmon and some fish bones).

The chefs can all speak English, Chinese and Cantonese from what I can gather. They also talked a lot in Japanese in a very animated fashion, so even though you don't understand them, you will find their reactions amusing. I guess perhaps it's part of the "entertainment", though of course, not really. I'm here for the food.

So my verdict is, I've been to places here in Melbourne where the sushi was better though I have to say that the variety here was of course better. There were pieces of sushi that I felt were a bit "iffy" or "fishy". There were some that were outstanding like the cutlass fish, saury (seasonal), eel and the scallop.

By the time we were finished, it was around 6am and the queue outside was massive! Considering the time between then and 12.30nn which was the time that they close, I wonder if they will be able to serve everybody.

I would probably queue up one more time in another season to see if the variety differs. But overall, the experience was ok and I can say that you can find better omakase in Tokyo without waking up at 1.30am.