No.1 Conveyor Sushi Restaurant in Japan You Need To Try

Ritsuko

January 17, 2023

Kanazawa Maimon Sushi uses its own route to ship freshest fish

No.1 Conveyor Sushi Restaurant in Japan You Need To Try

I’m sure you have been to one of those conveyor sushi restaurants( we call “Kaiten sushi”, Kaiten means “revolving”) in Japan. And now there are many of them overseas. Today I will show you the No.1 conveyor sushi restaurant in Japan!

Why No.1?

Take a note! They are called “Kanazawa Maimon Sushi“. And why are they considered as No.1? It’s because they won “The 7th Annual Japan Kaiten Sushi MVP Competition” last year!

The criteria for the competition is :

Service & Performance: situation setting, welcome customer, Picking up seasonally fresh fish and sending off
Technical: Cutting and making sushi (presentation, speed, portion)

So the executive sushi chef Hiroshi Uchizoe of Kanazawa Maimon Sushi Sangenjaya location won the 1st place. Congratulations!! He was on TV last month.

What’s the price range?

Of course, they are not as cheap as other kaiten sushi restaurants who serve ¥100 per plate. That’s why we didn’t see many young people like millennials and Gen Z when we were there. Mostly family and middle-aged couples and friends.

The cheapest ones are rolled sushi (¥180) and Chutoro is ¥790. But if you go to high-end regular sushi restaurants (not conveyor style), they charge more. So Maimon are pretty reasonable in that sense.

Maintain freshness while shipping directly from Hokuriku

Kanazawa Maimon Sushi focuses on “seasonally fresh fish” from Sea of Japan. They started from Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture and expanded nationally as well as abroad. And “maimon” is “umaimon” which means “something delicious” in Hokuriku dialect.

They receive fresh fish from Kanazawa and nearby ports 3 or 4 times a day daily. For example, the seafood purchased at night auctions at Kanazawa Port is shipped to Kanto and Kansai locations through their own route while maintaining outstanding freshness.
When they open next morning, all the locations are ready to serve sushi with fresh fish at the same time!

Maimon signature sushi items

Another good things about them is they have signature items exclusively available at this restaurant. You should try these items when you are there.

Those are:

Nodoguro (Blackthroat seaperch) , a Ishikawa specialty fish – considered as king of white fish
Akanishi selfish – tastes like turban shell
Namera (Red-spotted grouper)
Shiroebi – Specialty of Toyama bay
Amaebi – Sweet and soft
Gasuebi – Very rare shrimp only found at small part of Sea of Japan.

Let’s go inside

Now I will show you what we ate at Tama Plaza location. Tama Plaza is on Tokyu Dententoshi line. It’s basically located in Yokohama city but it’s about 40 min drive by car from our town (Tachikawa, Tokyo).

We had to wait for about 15 min to get in. They don’t take reservations but they offer waiting list on the same day. My friend put us down on the list online while we were driving, which saves time.

You see some items running on the conveyor but people just order with their iPad on the table. And we usually don’t see cooks making sushi at other Kaiten sushi restaurants but this Kanazawa Maimon has an open kitchen in the center where all the chefs working hard are visible. So we talked to the chef what’s fresh, what are today’s specials, etc. It’s another great service.

Look at how happy Mr. Roboto was when he was eating Maguro Chutoro (Tuna medium Toro).

I ordered “Kifune Set” (¥3,500) which comes with 10 pcs of Sushi (Maguro Chutoro, Nodoguro, Amaebi, white fish, squid, Toyama shiroebi roll, Ikura roll, Tamagoyaki), Tempura, Chawanmushi (egg pudding) and soup. I highly recommend this set as it’s a quite a deal.

We ordered more. We didn’t take photos but videos for Reel. We will make a short video and post on IG later.

There are 7 locations in Kanto including Shibuya. Check out the nearest location to your hotel or your residence. https://www.maimon-susi.com/shop/

Restaurant info

Kanazawa Maimon Sushi Tama Plaza
Address: 2-19-3 Utsukushigaoka, Aoba Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa
Phone: 045-905-1144
Hours: 11am~9:30pm
URL: https://www.maimon-susi.com