Mitani

Arguably the best sushi bar in Tokyo, if not all of Japan.
Before posting my reasonings for my claim, let me first build my street credz.
I’ve ate at Mitani about 8 times since the day they first opened.
I’ve ate at Sushi Saito 2 times.
I’ve ate at Sukiyabashi Jiro 1 time.
so I am braging.
When deciding to award the best sushi bar in Tokyo, it has to come down to one of these 3 restaurants. Sure, argument could be made for others, but others are not at the standards of these three. Note that Mitani is the best sushi when money is not considered in the equation. When you start to consider cost-​performance, many others could easily out rank there three super expensive sushi bars.
My argument: Mitani is the best sushi bar in Tokyo.
Why?
REASON#1
I love the fact that you have a seat for the entire night. Sushi Saito has 2 rotations each night. If you pick the earlier sitting, you need to leave before the second round comes. Sukiyabashi Jiro, I wrote a whole essay long review on the fact that my meal ended in 14 minutes. Here at Mitani, you can relax, enjoy sake, and sit back and indulge.
REASON#2
As a person who enjoys drinking alcohol while eating, I like the fact that Mitani is NOT all about Nigiri Sushi. For those who are not familiar, Nigiri is the most common type of sushi where the fish is on top of the rice ball. At Mitani, he starts you off with «otsumami» or side dishes. His style is a bit similar to Kaiseki style restaurants. He goes into Nigiri towards the second half of the meal. This way, you do not become full in 1 hour. You get stuffed quite quickly if you keep eating those Nigiri rice balls.
REASON#3
Mitani-​san is very friendly and takes care of his customers. No scary sushi chef here. No, «my way or highway» attitude. If you really want mayo on your tuna, I am sure he can fix you up. If you understand Japanese, I recommend that you chat with him. He will explain his culinary approach and how he thinks that he needs to present «unreal» meal.
REASON#4
Alcohol selection. He does not slap you in the face for wanting to drink wine with sushi. He does not say «what? you want to disgrace my sushi by pairing it with French Champaign? With Sushi, Sake only!» While I am actually not a big fan of wine with sushi, many of my friends are, so Mitani is a convenient place to go with friends. He has a whole wine & sake pairing lined up for his course, so I recommend you choose that option. Price for the pairing? Unknown; so don’t ask… seriously.
These are the 4 main reasonings that make Mitani number one in Tokyo. Note that great tasting sushi is not one of my arguments. All three of these nominated sushi bars uses the best fish from Tsukiji and super human skills to make each fish shine the brightest using various techniques.
PRICE: Wishy washiy. If you need to know the exact price of everything you order, do not go here. You leave it to the sushi master to decide on the price at the end of the meal. You need to trust his ability to charge you a fair price. Cost varies with season as well. Some seasonal fish costs more. I always drink here, but some people have told me that the price does not matter whether or not you drink. I don’t know that for a fact.
Average Cost of my dinner here: 30,000 Per person.
RESERVATION: When I started going here, reservation was very easy to get. We used to rent out the entire place all to our selves. Now, it is probably the most competitive place to get a reservation. Hotel concierge cannot help you here. American Express concierge cannot help you as well. On average, you need to book a date 1.5 years in advance.
KIDS: Children are not allowed for regular dining; however, if you rent the entire place, he allows kids.
Smoking: Completely non-​smoking at all hours.