The 7 Immutable Laws Of Identifying A “Real” Japanese Restaurant

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I know this week was supposed to be week 4 of the Shojin Ryori Series, but I need at least another week to cook more things to come up with a good meal combination for you guys. So, instead of that, I wanted to go over something similar… figuring out how to know if a Japanese restaurant is any good.

The thing is, most non-Japanese people don’t know good Japanese restaurants from bad ones. It’s not your fault, though. You grew up eating that Costco Maruchan ramen when you weren’t going to Happy Teriyaki (pro tip: they are not happy). I imagine it’s a lot like when I try to find a “good” Indian restaurant. I honestly have no idea what’s “good,” though for some reason I think I do (I don’t). If I took Ghandi to one of the Indian restaurants I frequent I’m sure he’d slap me in the face.

So, as someone who’s ridden the ol’ Japanese restaurant donkey cart a few times, I’m here to educate you. No longer do you need to go to sub-par Japanese (I should say “Japanese” restaurants just because you don’t know any better. I hope none of these methods “washoku” you, though. Har har har…

Law #1: Be Super Racist With Yelp Reviewers

Law #1? Don’t trust non-Japanese people on Yelp (sometimes you can trust other Asians, but they have to have a good track record). Okay, I know this is super racist (as in, if Superman had the power of racism, it would be at this level), but I hold myself to this very racist standard for all things on Yelp. If I want to find some good Chicago pizza, I try to find reviewers from Chicago. If I want to find good  Chinese food, I try to find Chinese reviewers (who say things like “this is just like what my mom would make me as a kid!!! ermagahd!!”).

Unfortunately, I had to learn my lesson the hard way. Coming to Portland, where everyone is white and can’t tell the difference between chuutoro and ootoro (I know, barbaric, right??), I was excited to see so many highly rated Japanese / sushi restaurants in the area. Then, I went to one. “Eugh, terrible!” I’d say. “Probably a fluke. Let’s try another… wth is wrong with you people??”

Then I learned… Some reviews are much better than others. Things to look out for in order of preference:

  1. Japanese people. Obviously they know what they’re talking about.
  2. People with Japanese names. Chances are they grew up with at least some real Japanese food.
  3. People who mention that they lived / worked in Japan (not always good, but a good indication because they’ve had lots of “real” Japanese food).
  4. People who don’t mention “pot stickers” in their review (last resort).

On top of this, you’ll want to look out for certain keywords in the reviews. If a lot of the reviews mention the miso soup, the pot stickers, or the bentos, there’s a good chance that this Japanese restaurant are not the droids you’re looking for. I don’t know what is up with Americans and their miso soup, though. The funny thing is, it gets way better than whatever gets served in America.

As one Yelp Reviewer said: “This miso soup is off the hook!”

Is it really, though? Is it? Yelp needs to add a “sort by racism” option.

Law #2: Avoid Anyplace With The Word “Teriyaki” In The Name

Photo by Geoff Peters 604

I feel like this goes without saying, but any restaurant with the name “Teriyaki” in it is almost certainly a no-go. Hey, teriyaki is tasty, but it’s almost always incredibly Americanized.

While you should avoid places that have the word “Teriyaki” in their name, it’s probably worth noting that there are good Japanese restaurants that serve teriyaki as a part of their menu. Note that this is probably because most Americans don’t actually like “real” Japanese food, so they have to serve salty meat behemoths. That being said, places that serve absolutely no teriyaki (chicken or beef, especially) at all get extra points and are more likely to be “good.”

Law #3: No Refunds. No Exchanges. No Fun.

Photo by Unlisted Sightings

Look around you. Do you see signs that say “No refunds,” “No exchanges,” “No …. etc”? If you do, you’re in luck! You may be inside of a “good” Japanese restaurant. Although not all good Japanese restaurants have these kinds of signs, only good ones do. I have no idea why this is, but I have a theory:

  1. Japanese person comes to America thinking “hey, I’m going to start an awesome Japanese restaurant.”
  2. Japanese person starts said Japanese restaurant. Americans can’t appreciate it because they aren’t used to this kind of “real” Japanese food. Ask for refunds and exchanges.
  3. Because Japanese people aren’t used to refunds or exchanges, especially with food, Japanese restaurant owner is shocked!
  4. Japanese restaurant owner slowly becomes more and more hard on the inside. He becomes bitter and cold. He puts up signs.

That’s only one theory though! One thing you can be certain of, though: If you enjoy good Japanese food, there will never be a reason to return any of the food you get at a sign-infested Japanese restaurant. It’s going to be excellent food. Give the owner a thumbs up. He probably needs it.

Law #4: Restaurant Should Have A Japanese Chef, Japanese Owner

sushi chef

Photo by Kojach

Whoa Koichi! Don’t go all KKK Nazi on us, now.

Sorry sorry! Hear me out, my dear Grand Dragon Of The Realm!

First off, I’ll say that there are exceptions to this rule. That being said, I’d rather go to a Thai place run by Thai people or a McDonalds run by an American. In general, this is just a better experience. When a Thai person makes Thai food, chances are they’ve been making it their whole life. When someone else makes Thai food, it’s probably something they learned recently (in the last few years). I’m not saying non-Thai people can’t make good Thai food. I am saying that Thai people, in general, make better Thai food. Same goes with Japanese, possibly more so.

Here’s the deal: Japanese food restaurants have nice profit margins. People pay top dollar for sushi, and it definitely doesn’t cost them $6 for two slices of tuna. Because of this, there are many other people who want to jump in on this business to make some mad sushi-bank. This is probably why there are so many “Japanese” restaurants run by Koreans and Chinese. There’s a lot of “exploitation” in this way.

Of course, these people are mainly in it for the profits. I find it hard to believe that they’re in it for their passion of Japanese food. They’re in it for the profits that Japanese food holds, which means the quality suffers as well (people who want more profits cut more corners). So, in general, Japanese restaurants run by non-Japanese people aren’t as good. The experience isn’t there and the passion isn’t there. There’s a reason why Korean kimchi tastes way better than Japanese kimchi.

But how can you tell the difference between a Korean owner and a Japanese owner? Well, sometimes you can’t. Usually there’s a few hints in the menu, though:

  1. Do they serve any non-Japanese food that’s Korean or Chinese? If so, the restaurant is probably not run by Japanese people.
  2. Are there takeout menus? If so, there’s a decent chance that this isn’t a restaurant run by a Japanese person.
  3. Do the menus have numbers next to each item? This is generally a Chinese restaurant thing.

But like I said, sometimes there are great Japanese restaurants run by non-Japanese people. In general, though, non-Japanese people running Japanese restaurants are in it for the money, not for the passion. You’ll be able to taste the difference in the food.

Law #5: Should Not Serve Orange Chicken Or Hamburgers

Photo by pointnshoot

As mentioned in Law #4, there shouldn’t be non-Japanese food on the menu (maybe something for the kids… maybe). Whether it’s because it tells you that non-Japanese people are running the restaurant or that they don’t have focus, in general this is never a good thing. Have you ever been to a restaurant that was great that served two or three completely different categories of food? Probably not. There are a lot of “Japanese” restaurants that serve non-Japanese food out there as well. In general, they’re not great. Exception? Hawaii. Hawaii can get away with anything in regards to food.

Law #6: Should Not Be Named After Mt. Fuji

Photo by アリセ

There’s one thing that connects all mediocre Japanese restaurants, and that is the name. Usually, good Japanese restaurants have unique names. Perhaps it’s the owner’s name, perhaps it’s something else. What I can tell you is that the name probably does not contain any of these words.

  • Fuji / Mt. Fuji
  • Bento
  • -Zilla
  • Tokyo
  • Sushi
  • Samurai
  • Wasabi
  • Ninja
  • Teriyaki
  • Sakura
  • Any combination of Beni or Hana.

Oh, and it gets worse when you combine any of these. “Samurai Wasabi,” “Fuji Bento,” “Tokyo Sushi,” “Ninja Teriyaki,” and so on. These sound concernedly real to me.

Think about it. What do non-Japanese people know about Japan? Okay, there’s Mt. Fuji (Google shows nearly 15 million results for “Fuji Restaurant”). Then there’s Tokyo… everyone knows about Tokyo. After that there’s Godzilla, Samurai, Ninja, Teriyaki, and sushi. In terms of “what Japan is to regular Americans” this is about it. There’s two problems with restaurants having names that include these words:

  1. It may have been named by someone who knows nothing about Japan (and probably nothing about Japanese food, see Law #4), which is why they chose some generic Japan-related name. Not any different from naming a Chinese restaurant after pandas and bamboo.
  2. Someone is making this restaurant for Americans, which means it isn’t Japanese food anymore.

Let me know in the comments. How many of you have Japanese restaurants that include one of these words? I’d bet at least 100% of you?

Law #7: Sushi Rolls Should Not Take Up Twelve Menu Pages

Photo by ayesamson

And the last law: sushi! With the soaring popularity of sushi in America, you can’t skip this. Sushi gives you a ton of clues as to whether or not a Japanese restaurant is “good” or not.

One Page Maximum, Please: If the menu contains more than one page of sushi rolls you’re in trouble. First of all, sushi rolls are much more of a thing in America than they are in Japan. Americans go apeshit over sushi rolls, for who knows what reason. I guess they contain less raw ingredients and you can deep fry them? I have no idea. Thing is, there are way too many of them. I consistently run into sushi menus that contain literally six or more pages worth of sushi rolls, and every one of them is just a slight variation on the last. Most likely, this restaurant is run by someone who is not Japanese. There’s lots of money in sushi rolls, so this person thinks that the more they have, the more money they’ll make. Obviously they aren’t in it for the passion of making great Japanese food.

Too Much Rice: It’s hard to gage this if you’re not used to less rice, but in general, “bad” sushi contains more rice and “good” sushi contains less. This is a trick that most Japanese restaurants do to make things bigger and fill you up faster (without having to give up as much profit-cutting fish!). Almost every sushi restaurant in America uses too much rice, I can tell you now. When you find someplace that does less (and higher quality) rice and achieves a better balance, you know you’ve found a gem.

Sushi Chef Shouldn’t Talk To You Much: Well, unless he knows you pretty well. In general, Japanese sushi chefs tend to talk to people they don’t know a lot less (exceptions to this rule abound, I’m sure). Non-Japanese sushi chefs are more talkative. Perhaps this is due to focus. Perhaps this is due to culture. I’m not totally sure, but it is something I’ve noticed. They’re too immersed in making great sushi to talk to you about your marathon or whatever it is you’re blabbing on about.

The Air Should Smell “Fresh”: If you smell the air and it smells fishy… well… something isn’t right. Sushi shouldn’t be “fishy,” and it certainly shouldn’t make the whole place smell fishy. This probably means the fish isn’t as fresh as it could be. Smell the air and turn around if it’s not ideal.

Seasonal: There are a lot of items that should be served seasonally. While I won’t go into what’s served when, in general your chef shouldn’t give you anything seasonal that’s not available fresh during that particular season. One way to figure this out is to ask the chef what is offered seasonally right now or look for a “specials” board. This will take more experience to figure out, but this little hint will tell you about how important freshness is to them.

Sushi Shouldn’t Require Wasabi, Shoyu (Soy Sauce): This is how you know you’ve found the motherload. Almost no Japanese restaurant does this in America. Even Japanese places don’t do this. But, if you go someplace that applies both wasabi and sauce for you (because they know what’s perfect for that particular piece of sushi), you can pinch yourself and see if you’re dreaming. Most likely, you’ll wake up a moment later, hungry and covered in sweat. If you don’t, though, smile and know that you might be at Jiro’s.

That’s Just Like Your Opinion, Man…

Wow, what a load of racism this post was! Sorry about that. Just want to mention again that there are exceptions to all of these “laws” (okay, so maybe they aren’t “laws,” but it sounds cooler). These laws will only get you so far, though. You have to go out there and try real Japanese food if you want to learn to appreciate real Japanese food. The more you try (and cook!) the better your palate will become. Of course, same goes for all types of food, including Korean, Chinese, Thai, American, French, and so-on. When it comes to food, the mother-country almost always knows best. If you want Japanese food you should get it from a “real” Japanese restaurant.

Also, food changes as it gets touched by other cultures. This isn’t a bad thing, and “real” Japanese food as it is now is definitely just a series of changes and adjustments that would probably be an abomination if eaten 500 years ago. “Real” Japanese food doesn’t exist because it’s all real. Same goes for “real” anything. Real is what you make it.

That being said, let’s all get high and mighty about “real” Japanese food for a moment anyways. Tell me about your “real” or “not real” Japanese food experiences in the comments! How many restaurants with the name “Fuji” are in your city or town? How many pages of sushi-roll menu do you read before flipping your table?

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Hope you enjoyed this post and are now ready to go out and find some “real” Japanese food. Sadly, there’s a chance you won’t find any at all, but it never hurts to try. Worst case scenario? Just go to Japan.

[hr]

Source: Header Image (note that I’m not saying this is a bad place to eat, it’s just my header picture because it has the word Teriyaki in it).

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  • shirokumatyo

    The funniest “taco” I ever had was in Japan, at a quirky, grimy neighborhood steakhouse called, of all things, “Amigo.” It wasn’t a Mexican restaurant per se, but had a few… well… Mexican-sounding things on the menu, including the hilarious “tacos,” which consisted of a limp flour tortilla encasing a few crumbles of completely unseasoned ground pork and some onion slices. That was it. The steak, though, was great, a big eight-ounce, perfectly cooked sirloin for only about 1,600 yen (about $22 at the time).

  • nandesuka

    The only place I’ve found real Japanese food in America is in NYC, on St. Marks. The entire street is littered with Japanese restaurants where the chefs and waitresses are Japanese, and if you come at that special time of the night, you’ll see Japanese salarymen working in NYC getting their after-work drinks. There’s even an izakaya there

  • beattiend

    that would be fun ^o^

  • http://www.tadaimatte.com/ Ashley Haley

    At least two of Toronto’s top-5 homestyle Japanese restaurants have Tokyo in the name and are run by native Japanese. Gotta make it accessible to the masses, I guess!
    Still, great food at both. :)

  • mangoxo

    Hey Koichi… there’s actually this place that’s really delicious out in Omaha, NE called Wasabi that is a Japanese restaurant where you pay $20 and it’s all you can eat. It’s always pretty packed and the Japanese exchange students I went there with really enjoyed the food. I’m not sure if the people that run the place are actually Japanese either!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    I think you may have missed the point of this article

  • Koichi no sensei

    WTF

  • TexS

    Love this!

    Law #1 — I definitely use this on Chowhound and Yelp. Whenever I see a post about “great [insert name] rolls” I immediately dismiss that restaurant from consideration, and that reviewer as an idiot. Rolls by definition cannot be great. Definitely goes along with Law #7. I collectively refer to those abominations as “Chinese McSushi Monster Truck Rolls from Hell”. Look at this disgusting garbage served by an AYCE place in Toronto:
    http://eatherenext.blogspot.ca/2011/06/ten-ichi.html
    Mango puree does not belong on fish. And what’s up with that baked guacamole on a shell?

    Law #6 — you need to add “Ichiban” to that list!

    Law #4 — totally agree. It disgusts me to think that Chinese investors have totally hijacked Japanese cuisine in North America for their own benefit, such that an entire generation won’t know what real Japanese food is. Try to serve a contemporary teenager or 20-something some nigiri and they’ll turn up their noses, saying “ewwww, I can’t eat that, give me some real Japanese food, you know, California rolls… and I need to make that Yoda bath* to dunk it in”
    * Yoda Bath – wasabi mixed with dark soy sauce
    Another cuisine the Chinese are trying to hijack is Cajun food. Ever seen “Kelly’s Cajun Grill” at the mall (in Canada they go by “Bourbon St. Grill”? It’s junk Chinese food, passed off as Cajun food, and I have yet to see a non-Chinese working there. Amazing. And not in a good way.

  • deborahchan

    Sarku. Sarku? That’s not even a Japanese word! It’s not even a pretend Japanese word.
    It’s just…..sarku-ey. Blech.

  • http://twitter.com/WackoMcGoose Kimura

    Here, this script should work better.

    import commenter 古戸ヱリカ;
    import script seppuku.~ath;
    ~ath(古戸ヱリカ) {
    //~ath uses java-style console output because shut up
    //shut up is why
    System.out.println(“I regret all the things! All of them!”);
    } execute(seppuku.~ath);
    this.die();

  • http://theurbanmission.posterous.com Joshua Miller

    You just disqualified every japanese restaurant in the Seattle-Tacoma region…

  • http://twitter.com/MikaMaddela Mika Maddela

    Yup. Totally know what you mean about too sugary. But then again, I’m the type of girl that water downs her juice:)

  • Duong

    Kuni sushi is a great little sushi place in Cupertino. Another one is Gokaku. I judge sushi by the freshness and butteriness of the raw fish.

  • Mahdhi Osman

    WEABOO CENTRAL

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    you too? Do you warm it up in the micro for 5-10 seconds too? ARE WE BOTH EQUALLY CRAZY ABOUT OUR JUICE???? D:

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    My sensei! You’re back, you DO care!!!

  • ジョサイア

    That comment get’s only 4 desus out of 5 nekos…gomen.

  • berryz

    My family has worked for Sarku Japan for many years. It’s owned by a handful of Chinese people and it’s headquartered in Canada. After moving to Thailand for a few years and trying some fairly authentic Japanese cuisine(yea, I said Thailand), I was embarrassed at the food served at Sarku Japan.

  • deborahchan

    hehe – thanks for throwing in your opinion :) – cause you know, I appreciate the fact that there are lots of people out there eating Sarku food and enjoying it – but MAN, not Japanese food, right?

  • deborahchan

    It is an affront to intelligence.

    What the hells, Bourbon St Grill…

    It’s like this…it’s like this salesperson comes along, and he’s calling a hyena a “cat” and selling it as a pet. If you don’t know what the common definition of “cat” is, then, heck, you might take that hyena home and give it a fancy collar and a litter box. But if you’ve ever, and I mean EVER seen you know, an actual cat before, you feel betrayal and confusion and just want to be like “Liar! that’s…that’s just WRONG, you can’t just sell a hyena as a cat, you won’t get away with this!” But then some random pet-lover person comes up and goes “Awesome, I love cats, gimme that cat, I’m gonna buy that!” and they actually pay for this not-cat, and happily cart the not-cat away, and you’re left feeling like “but…but…….that’s a hyena, what are you……no…not a cat…..nooo…….*sigh”

    That is how it feels.

  • TexS

    You nailed it Debbie…. it’s a losing battle. Maybe I’ll go fly that cool new airline called Megabus and drive my Porsche otherwise known as Chevy. Too bad I can’t go into stores and give them a $5 bill and tell them to ring it up as a $100.

    Bourbon St/Kelly’s Cajun Grill really gets under my skin. They aren’t even TRYING to be “slightly” Cajun, most locations even have soy sauce and duck sauce packets at the checkouts!

  • Jinan

    I’ve actually eaten at Ikko too, and it was definitely the most authentic Japanese restaurant I’ve been to so far. The food was well worth the price and the quality was apparent. I also liked how they had a sign on their door warning that they serve no “American” sushi rolls.

  • mishnuuu

    I have a sushi place near me that’s called Tokyo Tokyo, WOAH it has like 8 maneki nekos, fans everywhere a friggin map of Japan and crappy sushi with terrible shoya. The only reason I go there is because there are cool japanese (I guess Asian) drinks and every flavour of Pocky

  • japanes_newbie

    I totally agree with this post! Its kinda like the Japanese Rick Steeve’s of postings! Hahaha! Even he says, when you visit a place overseas, don’t go to where the “tourists” eat because it is likely “touristy” pleasing food; go to where the locals eat. Makes sense. I have to say, sometimes (well, actually 99% of the time) we Americans are just super pleased or proud of ourselves to eat anything that we think sounds foreign; because if it has the words “Authentic Mexican”, Teriyaki World”, or “Ala Carte” , we are eating true country-of-origin food. Instead people from those countries, avoid these places like Typhoid Mary and laugh at us for being stupid!

  • http://www.facebook.com/jeremy.rawley Jeremy Rawley

    As long as it tastes good, why not? Our Chinese food is next to nothing like what they actually eat in China. Our Italian food isn’t like what native-born Italians grew up eating. It makes perfect sense that Japanese restaurants here would serve things that aren’t authentic. Generally, the more recent the immigrant community in question is, the more authentic the food will be. Vietnamese? Most of them came here escaping the Vietnam War, so of course their restaurants are going to be more authentic. Japanese? Chinese? Italian? Greek? Irish? They’re all older communities–of course the food’s not going to resemble what native born Japanese, Chinese, etc., grew up eating. It’s going to be more Americanized. The most authenticity you’ll have is if it’s based on a dish that the earlier immigrants from X community ate when that generation came here. Mexican food? We still have plenty of Mexicans coming up here for work, on top of the ones who lived in the southwestern states and Texas before that region was part of the U.S.

    Now, I live in Delaware, which is overwhelmingly white, black, and Hispanic. We don’t have very many Asians, but we have more Chinese than Japanese restaurants. Our Mexican restaurants are more authentic than any of the Asian places. But we also have a growing Eastern European community. Closest we have to Japanese restaurants are big-box joints like Tokyo Steakhouse, but does it really matter how “authentic” it is? It’s still going in the same place!

  • Lily Queen

    Objection to Law #5: Should Not Serve Orange Chicken Or Hamburgers — anyone who needs this post is going to assume this law includes things like spaghetti and hamburg steak, which are often signs of a GREAT Japanese restaurant. (Unless you meant “sushi restaurant,” and I’m sure you wouldn’t confuse the two, right? RIGHT?!)

    They shouldn’t serve Chinese-American food and they shouldn’t serve things right off the “Unadventurous Eater” menu from Red Lobster, though.

  • Lily Queen

    Then this article is not for you — it’s for people who want to find authentic Japanese food. :| (It’s not even “Why Authentic Japanese Food is The Best!!!”)

  • Jane

    Ha, this made me laugh! There are three “Japanese” restaurants in my town: Sakura Sushi, Tokyo Sushi (not even kidding) and Oishii Sushi!

  • http://akira.hana.bi Akira Uchimura

    Koichi sama!

    Can I translate this post to spanish and post it on our site? Pretty please? (http://hana.bi )
    Many many many many people in latin america need to know these rules. Heck the whole world needs to know them.

    Regards,

    Akira

  • Anna Li

    1. Name Rule: Does not have: Panda, Bamboo, Teriyaki, Chopsticks, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Lee (not even a Chinese name), Emperor, etc.

    2. Patron Rule: Is it crowded with CHINESE people talking in CHINESE all the time? Are reviews good and from CHINESE people?

    3. Owner Rule: Are the owners and chefs Chinese? Do you see the owner? If you are a regular, is the owner on good terms with you?

    4. Menu Rule: Are a lot of the items in Chinese? If there are also English names for the dishes, is there still more Chinese than English? Is there any teriyaki, pot stickers, low quality rice, etc.?

    5. Dish/Presentation Rule: Does it look/smell good? Is all meat real? Is the fish fresh? Are the dishes meant to be shared (food should be shared with the family, after all!)?

    FINAL RULE: Chains are not Chinese. If the spellings look “American” (i.e. “Lee” instead of “Li”), it’s likely American. Taiwan and Cantonese have different pinyin than mainland China.

  • Helen

    You’re totally right about the name, my favourite Japanese restaurant in Manchester (UK) is called New Samsi. It’s also run by Japanese people and doesn’t have numbers on the menus….pretty sure I remember seeing odd signs too.

  • Helen

    Oh and I meant to add, another way to tell it’s good is that it has it’s own Japanese food shop in the basement, so you can go there to buy your ingredients too!

  • LeLy

    I both agree and disagree with several things in this article. I can understand wanting to eat real Japanese, Mexican, Thai etc. My husband and I usually go in and look around the entrance or checkout counter for trinkets or pictures that come from that country. We have live in an area of TN with large numbers of Thai and Laotians….several sushi places are run by them. The sushi at those places usually suck but the Thai food at the Thai places around town is great but even then certain ones are better than others, so just bc the country of origin is right doesn’t guarantee good food. We also have the nissan plant close by so we have a smaller Japanese community too. I’ve only located 3 “real” Japanese places within a 50mi radius of us, I’ve heard there are two or three others but we haven’t had a chance to try them. Two of those places the owners aren’t from Japan per say. Sushin’s in Murfreesboro is awesome. They serve seasonally pickled veggies, all kinds of appetizers that would normally be Japanese side dishes, they don’t look at you like you’re nuts when you ask for aburage and they serve my husband’s favorite thing in the world….ume onigiri. Chinese run places have looked at us both and thought my husband is a nut describing a rice ball with that is stuffed and that you can have a filled bean curd pocket….they always use the words bean curd pocket :( Anyway, the owners of Sushin are actually Korean and Japanese. The husband is from Osaka but lived in Korea forever(from childhood) and married his wife there then came here. There’s Korean memorabilia around but you find all the Japanese housewives of the nissan business men meeting there for lunch and the businessmen go there for get togethers. The prices are decent too. We have a hana sushi and while they don’t have anything that’s distinctly Japanese they are extremely nice and everything has a Japanese flavor, aka it’s not overly sweet. They’re from Taiwan but are from a Japanese family. The third place is in downtown Nashville directly across the street from a samurai sushi, lol, it’s called O’Sake. The owner is Japanese as well as the sushi chef. The food is ok but the samurai sushi across street has been around 30yrs and if you want sushi theirs is better. Sometimes if you want sushi, not noodles, udon or meat dishes the Chinese run places aren’t bad at all. I also agreed with someone else’s post about truly authentic Japanese food is ever changing. They eat pizza like us but with sardines and mayo. Yakisoba(the instant kind) with mayo is awesome and a well loved quick meal with school kids. The number one thing I’ve ever heard from Japanese people that they like is curry. Japanese curry is unique but I’ve never seen it served in any Japanese restaurant here and most people hear curry and say “that’s Indian.” Food constantly mingles. Curry has been in Japan for 300 plus years. I think mr Koichi might be looking for a Japanese restaurant here that is of the same caliber as a Japanese restaurant in Japan and I don’t think that will ever be likely. American’s have different taste buds and I doubt someone running a good restaurant in Japan would up and leave to run one in America. Most restaurants here are home cooked Japanese foods if you find a real Japanese restaurant I have no problem with Japanese soul food and hey I love creamy crab croquettes. Japanese food here is just like Chinese food here….you’d almost never see someone from China or Japan ordering off the same menu as the rest of us. I think it’d be easier for everyone to realize that sometimes food isn’t as exotic as you’d like to think and that sometimes it’s just a small difference that separates our palates, like mayo on pizza or green tea in a milkshake. I’d love to see a katsu burger here in TN ^.^

  • http://twitter.com/ShineTheLion Jace

    My favorite sushi place is called Tokyo Sushi. I am not sure if it is run by actual Japanese people. I kind of doubt it, but their sushi is the best I’ve had. A lot of it is Americanized (Vegas Roll anyone?) but I’ll be damned if it isn’t glorious.

  • crella

    One of my pet peeves! None of the Japanese restaurants I’ve ventured into in the US have ever been run by Japanese, and the food is usually pretty bad. The last one (in GA) I listened to the chef, and he was speaking Chinese. I said to DH that we should not order sushi, but he did anyway. The maguro was OLD. It just, smelled…ugh. I thought I was safe getting the lobster roll, but it turned out to be a nightmare, the meat from a whole small lobster deep fried and rolled into a sushi roll. I’ll never forget the slimy texture of hot oil combined with vinegar…

    The other thing that ticks me off is how Chinese restaurants in food courts and places like Quincy Market in Boston give themselves Japanese names and therefore can open more than one place. Quincy Market’s ‘Megumi of Japan’ , for example, sells the same things as the ‘Umi of Japan’ and the Panda Express. It drives me nuts that Americans think Japanese food consists of sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls.

  • Renee

    I live in Montreal. There is a lot of very very bad Japanese restauarants in Montreal. One decent sushi called Juni. Very low caliber izakayas in Montreal abound, even two that are owned by Japanese.

  • TexS

    See my post below about Chinese crap passing itself off as Cajun (look for “Kelly’s Cajun Grill” at the food court)! Oh yes, there’s also a food court chain around here called “Caribbean Queen” and you guessed it, it’s Chinese food with jerk seasoning….

  • TexS

    Bet they’re all Chinese owned.

  • http://twitter.com/matt_a_thorn_en Matt Thorn

    Wow. Too many comments to read. But I don’t think anyone has mentioned that one reason decent Japanese restaurants are so rare in the U.S. is that there has been no significant immigrant population since before Pearl Harbor. You can’t expect to find good Japanese food where there are so few Japanese.

    I’m a white guy who has lived and worked in Japan for most of my adult life, about 18 years total, and I have to say I agree with all seven of Koichi’s rules. I was going to say that one exception to the “no Fuji” law is Manhatttan’s Fujiyama Mama, but I just Googled and learned it has been closed. Figures. That place was wild.

    As for the elusive, mythical sushi place where you don’t add soy sauce or wasabi yourself, I’m reminded of a little sushi place in Kobe I heard about many, many years ago that was the equivalent of the Soup Nazi place in Seinfeld. They say the grumpy itamae would angrily kick out anyone he didn’t like for any reason. Nothing less than absolute submission was tolerated!
    ヽ(´▽｀)/へへっ

  • Jititsu

    the origin of sushi was from southeast Asia before it spreaded to jpn. japanese changed to their version.(edo sushi). No one blamed about it. so it is NOT your standard. Any kind of food belongs to everyone in the world. Let’s enjoy our foods in different ways. be happy!

  • Karen

    I loved reading your rant and i agree with it 100%

  • http://twitter.com/kima_siksin Kima

    This was very thoughtful and at the same time, hilarious XDD Personally, I can’t wait to go to Japan and taste the difference (I was gonna go next fall but DAMN IT the trip got canceled D:) but until them, I found some pretty okay restaurants. Yes, they break every other one of your laws, and yes, they might not be as authentic as something made by a Japanese person – but that doesn’t mean it’s not good XD Anyway, thanks a lot, from now on I’ll be paying attention to these :P

  • RebeccaC

    I don’t how inauthentic the food is, if a restaurant called “Ninja Teriyaki” opened up in our hometown, I’d be there all the time.

  • akane

    Japanese Chicagoan here who seconds the Sunshine Cafe tip. and Itto.

  • Guest

    I protested once at Quincy Market. I was trying to find a space for a restaurant (okonomi yaki) and the told me I wouldn’t be able to sign up for the next available place because ‘We already have two Japanese restaurants’. Once it was clear that they weren’t going to budge, I let them know what I think of the fraud these restaurants are perpetrating on the public, with QM’s (and every mall’s) help.

  • Ed

    There’s a lot to agree with here. I go to a Japanese restaurant in my neighborhood that is owned by a Japanese man, and over the years have come to know things that aren’t on the menu but that I enjoy: nato with rice, bitter melon (I forget what it’s called in Japanese), and so forth. But they do have some California-like rolls. As for checking the ethnic make-up of the owners or chefs, there are exceptions but I’ve seen the author’s point proven since childhood. I’ve a German father and Italian mother, and though my father did eat German-American food and comment that “it’s not exactly” what they serve in Germany, my mother was more to the point: if someone suggested they eat Italian, she replied “is it Italian or Italian-American. The Italian-Americans don’t know how to cook pasta. They overcook it.” When cuisines and cultures mix, fusion takes place to one degree or another. And that’s not a bad thing. A Japanese woman told me of one popular Japanese dish that was a variation of something the Portuguese introduced to Japan in the 1500s. On the other hand, I met a young Frenchman working in Southern California said to me (in response to my question about his favorite French restaurant in the area) that there is a French placed in the area owned by a French woman who has been there for a number of years, but the chef/cook is Mexican and (to put it into language he thought I would understand) said that it would be like serving Choucroute (an Alsacian dish) with picante.

  • hiro

    you are dead on about this topic..the worse sushi restaurant cities i have lived in is tampa and charlotte (nc).. these 2 cities somehow have 4-5 pages of menus sushi and they all tastes and look the same! everyone wants to jump in the bandwagon to make profits..they have a lot of american, italian, thai restaurants serving up sushi there (look up yourself on places to dine and there menu!) of course their number one seller is California roll..people here goes apes for the california and mexican rolls. WTF?

  • http://greggman.com greggman

    Law #1 should say “Japanese Native”. “Japanese Americans” know shit about real Japanese food as they grow up in America eating American Japanese food and/or 2nd/3rd/4th generation Japanese American food which is nothing like food in Japan. The, same goes for Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, etc etc etc.

    Refunds? hmm, living in Japan I’ve seen some of my more picky Japanese friends scream about bad food / bad service and refuse to pay. I don’t know if it’s more or less common since in my entire life I’ve seen people not pay less than 10 times in both countries. Then again maybe we’re talking about something else. You don’t refund at most restaurants because you don’t pay until after the meal. You just refuse to pay.

    I agree with too many rolls. Lots of rolls = not Japanese but I just consider that a separate type of food. I still happen to like american style rolls. I just consider it separate just like I don’t consider Chicago Pizza to be Italian food but it’s still tasty. But lets just be clear, even a small list of rolls is unacceptable unless it’s like kappamaki, tuna roll, or maybe a few hand rolls. California roll and all its variants for the most part don’t exist in Japan (I know only 3 Restaurants in all of tokyo that serve it)

  • http://greggman.com greggman

    Here’s the funny thing. The best burgers I’ve ever eaten were in Tokyo. Here’s a place to start looking http://www.sasebo99.com/sight_sasebo/bgmap.shtml. On the other hand Katsu Burger, even if it is run by a Japanese person, is pretty much large tasteless american crap like most of the food on Man vs Food

    Which brings up another rule. Rule #8: Portions should be small

  • http://greggman.com greggman

    You can get plenty of good American food in Japan (or at least Tokyo). You can get better Italian and French food in Japan, in fact often better than France or Italy. Mexican, yea, almost no good Mexican

    And, American Bread is mostly shit compared to Japanese bread though it can go both ways. It’s hard to find a good bagel in Japan. On the other hand it’s hard to find a good bakery in America. Most places are over sugared, over cooked, and serve things that are large but flavorless. “Hey look! It’s a cinnamon roll that’s 12 inches in diameter”, “Yea but I’d much rather have a 3inch one that actually tastes good, is not hard, and has had some care given in making it”.

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