Genki Sushi: Meals On Wheels...

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... Wait, no... Magnetic Tracks?

For our second night in Japan, we decided to venture into the belly of the beast... downtown Tokyo on a Friday night. We were not disappointed with the sight of the busiest intersection in the world: Shibuya Crossing.

Shibuya is full of big (and I mean big) video screens, neon lights, and lots of people — like looking it a bustling metropolis in the future. Think Blade Runner but clean.

There are lots of little streets off the main drag, with big brand name shops and eateries. We were making a bee line for one of the more popular sushi restaurants, Genki Sushi.

Getting there, we were welcomed by a small crowd hanging out by the front door. Don’t get put off by this, it’s worth the wait — but you do have to go inside and put your name on a waiting list. As spots become available, they call your name and you are seated at your..... well, table is maybe not the right word.

Genki Sushi is a Sushi-train cafe. The idea being that you sit at the bench and food comes out on a small ‘train’ and you choose what you want as it comes past.

Unlike other restaurants of this sort, here you get to order what you want, and it comes to your station. This is done using a touchscreen tablet at your station. And, best of all, you could choose what language you wanted the menu in. You can only order 3 things at a time, and each dish comes out on the train. But once that’s arrived, you can keep ordering until you’re done.

Note however that they make it clear that if you’re there for more than 1 hour during busy times, they will ask you to leave... and if you’ve experienced waiting to get in, you can empathise with that policy. A sign at the door informed us we would be waiting for about 45 minutes, but we were probably only waiting for about 15, as there was a constant stream of people exiting.

The choices were pretty amazing, and there really is something for everyone, assuming of course you love sushi.

I had Miso soup to start with, following by the tuna & pickle Imari rolls. My daughter and partner had various sushi dishes and Imari rolls, and loved them. I then ordered the Tanuki Udon soup. Please don’t google what “Tanuki” is, as you will discover it’s a small raccoon-like critter.... there are no raccoons harmed in the making of this Udon noodle soup, it’s just a style of soup, I think seafood based. In any case, it was delicious and warming after walking through the cold night.

You can order alcohol also; we went for the warm sake and shared it between the two of us. These little bottles are deceptive — they pack a punch and are definitely to share! They also have beer, as well as the usual suspects in sugary soft drinks.

Keep an eye out for the hamburger sushi! I wasn’t game to try it. But for the less adventurous there is also chips. And chips smothered in cheese. Obviously trying to cater for the uncouth, less-refined Gaijin tastes 😉.

The servings are small, each ranging from ¥120–340 depending on the dish. We ate until we were sated, and ordered a lot of dishes between the three of us. In total, the bill only came to about AU$32, which was incredible value for what we had, and the quality of it.

Coming to Japan, I was under the impression things were expensive. So far, I haven’t found it to be more expensive than Australia, and in the case of dining has been considerably less expensive than Australia.

I want this place to come and open up in Melbourne. If it did, I would be there regularly. Daily even. I loved it, and highly recommend it.