Sushi Sasabune

The best sushi I've had to date is surprisingly not in Tokyo, despite the fact that I eat sushi at least 3-4 times a week here. True, some of the best individual pieces of sushi I've had have been in Tokyo (best uni: Sushi Daiwa, best otoro: Sushi Daiwa, best chutoro: Sushi Zanmai), but the best sushi meals I've had in my life have been the two meals I had at Sushi Sasabune in Oahu (I have yet to try Sushi Kyubey in Tokyo though, at the top of my must-eat list!). The ambience is nil, the service is slightly snooty, if you sit at the counter you don't have much say over what you will eat (the chef decides, and is pretty nazi about it) AND the servers have the audacity to tell you how to eat your food (don't dip that one in soy sauce, eat that one quickly, etc.). BUT. Every perfect jewel-like piece of sushi the chef puts on the wooden sushi geta in front of you melts in your mouth like soft butter, with just the right amount of perfectly vinegared sushi rice. You eat a piece of nigiri and think: that was the best thing I've ever had in my life, only to think that about the next nigiri, and the next, and the next.

When your stomach feels like it's going to explode, try to fit in one more piece of their negitoro, which is their house specialty, then ask the chef or your server to stop the parade of courses. The below are just some of the courses in the omakase, I forgot to take pictures of some of the best courses because we put them in our mouths as soon as they were placed on our plates.


Tuna sashimi in ponzu sauce


Squid stuffed with crab


Baked oyster


Negitoro - finely minced toro, reshaped to form nigiri, served slightly cold


Baked baby lobster tail


Unagi, served over tamago instead of rice


Ikura and uni

Food rating: **** and a half
Bang for buck rating: 4.5

The essentials:
No website, but lots of info on yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sushi-sasabune-honolulu
Location: King Street, Honolulu, Oahu
Average price of dinner for two: $250-300 and worth absolutely every penny