Insider tips will get you the freshest fish possible.
Tokyo Station is a busy travel hub that’s always crowded with people, so when you’re looking for somewhere to eat inside, it can be a tricky place to navigate. Having some handy go-to restaurants is a good way to narrow down your options, save time, and get your money’s worth, and as far as we’re concerned, you can’t go wrong with a meal at Haneda Market.
Located in Gransta Tokyo on the first basement floor of Tokyo Station, this conveyor belt sushi restaurant is often crowded, but if there’s a line outside it tends to move quickly so you can usually be seated within 10-15 minutes. The company behind the restaurant chain has its own distribution routes, including air transport, so it’s able to deliver fish caught from all over the country to its locations quickly, ensuring they arrive in an extremely fresh state.
▼ The ordering tablet shows the chain prioritises freshness by utilising various modes of transport to deliver “the freshest fish of the day“.
The setup is so unique that it even catches locals off-guard. The screen for “Today’s Recommendations”, for instance, mentions something called “ほこビュン” (“hakobyun”), which our reporter Mr Sato had never seen at any other sushi restaurant.
After enquiring with staff, they told him that “Hakobyun” is a logistics system that utilises the Shinkansen bullet train. Feeling pleased to have learnt something new about the sushi world that a lot of foodies wouldn’t know about, Mr Sato did a bit of extra research online, where he found that this restaurant is a franchise operated by Haneda Market and the East Japan Railways Cross Station Foods Company. This increased his respect for the quality of the food, because distribution support from a railway-owned company ensures the fish is delivered straight from the train to the kitchen.
▼ According to a sign outside the store, the “Hakobyun” deliveries arrive on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
The sign also says the fresh fish from the “Hakobyun” deliveries is served the following day, on Wednesdays and Fridays, so it’s best to visit on these days to get the best quality seafood.
Mr Sato stopped by on a Tuesday, which he was actually pleased about, seeing as he was keen to gauge the taste of the fish that wasn’t straight off the train. He ordered the greenling and non-farmed marbled flounder, which were both (750 yen [US$5.11]) and delivered by Hakobyun, as well as the horse mackerel (550 yen) and bigfin squid (450 yen).
Mr Sato knows his stuff when it comes to sushi, and just by assessing the look and texture of the flounder and greenling, he could tell they were fresh due to the firmness of the meat.
However, upon tasting them, he couldn’t really notice any extra level of flavour or freshness compared to the sushi he usually eats at other chains.
That made him all the more curious to visit on a day after delivery — if they were this quality five days after delivery, he imagines they would be very impressive soon after they arrive at the restaurant.
▼ The other sushi was also very fresh, and he couldn’t resist adding a Chutoro, or medium-fatty tuna belly (750 yen) and Salmon Toro, or fatty salmon belly, (650 yen) to his order.
These displayed a beautiful colour, and while both were excellent, the medium-fatty tuna was a standout for being melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Mr Sato couldn’t quite believe it was possible to eat sushi this great inside Tokyo Station, and he reckons if you ate this before setting off on a train journey, it would definitely get you excited for your trip.
To finish his meal, Mr Sato tried something on the menu called “Kitsune-San“. “Kitsune” means “fox“, and is often associated with inarizushi (rice in seasoned deep-fried tofu pockets), not only because foxes are said to like the taste of it, but because they’re seen as messengers of Inari, the god of rice cultivation.
▼ Unlike regular inarizushi, “Kitsune-San” wraps a layer of seasoned deep-fried tofu around the rice.
If you don’t have time to dine-in, the restaurant sells sushi takeout sets to go, including an eight-piece Kitsune-san for 1,200 yen, making it a great place to pick up a meal for your train journey. And if you don’t mind standing for sushi, this restaurant at the station is another good option to keep up your sleeve!
Restaurant information
Haneda Market Gransta Tokyo store / 羽田市場 グランスタ東京店
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-9-1, JR Tokyo Station B1F Gransta Tokyo
東京都千代田区丸の内1-9-1 JR東京駅 B1F グランスタ東京
Open 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]