The restaurant has a few seats at the sushi bar and a spacious seating area with many tables for small and large groups. Even though the capacity is now limited, the restaurants can cater to a larger audience than most other Japanese restaurants around. There is also an outside seating area that does not provide the same authentic feel as inside dining, but is a very nice alternative, especially during the summer when outside dining is the preferred option. For this visit, we opted for the outside option because it was pleasant and warm night. Also, the restrictions inside the restaurant felt a bit uninviting. So we were happy with our choice and in luck to get seats outside.

Sampling the Kushi-Tei of Tokyo Menu

We decided to go with a selection of the menu exclusives and ordered a moriawase style set to get things started. While we waited, we also had some nice starters. Even though not a typical item on a Japanese menu, we sampled the iwashi tempura (deep fried sardines), which resembled a somewhat Mediterranean experience. The vegetable gyoza were nice and were obviously self made. Another classic were the outstanding tako yaki (deep fried octopus balls) with teriyaki sauce. Even though it were heavy bytes for a hot summer night, it was a good start.

The main plate came with tamago (egg omelet), sake (salmon) gunkan (battleship sushi) with ikura (salmon roe) topping and 6 pieces of maguro (tuna back) maki (roll). The selection of nigiri pieces was composed of hotategai (scallop), unagi (freshwater eel), ebi (shrimp), hamachi (yellowtail), sake (salmon), otoro (fatty tuna belly) and chu toro (medium fatty tuna belly). Of course, they also served some gari (pickled ginger) and fresh wasabi. To say the least, the tuna cuts were outstanding and so delicious that I would come back anytime just for that. The melted in my mouth and had an amazing but subtle texture. The scallop was so amazing, it might very well be the best in town. Also the eel was great even though the chef was a bit shy with the topping. Even the salmon, that usually does not impress me much, was outstanding and delightful excitement. Encouraged by this plate, we decided to get seconds.

Browsing through the menu prompted us to pick some of our favourites from the moriawase dish and add some more specialties. We picked some more pieces of hotategai (scallop) and chu toro (medium fatty tuna belly), which definitely were the best of the night. Beyond that, we went for some karuma ebi (Japanese imperial prawn), hamachi toro (yellowtail belly cut) and aji (mackerel) nigiri pieces. I consider mackerel among my favourite fish and was pleasantly surprised. Most impressively, the yellowtail belly cut was also amazing and absolute joy. It is certainly a rare find even among the fierce competition of Japanese restaurant in the area. Even though we should could have taken even more, we had to call it a night. In my mind, I was already scheduling my next visit to build on this experience.

Sushi Guide Verdict

This dinner at Kushi-Tei of Tokyo was just amazing. It was a busy night, but were lucky to get seats outside and could enjoy the summer night with this excellent meal, even if the outdoor atmosphere is not comparable to the restaurant’s interior. The menu options are extensive and have some rare finds among them that might take a few visits to discover. Taste and quality of the fish was excellent and absolutely among the best options around. Considering the fierce competition in the Japanese quarter in Düsseldorf and the high expectations of local patrons in the largest Japanese community in Germany, this is quite an achievement. The service staff was friendly and forthcoming, but a bit overwhelmed with the high demand during the night. We had an excellent time and enjoyed out experience. For any sushi aficionado, Kushi-Tei is an excellent choice and it can be highly recommended.

Atmosphere
Menu Options
Food Quality
Drink Variety
Service
Average

Review date: August 3, 2020

The post Kushi-Tei of Tokyo – Authentic Japanese Delights in Düsseldorf, Germany appeared first on Sushi Guide.

As a group of 3 we were seated at the exceptionally beautiful open sushi bar and enjoyed the service of Sushi Ran’s executive chef, Mr. Takatoshi Toshi, their master chef since 2013. I had the opportunity to be his guest once before and cannot complain about any other chef there either, but this day truly was one to be remembered. It was a special delight to watch Takatoshi Toshi work. To give you an idea, here is a short video of him at a Gala Evening in Israel.

Omakase Sashimi Plate

Anyway, on this day we decided to go with an omakase style sashimi menu and basically went from one culinary explosion to the next. The first 1o piece sashimi plate came with 2 pieces of king sake (king salom), hamachi (yellowtail), hon maguro (bluefin tuna), ara (red spotted grouper) and kusshi oyster. We especially enjoyed the oyster, which seemed a refreshing and not so common addition to the mix, and enjoyed watching Takatoshi Toshi work on all the other delicious dishes he prepared for other guests in the restaurant.

Even more Omakase Sashimi

We went on to explore the amazing selection of sushi bar exclusives and were served even more delicious sashimi pieces one by one. We decided to stick with sashimi not only because we prefer to focus on the fish’s texture and taste but also because we wanted to make most of the experience and have room left for everything we wanted to try. This is true generally for me, I prefer sashimi most of the time and also enjoy nigiri but tend to skip makis most of the time.

During our culinary journey of the most exquisite menu items the sushi bar could offer, we enjoyed dishes like kasugodai (baby red eye snapper), iwashi (sardine), sagoshi (spanish mackerel). kamasu (barracuda), kurama ebi (Japanese tiger shrimp) and zuke chu toro (red wine cured bluefin medium fatty tuna). It was followed by kaisu uni (deep sea ocean packed sea urchin), toro (bluefin fetty tuna belly), kohada (gizzard shad), sujiko (salmon roe) and shirayaki (freshwater grilled eel).

Since that left some pieces left on the menu, we also tried tarabagani (king crab with crab butter aioli), which was an absolute delight. We continued with bincho toro (white fatty tuna belly), zuke sake (white soy sauce cured fatty salmon), meso anago (braised young sea eel) and a final piece of wagyu grad a5 Japanese beef striploin nigiri. If we would have asked for any more, we would have probably started from the beginning. I can’t remember anything important we left out on the menu.

More information about this truly one of a kind visit to Sushi Ran can be found on moritzrecke.com.

Sushi Guide Verdict

This truly was an amazing experience. With seats at the sushi bar and Sushi Ran’s executive chef Takotoshi Toshi as our chef for the day, we made the most of our visit for sure. As always the atmosphere was an absolute delight and we stayed there for many hours to taste everything we could think of. The menu options are truly extensive with even more exclusive items being available at the sushi bar exclusive menu. The quality and taste of the food was outstanding, with the rights words amiss to truly describe the experience. The drink menu offered everything we were looking for and as usual the staff was not just extremely friendly but also heartwarming. This was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I ever had at a sushi restaurant.

Atmosphere
Menu Options
Food Quality
Drink Variety
Service
Average

Review date: October 16, 2015

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