Sukiyabashi Jiro, the underground sushi restaurant made famous by the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, just became a whole lot harder to get into.
Following the doco, the restaurant, located within a subway station in Tokyo’s high-end neighbourhood of Ginza, became one of the city’s hottest spots, with both locals and international travellers waiting months for a reservation to dine upon the delicate 20-course ‘omakase’ menu that will set you back ¥40,000 (AU $537), curated by the 94-year-old chef Jiro Ono.
Though it was never considered easy to nab a reservation purely due to demand, securing a spot at Jiro’s 10-seater counter is now near-impossible, particularly with the news that the restaurant is no longer officially open to the public.
This week, it was announced that Sukiyabashi Jiro will no longer accept reservations from the general public for the first time since it opened in 1965. Now, the only way you could possibly secure yourself a spot at the counter is if you were to ask your hotel concierge to call up and book you a spot. But with the knowledge seats book out months ahead, we see this being pretty challenging.
As a result of this change, Sukiyabashi Jiro was subsequently stripped of its the three Michelin Stars the restaurant has held every year since the Michelin guide’s first Tokyo edition in 2007.
The 2020 guide no longer includes the famed sushi restaurant. In a statement after the unveiling of the new guide, a spokesperson said: “We recognise Sukiyabashi Jiro does not accept reservations from the general public, which makes it out of our scope.
“It was not true to say the restaurant lost stars but it is not subject to coverage in our guide. Michelin’s policy is to introduce restaurants where everybody can go to eat.”
Despite this, Tokyo still remains the global city with the most starred restaurants in the world with 226.
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