Take a seat at the counter and have a glass of beer. We recommend some fugu sushi to go with it. Although winter is the best season for fugu (pufferfish), the fish also tastes amazing in the spring and summer. We thinly slice wild-caught torafugu, mafugu, and akamefugu, and layer them on sushi, or lightly sear them. The taste and texture of well-aged, carefully prepared fugu is beyond comparison to that of other white fishes. KIRIN ICHIBAN's crisp taste is a perfect match.

Takase, our main branch in Yoyogi, specializes in kaiseki cuisine and fugu dishes. Just like the main branch, our fish is wild-caught, and we make our sushi rice with refreshing red rice vinegar. We are an Edo-style sushi restaurant, but we also offer new flavors. We make hamo eel into sashimi or sushi after removing all the bones by hand rather than washing them out with hot water, and our maguro (tuna) sushi is seasoned with green Japanese peppercorn. Why explore new flavors? A decent sushi restaurant makes delicious sushi as a matter of course. But on top of tasting good, we want our diners to experience surprise, delight, and satisfaction that is worth more than the price of the food. That, I believe, is why our customers go home happy.

I chose KIRIN ICHIBAN for the same reason. KIRIN ICHIBAN is delicious just the way it is. Its rich taste is complemented by a smooth mouthfeel and a clean aroma. It really goes well with the delicate flavors of sushi. The beer was revamped in autumn 2017, and now tastes even more exquisite. It's made with 100% barley malt, and I like the sense of luxury that brings.

In the coming season, we will have an abundance of seasonal fish and seafood—squid, shinko (young gizzard shad), anago eel, sea urchin, hamo eel, and summer fugu. Now is the perfect time for you to enjoy fresh summer sushi with KIRIN ICHIBAN.
(Remarks by Takeshi Kawakami, Head Chef)