I thought about not posting this place but it’s already pretty hard to reserve and I usually post these with as boring titles as possible most of the time so it’s not like people are gonna even see this let alone read it. Murakami’s actually a place there isn’t a TON of English stuff about so it’s worth a short spiel I feel, the restaurant is run by two brothers who came up working at their fathers place, Yakko Sushi, in Amakusa. I’ve never actually been to their father’s restaurant but I have friends in the area (who actually recommended this place a while ago) and I’ve been told it’s a very solid and cost effective spot.
The brothers by contrast are generally taking a more high end approach to their restaurant with the generally more modern and austere vibe of the space. Service here is very interesting, one brother cooks all the tsumami while the other introduces it and serves guests before they both split the counter and make sushi for a half of the room – if either brother gets too far ahead in the cadence, they invent some busy work or go do side work in the back to buy time for the other to catch up. There’s actually no other staff in the restaurant besides them so it’s very funny once you catch on to what’s happening lmao. Both brothers are honestly pretty similar in how they conduct service: they’re men of few words but speak solid English if needed.
Courses were:
1. Shin gobo suriganashi, very nice – possibly the best surinagashi of the trip. It felt very light yet the taste was strong and there was still a solid mouthfeel 2. Mushi awabi gohan with nori, gohan cooked with awabi dashi. Excellent – nice texture from the awabi and the gohan n nori combo was excellent. I wanted more of this but they didn’t have any 🙁 3. Nagashi somen wit white asparagus from Kumamoto, refreshing. I’d be lying if I didn’t prefer an additional element of like a sansho oil or similar but it’d defeat the purpose of the course so that’s just my preference. 4. Yokowa double header – akami as zuke with karashi, toro as is with ponzu oroshi n salt. Superb, I honestly thought the best Meiji maguro I was gonna have was gonna be in Niigata but oddly it was not served the day I was there so this was a pretty solid contender for that. I also wanted more but alas 5. Oyaki dumpling filed with buri and daikon, topped with yakumo. Very nice – was worried but it wasn’t heavy or overly oily at all. I wanted another if this but nothing doing I’m afraid 6. Kue in a garlic and cabbage sauce, excellent they paired wonderfully and the sauce is a lot more restrained than the description suggested. This one was my favourite and I also asked for more of this. I am going to pre order more / larger tsumami when I come back 7. Nigiri starts w Murasaki uni from amakusa, hot but gentle shari. Superb, the best of these I had on this trip 8. Aori ika, insane texture and touch of sudachi was brilliant. This was up there with the Kitajima one. Despite the use of citrus, I felt the aori ika already had a fairly clean taste and the citrus was more additive than trying to cover up anything 9. Madai, alright but I think the funakoshi vers was a better example of local/kyushu specimens of these bream type fish in the area 10. Zuke Shima aji, nice texture – sweet oddly, not a huge fan of that 11. Akami zuke, shari still warm but a little more vinegar? Functionally very similar 12. During this tuna section they refreshed the rice a LOT like almost every 1-2 nigiri 13. Toro, Shari’s nebari went up a lot but little change besides. Solid but preferred the funakoshi version 14. Ma-aji with yuzu kosho + negi, honestly worked really nicely but I’m a sucker for all solid aji 15. Kuruma ebi kannonbiraki, alright. On vibes / marketing, this is a very famous piece here but I wasn’t super into the version I had today 16. Tachiuo nigiri, huge neta and the kawa was delicious as was the first chew of the nigiri but the mid palate and finish was kinda flat / less interesting to me 17. Negitoro temaki, very good. Loved the nori 18. Wasabon ice cream, fucking sick. Made me alright with missing ChiUnE (only half kidding). Very good ice cream
Extras:
1. Nodoguro aburi w daikon oroshi, not ultra fatty but great taste and the little salt helped draw out a lot of the taste that was there 2. Kohada, alright but first time the shiojime has been off in a while. Very salty 3. Anago, very good – one of the best of the trip
This was some of the best tsumami I’ve ever had, basically all of them were bangers and even the asparagus somen whose placements I understood but didn’t love were still actually pretty good all things considered. It’s to the point I kinda wish there were more or this was even a kappo restaurant. That’s not to say the sushi was bad, not at all actually it was very good as well – some definite misses for sure and it leaned slightly sweet in general but I still really, really enjoyed a lot of it.
I’m a pretty big fan of this place and I think it’s an easy recommend if you’re in the area / planning a trip to Kumamoto. There’s a few other places in the area I’m interested in as well but I think I’m probably gonna build in a visit here and Funakoshi whenever I’m back in town.
ylkim30
Solid, thanks for the review. This places looks very interesting. It does sound like the tsumami are more compelling than nigiri. I think you had the reverse take with Funakoshi (which is interesting considering he trained at Kataori)
DanielfromHK_
Nice review. So many interesting restaurants all over Japan. I often prefer these over the famous ones in Tokyo
3 Comments
I thought about not posting this place but it’s already pretty hard to reserve and I usually post these with as boring titles as possible most of the time so it’s not like people are gonna even see this let alone read it. Murakami’s actually a place there isn’t a TON of English stuff about so it’s worth a short spiel I feel, the restaurant is run by two brothers who came up working at their fathers place, Yakko Sushi, in Amakusa. I’ve never actually been to their father’s restaurant but I have friends in the area (who actually recommended this place a while ago) and I’ve been told it’s a very solid and cost effective spot.
The brothers by contrast are generally taking a more high end approach to their restaurant with the generally more modern and austere vibe of the space. Service here is very interesting, one brother cooks all the tsumami while the other introduces it and serves guests before they both split the counter and make sushi for a half of the room – if either brother gets too far ahead in the cadence, they invent some busy work or go do side work in the back to buy time for the other to catch up. There’s actually no other staff in the restaurant besides them so it’s very funny once you catch on to what’s happening lmao. Both brothers are honestly pretty similar in how they conduct service: they’re men of few words but speak solid English if needed.
Courses were:
1. Shin gobo suriganashi, very nice – possibly the best surinagashi of the trip. It felt very light yet the taste was strong and there was still a solid mouthfeel
2. Mushi awabi gohan with nori, gohan cooked with awabi dashi. Excellent – nice texture from the awabi and the gohan n nori combo was excellent. I wanted more of this but they didn’t have any 🙁
3. Nagashi somen wit white asparagus from Kumamoto, refreshing. I’d be lying if I didn’t prefer an additional element of like a sansho oil or similar but it’d defeat the purpose of the course so that’s just my preference.
4. Yokowa double header – akami as zuke with karashi, toro as is with ponzu oroshi n salt. Superb, I honestly thought the best Meiji maguro I was gonna have was gonna be in Niigata but oddly it was not served the day I was there so this was a pretty solid contender for that. I also wanted more but alas
5. Oyaki dumpling filed with buri and daikon, topped with yakumo. Very nice – was worried but it wasn’t heavy or overly oily at all. I wanted another if this but nothing doing I’m afraid
6. Kue in a garlic and cabbage sauce, excellent they paired wonderfully and the sauce is a lot more restrained than the description suggested. This one was my favourite and I also asked for more of this. I am going to pre order more / larger tsumami when I come back
7. Nigiri starts w Murasaki uni from amakusa, hot but gentle shari. Superb, the best of these I had on this trip
8. Aori ika, insane texture and touch of sudachi was brilliant. This was up there with the Kitajima one. Despite the use of citrus, I felt the aori ika already had a fairly clean taste and the citrus was more additive than trying to cover up anything
9. Madai, alright but I think the funakoshi vers was a better example of local/kyushu specimens of these bream type fish in the area
10. Zuke Shima aji, nice texture – sweet oddly, not a huge fan of that
11. Akami zuke, shari still warm but a little more vinegar? Functionally very similar
12. During this tuna section they refreshed the rice a LOT like almost every 1-2 nigiri
13. Toro, Shari’s nebari went up a lot but little change besides. Solid but preferred the funakoshi version
14. Ma-aji with yuzu kosho + negi, honestly worked really nicely but I’m a sucker for all solid aji
15. Kuruma ebi kannonbiraki, alright. On vibes / marketing, this is a very famous piece here but I wasn’t super into the version I had today
16. Tachiuo nigiri, huge neta and the kawa was delicious as was the first chew of the nigiri but the mid palate and finish was kinda flat / less interesting to me
17. Negitoro temaki, very good. Loved the nori
18. Wasabon ice cream, fucking sick. Made me alright with missing ChiUnE (only half kidding). Very good ice cream
Extras:
1. Nodoguro aburi w daikon oroshi, not ultra fatty but great taste and the little salt helped draw out a lot of the taste that was there
2. Kohada, alright but first time the shiojime has been off in a while. Very salty
3. Anago, very good – one of the best of the trip
This was some of the best tsumami I’ve ever had, basically all of them were bangers and even the asparagus somen whose placements I understood but didn’t love were still actually pretty good all things considered. It’s to the point I kinda wish there were more or this was even a kappo restaurant. That’s not to say the sushi was bad, not at all actually it was very good as well – some definite misses for sure and it leaned slightly sweet in general but I still really, really enjoyed a lot of it.
I’m a pretty big fan of this place and I think it’s an easy recommend if you’re in the area / planning a trip to Kumamoto. There’s a few other places in the area I’m interested in as well but I think I’m probably gonna build in a visit here and Funakoshi whenever I’m back in town.
Solid, thanks for the review. This places looks very interesting. It does sound like the tsumami are more compelling than nigiri. I think you had the reverse take with Funakoshi (which is interesting considering he trained at Kataori)
Nice review. So many interesting restaurants all over Japan. I often prefer these over the famous ones in Tokyo