TOKYO –
Kura Sushi has opened its second premium conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Tokyo, introducing a menu of higher-grade seafood and same-day deliveries from Hokkaido by bullet prepare as the corporate seeks to face out in Shinjuku’s fiercely aggressive eating market.
The new Muten Kura restaurant opened final week on the sixth ground of a giant constructing a few one-minute stroll from Shinjuku Station. With 193 seats, it’s the largest location operated below the premium model.
The restaurant combines the comfort and affordability of conveyor-belt sushi with elaborate preparation, rigorously chosen components and a extra luxurious eating atmosphere.
Among the principle choices is a three-piece assortment of domestically sourced Pacific bluefin tuna that includes lean tuna, medium-fatty tuna and fatty tuna for 980 yen. Thick slices of natural yellowtail, served two items for 400 yen, are scored with ornamental knife cuts and brushed with soy sauce earlier than being served.
A beneficiant serving of premium sea urchin prices 630 yen for 2 items, whereas freshly harvested Hakodate salmon from Hokkaido is obtainable at 420 yen for 2 items. Customers praised the salmon’s agency, springy texture and wealthy taste.
The restaurant’s inside makes use of oblique lighting and partitions round each desk to create a semiprivate setting the place clients can dine at a extra relaxed tempo. More ground employees are assigned than at an ordinary Kura Sushi restaurant, and staff kneel beside tables when responding to clients.
Muten Kura is a particular format operated at solely six of Kura Sushi’s 557 eating places in Japan. The model started increasing within the Kansai area in 2005 and opened its first Kanto location in Tokyo’s Nakameguro district in 2025.
The firm chosen Shinjuku for its newest and largest restaurant regardless of intense competitors. About 100 sushi eating places function inside a 500-meter radius of Shinjuku Station.
One of the brand new restaurant’s principal sights is a same-day supply program referred to as Shinkansen Fish, through which seafood is dispatched by bullet prepare shortly after being harvested and ready. Kura Sushi describes the system as an industry-first initiative.
The firm beforehand transported seafood instantly from Fukui Prefecture to its Nakameguro restaurant, the place the merchandise proved standard. For the Shinjuku opening, it got down to ship fish from Hakodate, about 800 kilometers away.
The challenge was led by veteran seafood purchaser Takao Ohama, who spends greater than half the yr visiting ports and fishing communities in the hunt for new merchandise.
Ohama centered on Hakodate salmon, a creating regional model raised within the chilly waters off northern Japan. The fish is understood for high-quality fats and a wealthy taste.
Immediately after being killed and ready, the salmon retains a very agency and crunchy texture identified within the {industry} as ikarimi. That high quality steadily fades over time, making speedy transportation important.
Kura Sushi’s plan was to hold the salmon alive from the port to a processing facility about 50 kilometers away, maintain it alive till shortly earlier than departure after which place it on a Shinkansen prepare instantly after processing.
During an preliminary check one month earlier than the restaurant opened, salmon have been positioned in a specialised tank that maintained applicable water temperature and oxygen ranges. After the roughly one-hour journey to the processing plant, nevertheless, the fish appeared significantly weakened.
The crew concluded that the salmon had develop into startled by the darkness contained in the tank, inflicting them to thrash round and strike their heads. Ohama pledged to repeat the check till the issue was resolved, saying the restaurant couldn’t provide the distinctive agency texture until the transport system labored.
Preparations contained in the Shinjuku restaurant additionally introduced difficulties. Two weeks earlier than opening, about 130 staff have been present process intensive coaching below the course of a supervisor with 25 years of expertise in restaurant operations.
The scale of the restaurant and the detailed preparation required for its premium menu created unfamiliar challenges. Unlike normal conveyor-belt sushi, many dishes require ornamental knife work, hand-rolled components and exact presentation.
One signature dish, priced at 1,000 yen, options alternating layers of medium-fatty and fatty Pacific bluefin tuna wrapped in Ariake seaweed in a mille-feuille-style roll. During coaching, loosely rolled seaweed left seen gaps, forcing employees to remake the dish.
Managers additionally checked minute particulars such because the angle of sliced omelet, the visibility of rice beneath seafood toppings and the positioning of garnishes. Even slight tilting or uncovered rice was thought of unacceptable.
Four days earlier than opening, staff performed a full simulation through which employees members acted as clients. Orders rapidly accrued within the kitchen, warning indicators confirmed delayed dishes and time-limit alarms continued to sound.
A very troublesome merchandise was a Shinjuku-exclusive seafood platter containing seven types of seafood organized on a 70-centimeter plate for two,780 yen. Staff struggled to steadiness the association, resulting in repeated corrections and delays.
The observe session ended with managers acknowledging that orders had been served too slowly and that the kitchen had develop into overwhelmed. Employees have been left with 4 days to enhance.
On opening day, the restaurant set a minimal goal of 500 clients. Business was initially quiet when the doorways opened at 11:30 a.m., however all 193 seats have been quickly occupied and orders started pouring into the kitchen.
Employees who had struggled with the layered tuna roll throughout coaching produced it cleanly after repeated each day observe. The massive seafood platter was additionally accomplished efficiently, drawing clients who photographed the dish earlier than consuming.
One household visited to have a good time a son’s twenty sixth birthday, reflecting the restaurant’s effort to place itself as an inexpensive venue for particular events.
By the top of the lunch peak, nevertheless, buyer numbers had not but reached half of the each day goal. Attention then turned to the anticipated arrival of seafood from Hakodate.
At 4 a.m. that day, Hakodate salmon have been nonetheless swimming actively within the processing facility’s holding tank. The transport tank had been improved with lighting to stop the fish from panicking in the course of the 50-kilometer journey.
After arriving safely on the facility, the salmon have been processed within the morning and positioned aboard a 7:30 a.m. Shinkansen certain for Tokyo. The cargo reached Shinjuku at round 3 p.m., and the fish have been served to clients by about 3:30 p.m., roughly 800 kilometers from the place they’d been alive that morning.
Customers praised the salmon’s elasticity and taste, with some ordering extra servings.
Other same-day seafood from Hokkaido included uncooked kurosoi rockfish, which has a smooth, chewy texture and refined taste when freshly ready, and yanaginomai rockfish, a candy white fish that deteriorates rapidly and isn’t distributed outdoors its native area. Both have been priced at 420 yen for 2 items.
Ohama stated he was relieved that the merchandise had reached clients as deliberate. For seafood patrons, he stated, listening to clients describe the fish as scrumptious was the best reward.
One buyer stated the meal felt particular, whereas one other described the restaurant as providing a stage of luxurious that remained inexpensive sufficient to share with household.
The Shinjuku restaurant in the end surpassed its opening-day goal of 500 clients. Its supervisor stated the crew would proceed working to supply a good greater stage of satisfaction from the next day.
Source: TBS