4 ms·

What's a sushi course like this cost?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
patio11 12y ago
$25 for lunch, $80++ for dinner. (I don't know much about restaraunt pricing in the US, but I think I get the reason that almost every Tokyo place does this. You pay for your own lunch, every day. Dinner, however, is generally paid for by someone else -- coworker/client/company/boyfriend/etc. Accordingly, restaurants plan for a bit of price insensitivity there, where lunch is a bloodbath of every store trying to capture additional custom at ~1,000 yen.)
- mjklin 12y ago
  Interesting. In China there are often "restaurant skirmishes" when the bill comes over who will pay it. That is, the person who pays the bill gets the face. They can get quite intense. Does this happen in Japan as well?
  - rangibaby 12y ago
    No, in Japan it is more hierarchal e.g. your boss will pay for everyone if you go out for lunch together. Amongst friends it is common to just split the bill.
- archagon 12y ago
  I have the highest respect for sushi, and good sushi is some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten. At the same time, it's hard for me to justify the cost. Why does it cost $25 to loosely prepare a small amount of raw fish?! There is so much incredible food that I can get for $10 a pop, and it actually involves cooking. And for $25, I can get a full meal at a fancy sit-down restaurant. What accounts for the crazy price differential? Just the price of fish? Why? Sure, there's people like Jiro, but it just ends up reminding me of the xkcd "photo conoisseur" comic: https://xkcd.com/915/ https://xkcd.com/915/
  - rangibaby 12y ago
    There are sushi chains that offer two pieces for ¥108. I would much rather spend the ¥2500 to go to the shop mentioned in the article. It's like saying you can't justify the cost of a gourmet burger when McDonald's has a dollar menu.
    - archagon 12y ago
      Right, but they're universally awful. You only start getting sushi that tastes like it should around the $25 mark. I'm just curious what accounts for the fairly extreme price difference, especially given that most of the actual flavor in sushi comes from the fish itself. Is it the price of the fish? Respect for one's craft? Tradition? I'd love to eat good sushi more often, but again, it's hard to justify that kind of price for such a quick and small meal, given the other things you can find in that price range. I've mostly relegated it to occasional celebrations at this point. It's a splurge. (Reading back on it, I realize my initial post came off as too aggressively negative. I'm not venting. I actually really am curious about what goes into the price of sushi, and whether it's priced appropriately based on the skills and ingredients involved, or if it's instead treated and (over)priced as a luxury gourmet food like foie gras.)
      - rangibaby 12y ago
        A lot of effort goes into the perfect piece of sushi. I was staying with friends in Shinjuku and one who was a chef at a hotel regularly got up at 4-5am to get to Tsukiji fish market in time to get a good fish. Then there's the rice. Cooking it for just the right amount of time, not squishing any grains, etc. There are a lot of different variables, and you're trusting the person to get them perfect as opposed to "good enough" in exchange for a bit more money. I can't see where your confusion is going from but hopefully this cleared things up a little.
      - ctvo 12y ago
        You already acknowledge that sushi is a commodity item you can get anywhere, at various price points, but it tastes better when you pay more. Why is it so confusing to you that quality food costs more? Yes ingredients matter (more so in sushi than most food), yes it requires a lot of skill to prepare. Not only that, the type of sushi restaurant cited in the article, the chef serves the customer directly as he prepares the food. Surely you can see why that'd cost more?
- ghaff 12y ago
  Lunches tend to be less food than dinner, but that aside, lunches tend to be cheaper than dinner in the US as well--presumably because people tend to be more price sensitive at lunch. I'm not sure I can do a good job of articulating the reasons. It's partly as you say. I think it's also partly because the lunch specials in Chinatown or the sushi lunch are competing against sandwiches and other similar luncheon fare to a degree that they aren't for dinner.
acavailhez 12y ago
This one specifically had 2 courses for sushi, one for 2,600 yens and the other for 3,100 yens (the difference being more sushi) This was the price for lunch, not sure in the evenings
- patio11 12y ago
  It's about 10,000 to 15,000 yen. (Source: http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13014691/ http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13014691/ <-- incidentally, this is the site to get information from about Japanese restaurants. Not maximally helpful if you don't read Japanese though.)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

$25 for lunch, $80++ for dinner. (I don't know much about restaraunt pricing in the US, but I think I get the reason that almost every Tokyo place does this. You pay for your own lunch, every day. Dinner, however, is generally paid for by someone else -- coworker/client/company/boyfriend/etc. Accordingly, restaurants plan for a bit of price insensitivity there, where lunch is a bloodbath of every store trying to capture additional custom at ~1,000 yen.)

mjklin 12y ago
Interesting. In China there are often "restaurant skirmishes" when the bill comes over who will pay it. That is, the person who pays the bill gets the face. They can get quite intense. Does this happen in Japan as well?
- rangibaby 12y ago
  No, in Japan it is more hierarchal e.g. your boss will pay for everyone if you go out for lunch together. Amongst friends it is common to just split the bill.
archagon 12y ago
I have the highest respect for sushi, and good sushi is some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten. At the same time, it's hard for me to justify the cost. Why does it cost $25 to loosely prepare a small amount of raw fish?! There is so much incredible food that I can get for $10 a pop, and it actually involves cooking. And for $25, I can get a full meal at a fancy sit-down restaurant. What accounts for the crazy price differential? Just the price of fish? Why? Sure, there's people like Jiro, but it just ends up reminding me of the xkcd "photo conoisseur" comic: https://xkcd.com/915/ https://xkcd.com/915/
- rangibaby 12y ago
  There are sushi chains that offer two pieces for ¥108. I would much rather spend the ¥2500 to go to the shop mentioned in the article. It's like saying you can't justify the cost of a gourmet burger when McDonald's has a dollar menu.
  - archagon 12y ago
    Right, but they're universally awful. You only start getting sushi that tastes like it should around the $25 mark. I'm just curious what accounts for the fairly extreme price difference, especially given that most of the actual flavor in sushi comes from the fish itself. Is it the price of the fish? Respect for one's craft? Tradition? I'd love to eat good sushi more often, but again, it's hard to justify that kind of price for such a quick and small meal, given the other things you can find in that price range. I've mostly relegated it to occasional celebrations at this point. It's a splurge. (Reading back on it, I realize my initial post came off as too aggressively negative. I'm not venting. I actually really am curious about what goes into the price of sushi, and whether it's priced appropriately based on the skills and ingredients involved, or if it's instead treated and (over)priced as a luxury gourmet food like foie gras.)
    - rangibaby 12y ago
      A lot of effort goes into the perfect piece of sushi. I was staying with friends in Shinjuku and one who was a chef at a hotel regularly got up at 4-5am to get to Tsukiji fish market in time to get a good fish. Then there's the rice. Cooking it for just the right amount of time, not squishing any grains, etc. There are a lot of different variables, and you're trusting the person to get them perfect as opposed to "good enough" in exchange for a bit more money. I can't see where your confusion is going from but hopefully this cleared things up a little.
    - ctvo 12y ago
      You already acknowledge that sushi is a commodity item you can get anywhere, at various price points, but it tastes better when you pay more. Why is it so confusing to you that quality food costs more? Yes ingredients matter (more so in sushi than most food), yes it requires a lot of skill to prepare. Not only that, the type of sushi restaurant cited in the article, the chef serves the customer directly as he prepares the food. Surely you can see why that'd cost more?
ghaff 12y ago
Lunches tend to be less food than dinner, but that aside, lunches tend to be cheaper than dinner in the US as well--presumably because people tend to be more price sensitive at lunch. I'm not sure I can do a good job of articulating the reasons. It's partly as you say. I think it's also partly because the lunch specials in Chinatown or the sushi lunch are competing against sandwiches and other similar luncheon fare to a degree that they aren't for dinner.

acavailhez 12y ago

This one specifically had 2 courses for sushi, one for 2,600 yens and the other for 3,100 yens (the difference being more sushi) This was the price for lunch, not sure in the evenings

patio11 12y ago
It's about 10,000 to 15,000 yen. (Source: http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13014691/ http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13014691/ <-- incidentally, this is the site to get information from about Japanese restaurants. Not maximally helpful if you don't read Japanese though.)