Sushi Juban

Japanese cuisine has become all the rage in Bangkok over the past few years, with Thais now getting visa-free week long visits to Japan, going wild over the food, and returning home demanding and craving more. Throw in some 60-80,000 Japanese expatriates settled in Bangkok and you can imagine that there must be some pretty authentic Nihon-no-ryori (Japanese cuisine) available. The problem often though, is how to find it. While hole in the wall izakayas and sushi bars have become a dime a dozen, you know you've stumbled into the right place when you enter a hard-to-find locale tucked away at the end of a dead end alley, where 90% of the clientele are Japanese, most of them partaking of the astoundingly massive array of different sakes, shochu (Japanese whiskey), and umeshu plum wines that stock the shelves (there are over 30 different brands of sake available here, one of Bangkok's greatest collections). Sushi Juban specializes in omakase sushi, where the diners leave it up to the chef as to what he'll create and serve. The restaurant features warayaki straw grill cooking, which comes from Koichi prefecture in Japan and uses burning straw to create an intense flame, which sears fish and meat on the outside, yet leaves the interior incredibly soft and juicy, as well as adding a smoked aroma. With great connections to the best of Japan's seafood industry, Juban gets choice cuts and various types of seafood from across Japan, featuring diversity such as Hokkaido sea urchin, kintokidai big eye snapper from Kanazawa, or some of the best cuts of yellowtail tuna you'll find in Thailand. If you are a sashimi and sushi connoisseur, you're going to be in 7th heaven here. Just make sure you've got the directions here spot on though, as it's the biggest challenge of the evening.