Kura-Zushi Tenrokuekimaeten

Conveyor belt sushi is a must try when visiting Japan. The sushi usually are not the greatest, but the experience is uniquely Japanese. For the uninitiated, these restaurants have plates of food, mostly sushi, going around the restaurant on a small conveyor belt. Diners sit around the belt, watch th...e food go by, and just grab the plates they want. At the end of the meal, they count the number of plates for the check. There are restaurants like that in North America, mostly in big cities, but they are everywhere in Japan. The food here is super inexpensive. All the ones on the conveyor belt are 100 yen each, and even the special order ones are usually not much more than that. For that price, the quality is actually very good. Our bill, with 5 adults and 2 children, comes to a little over 6000 yen, and everybody had a filling meal. What sets this one apart from other conveyor belt sushi restaurant we had been to is the special order delivery belt. There are not one, but 2 conveyor belts passing through each table, one stacked on top of another. The lower belt is the regular belt that carries sushi covered in small dome-shaped cover. If you want a plate, you grab it through a small opening on the cover, lightly shake the plate a couple times, and the cover will open and you grab the plate. The upper belt is for delivering special orders, and plates traveling on that belt way go faster than the bottom one. There is a touch screen at each table for people to order food, and you can order any dish the place has to offer, including those available on the lower belt. On top of sushi, you can order curry and udon. Once the food ready, it will be delivered to your table on the upper belt, and it stops right at your table. We jokingly called this the Shinkansen of food, and sometimes we saw orders of other tables speeding by on that belt. It's super fun to watch. There is also a slot at the bottom of the table for you to put the plates back so it does not clutter the table. It automatically counts the number of plates you returned and give a running tally on the touch screen that you order food from. The kids had a great time just grabbing food and returning dishes. All in all, this is a great restaurant. Just the experience itself is worth the money.

Visited August 2018