The chef’s tasting course begins with an array of elaborate tsumami appetizers featuring cooked ingredients like crab and abalone. It is a perfect beginning to a meal that gets the sake flowing and provides an excellent contrast to the fresh sushi ingredients that follow in bite-size nigiri morsels. The nigiri sushi starts light and gets richer and deeper. Still, even within that general flow, there is moderation in the progression that allows guests to experience and appreciate each ingredient’s innate flavor. The dignified shari vinegared rice ovals lend themselves to the sake; this is exquisite sushi.

The katsuo skipjack tuna served at Ginza Iwa is the best daily catch. It comes from Kagoshima, Toyama, or Tottori and is served with chopped green onions and ginger. A dish of luscious steamed awabi abalone from Chiba Prefecture’s Boso Peninsula is served with liver sauce and sprinkled with aosa sea lettuce. The bluefin tuna is typically longline caught in the tropical waters of Okinawa. The akami red flesh is often served marinated in a soy sauce mixture, and later in the evening, you will be treated to the exquisite flavor of otoro fatty tuna in perfect balance with the rice oval that carries it. Isaki grunt fish is aged for three days to extract maximum umami, and kasugodai young sea bream is momentarily dipped in gari pickled ginger liquid before shaping with the rice for an incredibly refreshing morsel.

INGREDIENTS
The ingredients served at Ginza Iwa are primarily sourced from Toyosu through daily visits to the market, where Chef Iwa chooses everything with his own eyes. Direct shipments also arrive from Kagoshima and other Kyushu ports. After many personal taste tests, Iwa chose Koshihikari rice from Abiko, Chiba Prefecture. He uses Kohaku vinegar from Yokoi Brewery and Okinawan salt. The essential sushi condiments of soy sauce and wasabi are those from Higeta Shoyu and Umegashima in northern Shizuoka City, respectively.