Masazushi Zenan 小樽政壽司 ぜん庵 (Otaru, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

I have been trying to get ourselves a table at Masazushi (小樽政壽司) ever since we got our flight tickets to Sapporo but the guys behind their booking system (a pretty manual system!) kept telling me how full they were during that week. Personally, I am not particularly picky when it comes to sushi so I thought we could live with having sushi at their outpost near the canal (official name is Masazushi Zenan 小樽政壽司 ぜん庵) instead of the flagship branch.



There's something at Masazushi Zenan (小樽政壽司 ぜん庵) that the other branches could never offer. A view to the Otaru canal right from the dining area.



This is the busiest intersection in Otaru where you see all kinds of tour buses (and tourists) going left and right. 



But I wasn't interested in the canal view. At least not while I was enjoying my sushi so the sushi bar suited me just fine. 



Rolled egg omelette (380 yen) - Some small bites to warm our palates up a bit. Pretty decent.



Deep-fried tofu with chicken stock (680 yen) - The deep-fried tofu wasn't bad but the sauce was a little bit thick (almost like a jelly).



Miso soup with crab (550 yen) - Very popular item on the menu because of the seriously insane price. There's actually more crab in there than miso soup! Highly recommended for crab lovers.



Tuna special 10-piece set (3,500 yen) - This cost three times more than the set I got from Sushi Bar Siki Hanamaru (四季花まる) but it's almost three times more tasty! All the ingredients were so much fresher. Only if they could throw in a chu-toro sushi in there, I would be a real happy camper.



Salmon roe and sea urchin rice bowl (4,500 yen) - Jelloman went with the most expensive item on the menu (because I was paying) but based on the small samples of salmon roes and sea urchin that I managed to steal from her, it's really worth every yen.



Now that we have packed our tummies soundly, it's time to head back out there in the freezing cold weather and get our photos taken next to the beautiful canal.








Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: 1-2-1 Ironai, Otaru, Hokkaido, 047-0031, Japan
Tel: +81 134-22-0011
Website: www.masazushi.co.jp/shop_zenan.html