Sushi-yoshi Tsuruhashi Korea Town Osaka • Make Sushi with Heart! 寿し吉 金本実留

Went to Sushi-yoshi Tsuruhashi 寿し吉 located at the Korea Town area in Osaka.

It's a small low profile, neighbourhood type of sushi house. Sushi-yoshi Tsuruhashi was established in 1975. Sushi-yoshi Tsuruhashi is well covered in Japanese media but more or less invisible in English media.

The space inside the sushi-ya was small and narrow, especially when crowded with thick jackets during winter (like mine 🤭 ). The customers were all locals as far as I can see and hear when we were there. I like the local ambiance and atmosphere here. The local, sushi bar of our imagination.

We secured front row seats which allowed us to watch the chef in action up close. The bar counter had only six seats.

Chef 金本実留 proudly displayed a photo of himself and his wife with sushi legend, chef Jiro Ono 小野二郎 (right).

Chef 金本実留 and wife today (Dec 2024).

Chef's motto is "Make Sushi with Heart!" and we can feel it watching him in action from our seats.

The omakase sushi lunch menu starts at ¥2500.

Chef 金本実留 started us off with a tray of different appetisers 前菜, then a parade of sushi which he personally made right in front of us.

So glad to have this video of chef 金本実留 when he was younger at the fish market and at Sushi-yoshi, right at where we were. Chef said "My goal is not only making delicious sushi, but also making you happy!"

We were certainly over the moon. The sushi were delicious - ingredients were high quality, fresh and very well made right in front of us by chef 金本実留. It was so humbling for me that the unassuming master chef 金本実留 made the sushi personally for us, each and every piece.

I feel so privileged and blessed to be a guest of chef 金本実留.

Chef 金本実留 today, still so immaculate looking and still serving customers with the same sincere spirit which was very heartfelt.

Chef's signature egg roll with foie gras, squid, sea urchin, clam adductor muscle, wolfberry, pine nut, mushroom, Japanese parsley, etc.

I hope nobody gets angry with me for saying this - sushi is a bit like dim sum. Creativity in small tasty bite size pieces. But, sushi has a direct connection between diner and chef, while dim sum chefs are invisible in the kitchen.

Our last dish today was not a sushi but a savoury fish miso soup.

When you are in Osaka, must come to this humble sushi-ya and meet this well respected master with at least 50 years of mastery. Sushi-yoshi is highly accessible, being less than 10 minutes walk from Tsuruhashi station. After enjoying Sushi-yoshi, you still can do plenty of sightseeing in Korea Town and get a different perspective of Osaka.