*Please note that this post is AI-translated.* On a Sunday night at 7 PM, all the restaurants around Uozu Station had closed, leaving the streets quiet, with only the sign of "Sushi Daimon" glowing softly. As I stepped through the noren curtain, I found the clientele inside to be quite intriguing. There was a local couple enjoying sake together, a fellow chef who had traveled from afar for a visit, and travelers like myself who had come all the way by shinkansen. The chef, who honed his skills at the prestigious "Sushi Zen" in Sapporo, has returned to his hometown to establish this restaurant, which has now become a pinnacle of sushi in Toyama. The dishes served here follow the traditional Edo-mae style while embodying the spirit of "locally sourced ingredients." Instead of the usual abalone with liver sauce, they use local shellfish, and they serve both Aomori's medium fatty tuna and local fatty tuna side by side, showcasing the essence of the Hokuriku region while maintaining an impressively smart cost-performance throughout the course. However, when it comes to the sushi rice, Daimon's style lacks the strong acidity and saltiness typical of traditional Edo-mae sushi in Tokyo. The chef likely chooses to tone down the presence of the rice to enhance the delicate and noble sweetness of the white shrimp and shellfish from Toyama Bay, leaving a gentle "space" in the flavor profile. Unfortunately, this soft and warm approach did not quite align with my personal preference for a more pronounced rice flavor. Nevertheless, the warm hospitality from the chef and his wife, along with the extremely reasonable price of around JPY 20,000, beautifully washed away any feelings of dissatisfaction stemming from my subjective taste. And I must strongly recommend one last thing: the "Salted Caramel Pudding" that concludes the course is simply mind-blowingly delicious. It was a delightful surprise to see the chef, who had been so disciplined in his minimalist approach to sushi, produce such a magnificent masterpiece for dessert. It was truly a pleasant twist.
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