It’s a sushi merry-go-round!

Today I shall explain the wonders of kaiten-zushi or conveyor belt sushi restaurants (often called, by me anyway, sushi-go-round restaurants). This type of sushi restaurant is very common in Japan. Upon arriving at the restaurant you are shown to a table. One side of the table faces a conveyor belt constantly in motion carrying various types of sushi and other small dishes around for the patrons. When you see something you want, you simply grab it off of the conveyor belt and eat. The plates are all color coded by price. At the end of your meal you summon the waiter with a push of the service button and they count up your plates and total your bill. Then you proceed to the front to pay.

There is a menu at each table, picturing everything that the restaurant serves (although some items may be covered up if they are currently out of season). If you don’t see something on the conveyor, or if you simply want to be sure that something is freshly made, you can call the waiter and order things specifically (sometimes they will tell you to check the conveyor as what you’ve asked for should be coming around). This is handy, especially if you are at the end of the conveyor belt on a busy night and the things you want seem to get scooped up before they get around to you. That being said, the best time to hit these places is when they are busy. It helps ensure that the food coming around is fresh and hasn’t been circulating for an unknown period of time. Tea is provided at each table, and water is often available from a pitcher somewhere in the restaurant. Soft drinks or alcohol must be ordered and come on plates of their own to be factored into the bill. Due to the nature of the restaurant a small wait staff can serve a rather large amount of customers.

This type of restaurant is great for groups, especially if you have people who eat drastically different amounts of food. Big eaters can take whatever they want and the small eaters can also get their fill without footing the bill for the big eaters. At the place we go to most plates are only ¥105, so it’s a good place to go if you are on a budget.

It’s a really fun experience, and it can encourage you to try strange things. Friends and I will often pick up something strange and each try one portion on the plate. If we like it we can grab more. If not, it’s not a big financial loss.

The most interesting sushi restaurant I’ve been to had a unique twist on this idea. It was a small restaurant so everything was made to order. When each dish was ready, the sushi was placed on a small boat like plate and set afloat on the small stream of water that circled the table. He called out what he was sending down the line to alert us to catch the little boats and retrieve our food. The same rules applied as the other restaurant; boats were color coded by price and at the end we called him over to tally up our bills. It was a really fun experience and the food was excellent.