Best Sushi at Toyosu Fish Market: All 13 Counters Compared

Nobody official ranks these counters, so choose yours by what you can check before you leave the hotel: the block it is in, the hour it opens, how many seats it has, and whether it takes a booking or a card. Toyosu Market tours come into it at one point only, where a fare holds a seat for you.

All 13 sushi counters compared

One row for each counter, earliest opening first. A dash marks a figure the counter does not publish.

Two of those rows can move on you. Sho may close before its stated hour when the day's fish runs out, and Sushi Dai stops taking customers at its 14:00 close.

Which sushi counter at Toyosu Market is best?

The one that fits your morning. Use whichever of these lines describes you.

• You want the earliest start: Sushi Dai, Daiwa Sushi or Yamazaki, all open from 5:30.
• You want the most seats: Daiwa Sushi, with 24 at the counter.
• You want a booking: Sei and Okame both take reservations.
• You want to pay by card: Sho, Sei, Ichiba Sushi, Yamazaki or either Kagura branch.
• You are eating late: Kagura, which stays open to 16:00.
• You have children with you: Yamazaki, which lists a kid's set.
• One of you does not eat raw fish: Sushi Dai, whose English menu carries cooked dishes.
• You want the shortest walk from the station: Daiwa Sushi, in Block 5.

Where are the sushi counters?

In three restaurant areas, one in each block. Six counters sit on the third floor of the Fisheries Intermediate Wholesale Market Building in Block 6. Six more are on the third floor of the Management Facilities Building in Block 7. The last one, Daiwa Sushi, is on the ground floor of the Fruit and Vegetable Building in Block 5.

You reach each area from that block's own visitor corridor off the pedestrian deck, so check the block before you walk. The market holds 38 restaurants in all: 22 in Block 6, 13 in Block 7's management building and 3 in Block 5. For the buildings themselves, read about Block 5, Block 6 and Block 7 one at a time, and use the market map to find the entrances.

Block 6: six counters above the intermediate wholesale floor

Block 6 has the biggest restaurant area in the market, and six of its restaurants are sushi counters.

1. Sushi Dai

You sit at one of 18 counter seats. The house order is the omakase: ten nigiri, one more piece of your choice and a roll. You can also order single pieces. It opens at 5:30 and takes no reservations, no cards and no takeaway orders, so bring yen. The shop moved here from Tsukiji with the market in 2018, and says its waits are shorter than they were there.

2. Sushibun

Open from 6:30, with last orders at 14:00. For now you cannot walk in. A notice dated 29 August 2026 makes it reservation only, by telephone, with nothing taken for the same day. Leave large luggage behind and put your camera away, because photographs are not allowed inside. The house dates itself to 150 years ago.

3. Iwasa Sushi

Open 6:00 to 15:00, with a counter and tables. You queue at the door and you pay in cash. Two sets define it: an omakase of 12 nigiri, a roll and soup, and a shellfish set of seven nigiri, a roll and soup. Each person is asked to order one set. Pick this one if shellfish is what you came for.

4. Sho

Each piece is seasoned by the chef before it reaches you. The omakase is 11 nigiri, a roll and egg with a side dish and soup, or you can choose your own eight. Sho opens at 7:00 and runs to 14:00 on weekdays and 14:30 on Saturdays. It has 17 seats and takes no bookings, and you are seated once your whole party is present. Cards, e-money and transport cards are all accepted.

5. Isonoya (Iso Sushi)

A tuna house. It buys southern bluefin whole, and the popular orders are a tuna-only nigiri set and a tuna bowl. It opens at 7:00 and closes at 15:00, with 18 to 20 seats at a counter and tables. Staff seat you in turn, there are no reservations, and it is cash only. The menu comes in English and Chinese, which helps if you read no Japanese.

6. Sushidokoro Sei

One of the few you can book. It has 18 seats, eight at the counter and ten at tables, and it takes cash, cards and e-payment. The omakase is nine nigiri plus a whole piece of conger eel, egg and soup, and there is an English menu. Hours are 6:00 to 14:30, with last orders at 14:00, and on Saturdays both run half an hour later. You can take food away when the room is not busy.

Block 7: six counters in the management building

You are already in this block for the tuna auction, and it also holds the PR Corner where ballot winners meet. That makes these six the shortest walk after the bidding.

7. Sushidokoro Yamazaki

Opens at 5:30, about when the bidding starts. You queue at the entrance for one of 16 counter seats, and you can pay by card as well as cash. The sets are named Kiku, with 11 pieces, and Sakura and Fuji, with nine each, all served with miso soup. You will also find a chirashi with the sashimi served apart from the rice, a kid's set and ramen. The business describes a history of more than 90 years.

8. Sushidokoro Okame

Okame takes reservations and takes only cash. It has 18 seats, ten at the counter and eight at tables, and opens from 6:00 to 14:00. It is known for wild southern bluefin tuna, and you can read the menu in English or Chinese. Takeaway is available. The same house runs a standing sister shop in the Tsukiji Outer Market.

9. Ichiba Sushi

Ichiba Sushi buys its tuna whole and serves most cuts of it, rare ones included. You sit at a plain wood counter with long tuna knives on display. Hours are 6:00 to 15:00, with last orders at 14:30, and you can pay by card or cash. It takes no reservations from walk-in visitors and does no takeaway. It is also one of the two counters where the tour with Fumi has a seat held for its group.

10. Ryu Sushi

Founded in 1959 and open 6:30 to 14:00. Two things set it apart: thick conger eel simmered for more than three hours, and rice seasoned with red vinegar. You sit at the counter, you cannot reserve, and you pay in cash. Its own page calls it a quieter counter with few overseas visitors, which may be exactly what you are after.

11 and 12. Tsukiji Kagura Sushi, two branches

Both open at 8:00 and close at 16:00, so they are the counters still serving after a tour that ends mid-morning. The rice is seasoned with the house's five-year-aged red vinegar, and the seared nigiri come with rock salt and lemon. The Toyosu Market branch has 20 seats, nine of them at the counter. The Uogashi branch opened in 2021 and has 17, five at the counter. Both take cash, cards and transport cards, both do takeaway, and both ask you to enquire about a booking.

Block 5: Daiwa Sushi, alone under the produce hall

13. Daiwa Sushi

Daiwa Sushi is the only sushi counter in Block 5, on the ground floor of the Fruit and Vegetable Building, and its restaurant area is the one nearest the station. It has 24 counter seats across two units and opens at 5:30. It is also the first of the thirteen to close, at 13:00.

You queue at the door and staff seat you. There are no reservations and it is cash only. The popular order is an omakase of seven nigiri, a roll and miso soup, and single pieces start at 300 yen before tax. The shop's own note is that on weekdays there is almost no wait until about nine.

To find it, take the left-hand passage from the pedestrian deck and pass the produce market gate. Turn left at the first fork, then take the lift or the stairs at the first corner down to the ground floor.

Can you watch the tuna auction and still get a seat?

Yes, as long as you let the auction go first. The visitor corridors open at 5:00 and the bidding runs roughly 5:30 to 6:30, so the three earliest counters start serving while you are still at the glass. By 6:30 nine are open. Isonoya and Sho follow at 7:00, and the Kagura branches at 8:00.

The restaurant association says seats are relatively easy to get at every shop before 10:00, and that the whole restaurant street is very crowded from about 11:00. So you lose nothing by staying for the last lot.

The tuna auction viewing guide covers where to stand, and a Toyosu Fish Market morning, hour by hour sets out the rest of the clock.

Do the counters take reservations and cards?

Mostly no to the first, and about half say yes to the second.

• No reservations: Daiwa Sushi, Sushi Dai, Iwasa Sushi, Sho, Isonoya, Ryu Sushi, Ichiba Sushi and Yamazaki. You queue and are seated in turn.
• Reservations taken: Sei and Okame.
• Enquire first: both Kagura branches.
• Reservation only, by phone: Sushibun, for the time being, and never for the same day.
• Cash only: Daiwa Sushi, Sushi Dai, Iwasa Sushi, Isonoya, Ryu Sushi and Okame.
• Cards accepted: Sho, Sei, Ichiba Sushi, Yamazaki and both Kagura branches.

Bring yen either way. With cash in your pocket you are not limited to half the list.

House rules at the counters

The restaurants ask the same few things of every visitor, and knowing them saves you an awkward moment at the door.

• Order one set each. Most shops ask every person to order a portion and ask that you do not share one order.
• Keep your party small. The rooms are small, and a group of ten or more is turned away at a good number of them.
• Leave the luggage behind. Carts and large bags are not allowed, and the market has no coin lockers and nowhere to park a pushchair.
• Queue where staff tell you, then eat and leave promptly, market style.
• Do not smoke outside the smoking rooms.
• Do not eat in the visitor corridors. Food and drink are not allowed there, benches included, so a takeaway box waits until you are outside.

When are the sushi counters closed?

Whenever the market is. The counters keep its calendar, which closes on Sundays, public holidays and most Wednesdays, plus a handful of irregular days the market sets a year at a time. October 2026, for instance, is closed on the 4th, 7th, 11th, 12th, 18th, 21st, 25th and 28th. On a market holiday you cannot visit anything inside.

On a trading day the restaurants run from early morning to about 14:00. Almost all are shut after that, although the corridors stay open to 17:00, and none opens in the evening. Check hours and closing days before you set an alarm, and see which days the market trades if your dates can move.

Tours that put you at a counter

You can skip the question of the queue by letting a guide hold the seat. The tour with Fumi includes a sushi reservation at Daiwa Sushi or Ichiba Sushi, with no line, for any group size. The meal is not in the fare, so you pay at the counter. It runs 4 to 5 hours, about 4 hours 20 minutes of that inside Toyosu Market, with up to 13 people.

The tuna auction and Tsukiji gourmet morning works differently. It gives you 90 minutes at the auction with an audio guide, then 45 minutes for a seafood breakfast in the market, inside a morning of 3 hours 30 minutes. A third departure puts lunch in the fare instead: you spend 45 minutes at Toyosu Market, an hour at Tsukiji and 90 minutes at a sushi workshop in Azabujuban.

Other fares leave breakfast to you, so check before you book. Toyosu Fish Market food tours include one that keeps food and drink out of the fare. The same is true of the auction-and-Tsukiji morning among the ways to take a private tour of the market, which excludes breakfast and drinks. On those mornings the table above is your shortlist.

What if sushi for breakfast is not for you?

You still eat well. Sushi bars are the majority of the market's restaurants, and the rest serve ramen and udon, beef over rice, Chinese food, curry, deep-fried meat and fish, and sandwiches. Two of the sushi counters help a mixed party too: Sushi Dai's English menu has cooked dishes, and Yamazaki lists ramen and a kid's set. If you have an allergy, read the allergy and dietary guide before you sit down at a raw-fish counter.

Toyosu Market sushi: questions people ask