David Gelb's mouth-watering documentary takes us downstairs at a Tokyo metro station, where 85-year-old masterchef Jiro Ono is quietly devoting his life to sushi perfection Watch Jiro: Dreams of Sushi here Click here to put a question to director David Gelb in a live webchat Reading on a mobile? Click here to watch video One of the best lines in Jiro Dreams of Sushi could have come straight out of another great Japanese film – Tampopo, the brilliant "noodle western" that is the funniest film ever made about food. Where Tampopo was a satirical paean to ramen, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a fascinating documentary about a Michelin three-star restaurant in Tokyo, called Jiro, which serves top-quality sushi – and only top-quality sushi – starting at 30,000 yen (£210) for a 20-piece tasting course. A food critic quips that, because the meal can be eaten in only a quarter of an hour, Jiro is minute-for-minute the most expensive restaurant in the world. Yet with its 10 seats, total lack of decor and bizarre location in a featureless, fluorescent-lit corridor down a set of stairs in Ginza metro station, Jiro is as unassuming as its master chef, 85-year-old Jiro Ono.

For 75 uninterrupted years, since before the outbreak of the second world war, every day except for national holidays and the occasional Sunday, Jiro has spent all of his time devoted to doing just one thing: making sushi. "I wasn't much of a father," Jiro says. "More of a stranger." His dedication to his tradecraft is guaranteed to put you and everyone you know to shame. In Jiro's regime, apprentices – one of whom is his eldest son Yoshi, who at 50 is considered still too green to take over the family business – must spend 10 years learning to use their knives before they're allowed to cook even eggs. To become a shokunin, a skilled craftsman, someone who does the same exact thing every day to the highest possible level in the neverending pursuit of perfection. We meet a cast of obsessives – the rice guy, the shrimp guy – who lead us to the film's centrepiece, the great singing tuna auctioneers of Tsukiji fish market. With the market about to be moved to a soulless new venue, this section of the film amounts to a historically important bit of documentary.

And if you don't want to punch the air yourself when Jiro leans forward with 75 years of fire in his eyes and fervently extols the "harmony of fish, sushi rice and soy sauce", then your blood runs colder than anago.sushi abu dhabi yacht clubTo the joy of New York’s omakase diners, an 11-year mentee of Tokyo’s Jiro Ono—yes, the Jiro of the beautifully shot documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi—is the chef behind the bar at Sushi Nakazawa, opening August 19th. where to buy roe for sushiDaisuke Nakazawa was senior apprentice to the 85-year-old sushi master, who owns the 10-seat, three-Michelin-starred omakase restaurant in the film. produtos sushi onlineThe bar at Sushi Nakazawa, owned by Maurizio de Rosa and Alessandro Borgognone, will also seat a lucky 10 until September, when the restaurant’s full dining room opens. ninja sushi game free online

Below, we round up a few more sushi restaurants with very limited capacities. The restaurant: Sushi Nakazawa, 23 Commerce Street, 212-924-2212Total seats: 10Chef at the helm: Daisuke Nakazawa of Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo and Shiro’s in SeattleWhat to know: Nakazawa will serve omakase tastings paired with sake. Reservations are for parties of two max, and a full dining room at the restaurant opens in September. The restaurant: Tanoshi, 1372 York Avenue, 646-727-9056Total seats: 10Chef at the helm: Toshio Oguma of Morimoto in New York and NapaWhat to know: The restaurant serves three rounds per day at 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. The chef’s specialty is “loosey sushi,” intended to dissolve upon eating. (Also, eat with your fingers.) The restaurant: Ichimura at Brushstroke, 163 Duane Street, 212-791-3771Total seats: 12Chef at the helm: Eiji Ichimura of New York’s IchimuraWhat to know: David Bouley redesigned his bar at Brushstroke to showcase chef Ichimura’s expertise to glowing reviews.

Omakase menus start at $160. The restaurant: Sushi Ko, 91 Clinton Street, 917-734-5857Total seats: 11Chef at the helm: John Daley of Masa and 15 EastWhat to know: The Lower East Side restaurant serves omakase offerings in three courses ($75), five courses ($125) and seven courses ($175), or full omakase ($200). The restaurant: Nowaza Bar, 212 North Cañon DriveTotal seats: 10Chef at the helm: Osamu Fujita of Marssa Restaurant in Las Vegas (also a friend and mentee of sushi master Kazunori Nozawa)What to know: Reservation-only seatings are $150 per person Monday through Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The restaurant: Urasawa, 218 N Rodeo Drive, 310-247-8939Total seats: 10Chef at the helm: Hiroyuki UrasawaWhat to know: In 2011, Urasawa was ranked the number-two most expensive restaurant in the U.S. (after Masa in New York). The average bill is said to be $1,111. The restaurant: Tekka, 537 Balboa Street, 415-221-8455Total seats: 11What to know: Unlike most of its limited-capacity counterparts, this restaurant doesn’t take reservations.

Seating times are 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The restaurant: Kinchan Sushi, 500 Ala Moana Blvd, 808-534-0088Total seats: 12What to know: A local hotspot, the Restaurant Row sushi bar offers a 10-course omakase menu. The restaurant: Sushi Tetsu, 12 Jerusalem Passage, +44 20 3217 0090Total seats: 7Chef at the helm: Toru Takahashi of NobuWhat to know: The chef’s wife Harumi runs front of house. Eat a la carte or opt for the full omakase. The restaurant: Sushi Saito, 1-9-15 Akasaka, +81 3 3589 4412Total seats: 7Chef at the helm: Patron Takashi Saito, one of Japan’s youngest sushi master chefsWhat to know: The other three-Michelin-starred sushi restaurant in Tokyo. Chef Saito lets his fish “rest” from one to 20 days, causing the flesh to relax for a more tender, flavorful bite. The restaurant: Sushi Dai, ５-２-1 Tsukiji, +81 3-3547-6797Total seats: 12What to know: For the sushi’for-breakfast types. The wait for a seat here lasts at least two hours. The restaurant: Sushi Shin, XI 3F 4-3-10 Nishi-AzabuTotal seats: 12Chef at the helm: Shintaro Suzuki—at 39, he’s another young pro.