Lowlight: Prepare for bill shockTHERE’S a telling line in the hypnotic, poetic film Jiro Dreams of Sushi when octogenarian sushi master Jiro Ono, who was the world’s first sushi chef to receive three Michelin stars, says: “For perfection, you can never rest. You must fall in love with your work. I get up each day and try and do better than the day before.”From his tiny 10-seat sushi bar in a Tokyo subway station, this quest has created if not the world’s best sushi restaurant, certainly the most famous (President Obama dined there last year with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe). Providing you can get a seat, dining at Sukiyabashi Jiro will cost almost $400 a head, for 20 pieces of sushi. The experience lasts just over half an hour. Perfection comes at a price. In that context, the $150-a-head charged at Minamishima for the 15 courses/pieces served over 90 minutes is positively cheap. Though seen through the prism of Melbourne, it’s not. It’s very, very expensive.I bring up cost because you should be forewarned.

Yes, you will be served arguably the freshest and most skilfully prepared fish you can find in this city, but you will pay very handsomely for the privilege.As this is omakase-only, or chef’s selection, you’ll see no menus, and we were told neither the cost nor what to expect on this visit, which is an unforgivable oversight at any price.In fact, the whole experience, while terrifyingly precise on one level, was disconcertingly opaque and unnecessarily mysterious. In a backstreet location off Bridge Rd under a townhouse development, Koichi Minamishima, who worked at Kenzan for decades, opened his eponymous place at the end of last year. It’s a rigorous, refined space; The long sushi bar dominates the room and where the prime seating lies. There are also a few tables and a private room, but the bar is where you’ll see the master at work, his balletic fingers transforming grains of perfectly cooked rice into cloudlike pillows onto which all manner of things from the deep — many of which are flown in from the Tokyo fish market — find their final resting place.

But before the first nigiri hits, a single baby corn, blistered and charred and served in its husk, is a theatrical, though somewhat discordant, opener for what follows.King George whiting is the first sushi this night, the slightly sweet fish, draped languidly across the rice, teamed with shiso leaf and a sprinkling of sesame. sushi las condes mikaiNew Zealand scampi, brushed with nikiri (a sweetish soy glaze) is at once bracing and refreshing, creamy and pure. sushi grade fish nashua nhKohada, a Tokyo import, glistened under the light, its silver skin contrasting the dark, oily but mild-mannered flesh beneath.youda sushi chef em portuguesWrapped in crisp seaweed, another airfreighted import, geoduck — a type of saltwater clam — proved textural and toothsome.youda sushi chef za darmo

There’s tuna, of course, including an excellent soy-cured yellowfin, the oily flesh and salty sauce combining in sublime harmony. But the o-toro that followed was the stuff of dreams, Jiro’s or otherwise. This most prized piece of this most prized fish, the marbled, flesh of the belly the palest of pink, is graded in the markets according to its fat content, and here provides a moment of pure bliss, the lingering creaminess unlike anything that’s gone before. ninja sushi menu waipioIt’s o-toro people speak of when talking transcendental sushi.sumo sushi menu henderson nvThe next piece, though, was even better; a piece of o-toro first torched to give it a charred crust, the fat melting under the heat to give it a meaty length and depth of flavour at odds with its two-bite size.There’s flounder and bream and eel and urchin and torigai, a Japanese cockle, and each is unique, but also the same.

Exquisite mouthfuls of exceptional fish and perfect rice, but fish and rice all the same. It’s an art, practised by masters, and like all art, not everyone will see its point.It’s not just the food that’s expensive; there’s a sake or wine pairing offered for $70 a person (not that anyone offered it to us) or you can choose something from the short and eclectic list — assyrtiko rubs shoulders with albarino, a South African merlot sits next to a bright NZ pinot — but with wines by the glass all above $15 and most $18 (likewise with sake), you probably need not worry about designating a driver.To finish, a simple yuzu granita with sake jelly is served alongside a toasted green tea. It’s bright and fresh and clean.With a cocktail and a glass of wine each, the bill came to $370 for two. Perfection comes at a price. As to its value, well, that’s completely in the eye of the chopstick-holder.I love watching Gordon Ramsay make scrambled eggs. I first saw this video years ago and, possibly because I am an idiot, have yet to attempt these eggs at home.

You and me, eggs, next weekend. P.S. Jean-Georges Vongerichten makes scrambled eggs in a very similar way. Serious Eats calls them fancy French spoonable eggs. P.P.S. Anyone have a square Japanese omelette pan I can borrow?In Jiro Dreams of Sushi (now on Netflix!), an apprentice talks about making tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) over 200 times before Jiro declared it good enough to serve in his restaurant. That apprentice, Daisuke Nakazawa, is now the head chef at Sushi Nakazawa, one of the five NYC restaurants that currently has a four-star rating from the NY Times (along with the aforementioned Jean-Georges and not along with Per Se, which recently got dunce capped down to 2 stars by populist hero Pete Wells). David Gelb, the director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, is going to be doing a six-part documentary series for Netflix about “culinary artists”. Chefs featured in the docu-series are: Ben Shewry (of Attica Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia), Magnus Nilsson (Fäviken in Järpen Sweden), Francis Mallmann (El Restaurante Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Niki Nakayama (N/Naka Restaurant in Los Angeles), Dan Barber (Blue Hill in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.) and Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana in Modena

Sounds a lot like a Jiro Dreams series. Looking forward to it. Update: The trailer for this series, Chef’s Table, is now out:Available on Netflix on April 26th. Sukiyabashi Jiro is a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo that many say serves the best sushi in the world. The chef/owner, 86-year-old Jiro Ono, was the subject of last year’s excellent Jiro Dreams of Sushi documentary film. Adam Goldberg of A Life Worth Eating ate at Sukiyabashi Jiro yesterday. The meal was 21 courses, about US$380 per person (according the web site, excluding drinks), and lasted only 19 minutes. That’s more than a course a minute and, Goldberg estimates, around $20 per person per minute. And apparently totally worth it. Goldberg has photos of each course up on Flickr and his site has a write-up of his 2009 meal. Three slices of tuna came next, akami, chu-toro, and oo-toro increasing from lean, to medium fatty, to extremely fatty cuts. The akami (lean toro) was the most tender slice of tuna I’ve ever tasted that did not contain noticeable marbelization.

The tuna was marinated in soy sauce for several minutes before service, perhaps contributing to this unique texture. The medium fatty tuna had an interesting mix of crunch and fat, while the fatty tuna just completely melted in my mouth. My friend with whom I shared this meal began to tear (I kid you not). Lest you think Goldberg’s meal was an anomaly, this is a typical meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro. Dave Arnold wrote about his experience earlier this year: The sushi courses came out at a rate of one per minute. 19 courses in 19 minutes. No ordering, no real talking — just making sushi and eating sushi. After the sushi is done you are motioned to leave the sushi bar and sit at a booth where you are served your melon. We took that melon at a leisurely 10 minute pace, leaving us with a bill of over $300 per person for just under 30 minutes time. Nastassia and Mark thought the pace was absurd and unpleasant. They felt obliged to keep up with Jiro’s pace. I didn’t feel obliged, but kept up anyway.