Tokyo a la Mode. Web Magazine for Japanese Fashion and Urban Culture

Sushi on the Go

By Bobby / Jul 10, 2007
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Looking for something to eat that’s quick, fresh and afforable.  How about sushi?  More specifically, kaiten zushi, also known as conveyor belt or revolving table sushi.

Quick!  Grab it before it’s gone!

Just sit at the bar and plates of fresh maguro, hamachi, ebi and your other favorites pass by in front of you.  Just pick what you want and enjoy.  At the end of your meal, the waiter counts up your stack of plates and calculates your bill.

Sushi on the go

At Daichan Kaiten Sushi in West Los Angeles, blue and yellow plates go for $2, orange plates are $3.50 and the red are $4.50.  Blue and yellow plates include LA staples like the California roll and albacore.  For the red, you get more exotic tastes like uni and the spider roll, and special dishes like the mango go-go, a mix of mango, crab and avocado in soy paper dripped with sweet sauce.  On a recent trip, our party spent about $20 per person and that included a small bottle of hot sake.

My stack of plates was the highest.

Conveyor belt sushi and its cousin, the floating boat sushi, have been popping up around the States and its a fun way to eat a healthy meal.

The Daichan Kaiten Sushi wall of fame.  The current champ stacked up 33 plates of sushi.

Kaiten zushi (literally “turnover sushi") was invented in Japan by Yoshiaki Shiraishi and revolutionized the sushi industry by making sushi quick and cheap.  The idea popped in his head when watching beer bottles rattle through an assembly line.  The first kaiten zushi restaurant opened in Osaka in 1958 and today there are over 2,400 restaurants in Japan.  Most can be found in and around train stations, perfect for commuters looking for a quick meal.

Did you know? Kaiten zushi revolves at a rate of eight centimeters per second.  Any faster and the sushi dried out, any slower and people get impatient for sushi!

So the next time you’re jonsing for sushi, try out kaiten zushi!