There are many “100 yen sushi” restaurants in Japan, where literally you can eat sushi for 100 yen per a dish. I love 100 yen sushi and I often go to “Sushiro” and “Kurasushi”. These two are very famous sushi chains, with over 400 outlets all over Japan. So if you’re looking for 100 yen sushi chains, here I introduce Sushiro and Kurasushi, I hope you enjoy eating 100 yen sushi in Japan!
First of all.. what is “100 yen sushi” chains? .. It is the cheap sushi train restaurants, costs 100 yen per a dish (to be exact, it is 108 yen now including tax.) Please check the price before you order, as there are many 200, 300 yen dishes too, for like some special sushi or other menus like ramen or udon (noodles). You can see the price on the menu or you can check the colour of the dishes, because they are usually different by the prices. For example, sushi on the normal yellow colour dish costs only 100 yen, but sushi on the black dish is special and costs more than 100 yen, etc. (the colour of the dishes varies, depends on the restaurants.)
If you’re traveling alone.. Of course you can visit there with your family or friends, but there are usually some counter seats too, so it’s nice for the ones who are traveling alone in Japan.
Sushiro (スシロー)
Easy to find .. Sushiro is one of the largest 100 yen sushi chains in Japan, founded in Osaka. Right now it has 525 outlets; 513 in Japan, 10 in Korea, 2 in Taiwan according to the official website and this means you can find Sushiro everywhere in Japan!
Nice Sushi .. I heard many of my Japanese friends saying that Sushiro’s sushi is very good, compared to the other 100 yen sushi chains. So I checked the reason and I found the answer. To control the freshness of Sushi, Sushiro has its original management system; putting the IC chips to the sushi dishes, so that it enables Sushiro to control the quality of sushi and keep only the fresh sushi on the sushi train.
Growing Rapidly.. Recently Sushiro is described as the “only winner” of 100 yen sushi restaurant chains, as the company managing Sushiro, “Sushiro Global Holdings”, released in May 2019 that the operating profits and sales revenues both hit the record high for the first half of the year (from Oct. 2018 to March 2019).
Many Campaigns.. I like Sushiro too as a customer, as Sushiro is always fun to visit, with always different campaigns conducted. For example, before it was “tuna festival” or “crab festival” once, where you could find many tuna or crab sushi menus with the low prices. Also for the summer campaign, there were new summer menus such as shaved ice parfait, chocolate mint ice cake, eel dipped and broiled in soy-based sauce (Kabayaki) etc. Sushiro has limited time offer campaigns all the time, so even if I visit Sushiro every once a week, I still can enjoy eating there. So if you want to try 100 yen sushi, Sushiro would be a great choice.
Kurasushi (くら寿司)
Kurasushi (by the way, many Japanese would pronounce this as Kura “zushi”, it is a grammatical thing I think. It still means the same thing, sushi.) is also the major 100 yen sushi chain. It has 453 outlets (including 17 outlets in the United States and 14 in Taiwan.) as of Oct 2018, according to the official website. Especially Kurasushi has many outlets in Osaka, as it was founded in Osaka.
No Additives.. Kurasushi is saying it is not using four major additives, chemical seasoning, artificial sweetener, artificial colorant and artificial preservatives for all the ingredients. I like they are saying this, we all want to eat something natural, healthy and safe, right?
Sendo-kun.. At Kurasushi, all the sushi on the sushi train are covered with the transparent cover and it is called “Sendo-kun”. “Sendo” means freshness in Japanese; it apparently keeps sushi clean from all the dusts etc. in the air. Also Sendo-kun has IC chip embedded, so that it can monitor the quality of sushi, and only fresh ones are left on the sushi train.
Unique Menus.. Kura sushi has many unique menus such as “Kura Burger” or “Shari Coke” (made from Amazake, which is Japanese fermented rice drink. It is very nutritious) I have never tried Kura Burger but I’ve tried Shari Coke, and it was not exactly a “coke” but I liked it. You can try all these unique menus when you visit Kurasushi!
Bikkura Pon.. Kurasushi has a unique game called “Bikkura Pon”. It is like a random game, but it is not exactly a “game”, you just have to sit and see, nothing to do, it is all random. All you have to do is – eat sushi a lot! You can play Bikkura Pon for every 5 dishes and if you’re lucky, you get the toys! The toys are different time to time, sometimes it is just an original sushi key chain (which I like), but a while ago when Dragon Ball film was on, the toy was about Dragon Ball, and I got Goku! Yey! So if you like comics or anime, you might want to check.
In Conclusion..
Sushiro and Kurasushi are both awesome 100 yen sushi chains with different menus, I like them both. They are fun to visit! So I hope you try them too when you come to Japan. Look for these famous 100 yen sushi chains and hope you enjoy sushi there.
Don’t forget there are more 100 yen sushi chains, such as Hama sushi and Kappa sushi etc. You can find your favourite sushi restaurant and I hope you fully enjoy your sushi experience in japan!
