Gonpachi 権八 @ Roppongi, Tokyo

Gonpachi is a very famous and popular restaurant located in Roppongi, Tokyo. For all those who have watched Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, this is the restaurant that he and his crew filmed the showdown between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii's body guards. As such, this restaurant is extremely popular to Western tourists (or Westerners living in Tokyo). Usually, I would try to avoid tourist places because of the high chance of getting ripped off, or the low quality of food served to non-Japanese people who often can't tell the difference between the good and bad stuff. However, I gave this place a try and was very pleasantly surprised by the good food served here. I ate mainly sushi since I decided to eat at the sushi counter but I also tried some of their Izakaya dishes like the Tempura and Grilled wagyu beef. I don't have an exterior photo of Gonpachi but you can find many on Google or Tabelog.

Shall we have a look at the photos of my meal: (I will use English for the captions for this post)

Minced Otoro with Quill Egg, Raw Octopus, Squid Tentacles, Horse Mackerel, Raw Octopus Suckers, Marinated Tuna, Black Trout, Grilled Octopus Suckers, Flounder fin

Red Ark shell clam, Golden Eyed snapper, Sardine, Gar fish, grilled Pen Shell clam, Baby snapper, Bonito, Fatty Tuna

Tempura Moriawase (Assorted)

Homemade Tofu

Grilled Kuroge Wagyu

Black Sesame Ice Cream

Chocolate Lava cake with Vanilla Ice cream

 Like I mentioned above, I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of food served in Gonpachi. Yes, it may be a very touristy place but the sushi and food that I ate were above average and definitely good enough for me. Despite the crowd, getting a seat in the sushi counter was not difficult at all; I didn't even need to make a reservation. This makes Gonpachi is a very reliable place to experience a great sushi meal especially for a last ending dinner in Tokyo (which is what I did). I would give this place a 3.5 or a 4 out of 5 because while its not super duper good sushi, it's good enough for a tourist like me and I would gladly go back to Gonpachi for more.

Restaurant website: http://www.gonpachi.jp/nishiazabu/?lang=en
Address: 1F, 2F, 1-13-11, Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Budget (Dinner): 8,000+ Yen
My rating: 3.5 or 4/5