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What’s for dinner? A US$113/3.3-pound sushi bowl from one of Japan’s favorite cheap restaurants

Casey Baseel Sep 17, 2020
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Kappazushi is usually a friend to our budget…and maybe it still is with the Mega-size Crab and Salmon Roe Sushi Rice Bowl.

Conveyor belt sushi chain Kappazushi is a stalwart ally for those whose love of sushi is much greater than the contents of their wallet. Even when the chain isn’t offering super-cheap all-you-can-eat deals, it regularly offers sushi for as little as 100 yen (US$0.94) per two-piece plate.

So it was a little surprising earlier this month when Kappazushi announced that its newest sushi bowl item, the Megamori Kani Ikura-don, costs a whopping 12,000 yen (US$113)! Who’d be crazy enough to order that?

Oh, right, us. Specifically our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami, who went and picked up a Megamori Kani Ikura-don for lunch from her local Kappazushi branch.

But why is it so expensive? Well, first there’re the ingredients: kani (crab) and ikura (salmon roe) are two of the most expensive types of sushi, and “megamori” means “mega-size,” so you’re getting a whole lot of both in Kappazushi’s “Mega-size Crab and Salmon Roe Sushi Rice Bowl.” As the employee handed over Masami’s order, she felt the bag tug on her wrist due to its 1.5-kilogram (3.3.-pound) weight.

Back home, Masami lifted off the cover and marveled at the bounty that lay inside. There was a perimeter of ikura, firm and glistening, that surrounded a bed of shredded snow crab meat. Sitting in the middle, in a place of honor, were several more stalks of crab, and underneath it all was a foundation of vinegared sushi rice.

Take-out sushi will keep for about a day, but this was clearly too much for Masami to consume by herself in that amount of time, so she enlisted the help of a team of three eating assistants. After spooning out a portion onto each person’s plate, they grabbed their chopsticks and dug in. With Japan’s focus on presentation, there’s usually a twinge of regret as you start eating a beautifully arranged meal, but in this case there was so much food that they could continue to appreciate the view even as they were enjoying the taste.

And enjoy it they did! Kappazushi’s claim to fame is as a budget sushi provider, but the flavor of the crab, ikura, and rice were all outstanding. As a matter of fact, if Masami hadn’t known where the Megamori Kani Ikura-don came from, she would have readily believed it was the work of a crab-focused independent sushi restaurant with a master chef who’s skilled and a stickler for quality over cost.

▼ Masami, enjoying eating crab and ikura as much as her parents recently enjoyed eating her face.

But with so much sushi, didn’t Masami and her team get tired of it? Nope, not when it all tasted this good. They did have a mid-meal palate-cleansing option, however, since the Megamori Kani Ikura-don comes with pickled ginger (a traditional sushi accompaniment). Also, somewhere in the middle of their meal one of Masami’s assistants hit on the brilliant idea of using some nori (dried seaweed) strips that she had on hand to make their own mini rolls and gunkan-style sushi pieces.

Kappazushi says the Megamori Kani Ikura-don is enough for six diners, but Masami’s team of four managed to polish it off all by themselves. That’s partially due to the euphoric momentum of their feeding frenzy, though, so individual results will vary.

So when everything was paid for and eaten, was it worth it? Masami thinks it’s actually not such a bad deal, if you consider that since no one is likely to eat the whole thing on their own, you’ll probably be able to split the bill. Even better, right now if you place your order online through Kappazushi’s app, you get a 20-percent discount, which brings the cost down to 10,368 yen (US$98) after tax. Cut up six ways, that’s 1,728 yen, a reasonable price for a premium-ingredient sushi bowl, so maybe Masami will order another Megamori Kani Ikura-don some day (after she finishes digesting her first, of course).

Related: Kappazushi
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