Search for scarce lunch

So there's this restaurant that's only open for lunch at Noon on Wednesday. They only have one dish available for 1000Y ($12.50 Can) and they only make dishes for the first 10 people. Everyone else is out of luck. Sounds like a successful model for a business. The restaurant, Budohya, was mentioned on a blog I was using to plan my eating strategies and the set meal looked amazing. It was a mini kaiseki plate with nine small appetizers and one main dish. I had to at least make an attempt at finding this place.

Using Google Maps I was able to pinpoint the precise location of the restaurant as well as the route to it from Shinbashi Station.

I took the JR line from Ikebukuro to Shinbashi. The JR Yamanote line is a circle around Tokyo and Shinbashi is almost exactly opposite Ikebukuro on the other side of the circle making my initial directional choice a coin toss.

I may have underestimated the amount of time this was going to take since it appeared that I wouldn't get to the restaurant any sooner than 1130. It was very likely that there would already be a line up and since there were only 10 meals served my odds were getting worse by the second.

Upon arrival at Shinbashi Station I high-tailed it through the correct exit and using the street map made my way as quickly as possible to Budohya. Fortunately my navigation skills were operating at full strength and I instinctively knew which way to go. Minutes later I found myself in front of Budohya and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that there wasn't even a line at all.

Wait, no line at all? That doesn't sound right for something this exclusive. A woman walking by helpfully translates the sign out front that says that the restaurant is closed. D'oh. With total weekly sales of $125.00 CAN per week how could they possibly have failed?(actually, the restaurant is only closed this week. It looks like it will continue to operate in a Brigadoon like manner for the foreseeable future).

Oh well, nothing I could have done about that. Fortunately my quest for scarce lunch has not yet come to an unsuccessful premature end. I do have a backup plan. There is a restaurant called Matsuya that only serves 60 plates of deep fried Aji (horse mackerel) per day. It usually sells out within an hour of opening and there is always a line-up.

When I was running late on the Yamanote Line I began to consider the possibility that I would miss out on Budohya and that I should see where else I might go. I looked at my google map printout for Matsuwa and noted that it was a two minute walk from Kyobashi Station and that that was only two stops away on the Ginza line from my current location.

Wasting no time at Budohya I raced back to find the Shinbashi entrance for the Ginza Line. Unfortunately this turned out to be frustratingly difficult since signage was poor and I lost five valuable minutes flailing about.

Upon reaching Kyobashi Station, I headed right for the correct exit. When I made it to the street I glanced around quickly. I spotted a line of people waiting outside a small restaurant and immediately headed over to join them.

This was the right place but had I made it in time? There were about 20 people between me and the door but the line continued down some stairs and since the restaurant had opened at 1130, they had already served their first batch of fish. The people around me didn't know if we'd made it either.

About 10 minutes later someone from the restaurant came out with a clipboard and began counting off the people in the line. This was it. Would I make it under the 60 fish threshold?

No, I would not.

However, today must have been a good day for catching fish since it turned out that they had 70 fish available and at number 65 I was safely within the limit. Sugoi!!!!

I end up waiting for about 40 minutes in line where I spend time talking to the two women standing behind me who are interested in hearing about my trip so far.

Ajj is a pretty rare and expensive fish. These guys get their fish directly from fishermen in the Matsuwa area bypassing the Tsukiji Fish Market entirely.

The fish was lightly fried and still had a light and fluffy texture. It was excellent. The proper way to eat the fish is to pour soya sauce over the provided shredded daikon and then put the soya soaked daikon on the fish (most people just use Worcestershire Sauce on their Aji.

As with the eel, the Aji bones are also deep fried and served alongside the fish as a sort of salty cracker.

The meal comes with the usual rice, Oshinko and a clear, fish based Osuimono soup. There is also a couple of cubes of Tofu as an appetizer.

The meal is yet another success in Japan and a triumph for strategic planning (and backup plan having). I could have been a great military commander (provided of course, that my military objective was finding delicious meals for the troops).