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Kanazawa Maimon sushi (pronounced as zushi in Japanese) is the ever famous conveyor belt sushi chain that has its origins in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. 

They have since expanded out to other prefectures as well, so you don’t necessarily have to come to Kanazawa to try it, but there are those that say it is always better in the place where it has its origins, so if you are in Kanazawa, definitely give it a try. 

They have quite a few locations across the city, but most of them are much easier to reach by car then they are by transit (mostly because all of Japan’s “rural” areas are heavily car dependent) but it isn’t to say that it isn’t possible to get to either, so make sure to look up the location you want to go to in proximity to your departing point. 

But do let me say that If you are in an area that is car dependent, going to a spot a bit further out of the town’s hustle and bustle will usually do you good for a few reasons. 

The first being that there will be less people, and the second is that even if there are a lot of people, the shops are usually quite big – so you can rest assured that you aren’t going to be waiting for hours on end to get in somewhere (probably). 

Maimon specifically has a ticket system where you register your name and number of party members to which they will call on you if your table is ready. This means that you don’t need to wait inside of the restaurant per-say, but you still should be close by. 

Once called upon, you are taken to your table, and in the case of the shop I went to (looks to be the same for almost all of them as well), you are placed into a booth-like table with a touch tablet and conveyor belt to either your left or right.

This is very standard for conveyor-sushi places across Japan, in fact, I don’t think I have ever seen one with a different seating pattern, but maimon seemed especially spacious which was nice. 

Not to mention, the inside of the shop is very clean and they have these deep red accents throughout which give it way more of a luxury feel than other cheaper chain restaurants. 

Going into price, yes, it is more expensive than the likes of sushiro or kura zushi, but the quality makes up for it. 

In terms of the dishes that they have (or rather fish), they are pretty much all of what you would find at any other conveyor belt sushi place, with the exception of a few rarer fish like nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) which is also a Kanazawa specialty – please try it, it is very good. 

But besides this, it is essentially that they are serving every fish with an extremely high level of craftsmanship and quality. 

Ishikawa is right along the coast, and because the sea around this area is rough, it is said that the fish are most tasty and plump because they have to be able to survive in the rough waters (at least this is what I have been told by a local before lol). 

But honestly? I believe it! Because the fish quality here is honestly incredible, and while you may be able to eat at this restaurant in other prefectures, it is unlikely that they are having the fish shipped from Ishikawa prefecture to it, meaning you might be tasting inferior quality fish relative to its counterpart (not to say any of Japan’s fish is bad quality however). 

One of the things I love about conveyor belt sushi is that you can try a wide variety of things.

However, I also love being able to order a lot of my favourite things and not get stared at like I have an addiction either. 

I think that this is well reflected in my 3 tuna pictures at the bottom of the post, but tuna is by far my favourite fish. 

I also think that you can always tell the quality of the sushi place by its tuna, because it is the most commonly found in one as well. 

Here I had the tuna nigiri, negitoro roll, as well as a simple tuna roll.

They do obviously have different cuts of tuna, with the price gradually going up as with the fat content, but this was the basic cut I guess you could say and I believe that it was used in all 3 of these plates. 

It was very good quality, the best I had had at conveyor belt sushi up until this point, and I say that it is a bit more expensive than your run of the mill sushi spots, but all three of these were around 1000 yen I believe, so it is still very cheap, especially compared to the West. 

Besides this I tried a lot more different kinds of fish, and they were all good, especially the crab meat nigiri which is something I don’t think I have ordered up until this point. 

I am much more a crab guy then I am a lobster guy, but I am also not one to order crab at a restaurant often either. However, this time around I figured I would give it a go considering how high the rest of the quality of the fish was. 

It did not disappoint either, and it was a very meaty, fresh bite of crab. 

Also, at your table you have a dispenser for hot water as well as green tea which is something I always appreciate. 

Anyways, this is a really good conveyor belt sushi place, so if you like the atmosphere but still want high quality fish? Then this is the place to check out for sure. 

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More about me

Different types of ordering systems in Japan explained

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