5Okuyama
There is something adorable about the fact that one of Budapest’s top sushi restaurants is buried in the basement of a strip mall, doesn’t have a functional Facebook page, and its website looks as if it hasn’t been updated in two decades. Sachi Okuyama, the owner and sushi chef, ran a sushi restaurant inside the Hilton Budapest before venturing out on his own in 2001.
His signature offering is the oversized nigiri sushis, where fresh pieces of salmon, tuna, prawn, sea bass, mackerel, or some other fish sit atop warm and deliciously vinegared mounds of rice. I also love the asari tsukudani, gummy bites of pickled clams seasoned in a rich soy and mirin-based sauce, and the slightly sweet Japanese rolled omelet (tamagoyaki), which is otherwise rarely seen in Budapest. A positively idiosyncratic experience.
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