Sushi in Ikebukuro @ さくら寿司

EDIT: I've noticed this post gets quite a bit of traffic, especially from people searching for "Best Sushi in Ikebukuro". If you're looking for the best Sushi in Ikebukuro and probably best in the world under 2000 JPY, please visit Midori Sushi!  English is at the bottom of that post.

Today was the start of my quest to find the best affordable sushi in Ikebukuro. It shouldn't be too long before I've been to every single cheap Sushi restaurant in the area, so I think in a couple of weeks I will know and start making return visits to the best ones.

My first choice was full both at 14:00 and 20:00, so I'll have to return there at off-peak hours. My 2nd choice ended up not being full, so I ate there instead. The sushi restaurant consists of a small bar, which can serve about 7-8 people. There are no seats however and you'll have to stay standing. 2 chefs serve sushi non-stop so you don't have to wait long. They have a few tiny set menus consisting of 1, 2, 3 or 4 pieces of Tuna, besides that it is all a la carte and the menu is entirely Japanese, so make sure you can read at least Hiragana and Katakana, bring a Japanese friend or be prepared to ask for help from an English speaking regular or a chef.
Since the sushi is quite cheap(70-300Yen per piece) I ordered quite a lot.

 赤貝 - Akagai   こはだ - Kohada

 いくら - Ikura

 中トロ - Chu-Toro

 Tuna set menu with varying degrees of fattyness

 しゃこ - Shako   うに - Uni   あわび - Awabi

 すみいか - Sumi-Ika

ほたんえび - Hotan-Ebi

玉子 - Tamago   穴子 - Anago

The sushi ranged from very good to very bad. I thought the Tamago was VERY weak and the Anago also really disappointing. The Tuna set however was excellent and where you usually get 1 good piece of toro for 600Yen, here you get 4! Overall though the sushi pieces are quite small and while it's hard to find cheaper a la carte sushi, usually there's set menus that are just as good if not better value for money. If they had a lot of rare sushi usually not in set menus on the menu it'd be worth it, but I there's not quite as many as I'd like to see. They did have Akagai, which I like, but did not have my favorite Hamaguri. All in all, good, but not great sushi.

Rating: 2/5, 3/5 if you know what to order.

Best Piece: Tuna Set

Worst Piece: 玉子 - Tamago

Frank says: I'm not 100% sure yet, because it'll largely depend on the rest of the sushi restaurants in the neighbourhood. This one is VERY close to me though and now that I know what to order, I think I'll be back here.

I recommend you get 1 or 2 of the tuna sets and a couple of pieces that are usually very expensive like Uni and Ikura, which are fairly cheap here and quite good.

評決：

池袋駅はもっと美味しい寿司レストランがあるはずですが、もしトロセットとかうにとかいくらをたべたら、良いと思います。

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1305/A130501/13039505/