Amazing Sushi at a Bustling Port Town

Hey everyone!
My adventures with my cousin, who is visiting from the States continues! This time, Mrs. Ibaraki Eats was able to join us!
This week, I am going to be talking about sushi and seafood. Not just any old sushi and seafood, the sushi you get at this place is fresh and delicious. The oysters are amazing, and the fish market is busy and awesome to go shopping at. Today, I will be talking about Nakaminato's fish market and their sushi restaurant, Morita Conveyor Belt Sushi.

Morita Conveyor Belt Sushi

If you have never had sushi at Nakaminato, you need to go and have some. The fish market there is famous and visited by people all over Japan. Many Ibarakians visit there for fresh oysters, shopping, and to enjoy an amazing lunch at some of the best sushi restaurants in Ibaraki.
The Ibaraki Eats Team went to Nakaminato on a hot, sunny Tuesday morning to have sushi for breakfast. One word of warning: if you go to the fish market, parking is limited. Nakaminato is a small port town with limited parking. Your best bet is to park across the fish market right by the water. That parking area is huge with a lot of spaces. Tour buses park there as well. If you get there in the morning like we did, there should still be some parking spots available. In the afternoon and during the weekend, it is quite difficult to get a space.
My wife, my cousin, and I headed from our parking space to the fish market. There are plenty of restaurants around the entire fish market and a lot of food stalls as well.
We walked into the fish market area, which was all the way to the right of the entire fish market. We looked around at all the shrimp, oysters, fish, and lobsters that were caught that morning. We then headed to the back of the fish market to a little sushi restaurant called Morita Conveyor Belt Sushi. Please don't confuse the 2nd-floor Morita with the 1st-floor Morita. The 1st floor has conveyor belt sushi only. The 2nd floor Morita does sushi and seafood rice bowl dishes, and is a bit more expensive than the first floor. When we got to Morita, there was already a line out the door. Luckily, since it was the morning, we did not wait too long and were able to grab a booth.

Inside

The inside of Morita is an old-style type of conveyor belt sushi place. There are no tablets on the table that let you pick what sushi to order. If you want to order something, you have to call a staff member over and tell them. The restaurant is half counter seats and half booths. Booths are in the back. We were lucky enough to get a booth, and we immediately looked at all the sushi that was coming out of the conveyor belt. A lot of sushi conveyor belt places have stopped placing sushi on the conveyor belt and just let the customer order on a tablet. Not Morita. There were a bunch of different kinds of sushi that were going around the restaurant, and they all looked amazing. They were also covered by a plastic container for safety reasons. We checked out the menu that is taped to the top shelf of the conveyor belt area.

The Menu

There are a ton of different sushi to try at Morita. The menu has tuna, salmon, squid, octopus, egg, sea urchin, clams, scallops, and more! There are even sets which bring three different parts of the tuna, another set which brings sea urchin and fish eggs, and a long piece of saltwater eel. Please be aware that most of the sushi has different prices. Depending on the color of the plate, the sushi may be 110 yen or up to 800 yen. There is a chart that displays the colors of the plates and their respective prices. Speaking of saltwater eel.

Anago (Saltwater Eel)

My wife knows I love anago, and that is the first thing she ordered. When it came to our table, it looked glorious. It wasn't a small piece of anago. It was a long, beautiful-looking piece that looked grilled to perfection. My wife and I split the anago in half. My cousin is not a fan of saltwater eel, so he did not partake. Biting into that eel was an amazing experience. I got that grilled eel flavor mixed with the sweet sauce it comes with. The meat is so soft and tender that it feels like your teeth are barely doing any work to break the delicious anago down. My wife gave this anago her famed thumbs up, and I couldn't agree more. An amazing anago that I would love to have again in the near future.

Chu Toro (Fatty Tuna)

My cousin came to Japan to eat as many delicious plates of food as he could. He is also a go big or go home guy. That being said, he ordered the most expensive sushi Morita had, the chu toro. This is considered the best of the tuna and most expensive. My cousin let me have one of the chu toro, and I bit it in half so my wife could have the other half. This chu toro was divine. It melted in your mouth the minute it hit your tongue. It was so fresh and delicious that I actually considered ordering another one even though it wasn't cheap. The rice for the chu toro was perfect as well. It was just soft and flavorful enough not to get in the way of the deliciousness of the chu toro. Both my cousin and Mrs. Ibaraki Eats loved the chu toro and liked how fresh it was. If you come to Nakaminato's Morita, give this sushi a try.

Maguro (Tuna)

This is another of my favorites, maguro. Mrs. Ibaraki Eats is a fan as well. This maguro was extremely tasty. It went so well with the soy sauce that was provided to us. Again, the rice was perfect for the amount of fish we were given. Actually, I realized something about Morita. This place gives you way more fish than rice. All the slices of fish were big and completely covered the rice. If you go to Sushi Ro or any of those sushi conveyor belt restaurants, you are going to get the same amount of rice and fish on your sushi. Morita decided to just slice off as much of the fish as they could and put it on enough rice to hold the sushi together. It was refreshing to have a different kind of sushi that was so fresh and brought so much fish. Another great piece of sushi, Morita! I highly recommend giving the maguro a try.

Salmon

All the sushi we had had thus far had been winners. I loved every single piece of sushi I grabbed from the conveyor belt and had ordered from the staff. The biggest surprise for me was the salmon. I was honestly not expecting much from the salmon, but this salmon blew my mind. I can't believe I am about to write this because I love maguro, but this must have been the best piece of sushi at Morita. This salmon may be the best salmon sushi I have ever had. Biting into that soft, fresh, and flavorful piece of sushi felt like I was eating salmon for the first time all over again. I had a look of surprise on my face that my wife noticed, and I couldn't stop talking about the salmon in front of my cousin. I am not sure if I can have salmon sushi anywhere else now. This salmon captured my heart. I will definitely have the salmon again at my next visit to Morita.

Our Tower of Plates

All the sushi we had was excellent. My wife got her favorite, Ikura (fish eggs), and loved her ikura roll. My cousin was able to try an array of different sushi. As for me, I was happy with everything I ate, but I was still pining for that salmon. Unfortunately, the salmon would have to wait for another day.
We grabbed our belongings, paid for our food, and headed back out into the fish market. I am sure you are thinking that our food adventure was over. Well, it wasn't. Time for some oysters!

Fresh Oysters

After buying some shrimp rice crackers and some fresh mackerel at the fish market, we stopped at one of the many oyster stalls right outside the fish market area. These stalls are all around the entire fish market. I recommend the oyster stall we went to that was right next to Morita's. This oyster stall had three types of oysters, and they were all huge. There were oysters from the Tohoku region and oysters from Ibaraki. All of them looked amazing.
There was a huge line when we got to the oyster stall, and we had to wait 20 minutes until we were ready to order. We ordered a few Ibaraki oysters and a few Tohoku oysters. Unfortunately, I do not remember which was which, but I can tell you that they were both delicious. Either lemon or ponzu sauce, or both, was a great mix for these oysters. They were so fresh and tasty, they just slide down your throat with ease. My cousin was in heaven since he loves oysters. My wife, however, was a bit worried since it was summer and hot, so the oysters might have gone bad. I can happily report that they did not. These oyster farmers are pros and know how to handle oysters during the dead heat of summer.

The three of us had a great time at the Nakaminato Fish Market. We had excellent sushi, ate some delicious oysters, and bought some fresh fish. If you have never been to this market before, I highly recommend giving it a chance. I guarantee you will have some amazing seafood and sushi at this place.

So if you are in the mood for some fresh and tasty sushi and oysters and are around the Nakaminato area, why not give the fish market a try? Who knows? You might see us there. Enjoying some delicious oysters and then heading to the sushi restaurant.
Enjoy!

For more information on the Nakaminato Fish Market, check out their website:
https://www.nakaminato-osakanaichiba.jp/

For more information on Morita Conveyor Belt Sushi, check out their website:
https://www.moritasuisan.co.jp/?mode=f2