I often get asked what my favorite sushi restaurant is… and my response is always the same: At what price point?. I think that sushi is one of those foods where a “best” or “top” list needs to be price tiered. Luckily for those of us here in Hawaii there are a plethora of great sushi restaurants in the middle to mid-high price range – Izakaya Gaku, Sasabune, Murayama, etc. But until Onodera opened its doors there was a lack of what I would consider the “high-end” level of sushi with omakase menus. Since Onodera newcomers like Maru and Sushi Sho have opened to try and satisfy a growing interest in high-end sushi.

Sushi Sho occupies and, spoiler alert, dominates the high-end sushi space in Honolulu right now; it beats out its only real competitor, Sushi Ginza Onodera, by a decent margin in my opinion. At $300/person it almost has to. Fortunately for us sushi lovers, Chef Nakazawa and his team deliver an experience worthy of the price point. There are only two seatings a night at the 10-seat sushi counter. Reservations should be made weeks, if not months, in advance.