In Tokyo some restaurants cannot be booked at all. They can only be entered in someone's company. Sushi Saito is one of the acknowledged summits of that class, long held to be among the highest standards of Edomae sushi, and it takes no public reservations. The counter seats a handful, and nearly every seat belongs to regulars and to the people they bring. A seat there is a token money alone does not buy.
Edomae is less a cuisine than a way of taming fish with time and craft on the base of Tokyo Bay: aging, curing, nikiri soy brushed on at the counter, rice dressed in red vinegar and served near body temperature. Each piece is a one-off, finished in front of the guest who receives it. At a counter that small there is no menu and no noise — the chef's hands, that day's fish, one palate at that moment. This is ichigo ichie, one time, one meeting, at its plainest: the same fish and the same chef will not make the same piece twice.