I came across Uobei Sushi in an article when researching restaurants in Tokyo and had to give it a try. At most conveyer sushi restaurants the dishes circle around in front of diners and you just pick off what you want and pay at the end. At Uobei they’ve taken this up a level and instead you select from a menu on a tablet at your seat and the sushi is delivered along a high speed chute!

First things first – it’s definitely a popular place for tourists and probably not the place for you if you’re looking for super high quality, authentic sushi surrounded by Japanese diners. However, if you’re up for a laugh and a bit of novelty value, you won’t be disappointed and the sushi is still pretty tasty and better than you’ll find in a lot of places outside of Japan.

We arrived at Uobei at about 8:30 and there was quite a bit of a queue by that time, but there are plenty of seats for people queuing and you sit down in order and shuffle along as people are taken to their tables. We probably waited for about 15-20 minutes as the queue moved pretty quickly. They also fill gaps as they become available so you’ll tend to be seated quicker if you’re in smaller groups. If you’re in a larger group, you essentially need to wait for another large group to leave.

After selecting the option for an English menu translation, we got ordering! It really was the simplest process, but still so much fun! You just click on the sushi or dish you want (click the “No Wasabi” green button for no wasabi), add it to your order, and press go! You can only order three dishes at a time, but you can make as many orders as you want and then when you’re done eating you click the button to confirm the cheque. They have a huge sushi menu with maki, nigiri and gunkan, as well as sides like chicken kara-age and even chips! The strangest thing we saw on the menu was a cheese hamburger nigiri! 

When your sushi is about to arrive, the tablet screen shows a different display to let you know, and then your dish comes whizzing towards your table at speed on a little trolley on tracks. Once it stops, you take off the sushi (with the plate – they make sure to explain that) and press a button on your screen to confirm that you have the dish, and then it goes whizzing back again!
We really enjoyed our meal and had great fun – we were like children with toys! I would definitely recommend Uobei Sushi if you’re in a Tokyo and looking for something a little different and a bit silly to do!