Sushi Shikon: The Hardest Table in Hong Kong Is Tokyo Edomae, Undiluted.

Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

The notes that belong in no other section

• Eat each piece immediately when it is placed in front of you — do not wait — Edomae sushi is designed around the temperature of the rice at the moment of service. The warm shari and the cool neta create a thermal contrast that is part of what the chef intends you to experience. This differential begins closing the moment the piece is placed. Waiting to photograph it, waiting for a companion's piece to arrive, waiting for any reason — all of it reduces what the piece does. The instruction is not politeness; it is physics. Pick it up or eat it directly from the counter (both are acceptable; ask Kakinuma which he prefers) and eat it in one or two bites within seconds of its appearance.

• Eat with your hands, not chopsticks, unless the chef indicates otherwise — The traditional Edomae method for eating nigiri is by hand: the piece is formed to be picked up, held gently, turned so the neta meets the tongue first, and consumed whole. Chopsticks crush the formed rice and disrupt the temperature distribution. At Shikon, the counter's Japanese fine dining context means that both methods are acceptable, but eating with clean fingers — as the form was designed for — is the method that receives the piece as the chef prepared it. If this feels unfamiliar, watch Kakinuma for the first few pieces; the way he places the sushi will tell you everything about how it is meant to be received.

• Do not add soy sauce unless the piece is not already seasoned — Kakinuma seasons each piece individually before it arrives at the counter: brushing with nikiri (a reduction of soy sauce, sake, and mirin), adding the precise amount of freshly grated wasabi, applying the specific treatment each fish requires. A piece handed to you with a brush of nikiri does not need additional soy. Dipping it defeats the chef's calibration. If a piece arrives un-sauced — some pieces are intentionally served with sea salt alone, or with nothing — a light touch of soy is appropriate. The wasabi between counter and counter is an invitation to adjust; the nikiri on the piece is a finished instruction.

• Order sake, not wine — the meal was designed around it — The sake list at Shikon is composed of small-brewery selections that are matched to the Edomae progression: light, clean ginjo styles for the opening sashimi and lighter white fish; fuller junmai styles for the mid-sequence tuna; the specific pairing logic that the sommelier carries and will explain if asked. Wine is served and the list is considered. But the meal was calibrated in a culture where sake is the native pairing, and the specific way sake cleans the palate between pieces — the way it does not compete with the temperature or the fat of the fish — is something wine does not reproduce. If the sake unfamiliarity is the concern, tell the sommelier your budget and ask them to choose. It is a better approach than the wine list.

• Ask about the fish — Kakinuma wants to explain it, and the explanation changes what you taste — The counter format exists for a reason. Kakinuma is across the wood from eight guests, with no other tables to attend, no separation between kitchen and dining room, no intermediary. Questions about where the kohada came from, how long the tuna has been aging, why this particular piece has been treated this particular way — all of these are within the intended conversation of the counter. The information is not incidental to the experience; it is part of the meal. Guests who engage with the chef and receive what he knows about each piece eat a different, richer meal than guests who sit in silence. The counter format was designed for this exchange. Use it.

• Avoid anything strongly flavoured in the hours before the meal — The Edomae sequence depends on a palate uncluttered by competing flavours. Garlic, very spicy food, heavy perfume, or strong coffee consumed in the two hours before the counter will dull the specific register that the shari seasoning and the delicate preparations of white fish operate in. The lunch yum cha recommended above is an exception because the dim sum served at Lin Heung Kui is flavoured in the specific way of Cantonese cooking — soy, ginger, sesame — that clears rather than complicates. Perfume should be kept minimal; the wasabi and the rice vinegar are already working with everything the nose can offer.

• The kohada piece is the moment to pay the closest attention —  Gizzard shad — kohada — is not a fish that appears prominently in non-Japanese sushi restaurants outside Japan. Its flavour is distinctive: oily, slightly acidic from its curing, with a specific brininess that rewards attention and resists casual appreciation. In the Edomae tradition, the kohada piece is considered the most demanding technical test: the curing time varies by season and individual fish, the cut must be precise, the balance between the fish's natural acidity and the shari's vinegar seasoning is the work of significant accumulated experience. At Shikon, as at Yoshitake in Tokyo, the kohada piece is where the lineage and the discipline become most visible. Eat it slowly. It is the most Japanese thing on the counter.

• The lunch omakase is the correct first visit — and an excellent value for a three-star counter — The dinner omakase is the full experience: the complete sequence, the extended tsumami courses, the longest possible time at the counter with the chef at his most settled. But the lunch omakase is shorter, priced lower, and operates at exactly the same standard of sourcing and preparation. For a first visit — for a guest who wants to understand what the counter is before committing to the full dinner price and duration — the lunch is the right decision. Several of the restaurant's most loyal regular guests report that they prefer lunch: quieter, more direct, the specific quality of afternoon light coming through the windows, the counter at its most undistracted.