Musashi Sushi Honten: Kyoto’s best revolving sushi chain downtown

Founded in 1977 in Kyoto, Musashi Sushi Honten (寿しのむさし三条本店) is probably the most famous sushi chain in Kyoto mainly because its first store (honten / 本店 in Japanese) is located at the Kawaramachi Sanjo Crossing (河原町三条) facing Kyoto’s main street, Kawaramachi Street (河原町通) in Downtown Kyoto.

Musashi Sushi Honten’s iconic store sign with a miniature revolving sushi.

Musashi Sushi Honten’s entrance and a checkout for takeout.

Inside Musashi Sushi Honten.

Musashi Sushi Honten seems to stay local compared to mega revolving sushi chains such as Kura Sushi (くら寿司), Akindo Sushiro (あきんどスシロー), and Hama Sushi (はま寿司). It was Musashi Sushi Honten where I first ate sushi, which was lunch after watching Pokémon: The First Movie (1998) with my local Japanese friends.

Pokémon: The First Movie (劇場版ポケットモンスターミュウツーの逆襲).

When I came back in 2024, Musashi Sushi Honten was still local, thus retro. The dining room smelled like vinegared sushi rice with a hint of fish. The background music played an endless playlist of perky Japanese pop songs that proved the point of comedian Jo Koy’s jokes about Japan. Sushi chefs, instead of machines, were actually making sushi in the kitchen surrounded by a conveyor belt. Nothing seemed to have changed here except for customers: most of them didn’t seem to have grown up watching native Japanese Pokémon (TV series) here in Kyoto which is the birthplace of Pokémon/Nintendo, or even know what Mewtwo is. Time has changed.

California rolls passing my table. The Japanese caption says “California roll: Sushi rolls popular in America.”

Shrimp tempura, horse mackerel, fatty salmon.

Fatty tuna, fugu (poisonous puffer fish), broiled nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch).

Duck, battera (boxed mackerel sushi), hamo (pike conger) tempura.

Yuba (tofu sheets).

What I love about Musashi Sushi Honten is that they are willing to entertain customers with local specialties such as yuba (tofu sheets), roast duck, hamo (pike conger) tempura, and battera (boxed mackerel sushi). Besides, their extortionately reasonable human-made sushi is also the reason to keep me from being distracted by the mega sushi chains (but they are not bad). I guess I’m sushi non-binary. I would have given 8 out of 10 if Musashi Sushi Honten had french fries. In that case, I would even break up with McDonald’s.