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UNITORA Honten : Amazing Uni Sea Urchin Sushi Bowl Donburi in Tsukiji

Update-Date: Feb 19, 2026

Author: Sydney Seekford

Categories: Sushi Sashimi/ Seafood Kaisendon (seafood bowl)

UNITORA Honten : Amazing Uni Sea Urchin Sushi Bowl Donburi in Tsukiji

Do you think you can tell the difference between 5 different uni? At Unitora, a premium uni specialist in Tsukiji outer market, we ate our fill of uni from around Japan, enjoying a seasonal selection from Hokkaido and beyond. They specialize in donburi sushi bowls overflowing with creamy uni.

Sydney Seekford

Gourmet Creator

American living in Japan since 2022. Food writer and gourmet content creator for Japan’s most well known food media. Founder of menu translation and language support service MENUWIZ. Work history includes copywriting for booking platforms, video and media production and appearances, and consulting in F&B for household brands. Passionate about regional revitalization and slow tourism with a focus on local food culture.

Opening

Whether visiting a casual kaiten rotating sushi bar or a top of the line omakase sushi counter, you’re likely to experience uni somewhere in the menu. Many diners can’t help but notice that uni (sea urchin) is consistently marketed as a luxury ingredient, up there with extra fatty tuna and prized salmon eggs when it comes to premium sushi. So how exciting then, to have the opportunity to eat this premium sushi neta (topping) to your hearts content at the famous Tsukiji outer market!

About Unitora

Tsukiji outer market is still open, even though the wholesale market moved to new facilities at Toyosu a couple of years ago. At the outer market, some of those wholesalers still have shops where they sell seafood fresh from the boat. You can also find dried goods, such as seaweed and anchovies for making broth, and streetfood.

As early as 7am, the staff at Unitora open their doors to guests at the market and start serving heaping bowls of uni. They’ll continue until the sun is long set, with hundreds of satisfied customers coming through day after day. Experiencing so much premium uni in one place is very rare, even in Japan. Some visitors praise Unitora’s variety of production regions and subtle flavors while others gasp at the overflowing bowls of seafood that offer a once in a lifetime uni experience.

Unitora Honten

Open: 7:00 am - 10:00 pm
Closed: None
Average price: [Dinner] 10,000 JPY
Access: Get off at Tsukiji Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line or Tsukijishijo Station on the Toei Oedo Line.
Address: 1F, mihiro Bldg., 4-10-5, Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Map
More Details Reservation

What is Unidon?

If you’ve never heard of an unidon, it’s simply a donburi (a rice bowl or sushi bowl) where the main topping is uni. At Unitora, each unidon is topped with their special selection of uni sea urchin, which they acquire from long-standing relationships in the fishing industry.

Uni has a creamy texture with a unique pungency that can range from slightly bitter to mild and rich. It’s a must-try ingredient when visiting Japan, and having a tabekurabe of different kinds of uni can help you find your favorite production regions and qualities.

The star of the menu at Unitora is the Miyabi, a donburi topped with uni from 5 distinct areas, an egg yolk, seaweed, and pickled ginger. It comes with a side of wasabi too, if you like things a little spicy. In total, you have 100g of uni neatly arranged over rice, making it easy to feast your eyes on the delicate differences in color and size.

The uni is high quality, so most of it leans towards the rich and mild side of the flavor spectrum. The soft petals melt in your mouth and into the warm rice, making the texture almost like a risotto as you eat. Each bowl comes with a slice of nori printed with the UNITORA logo in white calcium, so you can try making your own hand-rolls as well!

About Unitora

The location we visited is the main branch of Unitora, a sea urchin specialty shop by the Beyond Tsukiji corporation. What started as a small shop selling rice bowls is now a large corporation with seafood-focused restaurants serving premium uni, bluefin tuna, and more. Beyond Tsukiji operates as a holding company, streamlining the business as they expand from wholesaling seafood and serving rice bowls to commanding a small empire of specialty restaurants.

Even as new restaurants seem to open all the time – an unagi and a blue-fin tuna specialist are on the way – their uni specialty is unmatched. You’ll find Unitora brand restaurants in Ikebukuro and Toyosu, Karuizawa, and even as far as Bangkok, Thailand – but there’s something that brings guests back over and over to the Tsukiji location.

Since uni is such a rare and sought after ingredient, you may be surprised that Unitora is able to source at least six different kinds of high-quality uni at any time of year. What makes them different from competitors, or even other excellent sushi specialists in general, is their strong connection to suppliers. Thanks to their procurement channels and long-standing relationships with producers, Unitora serves large quantities of quality uni all year long. It’s a natural perk of being a business that began in Tsukiji (and now Toyosu) with roots in wholesale.

The staff, who are not only skilled chefs but also genuinely passionate about uni, recall being surprised that visitors often seem shy when they visit Unitora. They invite guests to ask questions and get curious. They might not be fluent in your language, but the knowledgeable and friendly staff are more than happy to offer a warm welcome and some valuable uni education.

Unitora Honten

Learn About Uni with Unitora Tips

Chef Yamada skillfully, carefully layers on uni and toppings to create each unidon

According to the Unitora team, if there are black specks in uni, “people usually think there’s something wrong with it. But actually, those are the most delicious ones.” Like vanilla bean seeds in ice cream, the flecks of black or dark brown in uni are evidence of natural quality and flavor. Since uni mostly feed on kombu, fresh, wild uni often have a little seaweed left over when they’re prepared, a sign of umami and authenticity.

In the winter, much of the uni used at Unitora comes from Russia and Hokkaido, the northernmost region of Japan. It’s predominantly bafun uni, one of the four main uni varieties. Bafun uni prefers colder weather and is said to be most delicious during the winter. Unitora sources its uni from well-respected name brands, each with its own particularities.

Rausu, in Hokkaido, is highly regarded for its uni due to the quality of seaweed in the area. Rausu kombu is considered some of the best in the world, so it follows suit that uni from the same place, which have fed on that seaweed, will be similarly delicious. The staff say, “Where you find good kombu, you’ll find good uni.”

In the summer, murasaki uni is more plentiful. It can also be found in Hokkaido or as far south as Fukuoka. Compared to bafun uni, murasaki uni has a creamier, milder flavor and less bitterness. There are fans of both, so be sure to visit Unitora at different times of year to sample all the different varieties.

There’s even a helpful production map in the store, so staff can explain where the uni comes from while you eat it. Unitora takes its products so seriously, they even have special tasting parties in a secret room so that its staff can verify the quality.

Why is Uni So Expensive?

If you’ve had uni before, you might be asking yourself why uni always seems to cost extra at the sushi bar. There was actually a time when it was frequently overlooked and sold for a low price.
But as it became more popular, prices also rose to meet demand. Now, high quality uni is prized by Japanese diners and visitors alike.

Prices are determined based on the size of the uni petals, the production region, and of course taste. The largest uni can be about the length of a finger. A box of these sea urchins might cost thousands of dollars. Fragrance, flavor and texture also play a role in how uni is priced. Brand-name uni fetches the highest prices, not unlike Kobe beef. Certain varieties invariably send a wave of excitement through diners in the know.

The truth is, uni is a difficult product to manage. The meat is especially susceptible to temperature changes. If it gets too warm, they wilt, the petals melting as time passes. For this reason, sometimes alum is used to help preserve the shape. Although it doesn’t affect the flavor substantially, it makes uni more stable, so it can be shipped further away.

To enjoy the freshest uni available, special temperature control is needed and it’s best to eat it close to the source – such as having domestic uni from Hokkaido while you’re in Japan. In fact, even at their overseas locations, there’s not enough infrastructure to make the beautiful uni Unitora prides itself on, so they ship it from Japan.

Unitora has a donburi-focused menu, meaning you get a whole satisfying meal in one bowl. Of course, these come with miso soup and green tea to wash it all down, as is tradition. Uni is the main draw, but all of sushi-lovers’ favorite ingredients have a spot in the lineup. You can enjoy a wide variety of blue-fin tuna cuts, ikura salmon eggs and high-quality salmon, as well as other sought after seafood like anago (conger eel).

If you’re feeling really hungry (or hoping to eat something particularly luxurious) you can go absolutely crazy with the 24,500 JPY Emperor Bowl, which includes diners’ most favored ingredients – bluefin tuna and ikura – plus a staggering 6 varieties of uni and plenty of seaweed for making your own handrolls. It’s definitely a bowl fit for a king. Other bowls focus on tuna or salmon, and the 8,800 JPY Uogashi Bowl has a selection of many different toppings, just like a usual kaisendon but with a premium feeling

Where to go for Uni in Tokyo

If you’re an uni fan, or even if you’ve been burned by low-quality uni in the past, Unitora offers quantity and quality that are sure to impress anyone. There’s nowhere else you can try such a wide variety – as many as six distinct kinds of uni – at this caliber, all year long. If you’re visiting Tokyo, make time to come to Tsukiji and try Unitora’s premium uni donburi.

Unitora Honten

Disclaimer: All information is accurate at time of publication.

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