Sushiiwa

By the entrance there is a square of white card in a frame. "Yukako — All good things. steve jobs." Jobs almost never signed anything. The young master asked on behalf of his daughter, an iPod user, and the most famous signature-refuser in tech picked up a pen. The card later appeared on Japanese television to be appraised. It still hangs where he left it.

Sushi Iwa has stood near Higashi Honganji, ten minutes on foot from Kyoto Station, for over six decades. The founder, Iwao Onishi, gave the shop half of his own name. His son, who trained at the celebrated kaiseki house Funaba Kitcho, now works the counter — about ten seats, with a few tables behind, the food served on Kiyomizu ware from Kyoto potters. It is a kappo counter as much as a sushi one: the omakase moves through seasonal courses before the nigiri arrive. Fig with sesame miso in autumn. A clay pot of hamo and matsutake in clear dashi. Sashimi of Akashi sea bream and yokowa — young bluefin, in the Kyoto way of naming it.

The nigiri carry the same kaiseki habits. The toro is scored with fine knife cuts before it meets the rice, so the fat starts to give the moment it lands on your tongue, and the shari is worked warm and loose — it holds through the lift and lets go in the mouth. Lean tuna comes marinated and wrapped in a sheet of nori crisp enough to crack, soy depth against the snap of the seaweed. The white fish is cured over kombu first, a quiet extra day of work that concentrates what a lesser counter would serve plain. When the season allows, a grilled spiny lobster arrives whole, sweet and springy, sharpened with nothing more than lemon.

Jobs came in the summer of 2010, on what he suspected would be his last trip to Kyoto, with his wife and daughter. He asked the counter a simple question: what's the best thing here? The young master served him toro. What happened next depends on who is telling the story — six cuts of kamatoro in one version, ten pieces of Ōma bluefin in another — but every version agrees on the essential fact: he kept ordering. His official biography records the verdict he typed into his phone: "best sushi I've ever had."

The toro that earned it is cut so generously the rice disappears beneath it. Regulars call it the Jobs toro now, ordered as an extra at market price after the course. The seat he occupied — the far end of the counter, the same position he favored at his sushi bar in California — can be requested, and pilgrims do: the shop is used to visitors from America and Europe who telephoned first to confirm the story was true, then flew over.

That phone call, in Japanese, is the one part we can spare you.

Courses & Menu
OMAKASE COURSES
Six tiers: ¥10,000 / ¥15,000 / ¥20,000 / ¥25,000 / ¥30,000 / ¥50,000 — the counter builds the night around your budget, from sashimi and seasonal kappo dishes through nigiri.

VEGETARIAN COURSE — ¥13,000 A full vegetarian menu, lunch or dinner. Fitting, for the restaurant Steve Jobs loved: he spent most of his life avoiding meat himself.

THE HOUSE SPECIALTY
Kamatoro — the fattiest cut from behind the collar — is listed on the menu simply as "Sushi Iwa's signature," from ¥3,500 per piece at market price. This is the cut behind the Jobs story. Regular toro from ¥2,500.

À LA CARTE
Unusually for a counter of this caliber, you can also order piece by piece: nigiri from ¥600–2,000 (nodoguro, live kuruma prawn, Rishiri uni, seared wagyu), sashimi platters from ¥4,000, fugu tessa, grilled nodoguro, tempura, and in winter, whole Matsuba crab from Tsuiyama port (¥25,000–60,000, market price). Ise-ebi spiny lobster comes as sashimi or as carpaccio with oscietra caviar.