Sushi Sho

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Stockholm's Most Focused Sushi Counter

Eighteen seats. One menu. No choices to make. Sushi Sho on Upplandsgatan operates with a clarity of purpose that is rare anywhere, let alone in Scandinavia. Twelve guests sit at the bar counter, four occupy an elevated window bay, and two more settle beside the beer fridge that edges into the kitchen. The room is bare and intimate in equal measure, and that is entirely the point.

Edomae, Done Properly

The restaurant presents itself as an Edomae bar — a reference to the raw-fish-over-rice tradition that took hold in 18th-century Tokyo, where the city's edo taverns fed people who wanted something quick, filling and good. At Sushi Sho, that tradition is treated with both rigour and warmth. Every guest at the bar receives each course at the same moment, served directly by the chef, so the rhythm of the meal belongs to the kitchen rather than the clock.

The single offering is the Omakase + Otsumami menu: the chef's daily selection of small dishes and nigiri sushi, priced at 1,295 SEK. The menu shifts with the seasons and can change from one day to the next depending on what produce is available. Guests with allergies or pregnancy-related restrictions can be accommodated, though the menu always includes seafood and cannot be made vegetarian.

What Lands on the Counter

The White Guide, which has recognised Sushi Sho at Masters level, describes the experience with unusual precision. Velvety hamachi swaddled in soy mirin. Swedish octopus and French abalone with fresh wasabi — bouncing with freshness, balanced between sweet and salty. Monkfish liver poached in soy and spiced with yuzu, matched to an unpasteurised sake. Pressed oshizushi wrapped in crackling nori with mackerel, shiso and sesame. And then nigiri: Arctic char, Danish yellowtail, halibut and turbot, each piece brushed with soy before it crosses the counter. The crescendo, when the kitchen offers it, is raw tuna belly with caviar.

The drinks list leans toward sake — a cool junmai ginjo is a natural opening move — though a blackboard of champagnes from small producers is there for those who want it.

Craftsmanship Without Performance

What the White Guide calls "craftsmanship, attitude, knowledge and passion" is not a formula here — it is simply what happens when a small team works at close range with excellent fish and rice every service. The Asian cuisine at Sushi Sho is not decorative; it is structural, rooted in technique and seasonal thinking, and the tight format ensures nothing is wasted, neither space nor attention. Elegant, warm, and precise enough that finishing every last grain of rice almost feels like a small act of respect.