Trying Sushiro's "Ultimate Viral Menu": How Far Can You Play With Otamayo and Fries?

On the restaurant's large display, the "Digiro," ordering a collaboration item plays Yasumoto-san's voice: lines such as "Thank you for your order. Enjoy your day," along with a short phrase sung about eating as your desires dictate. Yasumoto-san says, "I sang something like humming without really knowing what was going on."

The Digiro itself was a novelty for the two of them. Watching the aquarium-like footage of swimming fish and the map display, they get excited, saying, "If adults get this hyped, imagine what it would have been like as a kid." They are also surprised by the system where tapping an item that catches your eye on the screen sends the order to you, and they remark that conveyor-belt sushi has evolved dramatically over 10 or 20 years.

First up is bintoro (fatty albacore). It comes topped with plenty of vegetables and drizzled with a salt sauce that one of the speakers apparently devised. Both say "it might be better than when we tasted it before," and note that the salt sauce here has a crisper flavor that also goes well with alcohol.

Next is engawa, which one of the speakers says is personally their favorite. The seasoning is almost the same as the bintoro, but they say the impression differs thanks to engawa's distinctive fat and bouncy, springy chew. Of the acidity and crunch, the two say "it shows the good side of creative sushi," praising it as proof that adding the vegetables was worthwhile. At first they wondered whether a conveyor-belt sushi chain could really pile on this many vegetables, but they say Sushiro made it work.

The tuna natto is marinated tuna and natto topped with garlic chips. Tuna natto itself is nothing unusual, but the two say you rarely see one with this much garlic on it. It's good as is or with a little soy sauce. They stress, "You might think, 'They're just chips,' but they make a huge difference," and they also have a companion who has apparently eaten natto all over try it. They say it pairs well with the marinated tuna too.

Otamayo is a condiment similar to garlic mayo, containing garlic, pepper and bacon, and is described as "the kind of thing boys love." It's something the speaker has featured many times on their channel, and this time Sushiro put it to use.

This item came about because Sushiro's fried foods, such as its fried shrimp and tempura, were already delicious, and the speaker proposed pairing them with Otamayo. The shrimp being warm because it is fried in-store earned praise, and the words "a masterpiece" even came up. Preferences on how to eat it differ: Ryuji recommends adding a little sweet sauce, while the other recommends a few drops of soy sauce.

"Salt anago," premium conger eel served with salt and lemon, also appears. The two say squeezing the lemon completely changes the aroma, and they praise it as high-quality anago. While they were eating, a Digiro game sequence started up, and both of them lost.

The simplest item in the collaboration is fries served with a generous amount of Otamayo. There's so much Otamayo that "there's no way you can use it all." Dipping the fries is the standard way to eat it, but the main theme of this episode is how to use the bare Otamayo on other menu items.

The speakers rate Sushiro's fries themselves highly. They're well fried and crispy, and they say the thinner they are, the better. They also say "Sushiro turns into an izakaya," noting that with fries and Otamayo on the table, you can't stop drinking.

The two call on viewers to tell them about any uses they haven't thought of. They say that in past collaborations too, many people used the products in ways they hadn't anticipated, and they learned a lot from viewers.

Candidates that seemed likely to pair well with Otamayo included the meatball gunkan, eggplant agebitashi, and hamburger steak.

The meatball gunkan already comes topped with mayo, but they added Otamayo on top. Both were surprised at how good the meatballs themselves were, saying "it's a waste to keep this just for kids" and "it wasn't even on our radar." The hamburger steak nigiri comes as one hamburger steak with two portions of rice, and they're amused that it's a menu item that "could only exist at conveyor-belt sushi." The warm hamburger steak was delicious on its own, and extremely good with Otamayo on top as well.

At this point, the speaker reflects that this is exactly the intended outcome: "With Otamayo, you can do all sorts of things." The highball arriving right away was also noted as a plus for drinkers.

The "challenge slot" pick was the eggplant agebitashi. The eggplant itself was juicy and delicious, and they even say it might be good without Otamayo. Their takeaway was that they understood why it's on the menu.

Next came fried red squid, which they had apparently researched in advance. They thought two fried items would go together, and it was well received as "a drinker's flavor" that "makes you drink a surprising amount." The two say they rediscovered how interesting the side menu is.

During a Digiro game along the way, they won a prize and a mini drawstring pouch arrived. The two apparently hadn't known about this prize system either.

One of the speakers recreated in the restaurant an idea they had proposed to Sushiro and been told "please hold off on that." It's simply Otamayo placed directly on top of sushi rice. The speaker says, "I think this alone is delicious," and the other laughs, "That's so dumb," while eating it, then admits, "It's good." They say adding shichimi is nice too.

Talk turned to salmon possibly being a good choice for applying this idea to sushi toppings, and they tried putting Otamayo on it instead of soy sauce. They also noticed that making the rice portion smaller lets the Otamayo flavor spread throughout.

They go on to list one likely match after another, including crab salad, kanpyo rolls, anago-kyu, tuna, and inari. Only ume-kyu was ruled out as "not quite right."

For the kanpyo roll, they paired Otamayo with shichimi. They say the kick of shichimi, different from pepper, against the sweet kanpyo is extremely good. With the anago-kyu, they say they really understood why the cucumber is in there, calling it "a way to enjoy things only possible at conveyor-belt sushi." As for tuna, combining it with mayo gives a tartare-like feel, and they say it really brings out the tuna's sweetness.

Asked what doesn't go with it, the speaker says they're too full to test, but predicts that it would definitely go with sea bream tempura. The two conclude that Otamayo is delicious on any topping, but having fries and Otamayo at hand lets you do all sorts of things.

To finish, they share the ramen recommended by the staff. They describe it as having medium-thick noodles and a solid pork flavor, with both the soup and noodles being quite good. The gist of their verdict was that it's delicious for something available at this price point.

The two look back on this collaboration as "a really great collaboration." They say Sushiro made what they wanted to do a reality, and the time it took was worth it. The fair is being held at restaurants in every prefecture (when asked about the number of locations, a figure of around "660" is mentioned). It was added that not every restaurant has a Digiro, but the menu tastes the same. The items go on sale from May 20 at Sushiro restaurants nationwide, and the two encourage viewers to eat the collaboration menu and have fun with the Otamayo from the fries. They also express the view that this is a way of playing with food that's possible precisely because it's conveyor-belt sushi.

The filming of the earlier video was also mentioned. They say they filmed at the restaurant they visited without telling anyone in advance, then checked after editing whether they could publish it, intending not to release it if the answer was no. The speaker says Sushiro was generous for allowing them to publish it. They also mention feeling that sales of the catalana may have gone up after they praised it.

According to explanations from Sushiro staff who were present, the rice is formed by machine (the Shari Robo). Even as the moisture content of the rice changes throughout the year, the machine adjusts so that it comes out with the same firmness. The robot also has a function to warm the rice to around body temperature; though only slightly, since it's difficult to serve every customer rice at body temperature, they try to keep it as warm as possible.

Sushiro reportedly started as a small standing sushi bar in Osaka, and some of the dedication from its days as a craftsman's shop still remains. It was explained that even among employees who don't know the founder used to make the sushi himself, the areas where compromise is not allowed are passed down almost like lore.

In response, Ryuji says that while they like intense, serious sushi restaurants, conveyor-belt sushi places you can casually pop into are important too. It's not that one is better than the other; both relentless dedication and working within constraints each require skill and effort. Otherwise, the speaker says, a chain wouldn't grow from a few hundred to more than a thousand locations in about 40 years. They added that they're genuinely interested in the sushi the founder used to make.

Finally, anago eaten with salt and wasabi was served, along with tsume, a sauce made by simmering down anago bones. It was explained that the tsume has a highly concentrated anago umami, and the video ends with the two tasting it.