Sushi Matsu Milan Review: Fourteen Seats, Two Knives and a €185 Leap of Faith
Milan did not need another restaurant serving salmon roses, truffle mayonnaise and sushi rolls built like apartment blocks. It did, however, have room for Sushi Matsu Omakase: a compact, highly disciplined counter near Porta Venezia where the evening is entrusted to the chefs, the fish and the quiet mechanics of Edomae sushi.
Opened in October 2025, Sushi Matsu is one of Milan’s most uncompromising Japanese dining rooms. There is no conventional à la carte menu, no tactical ordering and very little opportunity to hide behind fashionable garnishes. Guests sit around a pale wooden counter and eat what the chefs decide to serve according to season, availability and the condition of the day’s fish.
That structure sounds simple. It is not. Omakase removes choice from the customer, but it also removes excuses from the restaurant. When a dinner costs €185 per person before drinks, trust is not a decorative Japanese concept. It is the entire economic agreement.
The Door Closes, the Knives Come Out and Milan Finally Stops Talking
Sushi Matsu is located on Via Alvise Cadamosto, in the Porta Venezia area, away from the more theatrical restaurant corridors of central Milan. The room is small, controlled and almost entirely organised around the counter.
The restaurant’s official material refers to 14 seats, while some reports from the opening period counted 12. The precise number matters less than the format: this is an intimate dining room in which every movement is visible. The chefs slice, season, brush, shape and serve in front of the guests. There is no curtain behind which a weak service can disappear.
The interior follows the familiar grammar of contemporary Japanese luxury: pale timber, soft light, restrained surfaces and careful spacing. It avoids the nightclub atmosphere that still infects too many expensive sushi restaurants. No artificial cherry blossom storm, no glowing dragon, no DJ trying to improve sea bream.
The mood is formal but not funereal. The counter creates contact, and contact is essential in an omakase. A good sushi chef does not merely place fish on rice; he controls rhythm, temperature, explanation and appetite.
Meet the Men Holding the Knives
The restaurant was launched under Japanese ownership, with Taka Matsu associated with the project and chefs Hirohiko Shimizu and Daigo Wakui working behind the counter.
Shimizu is the more experienced and publicly recognisable figure. Previous reports connect him with Basara in Milan, and his role appears central to the restaurant’s technical and conversational identity. Wakui brings a younger presence, creating a two-chef dynamic rather than the classic solitary-master performance.
This matters because an omakase counter lives or dies on personality as much as precision. A chef can cut flawless fish and still produce a dead evening. Conversely, excessive entertainment can reduce sushi to a cooking demonstration for adults with expensive watches.
Sushi Matsu seems to aim for the useful middle ground: technical seriousness, direct explanation and enough human interaction to prevent the meal from becoming a religious service conducted over vinegar rice.
Edomae Sushi: Before Refrigerators, Fish Had to Work for a Living
The restaurant identifies itself with the Edomae tradition, the sushi culture developed in Edo, today’s Tokyo, roughly two centuries ago.
Edomae sushi is often misunderstood outside Japan as a synonym for expensive nigiri. Its real identity lies in preparation. Before modern refrigeration and rapid transport, fish required treatment: salting, vinegar curing, soy marination, simmering, steaming or searing. These techniques preserved the catch but also concentrated flavour and improved texture.
That legacy remains visible in serious Edomae sushi. The fish is not simply sliced and placed on rice. Mackerel may be cured, tuna marinated, eel cooked and glazed, shellfish briefly heated, and delicate species rested or brushed with sauce.
The customer should not need a bowl of soy sauce beside the plate. The chef has already made the decisions.
This is one of Sushi Matsu’s strongest conceptual points. The restaurant does not appear interested in raw fish as luxury merchandise alone. It presents sushi as prepared food, with ageing, curing, temperature and seasoning treated as active techniques.
The Himuro in the Wall: Not a Very Expensive Cupboard
One of the restaurant’s most unusual details is the Himuro, a traditional-style wooden ice chamber used for holding fish under controlled conditions.
It is the sort of object that can easily become culinary theatre: an exotic wooden box displayed so journalists can write the word “authentic” three times before lunch. Here, however, it has practical relevance.
Fish storage affects humidity, temperature and texture. A modern refrigerator can dry surfaces aggressively, while carefully managed ice storage can preserve moisture and allow the chef to monitor the fish more directly.
The Himuro therefore says something useful about Sushi Matsu. The restaurant is investing not only in visible luxury, but in the dull, obsessive details that actually determine whether sushi is excellent.
A gold wall impresses for ten minutes. Correctly conditioned fish survives the entire meal.
Lunch: The €100 Way to See Whether You Trust Them
The current lunch omakase costs €100 per person. It includes seasonal otsumami, sashimi, a hand roll, nigiri, a traditional soup and dessert.
This is the shorter and more accessible version of the experience. “Accessible” is relative, obviously: €100 is still €100, not a sandwich and a brisk walk around Porta Venezia.
Yet within Milan’s high-end omakase market, lunch is the rational entry point. It offers the essential architecture of the restaurant without the full financial commitment of dinner.
The absence of grilled fish from the main lunch sequence makes the progression more concentrated around raw and prepared seafood. That can be an advantage for sushi purists, though it places even greater pressure on the nigiri section to provide variation in temperature, fat, salinity and texture.
Lunch should not feel like the economy cabin of dinner. At this price, it must be a complete idea, merely shorter.
Dinner: €185 and the Chef Has Your Full Attention
Dinner currently costs €185 per person and includes otsumami, sashimi, grilled fish, a hand roll, a sequence of nigiri and dessert.
The addition of yakizakana, or grilled fish, broadens the rhythm. A strong omakase needs contrast. Too many consecutive raw courses can flatten the palate, even when the fish is impeccable. Heat, smoke and cooked fat create a pause before the nigiri begins.
The price places Sushi Matsu firmly in luxury territory. Wine, sake and additional drinks can lift the final bill well beyond €250 per person.
At this level, ingredient quality is only the starting point. The restaurant must also deliver correct rice temperature, precise seasoning, intelligent sequence, good explanations, controlled pacing and service that understands when to speak and when to disappear.
Expensive fish alone is not a restaurant concept. Anyone with a supplier and a platinum card can buy tuna.
Otsumami: The Small Plates That Decide Whether the Chef Can Cook
The opening otsumami are arguably more revealing than the premium tuna pieces that arrive later.
These small seasonal dishes may include shellfish, squid, cured fish, cooked vegetables, broth, roe or lightly dressed seafood. They show whether the kitchen can build flavour beyond the established formula of fish plus rice.
This is where balance becomes critical. Soy, yuzu, dashi, wasabi and citrus are powerful tools, but they are also the four horsemen of lazy modern Japanese cooking when used without restraint.
Michelin inspectors specifically praised a combination of Japanese scallop and squid tartare with controlled notes of soy, yuzu and carefully judged wasabi. That description suggests a kitchen interested in calibration rather than spectacle.
The best otsumami should sharpen hunger, not exhaust it. They should introduce the restaurant’s technical language without revealing every trick in the first fifteen minutes.
Sashimi: Freshness Is the Minimum, Not the Compliment
Describing sashimi as “fresh” is like praising a surgeon for owning clean instruments. It is necessary, but it is not enough.
At Sushi Matsu, the sashimi section should be judged on cut, resting, temperature and progression. Some fish benefit from immediate service; others gain depth after controlled maturation. Shellfish may need warmth rather than refrigerator cold. Fatty fish should not arrive in a sequence that turns the palate numb.
The quality of the cut is equally important. Thickness changes flavour. A delicate white fish cut too heavily becomes rubbery; fatty tuna cut too thinly loses its richness before it reaches the tongue.
A serious omakase makes these distinctions visible without delivering a lecture before every bite.
The Rice Is the Real Chef and the Fish Is Its Expensive Assistant
Western diners tend to discuss sushi almost entirely through fish: bluefin tuna, sea urchin, eel, scallop, amberjack. Yet the defining element of nigiri is the shari, the seasoned rice.
Rice temperature must be warm enough to release aroma but not so warm that it softens the fish. Acidity must suit the topping. Texture should hold together in the hand and loosen in the mouth. Pressure matters. Grain matters. Timing matters.
This is where Sushi Matsu’s counter format earns its keep. Nigiri is made and served immediately, rather than parked on a plate while six guests finish photographing the chef.
The best piece should collapse gently rather than disintegrate. Too tightly pressed and it becomes rice masonry. Too loose and the customer ends up wearing half the dinner.
The Tuna Parade: Necessary Tradition or Luxury Traffic Jam?
Most high-end omakase menus eventually arrive at tuna, often through a progression of lean akami, medium-fat chutoro and fatty otoro.
This sequence can be magnificent. It can also become predictable, particularly in European restaurants where tuna functions as proof of expenditure.
Sushi Matsu’s challenge is to prevent the premium cuts from dominating the personality of the meal. The more interesting pieces are often less famous: cured mackerel, sea bream, squid, clam, sardine, needlefish or eel.
A confident omakase should not behave as though every course before otoro were merely airport security.
Tuna needs correct temperature and restraint. Fatty tuna does not benefit from excessive sauce, caviar, truffle or other luxury reinforcements. It is already rich. Adding more wealth to it is culinary tax fraud.
The Hand Roll: Eat It Now, Not After Editing the Photograph
The hand roll introduces crisp nori, warm rice and fish in a more immediate format. It should be eaten the moment it is handed over.
Nori loses its crispness quickly. Waiting to arrange the perfect photograph is one of the easiest ways to damage a carefully prepared course.
This is also one of the most relaxed moments of an omakase. After the precision of sashimi and nigiri, the hand roll brings crunch and a slightly more generous bite.
Its success depends heavily on the seaweed. Good nori should be aromatic, brittle and clean, not leathery or aggressively marine.
Wasabi: A Condiment, Not a Practical Joke
Michelin’s praise for the restaurant’s restrained use of wasabi is significant.
Fresh wasabi should add fragrance, heat and lift without erasing the fish. The sensation is shorter and more aromatic than the blunt burn of dyed horseradish paste.
A chef may vary the amount according to the topping. Fatty fish can absorb more; delicate white fish requires less. This adjustment is part of the craft and one reason the customer should resist dismantling the nigiri and adding extra condiments.
The chef has already seasoned the piece. Trust does not mean agreeing blindly, but it does mean eating the first bite as intended before attempting renovations.
Sake: The Pairing Milan Still Treats Like Advanced Mathematics
Sushi Matsu offers sake by the glass, and this is the most logical pairing route.
Wine can work with sushi, but acidity, oak and tannin create complications. Sake often handles umami, soy, cured fish and rice vinegar with greater ease.
A clean junmai or junmai ginjo can accompany delicate sashimi, while a richer or more savoury style works with grilled fish, eel and fattier tuna. Temperature matters here too: not all sake needs to be served refrigerator-cold.
The service team should guide diners through these choices without turning the bottle into a chemistry exam. A restaurant asking €185 for dinner must be able to explain sake clearly to guests who know Burgundy but have never encountered rice polishing ratios.
Service: The Invisible Course Nobody Lists on the Menu
The technical format of Sushi Matsu makes service unusually exposed.
All guests experience the meal at the same counter, often beginning within a similar time window. Delays are noticeable. Awkward explanations are noticeable. Empty glasses are noticeable. The whole room functions like a small stage.
The chefs appear to play an active role in explaining the food, which is necessary. However, translation and communication need to remain fluid for international guests.
Authenticity is not improved by leaving customers confused. A serious Japanese restaurant outside Japan must preserve the integrity of the ritual while making it intelligible.
A Beautiful Room, but the Fish Still Has to Do the Talking
The interior was developed with design input from Studio Takeda and BI.CI., using pale wood, soft lighting, cherry-toned walls and Japanese-inspired materials.
The result appears elegant and controlled, although some of the promotional language surrounding the design leans heavily into the usual luxury vocabulary: harmony, ritual, purity, uniqueness.
Fortunately, the restaurant itself seems quieter than its publicity.
The room’s real achievement is functional. It directs attention toward the chefs, keeps sightlines clear and creates intimacy without visual clutter.
This is exactly what an omakase room should do. The architecture should support concentration, not request applause.
The Price Question: Is Sushi Matsu Worth €185?
The correct answer depends on what the diner expects.
Anyone seeking quantity, choice or conventional luxury signals may leave unconvinced. There are no giant seafood towers, no endless menu and no guarantee that every famous ingredient will appear.
The value lies in access to a small counter, Japanese chefs, seasonal sourcing, extensive preparation and a meal constructed in real time.
Even so, €185 is severe enough to demand consistency. Every weak piece becomes visible. Every service hesitation gains weight. Every ordinary dessert looks more ordinary.
The current dinner price is defensible only when the whole sequence works—not merely the tuna, not merely the room, not merely the mythology of omakase.
The €100 lunch may offer the better value, particularly for diners primarily interested in the sushi rather than the extended ceremony.
What Sushi Matsu Gets Right
The restaurant’s strongest feature is clarity. It knows what it wants to be.
It is not an all-you-can-eat venue wearing better lighting. It is not a fusion lounge with Japanese nouns. It is a dedicated omakase counter grounded in Edomae technique.
The use of traditional preparation methods, limited seating, direct chef interaction and a serious approach to rice and fish conditioning gives the project credibility.
Its inclusion in the 2026 Michelin Guide so soon after opening confirms that the restaurant has already attracted professional attention. That is not the same as receiving a Michelin star, and the distinction should remain clear, but inclusion still matters.
Where Sushi Matsu Must Remain Careful
The first danger is ceremony becoming self-importance. Omakase works when it feels precise and generous, not when the guest feels grateful for permission to enter.
The second is price inflation. Milan has become unusually tolerant of expensive Japanese dining, and restaurants can sometimes confuse scarcity with value.
The third is repetition. A long sequence of excellent fish can still become monotonous without changes in temperature, texture and intensity.
The fourth is excessive reverence. Sushi is disciplined food, but it is still food. It should create pleasure, appetite and conversation—not anxiety about holding the chopsticks correctly.
The Verdict: Milan Gets a Serious Sushi Counter, and the Bill Knows It
Sushi Matsu Omakase is one of the clearest signs that Milan’s Japanese dining scene has matured.
Its appeal lies not in novelty but in concentration: few seats, direct interaction, carefully treated fish, warm seasoned rice and a menu that changes with the market rather than with social-media trends.
The restaurant appears technically serious, culturally coherent and refreshingly free from the decorative excess that has diluted many premium sushi concepts.
Its weakest point is unavoidable: the price creates enormous expectations. At €185 for dinner, the restaurant cannot afford a passive service, an unbalanced sequence or an indifferent final course.
The lunch menu at €100 is the more persuasive introduction. Dinner is for diners already convinced that omakase is not simply a meal, but a form of controlled surrender.
Sushi Matsu asks you to trust the chef. That is fair.
At these prices, the chef must trust the customer’s judgment too.
Rating
Food: 9/10
Strong Edomae identity, serious fish preparation and a convincing focus on rice, temperature and seasoning.
Technique: 9.2/10
The restaurant’s strongest area, particularly in curing, conditioning and chef-led nigiri service.
Identity: 9/10
Clearly Japanese, specific in purpose and resistant to generic fusion.
Service: 8.5/10
The counter format creates excellent potential, though communication and pacing must remain exact.
Setting: 8.8/10
Elegant, restrained and functionally designed around the chefs.
Drinks: 8.7/10
Sake is the natural strength; guidance at the table is essential.
Value: 7.6/10
Lunch is relatively persuasive. Dinner enters a price bracket where every detail must perform.
Overall score: 8.8/10
Sushi Matsu Omakase Milan: Practical Information
Address: Via Alvise Cadamosto 7, 20129 Milan
Telephone: +39 02 4539 7128
Cuisine: Japanese, Edomae sushi, omakase
Seating: 14 counter seats
Lunch omakase: €100 per person
Dinner omakase: €185 per person
Opening: Tuesday to Saturday
Closed: Sunday and Monday
Best for: serious sushi enthusiasts, special occasions and diners interested in Edomae technique
Less suitable for: large groups, children, hurried meals or diners who want to order à la carte
