Sushi Saito

The Booking Is the Hard Part — Everything After That Works in Your Favour

The single most useful thing to know before attempting Sushi Saito is that the reservation hotline only operates during specific days and times. If you call outside those windows, you will not get through. That is not a quirk — it is the mechanism. Set a reminder, call the moment the line opens, and be prepared to try more than once. Securing a seat here is a genuine exercise in patience, and treating it as such will save you frustration. Once you are in, the experience more than justifies the effort.

Sushi Saito sits on the 45th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong in Central, which means the setting alone carries weight. The room is compact and counter-focused, with cypress wood running the length of the bar , the format that Edomae sushi was designed for. This is not a dining room where you sit at a table and wait for plates to arrive. You are at the counter, close to the preparation, watching each piece come together. For a first-timer, this is the right orientation: you are a participant, not an audience. The cypress counter at venues like this is not decorative; it is functional, and the proximity to the chef is part of how the meal communicates.

The kitchen operates under the supervision of Chef Takashi Saito, the same figure behind the original Tokyo operation that has held three Michelin stars for years. Chef Gabriele Di Leandro leads the Hong Kong counter. This is an Edomae-style programme: seasonal seafood, rice sourced from Akita and Nagano, cooked in spring water from Kagoshima, and dressed in a proprietary vinegar blend. These are not incidental details , they are the structural logic of why the rice tastes different here than at most other sushi counters in Hong Kong. The technique is Tokyo-rooted, the ingredients are sourced with documented specificity, and the result sits at the $$$$ price tier for a reason that the food itself makes legible.

The venue opened in 2018 as Saito's first overseas outpost, and the demand that met its launch has not softened. As of 2026, La Liste scores it at 99 points, up from 77.5 the previous year , a move that reflects either genuine momentum or a recalibration of how the guide weights Asian sushi counters at the top tier. Either way, 99 points in La Liste puts Sushi Saito in a category shared by very few Hong Kong restaurants. It also holds a Michelin star (2024) and a Black Pearl 1 Diamond (2025), which together confirm that this is not a venue coasting on brand recognition from its Tokyo parent. The food is earning its own credentials.

For a first-timer, the practical advice is this: book lunch if you can get it. The hours run from 12 PM to 1:30 PM and 6 PM to 10 PM, seven days a week. Lunch seatings at high-end sushi counters in Hong Kong tend to be less competitive and occasionally carry a price differential worth noting. You will also be eating in natural light with Central's skyline at 45 floors up , a spatial detail that changes the character of the meal. Dinner is the prestige slot and fills fastest; if you have flexibility, lunch is both easier to book and arguably better suited to tasting the rice, which is the technical centrepiece of any Edomae counter.

If Sushi Saito is not available when you check, the Hong Kong sushi category does not leave you without options. Sushi Shikon is the most direct peer , three Michelin stars, similarly difficult to book, and a comparable Edomae approach. Sushi Wadatsumi, Sushi Fujimoto, Sushi Gin, and Sushi Ima round out the counter sushi options in the city at varying price points and booking difficulty. For the broader Hong Kong dining picture, see our full Hong Kong restaurants guide.

Globally, if you are building a sushi counter itinerary, the comparison set worth knowing includes Harutaka and Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongiten in Tokyo, Sushi Kanesaka for a slightly more accessible Tokyo entry point, Shoukouwa in Singapore as the closest regional peer, and Edomae Sushi Hanabusa for an Osaka-adjacent reference. Sushi Harasho in Osaka and Sushi Sho in New York City are also worth tracking if your travel patterns extend that way.

The Four Seasons address matters for logistics: the hotel is directly above Hong Kong Station, which makes arrival direct from the airport or from Kowloon. If you are planning a wider Central evening, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon at IFC Mall is a short walk for a pre-dinner or post-lunch stop. The Hong Kong hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide have the surrounding area covered if you are building a full trip around the booking.

Practical Details at a Glance

Also worth bookmarking: the Hong Kong wineries guide if you are planning wine alongside the meal.