Izuei Honten at Ueno, Tokyo - Unagi Heaven

The husband absolutely loves unagi, and we decided to search for an unagi restaurant near the cherry blossom hotspots. We came across a few blogs recommending a 260-year old unagi specialist near Ueno Park and the reviews were so good, we decided we had to give it a try. We decided to go a little earlier that morning for a walk in the park before looking for the restaurant. It was a weekday morning but it was already packed!
Lovely pink blooms at the entrance to the park.

We found the shop fairly easily thanks to the map at this website - it was about 10 mins walk from the Ueno JR station. I loved the paper placemats!

They had a special deal which we went for - Singaporeans love discounts!
The view from our table - we were most pleased to find out we were the only gaijin (albeit of the non-white variety) in the restaurant.

Extra unagi sauce and shiso leaf pepper on the side of the table.

Our sets arrived in this lovely laquer emsemble. The sister said that this is how unagi is traditionally served - in laquer boxes.
There was sashimi
The second layer was the grated yam with a raw egg
And right at the bottom, the unagi on top of rice.
In its full glory
The soup was a clear one - not sure if this was eel broth or not, since it wasn't the normal cloudy miso
The grated yam was pretty yummy - it was quite slimy but that didn't bother me. The sister said it was very good for digestion. It's meant to be eaten with the shiso pepper.
Pickles to go with the rice and soup
Another look at the unagi with shiso pepper. The amazing thing about eating unagi in Tokyo was the lack of sweet sauce. This was pure, fresh, unagi without any adulteration or masking of flavours.
At the recommendation of the sister, we ordered white unagi. This was the best (ie. fattiest) part of the eel, and is normally grilled with zero sauce so that the flavour of the eel really comes out. This serve set us back almost S$70, but it was totally worth it. Now knowing what good unagi tastes like makes it very difficult to eat unagi in Singapore.

If you print out this map which I used, it shouldn't be difficult to find.