Sabi Omakase

About Sabi Omakase

When Roger Asakil Joya opened Sabi Omakase on Pedersgata in 2015, he gave Stavanger something Norway had never had: a ten-seat counter serving Edomae sushi in the strict Tokyo manner. It became the first sushi restaurant in the country to win a MICHELIN star. The format is fixed — an 18-course omakase at 2,990 NOK, built around superb local Nordic fish and seafood handled with Japanese precision. Read our seven signs of a great restaurant for how a counter like this earns its rank.

The Kitchen

Roger Asakil Joya is Filipino-born, trained as a sushi chef in Japan, and accredited by the All Japan Sushi Association (AJSA). Opening Sabi Omakase in 2015 was, by his own account, a lifelong dream; the Michelin star that followed made him the chef who put Norwegian sushi on the map. He works the counter himself, shaping nigiri at speed in front of the ten guests seated around him.

The cooking is Edomae — the authentic style created in old Tokyo some two centuries ago — applied to the cold-water bounty off Norway's coast: the rice seasoned and warm, the fish aged and brushed rather than drowned in soy. The 18-course omakase runs 2,990 NOK and changes with the catch, so the run of nigiri reflects what the Nordic boats landed that week rather than a fixed script. There is no menu to choose from; you eat what the chef sends, in the order he sends it, which is the whole point of omakase.

The Room

The room is tiny by design — a single counter with space for ten — so an evening here is intimate and unhurried, with the chef and guests sharing the same small theatre. There is nowhere to hide and nowhere you would want to; the seats face the work. Book well ahead, because ten covers a sitting means tables vanish quickly, and arrive on time, as the omakase is paced for the whole counter at once. Pedersgata, Stavanger's old cannery street, is now the city's most interesting eating strip.