Hamachi or salmon — which comes first

If you order sashimi seriously, you will eventually have to decide whether to begin a plate with hamachi or salmon. The answer is not what you'd think.

Most diners order salmon first by reflex. Salmon is familiar. Salmon is what beginners eat. Salmon is the safe opening move. There is nothing wrong with this. But there is, quietly, a case for starting with hamachi instead — and it has to do with how the palate calibrates itself across the meal.

What hamachi is

Hamachi is the Japanese name for young yellowtail amberjack, a fish farmed extensively in Japan and increasingly in other Pacific markets. It is not the same as buri, which refers to the same species at full adult size and is treated almost as a different ingredient by Japanese chefs. The hamachi served at most Pattaya sushi rooms is the younger, milder, more delicate cut.

The flavor is buttery without being rich. The texture is firmer than salmon but softer than tuna. There is a faint sweetness on the finish that diners often describe as "almost like scallop, but pink." It is, in many ways, the most photogenic raw fish on a sushi menu — translucent, marbled with fat, glistening under good light.

Why order matters on a sashimi plate

Japanese kaiseki tradition has clear opinions about the sequence in which fish should be eaten across a multi-course meal: lightest to richest. The same logic applies inside a single sashimi platter. If you eat the richest cut first, every subsequent piece will taste muted by comparison. If you eat the lightest first, each subsequent piece will reveal its own additional complexity.

Salmon, especially Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon, is rich. The fat content is high. The flavor is pronounced. It coats the palate. Hamachi is lighter — high in fat too, but the fat profile is different, less assertive, leaving the palate cleaner.

If you start with hamachi and move to salmon, you will taste the full weight of the salmon. If you start with salmon and move to hamachi, the hamachi will taste washed out by comparison. This is not about which fish is better. It is about preserving the contrast between them.

Where this matters and where it doesn't

On a chef's-selection platter served all at once, the chef has usually already plated the cuts in the order they should be eaten — lightest to richest, generally left to right or front to back. Trust the plating. The order is not random.

If you are ordering single-fish plates one at a time and pacing yourself, start with hamachi if available. Then move to salmon. Then to tuna akami (the lean red), then chu-toro or o-toro (the fatty belly) if you ordered them. You will taste more in this sequence than in any other.

If you are ordering for one person and you only want two cuts, hamachi and tuna make a more interesting pairing than hamachi and salmon — the contrast between Pacific oily-fish and lean red gives you a wider tasting range. Hamachi and salmon, while both delicious, are tonally similar enough that the contrast is muted.

The seasonality nobody mentions

Hamachi quality, like tuna, varies meaningfully by season and supplier. Winter hamachi is the celebrated cut in Japan — the fish accumulates more fat in cold water — and is the version that achieves the silken buttery quality the cut is famous for. Summer hamachi can be slightly leaner, slightly less marbled. None of this affects safety, but it does affect texture.

Most Pattaya restaurants do not list seasonal hamachi explicitly because the wholesale market in Bangkok rotates supply year-round and the seasonal variation is gentler in the warm waters of Southeast Asia than in Japan itself. But a serious chef notices the difference when the winter Japanese shipments arrive, and will sometimes feature hamachi more prominently during peak months.

What we recommend

If you're new to sashimi and want a single piece to start with, choose hamachi. It is gentler than salmon while still being clearly raw fish. The texture is forgiving, the flavor is approachable, and the finish is clean.

If you're a returning diner and want to taste the full range of a plate, start with hamachi and end with whatever the chef recommends as that day's richest cut. Order accordingly. Pause between pieces. Drink water between fish, not green tea — the green tea is for the end. This is not formal etiquette; it is just how the cuts will reward you most.

Related: Salmon Nigiri Deep Dive · Tuna Sashimi Pattaya · Sashimi Platter Essay