The Best Japanese Food in New York

No photographs allowed at this omakase counter near the New York Public Library, which might be the point: chef Keiji Nakazawa's progression demands your full attention. He adjusts the rice's vinegar ratio for each piece of fish, ages and cures in the Edomae tradition, and makes cuts so precise a single slice becomes a composition. The hinoki counter faces towering ice boxes with carved wood doors. Three Michelin stars.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
3. The New York Times #11 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

The hinoki wood counter at Masa Takayama's omakase room is so smooth it looks like it's never been touched, which is the general vibe of the entire operation. Tucked above the chaos of Columbus Circle, it runs on a quiet, unhurried ceremony where chefs and servers move like they've rehearsed. Truffles, caviar, foie gras nigiri: the kitchen works the line between luxury and excess. Two Michelin stars and a Forbes Five Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
3. AAA Three Diamonds

Chef Nozomu Abe's omakase on the Upper East Side holds two Michelin stars, and the room earns them before a single piece of fish lands in front of you. The knives and lacquerware alone draw stares. Staff in kimono see guests out with a bow that doesn't feel performative. The sushi is precise and quiet in the way only very confident cooking gets to be.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
3. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

Ten seats at a sleek counter on a cobblestoned West Village street, and the whole meal is in the chef's hands. Daisuke Nakazawa's omakase moves through a parade of nigiri, each piece built from deeply seasoned rice, a touch of wasabi, and a careful brush of nikiri. The fish skews fatty and tender in ways that tend to make regulars go quiet. One Michelin star, and a price point slightly more forgiving than the city's other serious sushi rooms.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. Eater The All-Time Eater 38

An L-shaped counter for a handful of diners, a dry garden visible through the window, and ikebana completing the pale, earthy room: kaiseki at this scale is intimate by design. Chef Isao Yamada runs a tasting menu that moves through the classical sequence of courses while leaning into local sourcing, Nantucket corn and Catskills mushrooms folded into the rice course. One Michelin star, and the New York Times placed it second on their 100 Best Restaurants list for 2026.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. The New York Times 2025 · 4 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

A Michelin-starred omakase counter tucked near Domino Park on a quiet Williamsburg block. The chef talks through the meal as it arrives, explaining which region the fish came from, why the rice is what it is, and how long he hunted for the aged soys, so the whole thing feels more like a conversation than a performance. The nigiri is the main event, and the rice gets refreshed throughout, a detail that separates the obsessives from the casual.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Cheng Lin

The hinoki counter was milled from a tree that predates the American Revolution, which sets the tone immediately. Yoshino on the Bowery is a traditional omakase counter from chef Tadashi Yoshida, who left a celebrated restaurant in Japan to open here, and holds a Michelin star. The meal moves through composed cooked courses before settling into Edomae nigiri, with a torched mackerel that arrives over a handheld charcoal grill like a small piece of theater.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2022 · 4 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

Tucked into a corner of Grand Central at the base of One Vanderbilt, Jōji is an omakase counter that somehow makes midtown feel quiet. The meal moves from small plates through nigiri built on a careful Koshihikari-Nanatsuboshi rice blend, with much of the seafood sourced from Tokyo's Toyosu Market. Luxury ingredients run through the menu, so come with the card you don't think about. It holds a Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
3. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

A seven-seat cypress counter in Chelsea is about as intimate as omakase gets, and Noz 17 leans into that. The Michelin-starred sibling to the Upper East Side original sends out a refined nigiri sequence where the fish does the talking and the rice backs it up perfectly. The chef's approach is disciplined and unhurried, which is either calming or excruciating depending on your plans for the evening.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
3. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

Fish sourced entirely from Japan and nigiri finished with little more than a brush of nikiri: this is a serious omakase counter tucked behind a cocktail bar on Warren Street. The chef moves without hurry, and the meal opens and closes with more creativity than the spare middle suggests, ending in an apple sorbet spiked with Yamazaki whisky. A Michelin star, and a room that feels like it belongs to regulars who never told anyone about it.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

Twelve seats at a spare counter in the West Village, soft piano overhead, and a Michelin-starred omakase where the chef sets his own pace rather than marching the whole room through each course in lockstep. The fish arrives minimally dressed, though small surprises hide underneath, a shiso leaf beneath seabass, a dot of yuzu koshō below kinmedai. The room is calm enough that you actually notice them.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

A fourteen-seat counter in Tribeca where the kaiseki menu shifts with the seasons and the soba comes from buckwheat grown near the chef's hometown, which gives the whole thing an unusual personal weight. It holds a Michelin star, and the sake program runs deep enough to occupy a serious collector for the evening. Sharply dressed servers work the room with quiet precision. Wear something nice and clear your night.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

A hidden counter behind the cocktail bar up front, Odo offers an intimate kaiseki tasting menu where the mood is calm and the cooking is anything but ceremonial. Chef Hiroki Odo threads traditional Japanese structure through a personal lens, and two Michelin stars confirm the kitchen is paying attention. The room is quiet by design, so the food does the talking, and it has a lot to say.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. The New York Times 2019 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

Bold colors and custom ceramics set the tone at this tiny omakase counter on the Lower East Side, where the whole vibe runs warmer and looser than the austere hush you might expect. The Michelin-starred kitchen leans into North American sourcing, using New York-grown rice and regional fish, with trim and offcuts turned into a house tostada. Local wine, beer, and cider round out a sake list that runs from Brooklyn to Japan.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

Blacked-out windows and a buzzer at street level set the tone before you've eaten a bite. Pull back the curtain and you're at the counter of a yakitori omakase, a NoHo sibling to Tokyo's Torishiki, where the chef works skewers over binchotan charcoal with the focus of someone who has decided this is the only thing worth doing. The smoke becomes part of the room. One Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

Eight seats behind a half-moon counter, tucked past the cocktail lounge like a room that doesn't want to be found. Noda is an omakase spot with a Michelin star and a genuine speakeasy mood, dark and close, where the chef moves through each piece of nigiri with a calm precision that makes the room go quiet. A deep sake list and vintage Champagne round things out, which is either restrained luxury or showing off, depending on your table.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

A Michelin-starred tempura tasting counter in Murray Hill where the chef uses a blend of sesame and cottonseed oils and keeps the batter deliberately thin, letting the ingredient do the talking. Counter seats give you a front-row view of the whole process. The menu moves with the seasons, running from sashimi through a procession of fried courses, and closing with tencha, a broth that turns out to be a quietly convincing argument for ending a meal with soup.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2015 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

A kaiseki counter in the East Village built around a single idea: moonlight. The name translates to "moon viewing," and the room takes that literally, with illuminated ceramic shelves and mirrored panels catching every gleam. The seasonal tasting menu moves with the kind of quiet confidence that doesn't need to announce itself, and the sake list, ordered à la carte, is the right move. Tsukimi holds a Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Fourteen seats around a charcoal counter in the back of Chinatown's Canal Arcade, where every course of the yakitori omakase is built around a chicken that gives up everything. The chef coaxes cuts most menus never mention, oyster, heart, cartilage, into something precise and quiet. The New York Times gave it three stars, and a James Beard nomination for Best Chef followed. Wear something that can take a little smoke.

1. The New York Times 2022 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Atsushi Kono
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Atsushi Kono

Honey-toned wood and bamboo slats are as decorative as this midtown sushiya gets, which is pretty much the whole statement. An old-school omakase counter where the itamae in front of you sets the tone entirely, Sushi Yasuda runs on classical instincts and zero interest in trends. They require a confirmation call and expect you on time, which regulars treat as basic manners rather than a hardship. Counter seats toward the far end are the ones to request.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City
2. Time Out #12 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
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A handful of bar seats hovering over a kitchen the size of a closet sets the whole mood at this East Village izakaya from the team behind Odo. Rustic wood counter, exposed brick, a menu that moves through sashimi, grilled fish, wagyu, and things fried or simmered over rice. The food is meant to be shared, the pacing is unhurried, and the room seats enough people to make a reservation feel like a small victory.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year

Twelve seats at a counter above Central Park, where the skyline does a lot of the talking before the food even starts. YUGIN is an omakase spot inside the Plaza Hotel, opening with composed seasonal courses before moving into a classical nigiri progression, with faint European touches woven through Japanese technique. Custom ceramics, pristine sourcing, and restrained seasoning throughout, for a crowd that books months out and dresses accordingly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

Ivan Orkin, a New Yorker who built his reputation running ramen shops in Tokyo, brought the whole project back home to the Lower East Side. The ramen shop is compact and casual, counter seats facing the kitchen, with a menu that mixes Japanese technique and New York personality without making a big fuss about either. The tsukemen, where you dip thick fresh noodles into rich pork broth and season to taste, rewards the curious. Grub Street named it one of the city's best restaurants for kids.

1. The New York Times 2014 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Grub Street The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)

The omakase option is how regulars talk about this place, and the downtown room backs it up with a charged, buzzy atmosphere that makes sitting still feel like a missed opportunity. Nobu Downtown is fine-dining Japanese in a sleek, energetic space on Broadway, where the menu leans into small plates built for sharing. The celebrity-chef brand is global at this point, but the kitchen keeps the standards high.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2018 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City
2. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In NYC

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Rasheeda Purdie

Temaki, or hand rolls, are the whole point here, served open-style and passed directly from the crew to the counter while the nori is still crisp. The room is all blonde wood and gray-blue cushions, casual and unhurried in a way that West Village sushi rarely bothers to be. The plant-based options get the same care as the fish. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, for whatever that tells you about the price-to-pleasure math.

1. The New York Times 2019 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The 16-seat counter in Tribeca runs loud for an omakase room, which is part of the point. The team behind ITO has no patience for hushed reverence: fish flown in from Tokyo and Fukuoka anchors a nigiri progression with deep cuts and assertive saucing, and the appetizers and desserts pull their weight too. Whiskey and sake flow, the room skews young, and everyone booked their next reservation before the first one ended.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

The omakase counter tucked inside Kanoyama runs on select days only, so planning ahead is part of the deal. It's the serious, pricey sushi experience the East Village rarely advertises: a small counter, a chef calling the shots, and fish flown in with obvious intention. The sake list is deep enough that regulars argue about it, and you're handed an assortment of cups to choose from, which is a nicer problem than most restaurants give you.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

Buckwheat soba, hot or cold depending on what the weather is doing to you, has kept this East Village noodle shop humming for longer than most of its neighbors have existed. The room runs to booths, counter seats, and a calm, traditional feel that makes it easy to linger. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and one of the rare spots in the city where a walk-in during peak dinner hours won't leave you standing on the sidewalk.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The tonkotsu broth here is pork-forward but never heavy, which sounds like a small thing until you've slogged through a bowl that coats your throat like spackling compound. This Tokyo-based ramen shop in Midtown pulls its noodles in-house, and they hold their spring all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand. The room is sleek enough for a working lunch and relaxed enough for a slow dinner.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The chef makes the ceramic bowls himself, which tells you a lot about the pace of a meal here. This Greenpoint soba shop occupies a warehouse with factory windows and skylights, and the hand-cut buckwheat noodles, served cold or hot with dashi, are the point. Pricing runs steep for a noodle lunch, but the room is genuinely industrial and the gluten-free menu surprisingly complete. Soba-making classes also run here, if you'd like homework.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Roadbook The best restaurants in Greenpoint, New York

Suma katsuo, a buttery fish rarely seen outside Japan, gets cold-smoked over cherry wood and finished with onion sauce, sesame, and nori at this intimate omakase counter on Prince Street. The New York Times named that sashimi course one of the top dishes of 2024. Chef Ben Chen's approach is precise without being fussy, and the room rewards the kind of guest who came to pay attention rather than to be seen.

1. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
2. The New York Times 2024 · Suma Katsuo Sashimi · Hungry for the Best? Here Are Our Top New York Dishes of 2024.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2018 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

The cerulean counter is handmade, the seafood is sustainably sourced, and the menu wanders freely from hand-roll culture to XO grits without apology. Rosella is a sushi shop on Avenue A that treats local, responsibly harvested fish with restraint and a little mischief. The wine list leans domestic, pulling from the North Fork and the West Coast. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and Esquire put it on their best new restaurants list.

1. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Esquire #25 · The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Hip-hop plays over a 20-seat sushi bar, which sets the tone before the fish even arrives. Shuko is an omakase spot where the team, veterans of Masa, runs two tasting menus: a straight sushi and sashimi course, or a fuller kaiseki route with composed dishes alongside the nigiri. Both come with optional wine and sake pairings. The meal ends with apple pie, a quiet signal that the reverence for Tokyo tradition only goes so far.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Leather, iron, and glass fill the dining room at this upscale Japanese izakaya on Madison Avenue, where the sharing format means robata skewers and pristine sushi on shaved ice arrive at the table more or less continuously. The black cod wrapped in hoba leaf has become a signature across the brand's global outposts. Desserts, meanwhile, have their own Instagram following, which tells you something about the clientele and the lighting.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. The New York Times 2023 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Roadbook The best restaurants in Greenpoint, New York

A sushi bar on Prince Street with the kind of sleek, warm-toned room that wouldn't look out of place on South Beach. Momoya is a Manhattan mini-chain that somehow avoids feeling like one, with a menu that swings between approachable rolls and more creative territory without losing its way. The staff actually pays attention, which in SoHo feels like a small miracle. Good for a date, good for a Friday, good for both.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A sleek omakase counter in Williamsburg where the chef runs an edomae-style sushi progression that moves from composed small bites through a focused nigiri course. The fish comes from specific Japanese sources, cured and aged with enough care that the sourcing actually shows on the palate. À la carte is available at the bar and garden if you're not committing to the full ride, which is at least a refreshingly honest policy.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Homemade soba noodles in fragrant dashi pull the midday crowd hard enough that business lunchers fill every seat fast. By evening the izakaya loosens up considerably, with sake flowing and plates of spicy fried chicken and yakitori moving around the room. The don bowls topped with sea urchin and salmon roe are the kind of thing that makes you forget you're on 43rd Street.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A heavy carved black door opens into a sushi shop where the real draw is nigiri paired with beer, not wine. Moody Tongue comes from the Chicago brewing outfit of the same name, and the menu reads like a collaboration between a sushi counter and a serious taproom. The sets match each piece with a specific pour, and the Shaved Black Truffle Rice Lager is brewed exclusively for this room.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The open kitchen anchors the room at this contemporary Asian restaurant in Rye, where the chef treats Japanese cuisine as a jumping-off point rather than a blueprint. Nigiri, handrolls, and tempura share the menu with hot dishes and the kind of creative small bites that make the omakase worth considering. The lofty-ceilinged space draws a lively local crowd, and the bar fills up early. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A tempura omakase on the Lower East Side where the chef trained in French kitchens and uses mostly Japanese-sourced ingredients, which sounds like a concept pitch but unfolds as something quietly focused. The batter is sheer, the shrimp and anago are treated like they cost what they cost, and the meal opens and closes with dishes that have nothing to do with tempura. Small room, loyal regulars, not much signage.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Ten seats at a counter in LES, where a shabu shabu omakase runs at whatever pace you set. The team swishes prime pork belly and A5 wagyu through boiling broth before finishing each piece in sweet soy, ponzu, or miso, and the volume of wagyu is such that you'd expect to feel pinned down by it, yet the lighter pairings keep everything moving. Spanish and Italian touches appear occasionally, and somehow they fit.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Twelve seats along the Upper East Side, with a chef who trained at Masa and Sushi Nakazawa before opening her own room. Sushi Akira runs an 18-course omakase at a price point that won't require a second mortgage, moving through chilled appetizers, nigiri, and dessert in a calm, unhurried sequence. The Michelin Guide has it listed. For a format that can tip toward ceremony, the atmosphere here stays quietly focused on the fish.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

An L-shaped counter wraps around the chef at this modest sushiya in SoHo, where an omakase at a price that won't require a sit-down conversation with your accountant moves through a long parade of nigiri and small courses. The kitchen leans classic, with the occasional flourish, caviar on shima-aji, say, landing without fanfare. The mango sorbet at the end beats the green tea ice cream every time, but nobody told you that.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The white onyx bar alone signals that someone spent serious money on this room, and the pink-and-chartreuse upholstery inside the landmarked Seagram Building does the rest. It's a mod Japanese brasserie where the menu circles back to Japan at every turn: teppanyaki, yuzu-sauced seafood, charred vegetables. The bar pours over thirty Japanese whiskies, which is either a reason to come early or a reason to stay very late.

1. The New York Times 2018 · 1 star · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

You receive an electronic letter with a coded cipher before you even find the door, which sets the mood for this East Village omakase counter built around the fictionalized office of a 19th-century world traveler. The fish runs from crowd-pleasing shima aji to less common black throat sea perch, and after the last bite, the downstairs library is there for a drink if you're willing to stay in character.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

White walls, communal tables, and a daytime-only pace that makes Long Island City feel like it has a neighborhood café worth leaving the subway for. Vert Frais is a Japanese noodle and rice bowl spot backed by the chef behind Kanoyama, which means the cooking is more assured than the casual room suggests. The shio ramen runs clean and lightly fatty, and the soufflé pancakes are the kind of tall, jiggly thing people photograph before they eat it in about four minutes.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A doorbell on an unassuming Chinatown hallway lined with charred cedar is your only cue you've found this ten-seat omakase counter. Inside, chef Kunihide Nakajima runs an Edomae-style sushi experience that leans hard into traditional Japanese rhythms, from the tsumami courses to the seasonal fruit that closes the meal. The seafood comes from Japan, the aesthetic is spare, and the room does not reward fidgeting.

1. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

Taking the elevator to the sixth floor of a commercial building off Union Square is a strange way to find a kaiseki omakase, which is probably the point. The chef spent years at the cult Japanese spot Kyo Ya before opening this one, and the room lands somewhere between chic Tokyo penthouse and relaxed dinner party, with the city glittering through the windows. The courses are elaborate and precise; the mood, somehow, is not.

1. The New York Times #24 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
2. The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York in 2025

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #45 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #45 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City

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1. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

1. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

1. The Infatuation 9 Great Shaved Ice Spots In NYC

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Midtown

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

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1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Soho

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Soho

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

1. Eater The Best Restaurants Around Times Square

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants On The Upper West Side

1. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

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1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant

1. Grub Street The 43 Best Restaurants in New York

1. The New York Times 2018 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2018 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2017 · 3 stars · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2017 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2014 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2013 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2012 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2012 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2013 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review