Sushi Is More Expensive Than Ever in NYC. Here’s What $1,000 Gets You
Sushi Is More Expensive Than Ever in NYC. Here’s What $1,000 Gets You
(Bloomberg) -- ↵
For months, news of supply chain crunches and rising food prices have been making headlines, along with statements from restaurant owners about having to raise menu prices.
Even by those standards, the news that Masa’s omakase menu would now cost $950 per person was eye-popping. (Previously, the menu was $850.) It’s now the most expensive tasting menu in New York and one of the top five most expensive Michelin-starred meals in the world. Sure, the series of small plates and fish from sushi master Masa Takayama might feature truffle shavings and A5 Wagyu tataki, and service charges are included, but you’ll still have to pay extra for drinks and shell out more for sales tax.
Masa might be the only sushi restaurant in the country where $1,000 means you can’t bring a date, but it’s far from alone in skewing the average sushi price in the city. Manhattan’s top sushi spots now include Yoshino and Noz 17, both of which opened during the pandemic and are booked out a month ahead despite their $400-per-person price tags. If you’d rather eat high-end raw fish with friends—plural—consider Towa in the Flatiron District, just opened by the team behind Atomix and Her Name is Han.
Here’s what $1,000 gets you at New York’s best sushi restaurants, arranged from most expensive omakase to most affordable. Estimated prices include tax and a standard 20% gratuity.
$1,000 gets you: One Hinoki counter experience
The $950 price for an omakase meal at the famed three-Michelin-starred sushi counter in the Deutsche Bank Center (formerly known as Time Warner) takes effect in April. With tax, the cost is $1,034 (thankfully, the service is included). The menu includes a half-dozen appetizers such as the famed grilled toast with toro tartare and caviar and just-cooked uni on papaya, at least 15 pieces of seasonal sushi, and white truffle ice cream. If you forgo the counter experience for a table, the price goes down to $815 per person with tax.
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for two, almost
Tadashi Yoshida opened his highly anticipated restaurant last September on the Bowery, where it quickly became a favorite among New York’s sushi cognoscenti. Around 90% of the fish on his 20-course, $522 menu (after tax and tip) is flown in from Japan, including the sublime fatty sardine, iwashi. The chef starts the meal with a series of unconventional appetizers such as sakuraebi—cherry blossom shrimp in a broth with the thinnest of noodles.
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for two
At night at Ginza Onodera in Midtown Manhattan, the kiwami (which translates as “extreme”) menu includes eight appetizers, custardy tamago omelet, and nine pieces of nigiri. The selection changes seasonally, but uni and bluefin tuna are constant. Price: $489, tax and tip included. At lunch, a modified version (eight nigiri) is $271. The new chef Takuya Kubo has introduced his version of an early bird special where 5:30 p.m. seatings can choose a spring holiday menu for $413.
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for two
At Shion 69 Leonard Street in Tribeca, a meal will set you back $457 (with tax and tip). Chef Shion Uino serves sumptuous fish from Japan, such as shimmering pieces of tilefish with its luscious liver melted on top. He might even show diners the certificate of shipment of a $180-a-pound tuna, flown in that day from Hokkaido. A few bottles of wine on the list are around $100, including the Loire Valley white Frantz Saumon Mineral Plus.
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for two
At Sushi Noz’s Upper East Side flagship, chef Nozomu Abe specializes in a mostly traditional array of sushi, along with a few pieces of his trademark aged fish such as meaty striped marlin. The $435 menu, including tax and tip, is amplified by friendly banter and memorable bites like shockingly sweet, just-broiled Nordic king crab. At the new downtown outpost, Noz 17, the same price buys a different menu of otsumami (snacks) like bonito-crusted bamboo shoots, interspersed with pieces of nigiri that’s based on the season, such as lean kasugo dai (young seabream).
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for two, plus Champagne
The most glamorous sushi experience in town, designed by Ken Fulk, boasts a semicircular white ash counter and velvet seats for 10. The omakase from chef Shigeyuki Tsunoda comprise around 20 pieces of nigiri, including shiro ebi (white shrimp), as well as uni and the steamed egg custard chawanmushi with caviar. To complement the fish is an extensive list of Japanese whiskies, as well as cocktails and a Champagne pairing with the likes of Krug. But you’ll have to pay extra for those to go with the $411 meal, tax and tip included.
$1,000 gets you: Seasonal omakase for three
The $297 menu, including tax and tip, features stellar sushi—fat scallops, Japanese sea perch—from chef Nick Kim and Jimmy Lau, as well as their storied milk bread topped with toro tartare. There’s also an outstanding wine list and a bumping hip-hop sound track. Add the supplementary $120 caviar handroll or the $110 uni and sake tasting, and you’ll likely go over budget.
$1,000 gets you: Four omakase menus at the sushi counter
On a quiet West Village street, Daisuke Nakazawa (who once upon a time apprenticed to Jiro Dreams of Sushi star Jiro Ono) serves around 20 pieces of nigiri such as thick scallops seasoned with yuzu for $235 per person, including tax and tip. The beverage menu includes a comprehensive list of sake, reds, whites, and rosés, as well as Japanese imported tea. The same omakase is served in the dining room for $150; $195 with tax and tip.
$1,000 gets you: Eight nine-course menus
At this brand-new omakase spot, which opened in the middle of March, Masaya Shirai offers a nine-course, $130 menu, including tax and tip, that features two chef’s choice rounds of nigiri—at the beginning, and then again as a finale. The assortment might include ama ebi (sweet shrimp), shima anji (striped jack) with a spritz of lemon, and a hefty futomaki, the fat sushi rolls stuffed with egg and eel. In between, dishes might include charcoal-grilled Spanish mackerel and soba noodles.
$1,000 gets you: Eight sushi tasting menus
Against a background of rotating art work that ranges from colorful Bhutan textiles to an upcoming exhibit highlighting the work of Kyoto-based footwear company Gion Naito, chef Hiroki Odo offers a sushi tasting menu that features eight pieces of fish for $130, with tax and tip. Spring selections include slices of sweet blackthroat seaperch from Tokyo, and uni from the East Coast. Rounding out the meal is a hand roll, an appetizer like panko-coated white asparagus, and dessert.
$1,000 gets you: Dinner for eight at the bar
The energy at this East Village sushi bar is high compared with the hushed ambiance at so many of the city’s counters. The menu lets diners order by style of fish—the white fish family features the Japanese red snapper madai, and so on. If you’re sitting at the counter, you’ll eat the $128 omakase, including tax and tip, which constitutes a very good deal at this level of food. The 15 pieces of nigiri may include a salmon belly and botan ebi (shrimp) with garlic butter, and diners get a hand roll, too.
$1,000 Gets You: 10 omakase meals
At Sushi Kai, also in the East Village, the $98 menu (including tax and tip) is one of the better and most-efficient deals in the New York sushi world. The “premium Kai’s omakase” menu includes 12 nigiri courses as well as a hand roll—and one hour in which to eat it. Pieces might include chutoro (fatty tuna) with caviar. The experience is timed to finish a little early, so there’s the opportunity to order supplemental nigiri of the king salmon or of that succulent fatty tuna, before leaving.
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