“Child’s play.” That was the phrase that came to my mind in the middle of a dinner at Sushi Sho in New York. My wife Jun and I have certainly been to a decent number of sushi restaurants, some of them quite outstanding. No disrespect to these skillful and devoted sushi chefs, but I couldn’t resist the feeling that what we had encountered before Sushi Sho was child’s play compared to the spell-bounding experience at sushi master Keiji Nakazawa’s counter. A dear friend of ours happened to be a regular at the restaurant and took us there recently when we were in the city. New York certainly has no shortage of expensive sushi places and Sushi Sho is certain one of the priciest (the shorter omakase starts at $450 per person, and then there are extra okonomi supplements you can add that will easily run you closer to $1,000 per person with beverages), but is there any place that would be anywhere close to Sushi Sho when it comes to food? Perhaps we may encounter other sushi restaurants of comparable quality next time we go to Japan, but at least in the U.S., I challenge any sushi lover to come up with a place better than Sushi Sho. It is an absolute blessing to New York City that Nakazawa-san, who was already a legend in the sushi world in Japan and Hawaii (where Sushi Sho started), decided to come to the city to showcase his craft.

My barometer of a sushi restaurant’s measure is if Jun loves dishes with ingredients she would otherwise not eat on a regular basis. For instance, she doesn’t eat oysters very often as she’s rather sensitive to the flavor of the brine. I instantly knew that our dinner would be special when she raved about the steamed oyster, accompanied by steamed purple sea urchin and matsutake mushroom in a broth. Mackerel is also not one of Jun’s favorite fish, and yet she loved the Spanish mackerel (sawara) nigiri so much (she confidently declared that it was the best Spanish mackerel she had ever had) that she ordered it again (as well as Japanese mackerel (masaba)) for the okonomi section. The omakase section included other incredible pieces that we had not seen elsewhere, from vinegared sardine wrapped in local vegetables to simmered Sajima octopus (which feeds on crabs and quite interestingly tastes like crabs) to shirako, a delicacy made of sperm sacs of cod fish. I was also a huge fan of fermented herring and salmon, and the monkfish liver (ankimo) with pickled watermelon was better than almost all of the foie gras dishes I had eaten in my lifetime, with its rich umami and silky smooth texture. Nakazawa-san also showed his mastery of vegetables in various pieces, many of them as palate cleansers, from pickled local cucumbers wrapped in dried bonito to this amazing smoked pickled daikon with rice cheese. Oh, did I also mention all the nigiri pieces were awesome? I am pretty confident that I just had the best chu toro at Sushi Sho, and other pieces like baby red snapper (kasugoda), soy-marinated wild yellowtail (buri) and seared Golden eye snapper’s skin (from the okonomi supplement) were nothing short of astounding, especially with the rice giving an impeccable balance of flavor and texture. Even if you are pretty full by the end of the omakase section, I highly recommend trying at least a couple of items from okonomi. One dish that I can’t stop thinking about is ohagi, which featured the best tuna tartare you could ever ask for with impeccable texture that is not easy to forget. Another dish not to skip was grilled nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) that just shows the total command Nakazawa-san has on anything from the sea.  

With the restaurant having quickly gained two Michelin stars, getting a reservation at Sushi Sho will definitely require some advance planning (there are two spots available each day, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.), plus deposit of $450 per person. The restaurant is also notable for banning photography inside, and while I would love to share what Jun and I had eaten, I understood the restaurant’s desire for the diners to “fully immerse themselves in the sushi journey” and perhaps enjoyed our dinner even more because of the no-photo policy. The service was exceptional to say the least, showcasing the pinnacle of the famous Japanese hospitality, with all the staff carefully tending to our needs with remarkable attention to detail and politeness. The beverage offerings at Sushi Sho were also quite extensive, with a nice mix of sake and wine options. Jun and I tried the sake flight with eight different sakes and the flight really opened our eyes on the varied styles of sakes from all over Japan. At the end of our meal, we were taken to a small room next door for tea ceremony and some desserts, and Nakazawa-san graciously came later to take photos with us. It was truly an honor to savor this life-changing experience from this master who, despite his stature in the industry, was a genuinely nice person. At the end of our magical dinner, I remarked to Jun that Sushi Sho might have forever ruined sushi for us, and going to another sushiya will never be the same. I would love to be proven wrong on that point, but at the moment I have my doubt that we will have an experience as magnificent as what we just encountered at Sushi Sho.

KenScale: 9.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 9.5/10)

Address: 3 East 41st Street, New York, NY 10017

Website: https://www.exploretock.com/sushi-sho-nyc

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