"America's most expensive seat at a counter. Masa Takayama's hinoki-scented silence is a spiritual experience in fish and rice — and worth every dollar of the argument."
10Food
9Ambience
6Value
About Masa
Masa Takayama grew up in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, where his family ran a fish shop beneath the summit. He moved to Los Angeles, then to New York, and in 2004 opened his eponymous counter in the Time Warner Center — the same building, and the same floor, as Per Se. The positioning is not accidental. Masa is the Japanese counterpart to Keller's American temple, and the two restaurants have conducted a quiet, respectful competition for the title of New York's most important dining experience ever since.
The counter is made of solid hinoki cypress, the wood Takayama chose for its grain and its scent — it smells faintly of clean cedar and seawater, which is exactly the correct sensory preparation for what arrives. The omakase begins at $750 per person, not including drinks. The Hinoki Counter Experience, which guarantees a seat at the counter with your own dedicated sushi chef, is $950. A newer seasonal omakase reaches $1,200. These numbers are not errors.
What you receive in return is food prepared to a standard that most kitchens cannot approach. Caviar-topped toro tartare that arrives as a single instruction about fat and brine and temperature. Kegani crab, its sweetness calibrated to the season. Geoduck nigiri with a chew that has been calibrated over decades. The matcha mille-feuille at the end — Takayama's own pastry — is as precise as the savory work that precedes it.
The room seats fewer than thirty. Silence is the house style — not oppressive, but focused, like a concert hall between movements. Eating here alone is not lonely. It is meditative.
Why Masa for Solo Dining
Masa was designed around the counter. Eating alone here is not a concession — it is the intended experience. You are seated before a chef who will spend the next three hours preparing food solely for your attention. There are no social obligations, no dinner table dynamics, no shared menu. Just you, the hinoki wood, and twenty-three courses of the most accomplished sushi in the Western hemisphere. Eating alone at Masa is one of the great acts of personal investment available to a New York diner.
Why Masa for Impressing Clients
The financial signal is unambiguous: a Masa dinner for two exceeds $1,500 before wine. Your client will know this. But the impression goes beyond price — it is the singularity of the experience. Most people, no matter how successful, have never been to Masa. You are offering them something they cannot easily replicate, and in doing so you are communicating that your relationship is worth something extraordinary.
I have eaten at Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo twice. Masa is the only Western omakase experience that belongs in the same conversation. The toro alone — its temperature, its texture, the restraint of the seasoning — is worth the flight from wherever you are.
Thomas B.December 2025
Occasion: Impress Clients
My client had been everywhere. London, Tokyo, Hong Kong. He told me at the end of the evening that Masa was the most thoughtful dining choice anyone had made for him in five years. The deal was secondary at that point.
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