The Restaurant
Sushi Noz opened in 2018 on East 78th Street between Lexington and Third - a quiet Upper East Side block off the main Yorkville axis - in a townhouse-floor space chef-owner Nozomu Abe built specifically for an Edomae omakase format. The room divides into two: the main counter (the Hinoki Room, eight seats) where Abe himself works, and the smaller secondary counter (the Sushi Room, six seats) where his senior apprentices serve a slightly abbreviated version of the same programme. The Hinoki Room counter is hand-carved from a single two-hundred-year-old Japanese hinoki cypress trunk, oiled rather than lacquered, and replaced approximately every fifteen years following the discipline of the great Tokyo masters Abe trained under. The hinoki, the white-tile interior, the unornamented backsplash, and the absence of music or visual distraction are deliberate - the operating thesis is that the room should disappear behind the food.
Abe trained at Sushi Sai in Tokyo's Ginza district under chef Hiroyuki Sato (later of Sushi Tokami) before working under chef Masato Shimizu at the New York omakase room 15 East. His Edomae programme follows the classical structure: a four-to-six course tsumami opening of cooked, simmered, and grilled preparations (a steamed monkfish liver, a grilled hokke, a seasonal nimono), a twelve-to-fourteen piece nigiri progression from lighter to richer fish, the tamago, and a closing maki. The fish sourcing - three to four times weekly direct from Toyosu market and supplemented from local watermen for shellfish - runs to a deep aged-tuna programme (Abe ages otoro for up to ten days), an unusually serious madai (seabream) and katsuo (bonito) rotation, and the precision Edomae specialties (kohada gizzard shad, sayori needlefish, anago saltwater eel) that distinguish a classical Edomae room from a contemporary fusion programme. The rice - a critical Edomae component - uses two vinegars (a red vinegar for the tuna progression, a white for the lighter fish) and is shaped to body temperature with the discipline that any senior Tokyo guest will immediately recognise.
The sake and tea programme is captained by maitre d' Junichi Kanoda, and Sushi Noz carries one of the deepest junmai daiginjo lists in New York with serious Hiroshima, Niigata, and Yamagata depth. The pairing format runs four to six pours through the meal; the tea programme - a sencha, a hojicha, and a roasted gyokuro served in different orders depending on the fish - closes the meal. Service is silent-to-quiet; the room operates at a register more like a tea ceremony than a restaurant. For an Upper East Side classical Edomae omakase - and for a serious senior gesture toward a Japanese client, an industry partner, or a personal milestone - this is the New York address that the city's sushi critics return to most consistently. The Michelin star, awarded in 2019 and held continuously since, is the room's working credential.
Why This Is New York’s Impress Clients Pick
Sushi Noz is the senior client-impressing room because every design decision is engineered for the host's care. The eight-seat hinoki counter means the host and the guest sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Chef Abe - no table layout dilutes the experience. The Edomae format runs without negotiation; the host has done all the work of selecting the room and Abe takes over from the first course. The fish progression - the aged tuna, the kohada, the anago - provides the operating signal that the host has chosen the city's most disciplined classical room, not a contemporary fusion programme or a celebrity address. The Michelin star and the long-standing critical recognition give the gesture an editorial frame. And the silent dining register - no music, no spectacle - means the conversation between the host and the guest carries on its own merit. For the senior Japanese client visiting New York, this is the room that earns the relationship.
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