Sushi Sho is the newest three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York, and it operates under constraints that would disqualify it from serious consideration at any other price point. Six seats. One seating per evening. No choice of menu — you eat what Chef Keiji Nakazawa decides you eat. The $450 omakase is followed by an okonomi course where additional nigiri are offered at $25 to $50 per piece; budget $800 for the full experience. The sake pairing at $180 brings eight bottles.
Nakazawa began his culinary training at fifteen, apprenticed at twenty different restaurants across Japan, and in 1989 opened the original Sushi Sho in Yotsuya, Tokyo — a restaurant that became one of the most quietly influential sushi counters in the world. Now, in the shadow of the New York Public Library at 3 E 41st Street, he has brought that legacy to Midtown.
The omakase runs twenty to twenty-three courses: precisely prepared appetizers that showcase seasonal Japanese ingredients, then a sequence of nigiri that demonstrate why Nakazawa is regarded as one of the living masters of the form. The rice — aged, seasoned, formed at exactly the right temperature — is as important as the fish. Both are exceptional. The fish is sourced daily from Japan's finest markets. The restaurant does not tip.
Earning three Michelin stars having previously held two, Sushi Sho joins a global list of three three-starred sushi restaurants. The Michelin inspectors ate here and agreed: there is no higher expression of this art form available in New York.
