The 16 best Japanese restaurants in NYC

You're confronted with two excellent options upon stepping into Japan Village: Do you start at the popular Sunrise Mart, which has a trio of much smaller locations in Manhattan, filled with packaged snacks and hard-to-find ingredients? Or do you hit up one of the 10 vendors that make up this food court within the sprawling Industry City warehouses along the Brooklyn waterfront? Eat first. If you go with a group, start at Shokusaido and order a spread of snacks like the crispy kakiage that adds shrimp to its tangle of shredded vegetables. Then shop. 

Decibel is part of an interesting ongoing food/bev conversation between Japan and New York; highly-Grammed corners of this too-cool-for-school LES Sake hub could fit in with Tokyo’s Shinjuku Golden Gai bars. It’s a cool trick, a graffiti-splashed cultural doubling back that totally works–especially at dive bar prices. The food includes gyoza, shumai and karaage, but you’re going to Decibel because you’re either A. a sake aficionado, or B. want to sit at the cool kids table.

Masa maintains three Michelin Stars–one of only four restaurants to hold that honor in all of New York City. This means diners can expect top of the line ambiance, service, ingredients, preparation, and price–a meal here can cost nearly half of the national median rent ($950 at the Hinoki counter), and that’s before drinks, tax, and tip. Recommending Masa in a list of NYC’s top Japanese restaurants is like suggesting that a friend shopping for a new car seriously consider a Rolls Royce. Your experience would undoubtedly be unparalleled within the five boroughs and maybe even the world, but if you’re seriously in the market, your decision is unlikely to be influenced by reading an internet rundown. 

The seasonal omakase here is freshly flown in from Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji market to create Michelin-starred mastery, prepared like a diamond emerged: spectacular, flawless and luxurious. It's a real NYC sparkler. 

Eight seats, two daily seatings, one singular experience. The price of admission is eye-watering, but what you’re paying for is an understated one-man show, a tour de force by chef Shion Uino–a master at the height of his power. Kodawari is a japanese ethos translating roughly to the eternal pursuit of perfection–at some point your meal, maybe just as the gorgeous kegani crab salad arrives, or the second you close your lips around a pristine piece of Edomae sushi; or maybe at the end, just after the coda, the bafflingly complex yet simple egg tamago sushi–you’ll have a greater appreciation for the concept. 

While there is plenty of excellent ramen for self-styled experts to slurp across the five boroughs, the LES’s tiny Nakamura is undeniably among the top-tier. Owner/proprietor Shigetoshi “Jack” Nakamura (formerly mad scientist at the dearly departed Ramen Lab) dreams up new spins on the noodle+broth equation, offering something spectacular for everyone. This spot is especially great for the vegans in your life as the no-compromise, spicy XO Miso ramen is a flavor bomb well worth an order, even for the most carnivorous of us. The room is small, though, so we don’t recommend exceeding a party of two.

Nonono’s expansive yakitori-centric menu of tasty Japanese fare, nice cocktail program, and reasonable prices mean it’s a crowd-pleaser. The vibes are cool and unpretentious, encouraging you, above all else, to have a good time and give things a try. Just keep in mind that certain cherished chicken chunks (skin, oyster, tail, etc.) are in limited daily supply and can only be ordered once per person, and you definitely should. Seriously. The space is long and tall with a counter at the rear and a second story above; this place is perfect for a date or large groups who need to push tables together.

A pair of Masa alumni opened this luxe-for-a-little-less locale several dozen blocks downtown in 2014. The $270 per person omakase includes items like caviar and uni at the 20-seat counter. 

Nami Nori is tasty and affordable with comfy vibe for everybody, including the vegans in your life. The specialty here is temaki–conical handrolls filled with seasoned rice and your protein of choice but for our money–all $28 of it–the classic set is the move: an assortment of delicious rolls and furikake fries with mentaiko mayo.

There’s a particular, heinously-overused term to describe establishments off the beaten path that we won’t utter here, but let’s just say it’s easy to speak well of this midtown izakaya. If you can find your way to Sakagura, you’ll be rewarded with a selection of over 250 sakes to pair with your meal, which in true izakaya fashion is casual and more or less meant to be enjoyed with friends to blow off steam after work. Portions are not huge, but that’s by design–order more food, then more sake, then more food, then sake ad infinitum.

Raku sits in the middle of a residential Soho street and serves unfussy Japanese food in a casual setting with udon is among the city’s best. Like its thin, chewy, alkaline-alloyed cousin–the ramen noodle, udon’s thicker, softer, silkier noodles play spectacular host to a variety of à la carte additions, poached egg, Wagyu beef, and mushrooms among them. And the price won’t clean you out, so feel free to take big swings. Seating is limited and it’s a neighborhood dinner favorite, so go for lunch to avoid a crowd. 

Chefs Yoshihito Kida and Mika Ohie were both born in Japan (Tokyo and Hokkaido, respectively), but met in the kitchens of Yakitori Totto and Soba Totto, before striking out on their own. Most everything here is scratch-made. Kida, who owned a soba restaurant in Japan, prepares buckwheat noodles in house, while Ohie focuses on sides and appetizers, like a cold house-made tofu with scallions, ginger and bonito.

This titular street-meat/izakaya mainstay (wherein bits of chicken are skewered and grilled over coals) is usually served à la carte alongside big pitchers of beer. Not so at Torien, where it's an exquisite 13-course omakase tour of the form. A meal in Torien’s 17 seat dining room is as much about showing you what you didn’t know about chicken as it is an exemplar of peak ingredients and cooking methods.

By day, this 12-seat Williamsburg space is home to Okonomi–a breakfast/lunch restaurant specializing in ichiju sansai; the traditional meal set of soup plus three sides. The menu is small but the food is excellent. It’s the perfect way to buoy your afternoon–expert cookery proving simple is not simplistic. By evening, the space re-opens as Yuji Ramen, offering inventive, smile-inducing bowls of noodle soup with a special emphasis on outstanding seafood-based broths. It’s nice but not fancy. Still, don’t expect to waltz right in–limited seating and high-demand mean reservations are a must.

In the world of three-figure omakase thrills, sushi reigns. But tempura never recieved the same fine-dining fawning—that is, until the late Masao Matsui, commanded fryers for decades years, created well-paced parades of the marquee dish.

During the day, this East Village spot serves a long list of siphon brews, plus dishes like katsu sandwiches and omurice with toppings like sausage and cheese. When the sun sets, sidle up to the wooden counter sake flights, cocktails and Japanese Whisky.