Get us in your inbox

Search
japanese
Photograph: Filip Wolak

The 17 best Japanese restaurants in NYC

Including expertly skewered chicken and pristine sushi, these are the best Japanese restaurants in the city.

Edited by
Julien Levy
Written by
Abbe Baker
Advertising

NYC's Japanese restaurant landscape is rich with ever-growing, ramen, izakaya and Michelin-starred sushi destinations, among many other offerings. The best include casual affairs, grand experiences and some that split the difference. Whatever your preference, these are the finest options for all of that and more right now. 

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC

Time Out Market New York
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • DUMBO

You know the ramen is special when it garners Michelin recognition in the city that specializes in bowls of toothsome noodles. Takatoshi Nagara, the head chef behind the lauded Bigiya Ramen in Tokyo, and his friend Takayuki Watanabe brought their acclaimed Japanese noodle soup to the Lower East Side with the opening of Mr. Taka in 2015. Now this Dumbo incarnation at Time Out Market is where we’ll be happily slurping up the miso ramen or the equally flavorful Taka vegan bowl. 

Best Japanese restaurants in NYC

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Greenwood

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. 

  • Bars
  • Izakaya
  • East Village
  • price 1 of 4

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.

Advertising
Masa
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Upper West Side
  • price 4 of 4

Masa maintains three Michelin Stars–one of only five 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. 

 

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Midtown East
  • price 4 of 4

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. 

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Midtown West
  • price 3 of 4

Somewhat obscured on Great Jones Street in a space once home to Basquiat, Bohemian is absent an obvious entrance. Aspiring diners must acquire a reference from a previous guest for a shot at a reservation (and/or submit a request here). Loop for all the hoops and you'll be rewarded with tables previously topped with bites like Wagyu, sizzling shrimp and chirashi. 

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Upper East Side
  • price 4 of 4

Michelin-starred Sushi Noz’s smooth surfaces and right angles evince precision, while the soft lighting and elegant decor radiate calm. Diners are treated to a two-and-a-half hour tasting menu including hot preparations, as well as sushi and sashimi with expertly-sourced ingredients prepared masterfully. This isn’t the kind of place you go before a night out or a show–this is the night out; it is the show. A spot at one of the just four daily seatings can be yours with a reservation, but expect to pay damn-near airfare to Tokyo. Note that the carefully composed nature of this meal precludes most dietary accommodations; there are no strict vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or soy-free dining options, but a Kosher menu is available with 72-hours notice.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Lower East Side
  • price 2 of 4

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.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Seafood
  • Greenwich Village
  • price 3 of 4

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. 

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • East Village

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. 



Advertising
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Williamsburg
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

Co-chef/owner couple Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel serve a rotating menu of fun fusion fare at Shalom Japan, including a Manischewitz-based cocktail and Matzoh Ball Soup Ramen. This is the perfect casual place to take visitors looking for a distinctly New York experience–nothing too pricy, everything hitting a comforting note. At the end of the day, it’s Japanese food made with some Jewish ingredients, but really, Shalom Japan is brick-and-mortar proof that the American melting pot still simmers. 

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Midtown East
  • price 2 of 4

Rather than leaving it to the guest, Sushi Yasuda near Grand Central Terminal adjusts its omakase to suit the guest. Chefs wow with quality, freshness, and nigiri construction that is nothing short of art. The sleek but plainly pale wood-paneled space is understated to emphasize each course before your eyes in the few moments before it disappears. 

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Lower East Side
  • price 1 of 4

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.

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Noho

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.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Williamsburg
  • price 1 of 4

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.

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Murray Hill
  • price 3 of 4

In the world of three-figure omakase thrills, sushi reigns. But tempura never recieved the same fine-dining fawning—that is, until Masao Matsui, a Tokyo import who's been commanding fryers for 50 years, created well-paced parades of the marquee dish.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • East Village
  • price 1 of 4

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. 

Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising