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The Lower East Side’s latest omakase arrival comes with a hidden entrance and a distinctly personal point of view.
Chef Ambrely Ouimette returned to New York yesterday with Anbā, a 10-seat chef’s counter discreetly tucked behind a cocktail lounge inside the Concord building at 92 Ludlow Street. To find it, you’ll enter through the front Anbā bar, then slip past the lounge and down to the intimate sushi counter tucked out of sight.
Designed by Ouimette herself, the space leans into a modern wabi-sabi aesthetic, with natural textures and muted tones that keep the focus squarely on the interaction between chef and guest. The counter offers a 16-course tasting menu priced at $220 per person, built around seasonality, fermentation and the careful aging of ingredients. The experience lasts about two hours, with dishes evolving throughout the year based on seasonal sourcing.
Ouimette—a Sushi|Bar ATX alum who also helped open Matsuhisa Denver under Nobu Matsuhisa—serves a menu that blends classical Japanese technique with a contemporary, ingredient-driven sensibility. Early courses may include crudo preparations like chu-toro or isaki with herbs and Italian salsa verde, followed by warm dishes like chawanmushi, a silky Japanese egg custard, here enriched with wild mycelium (a network of mushroom roots that adds deep umami flavor).
Nigiri selections mostly feature aged fish, including shima aji, amberjack, snapper and zuke akami, accented with housemade salts, kosho and layered umami elements. The progression concludes with heartier plates such as dry-aged tuna steak and American unagi ochazuke, plus a seasonal dessert like kakigori.
Ouimette, who grew up in the Hudson Valley and trained under Chef Norio Ishii before building her reputation across Denver, San Diego and Austin, conceived Anbā as a more intimate, evolving expression of her work. “Anbā is about honoring where I’ve come from while allowing myself the freedom to evolve,” she said. “It’s a space where technique and instinct coexist, and where the menu can change with the season and the freshest ingredients that we can source.”
An all-female culinary team anchors the omakase counter—still unusual in a craft long shaped by tradition and gender bias. Historically, sushi kitchens in Japan were overwhelmingly male, with outdated beliefs about women’s physical strength or even body temperature cited as barriers to entry. Today, a growing number of chefs are pushing back against that legacy.
At the front, the Anbā cocktail lounge offers a separate entry point, with Japanese-inspired cocktails, sake, tea service and a curated selection of wines and spirits, shifting into a late-night program after 11 pm. For now, the omakase counter operates Thursday through Saturday with two nightly seatings, with plans to expand service in the coming weeks.