• Dining Out in NY

A centuries-old dining tradition emerges as New York’s next big luxury format

Nov 10, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

Yamada

Andrea Strong is known for her pioneering food blog, The Strong Buzz. She covers restaurants, chefs, trends, and big picture stories about the intersection of food, business, policy, and the law.

In New York, Japanese cuisine has long been defined by omakase, a chef’s progression of tastes from chawanmushi to one-bite nigiri. But with a crowded omakase landscape – just take a look at the “top rated” category on Resy that’s dominated by omakase – diners may be ready to experience Japanese dining beyond the single-bite progression.

Enter kaiseki, which has jockeyed into place as the next coveted dining experience, with restaurants likeTribeca’s Muku,Yoshoku in the Waldorf Astoria, Yamada in Chinatown, Ikigai in Fort Greene, and Midtown’s Jō, joining the likes of Tsukimi in the East Village, Hirohisa in Soho, Odo in Flatiron, Kappo Sono in the East Village,Hakubai in Midtown.

While omakase is often defined by sushi, kaiseki is a choreography that follows Japan’s five cooking techniques – raw, grilled, simmered, steamed, and fried – and leans heavily on seasonality.

Foie gras chawanmushi at Muku.

Kegani tomato

Grilled eel over maitake rice

Japanese melon

“The first element of Japanese food culture to land in the US was sushi, but mostly just rolls, which evolved into sashimi and nigiri, and then omakase,” said Howard Chang, who opened Muku a few weeks ago in the space that was most recently the omakase temple, Ichimura. “The natural next step is kaiseki, a tasting menu that truly explores all of Japanese cooking.”

At Muku, the 10-course kaiseki, menu, overseen by chef Manabu Asanuma, includes dishes like hairy crab with tomato, caviar, tosazu jelly (a seasoned vinegar jelly), and shiso flowers; chawanmushi with foie gras, nameko mushrooms, gingko nuts, and mitsuba (think parsley, but Japanese); and unagi rice with maitake mushrooms, chicken soboro (a homestyle ground chicken) with chives, and pickles, served in Japanese custom ceramics and costs $295 per person.

Chang sees kaiseki as a way to do something different. “How many high-end $500-$800 sushi dinners can you sell every night? There’s an oversaturation. So for us, it was more of a fundamental business decision; the market is ready for something new.”

The trend is also buoyed by New Yorkers travelling to Japan and coming to understand the beauty of nihonryori — the larger world of Japanese cuisine. “Kaiseki is just the next logical step as New Yorkers discover more about Japan,” said Ry Nitzkowski, chef of the newly opened kaiseki-styled restaurant Yoshoku in the Waldorf Astoria (eight courses, $188).

A very short history of kaiseki

Kaiseki can be traced back to Buddhist tea ceremonies in the 16th century, “a light meal served before matcha to prepare the stomach and spirits,” chef Isao Yamada told Eater. He opened Brushstroke in 2011 with David Bouley, one of New York City’s first kaiseki restaurants. “Over time, it became more refined, featuring seasonal vegetables, fish, and tofu, always in small, balanced portions. The goal was never luxury or excess, but harmony with nature, restraint, and beauty.”

Kaiseki evolved during the Edo period (1603 to 1868), becoming “a way for chefs to express seasonality, craft, and beauty on the plate while still honoring its tea ceremony origins,” said Yamada, who opened his namesake kaiseki restaurant in April, where a 10-course kaiseki meal is $295. “Today, kaiseki is considered the highest form of Japanese cuisine. It remains connected to seasonality, balance, and harmony of taste, texture, and appearance, and is meant to nourish body and spirit with humble grace.”

An opera not Bon Jovi

Ikagai

If you’ve had a kaiseki dinner before, you know the meal builds, with courses moving from light and delicate to rich, hyper-focused on seasonality, with menus changing sometimes week by week. “It’s not like Bon Jovi,” said chef Shin Zeniya, of the two Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant Zeniya. “In kaiseki, we have to know about the story, the music, and enjoy the design of the set and the dresses. It’s a much more immersive experience.”

The 10-course experience ($295) at Odo unfolds in a series of ornate and intricate plates from the first bite, the Sakizuke, a Hokkaido uni and scallop topped with caviar, to the last sweet bite, ​​the Kanmi, a chestnut Mont Blanc with milk ice cream and Fuji apple.

“Sushi is one lane of Japanese cuisine,” said Hiroki Odo, the chef and owner of Odo. “It is served on one wooden plate, and in many ways it is a simple experience. Kaiseki is not just about the food. It is about the totality: the dishes each course is served on, how the flowers are arranged, the pictures on the walls.”

A canvas for creativity

Seasonal display of early bites in the hassun course.

New York City chefs are increasingly using kaiseki as a scaffold for their own creativity, freeing them from the relative limitations of an omakase.

“From a chef standpoint, kaiseki is appealing because it allows you more freedom than traditional omakase,” said Nitzkowski. “Sushi can be a little rigid; kaiseki lets you do almost whatever you want in the realm of Japanese cuisine.”

At Ikigai, for instance, chef Rafal Maslankiewicz’s Polish heritage shows up in the restaurant’s 10-course menu ($185 per person). The chef, who trained at both Masa and Eleven Madison Park, blends Japanese tradition with Polish influences. The dishes that draw on his Polish roots are most revelatory, like an okinawa potato with braised red cabbage and pops of black garlic puffed quinoa. “It’s our signature,” said Maslankiewicz. “It’s a dish that reflects where I am coming but staying respectful to Japanese culture and what kaiseki means.”

The last course is perhaps the most memorable: a solitary knedle, a traditional Polish dumpling made from sweet mochi flour, stuffed with cheesecake – a nod to New York City – in a pool of black sesame sauce and sour cream.

Other chefs are also taking thrilling liberties. At Muku, the intimate, ten-seat restaurant helmed by chef Manabu Asanuma (Ucho, Odo, Sushi Ichimura) dishes include hairy crab chawanmushi with persimmon and foie gras, Pacific mackerel with ikura, and matsutake rice wagyu. But what sets his menu apart is the soba course. His Yamagata soba noodles with scallion, chives, and sesame oil is crafted with Mogami Wase buckwheat from his family’s farm in Yamagata Prefecture.

“This is a very personal thing,” said Chang. “His family legacy and personal story are told through the menu.”