Hirohisa
“I've also had the omakase, which is perfect for a lingering meal with friends.”
“Hirohisa is a serene, understated, and elegant place that offers gentle, attentive service and wonderfully fresh and seasonal creations.”
“The meal ended with an unexpectedly delicious dessert – grilled strawberries with red bean paste wrapped in mochi and served with green tea cream.”
Hirohisa
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$$ Price range Above $61
8 reviews
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3.75 stars
Cute place with good kaiseki – I'm on the fence about the one-star designation though
9-course omakase:
Uni on kumamoto oyster – really enjoyed the uni
Red snapper – very good
Lobster – yum
Salmon roe dish – mediocre
Abalone with some veggies – decent
Tofu with fried scallop and truffles in a nice broth – delicious (my favorite of the night)
Sashimi with toro, arctic char, and tuna – good
Wagyu beef – pretty good
Tofu cheesecake – delicious
I will just be simple and straightforward – love each single course out of my seven-course Omakase and feel grateful about such a fantastic experience.
White miso soup with steamed lobster (Kyoto style). With Kyoto being my single favorite city in the world, I would appreciate such a meaningful dish to kickoff the new year. Sesame tofu with uni – the touch of sesame was light yet not at all underwhelming. With the cold taste contributed by uni on top, the tofu at the bottom was able to keep its warm feeling and provided a perfect contradiction.
Chef Hayashi accommodated my personal request of uni within the assorted sashimi dish, together with bluefin toro, flounder and squid. My first time trying sashimi with seaweed and they indeed made a perfect combo. My favorite dishes of the day were for sure the grilled snapper with Japanese yuzu, and the grilled eel over rice. I normally don't eat fish skin, yet finished all of them this time – so crispy that almost cracked and melt in my mouth! The mochi dessert filled with strawberry/red bean and matcha sauce beneath made an impressive ending – with a bit of sour tilt.
I guess the best experience was not only about eating high quality food, but also about being part of the experience. Congratulations on being rewarded the first Michelin star, guess those critics felt the same way!
I'm literally anxious about writing about this place. I almost don't want you to go.
It's pristine, and the closest thing I've ever felt to teleportation. Chef Hirohisa Hayashi has succeeded at creating an authentic Japanese experience in the middle of bustling New York City. The restaurant is small, immaculate, understated, and comfortable while maintaining classiness. I immediately felt a quiet calmness wash over me as I walked in for the first time.
The 9 course omakase at the sushi bar is an experience. The chef is incredibly diligent, and I felt privileged to hear some of his stories on how the food was sourced and prepared. Watching him work was truly like watching art.
The service is extremely polite, and yes, they have a Japanese Toto toilet. Definitely call for a reservation.
I had a pretty decent dinner here. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's a little difficult to find due to its unassuming exterior. But once you're inside, the decor is pretty minimalist and it's exactly what I imagine a nice Japanese restaurant to be like in Japan (if/when I make it over there!). My boyfriend wanted to try the Omakase, but decided to just order a bunch of appetizers and an entree instead. He was met with some questionable gazes regarding the quantity of food that he wanted…and it ended up being more expensive than the omakase, so perhaps in retrospect we should have went with that instead…but oh well.
The food was pretty good. My boyfriend and I enjoyed everything we had. The grilled cod was especially delicious, and the pork belly was super rich. I surprisingly really liked the mochi dessert! It was a great way to end the meal. The waiters/waitresses were attentive and knowledgeable about the food. The many dollar signs on this Yelp review is no joke; be prepared to spend lots of money here.
Solid meal, but nothing spectacular in my opinion.
We stopped by on a Saturday evening with a reservation, and the interior is simple, clean, and spacious for the small number of people it seats. We opted for the 7 course omakase, along with the uni chawan mushi and two carafes of sake. Everything was very clean and balanced, but unfortunately nothing tasted like something amazing or something that I would come back for, which is what the bar is for higher end Japanese food. The uni in the chawan mushi accompanied the dish well, and I had a mushroom tempura dish that was also very tasty, but otherwise everything was just fairly standard. The service and the meal in general was very nice, but it's probably not the Japanese place I go out of my way to return to.
My wife and I like to dine out every year around our dating anniversary, and this year, we decided to come visit Hirohisa. Having visited plenty of excellent Japanese restaurants in Manhattan that aren't purely sushi shops, we were excited and heartened by the positive reviews we'd read (as well as the Michelin star – that never hurts!). The outside reminds me very much of places like Shuko or Soto – very understated, with no real signage and a small, narrow horizontal window that can allow the passerby a peek inside. Getting seated was no issue (I waited about 15 minutes before my wife showed up), and for the omakase, the food was brought out in timely fashion. I will say that the servers were a bit quieter than usual, and some didn't seem to know any English at all – not a huge deal, but it caused some confusion when we asked for the check (when we did have to go out of our way a bit). The drink menu is heavy on sake but a bit light when it comes to wines and especially beers, so I ended up sticking with tea throughout the entire meal.
Unlike some other restaurants that will say you have a fixed-course meal but then round that up a little, Hirohisa is right on the count – the 9-course omakase has exactly 9 courses that you will eat. What was disappointing, frankly, was the fact that all of the 'main' courses – the branzino, the beef, and especially the eel – were extremely average, and all of them were overcooked. While the crispiness of the skin on the bass was nice, the filet itself was far too dry and was very plain in flavor. The unagi was shockingly subpar…growing up, my mom cooked better unagi bought frozen from the local Japanese shop. The eel here was extremely overcooked, and the taste of the eel was virtually gone, along with the unique texture it has. For our meat, we were served dry-aged Angus beef…not a huge crime, but for a tasting menu when you have been served amazing Washu beef earlier (more on that earlier), it feels like a copout, or you feel like you're paying more for lesser quality. The beef was also overcooked, with that tangy, slightly funky flavor you get from dry-aged meat almost completely absent.
It's a shame that the entrees were executed so poorly, because outside of that, the dinner was very good – not quite at the level of the other Japanese spots we have been to, but certainly above average. It didn't help from an expectations standpoint that possibly the best dish of the night (a Kumamoto oyster, wrapped in Washu beef carpaccio, and topped with uni) was probably my favorite. The oyster added a bit of texture (arguably too much) and a dash of saltiness, ensconced in the raw deliciousness of the beef, with the chewiness tempered by the creaminess of the sea urchin. It was really unique, well-presented (inside an oversized shell), and was fantastic. The scallop served in a lightly truffled dashi broth was also delicious, with the black truffle and the dashi complementing each other very well. The sashimi was, on balance, very good – the fluke was not the best, but the toro was on-point – one of the better chu-toros that I have encountered – and the stripejack (or maybe it was amberjack?) had a very smooth, very clean flavor to it. Unfortunately, some of the other dishes (the horse mackerel sushi and the dish with lobster and squid) were average and a bit unmemorable. The meal did end on a high note, though, with house-made soba noodles dipped in a light yuzu sauce acting as a nice palate cleanser ahead of desert – home-made mochi with strawberries and red bean, dipped in a very rich and flavorful matcha sauce.
While Hirohisa did have its moments, it was too inconsistent to compel to come back anytime soon, and the entrees in particular were a severe disappointment. They do have an a la carte menu, and frankly, I would probably do that next time instead of the tasting course. Or, if you do the tasting course, do not burn another $50 for 2 courses that may be of varying quality. For a Michelin-starred restaurant, 3 stars is definitely a letdown.
This place is unreal. Understated and magical. Finding it at night is quite hard! Once you get in, the space is small but doesn't feel cramped at all. There appeared to be less than 20 seats and it was quiet with wonderful music. We did the 9 course omekase. Wow. What a choice. Amazing, unique dishes that just knock it out of the park.
This place is special.
When you walk in, Hirohisa seemed like a little zen oasis tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and it was such a nice break to transport yourself to what felt like the home and dining room of your chef hosts. (Being the first one to come for lunch on a Monday, I had the whole place to myself for about half an hour)
Sitting at the counter, I had the pleasure of watching the chefs meticulously carve and prepare the meats (awesome knives, it cuts beef like butter!) and grill my chicken (occasionally catching it on fire), and steam the chawamushi (poke poke).
The food is amazing, I had the Infrared Grilled Yuzu Kosho Marinated Chicken Thigh which was juicy and tender on the inside, but perfectly seasoned and slightly crispy on the outside. That came accompanied by some root vegetables, a dashi soaked daikon (adorable), a small bowl of soup, and a bowl of rice.
I also got the chawamushi, which was simple, plain, but tasty. The fire might have been turned up a little high as there were tiny air-bubbles on the bottom of my chawamushi cup (alas, the art of making a perfectly smooth chawamushi is not easy) and it also came out slightly firmer than I'd like, but nonetheless well seasoned.
Service was nice, and the waitress even brought me a cup of their home made soybean tea at the end. Look forward to coming back, already made reservations to try this place again for dinner and really looking forward to it!
Hungry Kat, happily fed and very much approves.