O Ya
“The foie gras was out of control and the presentation of each dish was breathtakingly gorgeous.”
“We did the 18 course omakase which was great as it contained some sushi, sashimi, and lobster course and a steak course.”
“Seared wagyu a5 petit strip loin (potato confit, sea salt) – my gooooodnesssss how could a piece of beef be so fatty?!?!?”
O Ya
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$$ Price range Above $61
8 reviews
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O Ya is one of those "hot" restaurants in NYC right now, and they have good reason to be. Their original restaurant is in Boston, and they recently opened up a NYC location just a few months ago, bringing their unorthodox Japanese omakase menus with them. Despite the popularity and well-received reviews, it wasn't hard for me to get a reservation for 2 people about three weeks out – you can either book on OpenTable or, if you want a seat at the counter (which I recommend), you can call the restaurant directly.
The interior of O Ya has all the makings of a standard high-end sushi place: warm brick walls and wooden everything else (even the restaurant facade is made of wood paneling), minimalistic flower arrangements in window boxes on the walls, and overall a very modern zen feel. They have some fun quirks, however, such as the cute chopstick holders ranging from sumo wrestlers (mine!) to bunnies, and a very eclectic music playlist. I swear the music varied from Italian restaurant music (y'know, the kind with accordions), to a James Bond theme song at one point.
The food was just as whimsical as some of their music. Unlike many other sushi places who focus on just the fish, O Ya emphasizes creative combinations of ingredients, often using Western ingredients such as truffles or aioli. You can choose between two omakase menus, and they are both pretty pricy – the more inexpensive one is 18 courses for $185 (which is the one I got), but if you want to splurge, you can get the 24-course menu for $245. And if you REALLY want to go all out, you can add sake pairings and the like. My friend did a sake pairing for an extra $90, which included about 4-5 different types of sake throughout the course of dinner.
This was our menu:
1) Kumamoto oyster (ponzu watermelon pearls, cucumber mignonette)
2) Hamachi (banana pepper mousse)
3) Ocean trout tataki (tomato confit, smoked salt, onion aioli)
4) Warm eel (Thai basil, kabayaki, kyoto sansho)
5) Housemade fingerling potato chip (summer truffle)
6) Wild spot prawn (ramp butter, yuzu tobiko, preserved meyer lemon)
7) Garlic chive blossom omelette (sweet dashi, wagyu schmaltz) (their take on the tamago)
8) Fried kumamoto oyster (yuzu kosho aioli, squid ink bubbles)
9) Bluefin toro (fresh wasabi, green onion)
10) Shima aji & Hokkaido sea urchin (aji amarillo vinaigrette, nigella)
11) Kinmedai (white soy, myoga, lemon oil)
12) Kanpachi (Vietnamese mignonette, fried shallots, Thai basil)
13) Bluefin tuna tataki (smoky pickled onions, summer truffle)
14) Grilled chanterelle & shiitake mushroom (rosemary garlic oil, sesame froth)
15) Shiso tempura with grilled lobster (charred tomato, ponzu aioli)- tempura'ed leaf
16) Seared wagyu A5 petit strip loin (potato confit, sea salt)
17) Foie gras (balsamic chocolate kabayaki, claudio corallo raisin cocoa pulp, sip of aged sake)- This comes with a sip of sake in a shot glass. If you're like me and prefer not to drink, you can also get a non-alcoholic version that's created with a similar flavor profile as the actual sake.
18) Dark chocolate ganache (genmaicha ice cream, blackberries)
Overall the pacing of the meal was quite fast; 18 courses only took us about an hour and a half. My friend could barely keep up with his different sake glasses. Our server was awesome – she was super friendly, and at one point despite mistakenly giving my friend a wine glass (even though he had only ordered sake), she gave him a taste of the red wine she was holding anyway.
Conclusion: Dinner at O Ya definitely does not come cheap, but it's worth it for its fun and creative take on sushi.
Easily one of the best meals of my life. Not sure what else to say. Absurd. Here were the highlights:
– Kumomoto Oyster w/ ponzu watermelon pearls, cucumber mignonette
– Hamachi w/ banana pepper mousse
– Housemade Fingerling Potato Chip w/ burgundy truffle – outrageous
– Bluefin Otoro
– Shiso Tempura w/ Grilled Lobster
– Seared Wagyu
$185 for the 18 course is money well spent if you're game for a higher end meal in NYC.
Let's get a few house keeping items out of the way:
1) there is nothing traditional about sushi here. This is the very definition of modern sushi.
2) omakase at the bar here is not like omakase at any other omakase place. All your plates were arrive via waiter service, not from the hands of the chef. Seating at the bar will not differentiate your dining experience vs at a table.
3) this could be the best sushi in all of nyc.
What you will see here are a ton of non Japanese ingredients and techniques. Some that come to mind include a piece of trout that will remind you move of bagels and lox than sushi, sushi with a single potato chip and truffle, squid ink foam, tomatoes, aioli, and banana peppers. What do all of these have in common? Every single piece works. It is a symphony composed by Beethoven and played on an electric guitar with a beat box for percussion. Genius in the most modern and non traditional ways.
While this place is on he higher end of omakase prices in nyc at $185 for the 18 pieces, it is worth every penny. Sushi like this simply doesn't exist elsewhere.
Delicious 18 course Omakase menu. Sat at the sushi counter – and found the selection and presentation very good. The service was on point as my dish/ glass was never empty. I especially liked the torro. It's close to work so I have been meaning to check it out. Pricy but definitely a great experience.
I'll admit to having a bit of trepidation about visiting O Ya for the first time. A hefty price tag, "inauthentic" Japanese food, and buzz had me worried I was looking at another Shuko, which for my money was one of the worst experiences I've had in NYC.
Suffice to say, based on my star rating, I thought O Ya was fantastic. Save the crummy block its on, O Ya is an oasis in an uninteresting neighborhood. The entrance beckons like the best sushi or kaiseki restaurants in Tokyo. Modern yet traditional, completely Japanese. A tiny bit of calm in the bustle of NYC.
Upon entry the staff is warm and welcoming with smiles and a helpful hand for anything you may want to relieve yourself of.
The space is surprisingly small, but I guess when you're charging what they're charging, it should be. A cadre of sushi chefs (maybe 8 of them) are busy preparing each course for each customer individually. A kitchen in the rear preps the cooked dishes. All a buzz of activity in service to the customers.
We opted for the omakase – chef's tasting menu. 18 courses. Absolute perfection. I won't go through the courses step by step as the menu apparently changes with some regularity. Some courses were sublime while others were perfection. A few were solidly delicious, but not necessarily memorable. All were extremely well prepared. The creativity in the menu is obvious from the start. The profiles are a special blend of traditional Japanese preparation and uniquely western flavors like banana peppers or potato chips. So much fun.
The wine and sake menu is extensive and the sommelier is first rate. They also have a limited beer and shochu list while they have a longer list of other spirits including Japanese whisky. When it comes to drinks, the staff is super accommodating. When I asked for a draft beer, it was retrieved from their sister restaurant Covina (they share a dishroom).
One odd part of the experience is that the restrooms are in the hotel lobby – O Ya and Covina are both in the hotel, but with entrances on opposite streets. What was weird about the bathroom situation is that it is shared and there isn't a really good way to know if a stall is occupied so I waited behind a woman who was ahead of me only to have a guy walk in, open another stall and cut the line. A small niggle and not O Ya's problem really .
Definitely a special occasion place and I'd say if you love Japanese food OR creative cuisine, O Ya is a must-try.
Kampai!
There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this restaurant. O-Ya = Ooooohhhhh yaaaaaaa. (Insert emoji with hearts in the eyes here)
I have been here several times. First, sitting at a table and multiple times at the sushi counter. All tasted the same which is unusual for a sushi restaurant as usually I prefer the counter much better. I was shocked to learn that white people own this. Say whaaaa? This is tied with my beloved NETA as my favorite sushi in the city (although O-Ya might be slightly above as they are almost $100 cheaper to the menu at NETA I usually have).
Do the 18-course omakase and be prepared to have foodgasms. Like, mentally prepare NOW. 18-courses is enough, trust me. Foie gras, uni, truffles…no detail or ingredient is spared. They truly lavish you with the best that is available.
It's not your traditional sushi meal though. It's extremely molecular and a true gastronomical experience. Every dish is so thoroughly thought out and well executed.
My waitress remembered me from the last time I came which was months ago so kudos to her for that (although I also remembered her as well).
The ambiance is a modern yet traditional Japanese restaurant. The music is indie-pop and some old poppy classics. Loved the overall vibe of the restaurant. Service was amazing as well.
I honestly don't want to even go into more detail as I feel it will spoil your experience. Don't hesitate to eat here. Trust me, this is 10x better than Masa, period.
Omakase with a twist. Oh Yeah. Definitely get the 24 course, it starts with nigiri, then sashimi, then cooked items, then dessert. Expect your usual fish, except with really interesting little add on's that work. For example, one of the dishes that really sticks out in my mind consisted of foie gras on a spoon. The foie gras was frozen with miso and a preserved meyer lemon. It sounds really strange, but it was the most delicious creamy, savory, fluffy dish I have ever had. I wanted to just eat it by the bucketful.
Another dish that I really liked was a Bluefin Tuna Tataki with smoked pickled onions, and truffle sauce. It was like an explosion of flavor in your mouth. Delicious.
It's a bit faster service than your usual small counter one chef omakase because they have a ton of chefs and it seems like they got their routine down pat in the Boston location; everything comes out one after the other. That being said, it is still a very relaxed pace and the servers are very informative and attentive.
It was such a good dining experience. I really don't know what else to say but if you have a special occasion and you want to splurge on really good food without all the pretense at some of the fancier dining restaurants in NYC, then I highly recommend checking O Ya out.
O Ya served up one of the most impressive meals I've ever had. O Ya's menu is omakase, but not your traditional omakase. Whereas traditional omakase's are served to you by a sagely chef of immaculate pedigree and perhaps one or two of his apprentices, the artisans crafting your meal here are fairly nameless. You know that the owners are Tim and Nancy Cushman, and the only information on the other staff I could find was that an 8-year veteran of the Boston kitchen was asked to come head the staff in NYC.
I say the above just to note the difference in approach, not to say that one experience was better than the other. There are benefits to both as long as you know what to expect. If you wanted to observe a solo artist executing the craft that he has devoted 25-40 years of his life mastering, you want to go visit Eiji Ichimura or Daisuke Nakazawa. They project an aura that pull you into a center point of focus. At O Ya, there is an army of highly skill chefs behind the counters and in the kitchen, masters in their own right, working together like a well-oiled machine, assembling amazing dishes.
The key benefit with O Ya's approach is that, with a 24 course tasting menu, the number of chefs allow the pace of the omakase to maintain a steady momentum, without the long pauses. Admittedly, it's a bit disorienting at first. Sitting at the sushi bar, I half expected a chef to come up to us and start performing his magic in front of us, but the initial dishes came from the kitchen. But, because of this, the dishes also came fairly quickly one after another, with just enough time for the taste from the prior dish to linger in your mouth long enough for you to savor the fading umami roll over your tongue. Perhaps it is best to call it an addict's omakase, just as the high of the prior dish ran out, the next dish was there to elevate you again back into food nirvana. 🙂
The pictures of the food will speak for themselves. Each dish was amazing, some were wildly different (kanpachi with vietnamese mignonette, frozen foie gras with miso and preserved meyer lemon) and some were just mind blasting (the initial kumamoto oyster with watermelon pearls and the bluefin tuna tataki). You also get the wildly decadent A5 wagyu, which normally sells for $40/oz and is a meat so marbled that each bite pops another fatty capsule and spills oily umami all over your tastebuds.
I can't end this review without mentioning the service. The waitstaff were great. They weren't stiff or pretentious, as you might find in some of the sheeshy fine dining restaurants in the city. They were very personable and friendly, and you you feel as if they're equally excited for you have your mind blown with the next amazing dish. Music was interesting, but it worked. While the smooth, refined oak and dim lighting exudes zen and inner reflection, O Ya plays an eclectic selection of hip hop and rock, including Mariah Carey and Snoop… not something I expected, but very much enjoyed. I'm almost positive that it was Mrs. Nancy Cushman seeing us out as well, which I thought topped off what was already an amazing experience at O Ya. I wish them continued success in New York, I'm very much looking forward to my next visit.