In September, I went to New York, Chicago, and Connecticut for three weeks to see family and friends, mainly my sweet little nieces and nephew. Recently we decided that we’d be living in Amsterdam for at least another three years, and this might be our last trip home for awhile so we went HAM on all the delicious food in New York. We were terribly gluttonous, which wreaked havoc on my health (fibromyalgia), skin, and of course, my weight, but passing on the chance to have the best food at all times felt impossible. For the best sushi in New York, there was a large, flashing red light that spelled out O-M-A-K-A-S-E.
If you don’t know what omakase is, it’s the only way that sushi should be eaten— just kidding! In Japanese, it actually means, I’ll leave it to you”, which is exactly what you do when you enter a sushi restaurant for an omakase dinner experience. You are leaving it up to the chef to choose your meal for you. The sushi chef carefully picks the most high-quality fish and serves it to you one by one to impress your taste buds bite after orgasmic fresh and flavorful sushi bite. Yes, you will experience that at Omakase Room by Tatsu.
Making the Reservation
The Story: While I was looking up New York City restaurants for a project I was working on, I stumbled upon Omakase Room by Tatsu. With only a few reviews but 5-stars across the board, I was intrigued. People were saying that this place had an 18-piece omakase set for only $120 (now $135), and best of all, that the sushi chef here was originally the sous chef from Sushi Yasuda, a place I originally had an omakase set and highly recommend eating at. Once I found out of Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi’s Sushi Yasuda origins, I was sold. I HAD to eat here!
While looking at reservations on their website, I luckily found an opening for the one day I had free that week! However, since we’d be in Connecticut at Mike’s parents and had stuff to do there the next morning, we’d have to take a two hour door-to-door trip into the city just for this, then the same trip back. My heart racing for the love of sushi, I asked Mike if we could go out to dinner Monday night. Being reasonable and thoughtful of my health, he said no since I realistically wouldn’t be able to handle the commute in and out just for a 90-minute dinner. So logical…
However, with a timer countdown saying I only had 5 minutes left to book the dinner, I did it anyways. Then I called my friend to confirm we’d be meeting up the next day. He said no! I’ve never been so happy not to hang out with someone– lol. Then I called my friend in NYC to ask her if I could say over Monday night in addition to Tuesday. Being my childhood friend of 14 years and awesome, she said yes.
With both plans working out, I jumped for joy! I had dinner reservations at Omakase Room for Monday night. Delicious, fresh sushi was only a couple of days away.
The How-To:
- Book a reservation on their website (powered by OpenTable).
- Note that their are three seatings per night at 6PM, 7:30PM, and 9PM, and they are closed on Sundays.
- If you do not cancel your reservation at least 48 hours before your seating, then you will be charged the full $135 of your omakase tasting. YIKES! Make sure to show up or cancel early.
Arriving at the Restaurant
Being the clumsy and somewhat aloof couple that we are, we arrived 10 minutes late to our seating at 9PM because we couldn’t find the restaurant. Their were already four people there (in sets of two) whose omakase tasting had already began. Although we were late and worried about it, the hostesses were very warm and welcoming, and there was no issue at all. Nonetheless, I don’t recommend being late so you get the same experience/timing of eating sushi as everyone else right from the start.
Tip: So you don’t get lost like us, Omakase Room is on Christopher Street although Google shows you it’s on the perpendicular street. It’s underneath another restaurant so look down, not straight ahead.
Drinking Sake and Tea
Before we started our omakase tasting, Mike ordered sake while I got tea since I had a slight cold. It was semi-annoying to not be able to breathe well ’cause of my asthma on this fine dining night, but the benefits of eating sushi was greater than the annoyance of my sickness so I powered through!
Anyways, for the sake, Mike asked for a drier, clear sake, and the serves gave him exactly what he wanted! As for me, I got a green barley tea that was warm and soothing. They served both in these beautiful cups and tea set.
By the way, see the wall behind me. You can barely see (and find) the door to the bathroom. It’s kind of like a secret entrance that of course leads to a Japanese toilet! Japanese toilets fascinate me– hehe.
Eating the Sushi
After we were served the drinks, it was finally time to eat sushi!!! The chef asked us if there was anything we didn’t like, and although we don’t like oysters, we said we were ok with everything because all fish at omakase are high-quality and fresh so it’s the one time I like to eat oyster!
When Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi served us our first bite, and I gently placed this heavenly looking piece of sushi in my mouth, I immediately started laughing. It brought me so much joy instantly that I couldn’t hold my emotions in. I looked over at Mike, and he was also giggling a bit. This remained constant for the rest of our 17-pieces of sushi. We actually didn’t talk much. We laughed, moaned in sushi ecstasy, and made silly, happy faces a lot. Looking back, I can’t decide which was my favorite sushi but there were about 8-10 in that set such as the New Zealand Salmon or Fatty Toro that really made my heart sing. #iheartsushi
Besides eating delicious sushi, part of the experience was watching Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi make his magic and be Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi. Before each piece of sushi, he would exclaim what we were about to eat, and in between, he would cut each slice freshly with finesse.
During the middle of the meal, he eventually caught us up to the four people who were there before so we were eating sushi with everyone at the same time, which was wonderful to have a uniform experience as the whole restaurant.
Would I recommend this restaurant?
Yes, if you have the money to splurge, this is a fantastic omakase experience because of the size of the restaurant. The restaurant only holds 10 people at the sushi bar so it’s quite intimate, which is hard to find. The servers, chef, and sous chef also add a gentle vibe to the place.
As for the fish, wawaweewah! What can I say? It was all fresh, marinated well, and served in a perfect progression (for all I know). You also get miso soup and a hand roll so it’s a good value.
Everyone should experience an omakase tasting once in their lifetime so whether it’s here or Sushi Yasuda, just go for it! You won’t regret it. If you need someplace cheap to eat like $10 and under cheap, check out these spots. For general local tips on what NOT to do in New York, head to this post.
Please let me know if you go here or Sushi Yasuda.
Thanks for stopping by! xo
Michael Anthony Cicchi
Tuesday 24th of August 2021
I will save the money to eat at one of these places next time in NYC.