Chef David Bouley’s six-year-old fine dining kaiseki restaurant Brushstroke excels at beautifully plated Japanese dishes built from a mix of ripe New York produce, plus other ingredients brought over from Japan. In a succession of eight courses priced at $135, one might sample Long Island duck smoked with hojicha tea along with grilled Hokkaido A5 wagyu.

In a brightly lit box on Grand Street in Soho, chef William Shen (Morimoto, Jean-Georges) has been serving a Japanese tasting menu that incorporates some French technique since January of this year. And don’t be misled to believe this is a sushi bar. Usually, Shen’s two omakase options do not include sushi, although he will make off-menu nigiri for regulars and those who ask. Though diners can order a la carte, the most special ingredients are built into his seafood-centered omakase. There’s a six course prix fixe for $55, or two omakase options for $125, or $160 that span 10 to 15 courses. Shen dedicates each course to a single ingredient, like ebi or nodoguro, and finishes the meal with rice and miso soup.

Chef Hirohisa Hayashi prepares two ingredient-driven omakase options — seven courses for $100, or nine courses for $150 — plus a concise list of mostly small, traditional Japanese dishes at his kappo-style Soho eatery. The tastefully designed, minimalist space, which includes seven counter seats plus a few tables, serves as a blank canvas to bring attention to clean, seasonal plates of snow crab and abalone, which chef Hayashi heightens using Japanese ingredients.

Uchu, which has been opened for a couple months (bar only) and officially debuts in early September, is really three concepts in one. Sit before Ichimura-san, one of the city’s most respected sushi masters, at his 10-seat bar for a sushi omakase. There’s also a curtained off eight-seat cocktail and kaiseki bar where Brooklyn Fare alum Sam Clonts prepares a 12-course menu of expensive ingredients like a Golden Osetra hand roll. And then there’s the beverage piece devised by Frank Cisneros, which includes a comprehensive collection of Japanese whiskey, presently at 67 selections. Beyond bottles, Cisneros heads up the Japanese cocktail menu, which is heavy on sake and shochu, plus cocktails that include an edible component. 

The follow-up effort to kaiseki stalwart Kyo Ya (also on this list), Autre Kyo Ya is the Japanese-French hybrid focused on both local and Japanese ingredients bent into shape using classic French technique. In addition to a la carte ordering, Autre offers two five-course omakase menus priced at $50 and $80, which include dishes miso cracker hummus and zucchini blossoms stuffed with scallop and crab.

An overlooked gem tucked away in the East Village, Michelin-starred Kyo Ya has been serving a pristine, ingredient-driven kaiseki menu for the last decade. Reserve a space at the six-seat chef counter where Chikara Sono will prepare an 11-course seasonal menu priced around $125 or $150 with dishes like Tajima beef cooked on a hot stone and summer truffle rice.

One of the best deals in town is chef Secchu Yokota’s $65 tasting menu, though a $95 option is available as well. New York’s second omakase restaurant focused on tempura, the namesake tasting bar has mostly flown under the radar since its debut last year. Here, Yokoya is serving set menus of small appetizers, followed by seven or so pieces of assorted tempura, a noodle or rice dish, followed by dessert. Of course ingredients fluctuate seasonally, which means the menu changes often. Note, there’s just eight bar seats with two turns (6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.) per night.

Toshio Suzuki and his son Yuta of Midtown’s shuttered Sushi Zen are back with Suzuki, the ambitious kaiseki restaurant and sushi bar, Satsuki,  also in Midtown. While Toshio is again behind Satsuki’s 10-seat sushi bar, former Sushi Zen executive kitchen chef Takashi Yamamoto is responsible for Suzuki’s kaiseki menus,  which come in four tiers: $150 for 10 courses, $120 for nine courses, $75 for eight courses, and the nine-course vegan menu runs $80. Basically, with the priciest menu, you get a couple more bells and whistles, like live scallop and a crab and mango dish.

One of New York’s two Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurants (Nix being the other), Kajitsu serves shojin ryori, the ancient style of multi-course vegetarian cuisine consumed by Buddhist monks in Japanese temples.  In fact, elaborate and beautifully presented shojin cookery pre-dates kaiseki, and was the style of cuisine from which it was inspired. The eight course Hana menu runs $95, while the 10-course omakase is $125. Menus changes as ingredients shuffle into and out of season.

Tempura Matsui is serving some of this country’s best tempura, with a respectably light batter that serves as a lean shell to encase seasonal vegetables and seafood. Sadly, Tempura Matsui’s lauded, namesake chef and owner Masano Matsui passed away last year, but that hasn’t impacted the cuisine. Choose from three tasting menus: The first, priced at $220, begins with sashimi and a series of appetizers, before moving into a tempura series, a soba option, then dessert, and tea. The $165 menu is pretty similar, though omits the early appetizers. For $120, it’s a focus on tempura, with one starter and one post-tempura savory course, then dessert.

One of the city’s splashiest openings this year, Mifune is the modern Japanese-European hybrid which also houses subterranean sushi bar Sushi Amane, helmed by Shino Uino formerly second in command at Tokyo’s legendary Sushi Saito. But upstairs at Mifune, guests have the option to order a la carte or leave themselves in the hands of Hiroki Yoshitake’s (of Michelin starred Sola in Paris) for a $120, eight-course engagement. Sample dishes include uni with ponzu jelly and broiled shrimp with caviar.

While Okonomi’s ramen omakase has been discontinued, now the sliver of a Japanese washoku spot — washoku representing traditional Japanese cooking that respects locality, seasonality, freshness, and balance — is offering a single $140 (tip included) eight-course tasting menu for eight diners on Saturday nights. Similar to its set breakfast and lunch menus hinged on clean fish and vegetable dishes cooked with fire or water (sans oil or butter), the omakase follows the same principles, with little ingredient manipulation and an attention to fermentation.