Editorial review•Jan 13, 2026
In the former home of Totto Ramen on West 51st Street, Omakase by Kun Tsuki has quietly redrawn what a New York omakase can cost — and what it can ask of you in return. Chefs John Chen and Matthew Lin run a 12-seat room where an 18-course dinner is priced at $85, a figure that stops most seasoned omakase diners mid-scroll. That price point is not an accident of ambition outpacing economics; it is, as far as the operation's reputation suggests, the entire argument. The restaurant occupies a narrow slice of Hell's Kitchen, a neighborhood not historically associated with this format, and the deliberate intimacy of the room — sushi bar and table-side seating, 75 minutes for dinner — frames the meal as something closer to a private proposition than a flex occasion.
The menus rotate daily, which means no dish is guaranteed, but the contours of the kitchen's sensibility are consistent enough to warrant attention. Diners have noted the presence of otoro, sweet shrimp with uni, and scallop among the coursework, alongside a preparation of A5 wagyu topped with shaved macadamia or hazel nuts that reviewers single out as unexpectedly revelatory — the kind of pairing, by diner accounts, that reads as counterintuitive until it isn't. A salmon foie gras preparation has also surfaced in the conversation around this menu, suggesting a kitchen comfortable with fusion gestures within the omakase frame. What Chen and Lin are known for, beyond the pricing, is a level of service attentiveness that extends to noting which hand a guest uses to eat fish and adjusting plate placement accordingly — a detail that registers as either impressive craft or studied theater depending on your disposition, but is, by any measure, unusual at this price.
The lunch format — 10 courses, 60 minutes, sushi bar only — is the more concentrated version of the experience and the one regulars treat as the value entry point before committing to the fuller dinner. Reservations at 12-seat rooms in New York move; book as far in advance as the system allows, and request the sushi bar specifically if you want to see the pacing and plating decisions up close. The Kun Tsuki Omakase Xtra variant, listed separately on Yelp, offers a 16-course format at $89 — if you are going to make the trip to West 51st, that is the version worth pricing out first.
James Whitfield, Restaurant Critic