Shinzo Omakase

STOP reading my review, go book this wonderful gem of a place, then come back and read on! We went as a family, nearly everyone agreed it's the best Japanese they've ever been to, myself included! Every dish was cut to prepared to perfection, with the fatty tuna topping them all. You get 13 Omakase bites for $68 which is a pretty good deal considering the quality. And there's no corkage fee, and they chilled out sake for us prior to the meal so that was nice. Staff is friendly and the chef was willing to make changes for one of our guests that didn't like eel. They limit the experience to an hour but honestly an hour is enough - as soon as you sit down it's very efficient. At no time did we feel rushed, and they offered to prepare additional dishes after the Omakase experience was done, in case we wanted to continue dining. I can't recommend enough - go and post your thoughts here.

After 8 days in Sao Paulo we returned to NYC this morning at 4am. SP has the 2nd largest population of Japanese people in the world after Japan. In SP we tried Omakase ranging from $150 USD to $300 at some of the highest rated (by Googlers) sushi restaurants in the city. Unfortunately we did not find any SP restaurants that provided the same level of quality ingredients, knife skills, preparation technique, presentation or ambiance to compare with those of NY sushi restaurants. We wanted to validate our findings and also to have revenge Omakase in NYC. Shinzo covered the ingredients, knife skills, preparation and presentation adeptly. The East 2nd Street is more pure NYC, than Tokyo, but still charming and inviting. The itamae here has over 25 years of sushi experience as exemplified in his nigiri execution. The rice was also of the correct temperature, doneness, moisture content and vinegar balance. Chef even shared a complimentary shot of house sake with us. 13 varieties of sushi, plus an added toro hand roll was about $220, all-in, for 2. Wine was BYOW chilled chablisf from nearby wine store. Excellent service, unpretentious, friendly folks, good value, good mojo here.

(5 out of 5 ⭐️) truly a NYC GEM ! Everything about this places is amazing. From the service to the food to the staff to the BYOB and full on experience. We truly had a great experience. This little gem is no joke, little. You should get a reservation because if availability in seating. We went for their last reservation of the night which is 9pm and it was most definitely the best choice. Our chef was Jasper who gave us such a good experience. The staff was truly amazing and friendly. We can’t wait to go back and enjoy the yummy food and experience one more time.