Sushi Noz – an Edo-era temple on East 78th Street

On a quiet residential stretch of East 78th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenue, Sushi Noz occupies a townhouse built around a single, startling object: a 200-year-old hinoki wood sushi counter, its centrepiece surrounded by a dozen varieties of cedar and assembled, in the Sukiya-style tradition of a Kyoto teahouse, without a single nail. Chef Nozomu Abe, who grew up around his grandfather's seafood company in Hokkaido, opened the restaurant in March 2018 after three years running New York's Sushiden, having trained as an apprentice in Sapporo and then refined his Edomae technique in Tokyo. The room seats only fourteen guests across two counters, and the omakase unfolds with the unhurried formality of a private tea ceremony rather than a restaurant service. It holds Two MICHELIN Stars, a distinction raised from one in 2023, placing Sushi Noz among the handful of sushiya in the city working at the very top of the Edomae tradition.

01The room and the setting

Sushi Noz is built around two counters rather than tables. The Hinoki Counter seats eight guests at the 200-year-old cypress bar, in a room where a traditional hinoki ice-chest refrigerator, the kind used by Edo-period sushi chefs before mechanical cooling existed, sits just behind the chef's station. A second, more private room, the Ash Room, seats six at a counter built from Tamo ash, a wood once reserved for Japanese royalty.

The design deliberately evokes a Kyoto temple rather than a Manhattan dining room, with every joint in the woodwork fitted by hand rather than fixed with nails. The serving ware, drawn from a private collection assembled by the restaurant's financial partners, the brothers David and Joshua Foulquier, changes with the kitchen's seasonal rhythm.

02The chef

Nozomu Abe was born in Hokkaido, where his grandfather's seafood company gave him an early education in uni, salmon roe and king crab, ingredients that remain central to his cooking today. He apprenticed in Sapporo before moving to Tokyo, the historic centre of Edomae-style sushi, where he spent years training under master chefs in the handling of both aged and freshly caught fish and in the seasoning of vinegared rice.

Insider tip

Four seatings nightly, Monday–Saturday; book well ahead and flag dietary needs 48 hours out.

Abe arrived in New York in 2007 and spent three years leading the kitchen at the city's long-running Sushiden before opening his own restaurant in 2018. He now presides at the Hinoki Counter Monday through Friday, handing the bar to his sous chef on Saturday evenings, while the Ash Room is run nightly by the sous chef across two seatings.

03The cooking

The Edomae tasting menu opens with five or six otsumami, small plates built around seasonal fish and vegetables, before moving into twelve to fourteen courses of nigiri, finishing with miso soup, a rolled tamago omelette and dessert. The nigiri itself leans on fish sourced specifically for each piece: chutoro from Miyazaki, bafun uni from Hokkaido, and amadai dressed with shiso flowers and ginkgo nuts have all featured on the counter.

One dish singled out repeatedly by diners is the anago, saltwater eel smoked over bamboo leaves and finished with a house-made tsume sauce, a single exception to the otherwise minimal dressing of thumb-sized touches of wasabi and dark soy that define the rest of the nigiri sequence.

04Wine and drinks

Sushi Noz runs a notable sake list alongside two structured beverage pairings, a Signature Pairing and a Prestige Pairing, each built from a mix of sake, Champagne and white wine chosen to track the progression of the menu. Guests who prefer to bring their own bottle can do so for a corkage fee, though as of research in October 2026 any wine or sake already on the restaurant's own list cannot be accepted as corkage, and advance confirmation with the restaurant is required.

05When to go and booking

The restaurant runs four seatings a night, Monday through Saturday: 5.30pm and 8.45pm at the six-seat Ash Room counter, and 6pm and 9pm at the eight-seat Hinoki Counter. A seating lasts roughly two and a half hours, and the kitchen cannot guarantee the full menu to guests arriving more than fifteen minutes late. Dietary restrictions must be flagged at least 48 hours ahead, though the kitchen cannot accommodate vegetarian, gluten-free, shellfish-allergic or kosher diners given the shellfish running through the omakase. Parties of five or more constitute a full buyout of either room, arranged directly with the restaurant.

06The neighbourhood

Sushi Noz sits on a residential block of the Upper East Side, between Lexington and Third Avenues, a short walk from Central Park. The same team has since expanded the Noz universe nearby and beyond, opening Noz Market as a retail fish counter and casual dining spot, and Noz 17 in Chelsea under Abe's protégé Junichi Matsuzaki, extending the family's Edomae style to a wider and more accessible audience.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.