How to Get the Most Exclusive Sushi in NYC Without a Reservation

At Sushi Nakazawa, the cultish downtown sushi den with a celebrity chef, a small expansion means almost anyone can walk in for a taste of some of the most incredible nigiri on earth.

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By Tejal Rao

April 12, 2016 at 3:05 PM UTC

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It was thrilling news for raw fish and rice fanatics when Sushi Nakazawa expanded in February. Though by most standards it's still a tiny restaurant—a 10-seat counter and a back dining room with 10 tables—on the other side of a gauzy curtain there’s a brand-new lounge where you can walk in without a reservation and pop some nigiri a la carte. This wouldn’t be a big deal at every sushi bar in town, but Nakazawa, which opened in 2013 to instant acclaim, is an infuriatingly difficult reservation to land. It's a bit like when the cast of Hamilton did impromptu outdoor performances for those people who didn't win the day's ticket lottery.

The lounge menu is limited to some rolls and a few nigiri flights, but really no one heaves their Ferragamo wallets over to Nakazawa for limitless options. They go for the genius of 38-year-old sushi chef Daisuke Nakazawa, who studied under Jiro Ono in Tokyo for a decade and made an appearance in the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Nakazawa builds 21-piece sushi omakases here with joy and precision, using hay smoke, seasonings, and a rainbow of temperatures to overlay all kinds of delicious special effects.