Yugin
Designer: Juan Santa Cruz
Location: New York City
On Offer: Chef Eugeniu “Yugin” Zubco, a protégé of the most famous sushi chef in New York, Masayoshi “Masa” Takayama, has now got his own groove going 37 stories above Central Park. At Yugin, his eponymous 12-seat restaurant in the 1960s Edward Durell Stone-designed General Motors Building, Zubco serves up omakase so personalized you’ll never have the same meal twice. A meal made by the master of itamae, the Japanese art of sushi, typically runs 21 dishes, depending on what seafood is the best at the Toyosu fish market in Tokyo earlier that day—flown directly into Newark International Airport and collected by the chef in his trusty pickup truck. Two seatings a night, at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., allow diners ample time to savor each piece of striped jack fish, tuna, mackerel, seabream, and more, expertly hand-prepared and presented on Pennsylvanian Ash blocks, charred in the shou sugi ban technique. Sashimi and other morsels are served on ceramic dishes, some antique Japanese, others made by the chef himself at a pottery studio in Brooklyn and designed to perfectly suit every bite.
Deep cherry-hued lacquer wraps the restaurant’s intimate dining room, whose entrance greets guests with a Japanese screen from the 18th-century Meiji period, a sedge of gathering cranes illustrating its gold-leaf ground. At the custom double-sided sushi counter, Hinoki wood countertops cut from the same tree in Japan serve as a calming, neutral ground for chef Yugin’s inventive dishes. Overhead is a large paper lantern, canoe-like in shape, that softly illuminates the space as darkness descends over Gotham outside two large windows. Mirrored walls make the 461-square-foot space feel a lot larger and offer views of the sushi preparation from all angles. Focus is always on the food.
Standout Features: The small scale of the restaurant and central sushi bar assure that all patrons are served by Yugin himself, and encouraged to ask questions, swap stories, or otherwise converse with the personable talent. Assistants grill shrimp over open flames, prep sauces, and run plates, as needed. Staffers assure your glasses never run dry of water and sake (of which the beverages menu offers 25 options, ranging from $110 to $12,000). During my seating, the 22 courses included a mouthwatering diver scallop with black truffle and sunchoke sauce, golden eye snapper, sea water eel, and five different cuts of mackerel, each more delicious than the next.
Since Yugin opened late last fall, reservations have been in high demand. But perhaps more impressive is the number of returning diners. None aside from my party was a first-timer and the chef noted he has one patron who has eaten at his sushi counter 22 times. At $475 a head, it’s the ultimate compliment.
