Designing Delicious: Yugin

Every night for three and a half years, chef Eugeniu Zubco presented a single piece of squid—meticulously scored on both sides—to his mentor. The ritual never changed. Neither did the response, a wordless expression of disapproval, until one evening, he finally spoke: “getting better.”

Chef Zubco carried that exacting standard of excellence to the 37th floor of the GM Building, where he now has a place of his own. Designed by Juan Santa Cruz, YUGIN’s mirrored dining room centers around two six-seat counters carved from a 200-year-old hinoki tree and framed by a 19th-century Japanese silk screen. No phones, no repeated menus. Each service is guided by ichigo ichie, the Japanese philosophy that every moment is its own.

At 31, the Moldovan chef defies the conventional assumptions embedded in omakase. “Initially, I was insecure about it,” he says. But his devotion to the details proves he belongs: the hand-drawn menus, the ceramics he fires himself, even the fish he collects directly from the airport. Ever the perfectionist, Zubco sources from Japanese farms and auctions few Western restaurants can access: A5 Ohmi wagyu from Shiga Prefecture, Mazuma wasabi, custom caviar.

When the time came to put his own name above the door, Zubco still wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure I should be the face of the restaurant?” he asked his mentor. The reply was characteristically terse: “Shut up.”