With omakase sushi, the chef picks every course. You sit at the counter, the itamae makes each piece in front of you, and you eat it the second it lands. The word is Japanese for “I leave it up to you.”
The format is younger than most guides claim. Britannica’s undated entry dates the word to 1967 and its use in sushi dining to the 1990s, long after Edo-period stalls turned out the first nigiri.
You give up the menu and get each piece at the temperature and moment the chef intends. It usually comes as a run of small courses at a fixed price.
What Is Omakase Sushi?
The word comes from makaseru, “to entrust,” with the polite prefix o- in front (Merriam-Webster). In a restaurant, it means a series of small courses at a fixed price (Britannica).
In the United States it usually means a long dinner at the sushi counter. The chef makes one piece at a time, names it, and says where the fish came from (Wikipedia).
It’s an ordering style, not a dish. Osusume, the polite form of “to recommend,” is a different thing. Staff suggest options and the guest still chooses (GLTJP).
The Michelin Guide ranks it among the most revered formal dining formats, and among the most intimidating.
Plenty of omakase isn’t sushi at all. A Michelin Guide feature from April 2025 lists a yakitori counter and kaiseki counters that run on the same chef’s-choice model. One French-Japanese tasting menu does too.
How an Omakase Sushi Meal Unfolds
Most counters start with small dishes and move on to nigiri, served one piece at a time. The ending varies. Counters differ on the exact order, and the chef sets the pace for everyone seated.
Course order at a typical counter
At many high-end counters the small plates (tsumami) come first, and the sushi does not start until the chef clears them, according to Flip Japan Guide.
Then the chef forms nigiri by hand and places each piece on the counter or passes it straight to you.
The closing run varies. You might get a hand roll and a soup, then either dessert or a piece of tamago, the sweet rolled egg.
Soup is where counters disagree. Uka Omakase in New York lists it before the sushi run (OpenTable, 2026), while Flip Japan Guide describes soup as the signal that the main sushi service is over.
Pace, piece count and duration
Sukiyabashi Jiro served about 20 pieces in a meal that ran 15 to 20 minutes, NBC News reported in 2014.
Uka Omakase goes the other way. Its 16-course classic includes 12 pieces of sushi across 75 minutes (OpenTable, 2026).
Piece count does not predict duration. The counter’s rhythm does.
Pieces are served with warm rice, so they get eaten at once (Cathay Pacific). Meanwhile the chef watches how guests react and adjusts what comes next (Britannica). In the end the chef decides how fast the meal moves.
Ingredients and Preparation Behind Each Piece
A piece of omakase nigiri is neta (the topping) on shari (seasoned rice), with a dab of wasabi and a brush of nikiri, a soy-based glaze. The chef picks the neta by season and daily catch, then sets the rice and seasoning to suit it.
Britannica lists bluefin tuna, oysters and uni, or sea urchin, among typical omakase preparations.
Tuna comes in grades of its own. Akami is the lean red meat, chutoro is fatty, and otoro is very fatty, with the last two counted as toro.
Sushi chefs buy through intermediate wholesalers rather than at the tuna auction itself (Lonely Planet; Nippon.com).
Tokyo’s central wholesale market moved from Tsukiji to Toyosu in 2018, and Kojima in Los Angeles, a kappo-style counter, now advertises fish sourced from Japan’s Toyosu and Kanazawa markets (Tock, 2026).
The rice gets as much attention as the fish. At Sushi Wadatsumi, chef Kin-san blends two rice varieties and dilutes the vinegar’s acidity, so a single shari works with shellfish as well as white and red-fleshed fish (Michelin Guide Hong Kong, 2022).
Other counters pick a side. Aka shari is made with red vinegar from aged sake lees, which darkens the rice and holds up against the stronger flavors of aged fish (Robb Report Malaysia). White vinegar gives shiro shari a milder acidity and slight sweetness, which suits fresh fish and lean cuts, plus shellfish.
Aging is the chef’s call, not a default. Robb Report Malaysia’s Sushi Taka profile says fresh is not always better, and the Spirits of Sushi newsletter warns that poorly aged fish develops an unpleasant odor.
How Much Does Omakase Sushi Cost?
Price follows the tier of the counter. Short lunch sets cost a fraction of a full dinner, and a three-star Tokyo counter sits higher still. In 2026 US listings the range runs from $38 to $350 per person, with deposits and drinks on top.
Britannica’s undated entry puts omakase at as much as $800, with lower-cost options at about $200 or less. Current listings no longer fit that floor.
Kojima’s $240 sits just above Britannica’s roughly $200 low end, while Uka’s $38 lunch and $56 classic set sit far below it. In New York, the floor is well under $200.
- $38 per person buys a 10-course, 60-minute lunch omakase at Uka Omakase, New York (OpenTable, 2026)
- Kojima in Los Angeles charges $240 for October and November 2026 dates, up from $200 for August 2026 dates (Tock, 2026)
- 715 Sushi in Los Angeles asks $350 per person, collected in full as a deposit at booking (Tock, 2026)
- Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo charged 30,000 yen for about 20 pieces in 2014 (NBC News, 2014), and its own website now lists 55,000 yen plus tax
- The top of the market reaches as much as $800 (Britannica, undated)
Chefs interviewed by Resy in 2023 pointed to fish flown in from Japan and bought by season. Every piece is also prepared by hand, from aging to garnish, and small counters have few seats to spread the cost over.
Fish sourcing and labor lift the price of everyday sushi too, a pattern explained in this look at why sushi costs so much.
A single counter can reprice within weeks. Kojima’s Tock listing showed $200 per person for August 2026 and $240 for September 2026, with a deposit of half the price each time ($100, then $120). The October and November 2026 dates stay at $240 and $120.
Lunch is a shorter set, not a cheaper copy of dinner. Uka’s lunch runs 10 courses in 60 minutes against 16 courses in 75 minutes for the classic.
Check the venue’s current rate before booking. The Tokyo figure from 2014 above is out of date, since Sukiyabashi Jiro’s own website now lists a higher price.
Omakase Sushi Etiquette at the Counter
Eat each piece as soon as it is served, by hand or with chopsticks, in one bite, with little or no extra soy sauce. Book ahead, arrive on time and keep strong scents away from the counter.
- Book the counter seat and read the confirmation for deposit and service-charge terms.
- Show up on time, and skip the perfume or cologne.
- Eat each piece the moment it lands in front of you.
- Pick it up by hand, or use chopsticks if it was set on the counter, and finish it in one bite.
- Leave the extra soy sauce alone on pieces the itamae has already brushed. If you add any, dip the fish side, never the rice.
- Gari goes between different fish, not on top of a piece.
Cathay Pacific’s etiquette piece, built around chef Araki, puts speed first. Warm rice is at its best the moment it is served, and perfume dulls the smell of the fish.
Philadelphia sushi chef Jesse Ito brushes every piece before serving, and told Billy Penn in 2017 that wasabi stirred into soy sauce is wasted. Ginger piled on top of the fish is among his pet peeves too, since gari is a palate cleanser for the gaps between bites.
Tipping depends on where you are. Japan has no tipping custom, according to the Toyama City Tourism Association, and cash on hand is a safe bet (Magical Trip). In the United States each counter sets its own policy, and some confirmations list a service charge, so check before adding a tip.
Omakase Sushi vs A La Carte Sushi, Kaiseki and Assortment Orders
Omakase hands every choice to the itamae. Okonomi is the opposite, where you order piece by piece, and moriawase is a preset assortment. Kaiseki sits outside that group because it is a different cuisine, built on a fixed sequence of courses.
| Format | Who decides | Structure | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omakase | The itamae | Improvised run, one piece at a time | Guests handing over every choice |
| Okonomi | The guest | Order piece by piece | Diners with favorites or a spending cap |
| Moriawase | The kitchen | A preset assortment | A set plate without chef pacing |
| Kaiseki | The kitchen, by tradition | Fixed course sequence | Formal, seasonal occasions |
Michelin Guide (June 2026) draws the line this way. Kaiseki is a style of cuisine, while omakase is a style of service. Kaiseki runs from five to 15 or more courses on a prescribed sequence, and omakase changes with each occasion.
Because the words describe different things, they overlap. A kaiseki menu chosen by the chef counts as omakase service, which is why restaurants and diners swap the terms (Tasting Table).
A sushi bar is a venue, not a format. The Toyama City Tourism Association lists omakase, okonomi and moriawase as the ways to order there.
If you want to hand over every choice, pacing included, go omakase. Okonomi is the better fit when you’d rather pick pieces yourself or hold to a spending cap. Kaiseki suits a formal occasion where you want to know the structure ahead of time.
Where Did Omakase Sushi Come From?
Omakase sushi has two origin stories, and they do not match. The nigiri it centers on dates to Edo-period Tokyo, while sources place the chef’s-choice ordering style anywhere from the Edo era to the 1990s.
Nippon.com credits Hanaya Yohei, who opened a shop in Ryogoku in 1824, with the nigiri format. Wikipedia says he invented or perfected the technique.
The word itself is newer. Britannica says it was first coined in 1967 and applied to sushi dining in the 1990s, and Merriam-Webster also gives 1967 as the first known English use.
The ordering style is the murky part. GLTJP cites one theory that Edo-period sushi shops used it, while Britannica ties its start to newly rich diners in the 1990s who did not want to show how little they knew about sushi. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants also calls omakase, as a defined style, a legacy of Japan’s bubble years.
The accounts stop conflicting once the question is split. The nigiri format is Edo-era and the English word is from the 1960s. The prestige counter meal belongs to the bubble years.
Edomae means “Edo front,” a reference to the Tokyo Bay waters that supplied the city’s sushi stalls. Chef Araki told Cathay Pacific that the original Edomae sushi was not eaten raw, which fits the curing and aging that traditional counters still use.
The broader history of sushi, from fermented rice to hand-pressed nigiri, sits in its own guide.
When Omakase Sushi Is Not the Right Choice
Omakase is a poor fit if you avoid raw fish, follow a restricted diet, can’t prepay a deposit, or want to pick your own pieces.
The FDA’s fish hazards guidance accepts any one of these freezing methods for fish served raw, because freezing kills parasites:
- -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days
- -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid, then 15 hours at that temperature
- -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid, then 24 hours at -4°F (-20°C) or below
The rule exists because parasites in raw fish are a documented hazard, with roundworms the main concern. It also has gaps. The Food Code exempts several large tuna species, including bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, so raw toro can reach a US counter unfrozen (North Dakota Health and Human Services).
Raw fish also limits who should sit at the counter. Indiana’s Department of Health advises pregnant individuals, infants and children to avoid it, which is the practical answer to whether kids can eat sushi at a raw-fish counter.
An omakase has no menu to modify, so counters set diet rules before you arrive. Kaiseki Yuzu in Las Vegas cannot accommodate vegetarian, vegan or rice-free diets or soy allergies, though its sushi omakase can be made gluten-free (Tock). 715 Sushi in Los Angeles says allergies disclosed without prior notice may go unaccommodated (Tock).
715 Sushi also requires a full $350 deposit per guest at booking, and treats a late arrival without notice as a cancellation (Tock, 2026).
Kaiseki Yuzu, Sushi Iwai and Sushi Mikasa (the last two in Bangkok) all draw the same line, and more than 30 minutes late counts as a no-show (Tock and TableCheck, as of October 2026). Refund windows differ, so read each policy before paying.
The upside is seasonal fish picked by the chef and a meal paced for the whole counter, with no menu decisions to make.
The downsides pile up faster. Deposits are prepaid and arrival windows are strict. There is little room for allergies or restricted diets, raw fish carries risk for pregnant guests and young children, and you give up control over pieces, pace and spend.
Omakase Sushi FAQ
How do you pronounce omakase?
Say it oh-muh-KAH-say, with the stress on the third syllable, following Merriam-Webster’s pronunciation key.
The final syllable rhymes with “say.”
Is omakase sushi worth the money?
It is worth it for diners who value the chef’s selection over control. Britannica notes that skipping the decisions helps most with large groups.
A lunch counter is the cheapest way to test the format before committing to a dinner deposit.
Can you order omakase outside a sushi restaurant?
Yes. Britannica reports that in Japan the word also covers lunches, wine, cocktails, hairstyles, clothing and vacations, so a chef’s-choice menu at a non-sushi counter is a normal use.
What should you wear to an omakase dinner?
Neat, modest clothes. Remove a bulky watch or large jewelry, since both can scratch the counter, according to e-housing.jp (February 2026).
Does sake go with omakase sushi?
Yes. Britannica says alcoholic drinks often accompany the meal to complement the selections, and a Michelin Guide review of Uni Omakase in Buenos Aires describes small cups of sake served throughout.
Pace yourself, though. Metropolis’s counter etiquette guide says a sushi restaurant is not the place to get drunk.
Can you ask the chef for more pieces or stop early?
Yes, within limits. Tell the itamae when you are full, since MasterClass notes diners keep eating until they say so.
Avoid ordering random extras mid-course, which disrupts the planned flow (Japan Food Guide).
Choosing Your First Omakase Sushi Counter
A first omakase visit works best at a lunch counter that publishes its deposit terms and states which diets it can serve. The price of that caution is a smaller sampling of what the itamae can do.
Start with diet and raw-fish fit. A counter that cannot serve you ends the search, and a deposit paid before that check is the hardest to recover. Lunch or dinner set comes next, then the deposit and lateness terms.
Deposits run from half the meal price to the full price, and each counter sets its own refund window. These terms were verified in October 2026 and change with each month’s booking page, so read the current one before paying.
