Call it the omakase apocalypse.<\/p>\n
Sushi lovers were stunned this week when the Michelin Guide to New York City restaurants knocked Masa off its long-time three-star perch and demoted it to a measly two stars. Meanwhile, Michelin raised\u00a0Sushi Sho, which just opened in the city early last year,\u00a0to three twinklers from two.<\/p>\n
Restaurant industry insiders say Masa\u2019s demotion spells trouble for the 26-seat eatery. The 15-year-old restaurant has long had three Michelin stars and reigned over over the city\u2019s sushi scene from its perch at Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle.<\/p>\n
Masa has long been the city\u2019s reigning sushi restaurant. <\/p>\n
A source told The Post that the diss to Masa \u2014 the city\u2019s most expensive restaurant, where the cheapest menu option costs $750 per person, beverages not included \u2014 jeopardizes\u00a0long-term prospects for chef Masayoshi Takayama\u2019s precious establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will cost Masa \u00a0\u2014 not overnight since they\u2019re booked far into the future, but once they go through that list,\u201d said a high-end restaurateur who\u2019s familiar with Michelin\u2019s impact on business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a place is demoted from three stars to two, it can cost them 25% to 30% of their revenue,\u201d said the food-world insider, who didn\u2019t want to be identified.<\/p>\n
The source explained,\u00a0\u201cMichelin is still the gospel for a coterie of big spenders from Europe and Asia who chose restaurants based on whether they have three Michelin stars or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larger restaurants that lose a star can survive. Daniel Boulud\u2019s Daniel was demoted to two stars in 2014 and lost another star last year, but it\u2019s weathered the storm, thanks in part to corporate clients and the ability to host events. <\/p>\n
But Masa is tiny and has to contend with a bevy of less expensive omakase spots popping up across the city. There are at least ten Manhattan \u00a0omakase eateries where the simplest meal starts at $400.<\/p>\n
A meal at Masa starts at $750. Victoria Will<\/p>\n
Even my dry cleaner that was replaced by Sushi Akira,\u00a0an intimate, 12-seat affair on East 75th Street where a well-turned-out 19-course menu weighs in at a bargain $220.<\/p>\n
Sushi Sho\u2019s menu starts at a relatively reasonable $450 per person..<\/p>\n
And, supposedly wroth it. The popular blogger and sushi company head who goes by Sushi Legend told me \u201cSushi Sho is, in my opinion, the best [sushi restaurant] in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
When chef Masayoshi Takayama opened Masa in 2019, it offered an experience unlike any other in the city. Ethan Miller<\/p>\n
Prolific food writer and omakase expert Kat Odell went further: \u00a0\u201cI believe that Sushi Sho is the greatest sushi counter in the world outside of Japan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Masa opened in 2019, no other Japanese restaurant was nearly as pricey,\u201d Odell said. \u201cBut since then, the omakase style \u2014a sushi-based tasting menu chosen by the chef \u2014 \u00a0has skyrocketed along with prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Masa first opened, it offered an experience you couldn\u2019t get anywhere else. That\u2019s no longer the case. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnder no circumstance does one in New York need to spend $1,000 per person to have a special sushi meal,\u201dOdell said. \u201cI\u2019ll point you to places that in my opinion are better than Masa at nearly half the price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call it the omakase apocalypse. Sushi lovers were stunned this week when the Michelin Guide to New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26105,289,232,25638,9,24,55,54,56,26106],"class_list":["post-45824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-columbus-circle","tag-food-drink","tag-lifestyle","tag-michelin","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-sushi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}