One piece of otoro nigiri on a bare hinoki counter under a single warm light, the chef's hand lifting away
Omakase Home

Sushi at home · Friday nights

Omakase Home: Sixteen pieces,
one at a time.

A sushi chef at your own counter,
for two to six guests.

一貫目 大トロNo. 1 of 16 · otoro

Fridays from 7 pm · $220 a guestBook a Friday →

金曜の夜だけFridays onlyTwo to six guestsFish bought on Tuesday★★★★★ 5.0 · 38 Google reviews

How it works

The counter comes to you.

A sushi counter is four things: a slab of wood, a tub of rice, a knife, and a chef who watches you eat. On Friday afternoon Ken carries all four into your kitchen, lays the hinoki on your island, and by seven your home has the best seats in the city. There are only as many as you have friends.

A long slab of pale hinoki laid on a dark kitchen island at night, a rice tub, fresh wasabi on a sharkskin grater, a sushi knife on a white cloth
A kitchen in Tribeca, 6:40 pm
  • 檜の板The board

    Seven feet of unvarnished hinoki, sanded before every Friday. It sits on your island on felt feet and leaves no mark.

  • 飯台The rice tub

    Cypress, wrapped in cloth, keeping the rice at the warmth of a hand all evening.

  • 柳刃The knives

    Two long single-bevel blades, sharpened on stones on Thursday night.

  • 山葵Real wasabi

    The fresh root, grated on sharkskin a few minutes before you sit down.

A chef's hands folding rice seasoned with red vinegar in a wide wooden tub, steam rising
Red vinegar rice, 2:40 pm

Fridays

A Friday, from seven.

  1. 2 pm, our kitchenThe rice

    Short-grain rice from Niigata, washed until the water runs clear, then seasoned with red vinegar aged three years. It is the colour of weak tea, and it is half the sushi.

  2. 4:30 pmKen arrives

    With the board, the rice in its tub wrapped in cloth, the fish packed on ice and two knives. The board goes on your island; your kitchen becomes a counter.

  3. 6:30 pmEverything ready

    Wasabi grated on sharkskin, the fish cut into blocks, the rice kept at the warmth of a hand. The light over the island turned down.

  4. 7 pmYou sit down

    A hot towel, tea or your sake. Ken says a few words about the fish that came in this week, and then mostly lets the pieces talk.

  5. 7:10 pmThe first piece

    Otoro, set down on the wood in front of you. Eat it within a few seconds, with your fingers if you like. Fifteen more follow, one at a time.

  6. 9:15 pmTamago and tea

    The egg, a bowl of red miso soup with clams, a spoon of yuzu sorbet.

  7. 9:45 pmGone

    The board, the tub and the knives packed, the island wiped down, the kitchen as you left it at four.

Friday's fish on hinoki: three cuts of bluefin, a whole sea bream, gizzard shad, scallops, sea urchin and salmon roe

The fish

Bought on Tuesday, for your Friday.

Ken buys for each Friday on its own: six guests, sixteen pieces, a little over. Nothing is frozen, and nothing is left for Saturday.

Bluefin tunaOtoro, chūtoro, akami
Day boats off Montauk in late summer; Toyosu market in Tokyo the rest of the year. Aged four days before Friday.
Madai, shima-aji, buriSea bream, striped jack, yellowtail
Toyosu, Tokyo. Bought Tuesday morning there, landed at JFK Wednesday night.
Kohada, katsuoGizzard shad, bonito
Toyosu. The kohada is cured in Ken’s kitchen Wednesday and Thursday.
HirameFluke
Long Island, from one day boat out of Montauk.
UniSea urchin
Maine from November to March, Santa Barbara from April.
Hotate, kuruma-ebiScallop, tiger prawn
Hokkaido and Kyūshū. The prawns travel live.
Chef Ken Hayase pressing a piece of nigiri behind a hinoki board in a dark home kitchen

The chef

Ken Hayase 早瀬 健

“At a counter you cook for one person at a time. In someone’s kitchen, that is finally true.”

Ken grew up above his uncle’s sushi shop in Shizuoka and was washing rice there at fourteen. He spent eleven years behind counters in Ginza, three of them before he was allowed to touch the fish, and came to New York in 2009 to run the counter of a restaurant in Midtown.

In 2019 a regular asked if he would make sushi for her husband’s birthday at home. Ken carried a board up four flights in the West Village and served eight pieces too many. Omakase Home started the next Friday. He still buys every fish himself, still makes every piece, and still cooks one Friday a week.

  • 28 yearsbehind the counter
  • OneFriday a week, one kitchen
  • Certifiedfood protection, New York City
Four guests laughing along a hinoki counter on a kitchen island at night, one reaching for a piece of nigiri

Reviews

5.0 from 38 hosts on Google.

  • “Our kitchen island has never been so quiet. Six of us, sixteen pieces, nobody looked at a phone.”

    Julia W.Six guests, Tribeca

  • “I booked it for my husband’s fiftieth. He has been to every counter in this city and said the kohada was the best he’s had.”

    Naomi R.Two guests, Upper West Side

  • “Ken told us where every fish came from and what it cost him. Then he made the best tamago I’ve ever eaten.”

    Daniel O.Four guests, Park Slope

  • “We do it every first Friday now. It’s cheaper than the counters downtown, and the counter is ours.”

    Priya and Sam M.Four guests, Hoboken

Where

Any kitchen in the city.

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken and Jersey City with no travel fee. Westchester and the North Shore for $150; the Hamptons on summer Fridays, by quote.

  • Manhattan
  • Brooklyn
  • Queens
  • Hoboken
  • Jersey City
  • Westchester
© OpenStreetMap contributors
New York City Your kitchen, Friday from 7 pm. No travel fee in the city. Open the map

Questions

Before you book.

What does $220 a guest include?

Sixteen pieces, a bowl of miso soup, a small dessert and tea, the setting up and the clearing away. Sake isn’t included: bring your own, or Ken brings a pairing of four sakes for $85 a guest.

What do we need at home?

A kitchen island or counter about 6½ feet long, stools or chairs along one side, and a shelf in your fridge from 4:30. Ken brings the board, the rice, the fish, the knives and the small plates.

Why only Fridays?

Because of the fish. Ken buys at Toyosu on Tuesday, it lands Wednesday, the tuna ages until Friday and the kohada cures for two days. One Friday a week, one kitchen a night.

Allergies, pregnancy, someone who doesn’t eat raw fish?

Tell us when you book. Shellfish pieces are swapped for fish; for pregnancy, the raw pieces become cured, seared and cooked ones. A guest who eats no fish at all is better off at another dinner.

Can children sit at the counter?

From twelve, at the same price. Younger children are welcome in the house, just not at the counter.

How does the $300 deposit work?

It holds your Friday and comes off the bill. Because the fish is bought for you on Tuesday, the date can move free until the Friday before; after that the deposit stays. The rest is paid the next morning.

Book a Friday

One kitchen a Friday.

Pick an open Friday and tell us how many are at the counter. Ken texts you within the day to ask about allergies and your island, and buys your fish the Tuesday before.

$220 a guest · two to six guests · $300 holds the Friday, the rest is paid the next morning

  1. 1Service
  2. 2Date
  3. 3Details
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