Honolulu’s Omakase Obsession

Honolulu now has about two dozen omakase-only sushi counters—eight of which opened in the past year.

June 1, 2024

Mari Taketa,

Honolulu’s Omakase Obsession | Omakase Sushi: A How-To Guide

Hn2407 Ay Aloha Bento 0903 — The premium omakase lunch set is available at Aloha Bento for $45. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Hotaru ika,” Hiroshi Tsuji says. “Firefly squid.” Inside Sushi Gyoshin, his omakase restaurant across from Ala Moana Center, Tsuji arranges a pair of the plump, thumb-size springtime delicacies atop beds of fresh wakame, namasu and golden miso and hands them to us in glass cups. It’s the opening round of his $150 menu of 16 courses of nigiri sushi and appetizers.

At 5:20 on a Thursday evening at the height of tax season, seven of the eight seats at Gyoshin’s cypress wood counter are filled. It’s the first of two nightly seatings. To my left, diners are marveling at how hard it was to get a reservation. And Gyoshin is one of eight omakase sushi specialists to open in Honolulu in the past year.

Toro, Sushi Que, Sushi Ogame, 22 Kailua in Waipahu: Prices at these newcomers range from $45 for Aloha Bento’s lunchtime takeout omakase to $350 for the most luxe option at Yohei Sushi Kāhala. (Another, Amaterasu, closed in April to find a new location.) The wave of prix-fixe sushi that’s dominating Japanese restaurant openings isn’t singular to Honolulu. Omakase sushi has radiated outward from Tokyo and Hokkaido for well over a decade, touching cities across the globe where cosmopolitan diners have money to splurge. Honolulu now has about two dozen omakase-only sushi counters. That’s not counting Sushi Izakaya Gaku, Mitch’s Fish Market & Sushi Bar, Sushi Ii and other eateries that include omakase among their offerings.

Hn2407 Ay Sushi Gyoshin 0060 — Sushi Gyoshin’s Hiroshi Tsuji stands behind his omakase counter. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Hn2407 Ay Sushi Gyoshin 0172 Copy — Miso butterfish, crab and rice at Gyoshin. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Hn2407 Ay Sushi Gyoshin 0402 — Gyoshin’s signature monaka changes frequently but always echoes the components of sushi, with layers of seafood between delicate rice wafers. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

In dining terms, omakase means chef’s choice—a progression of small dishes prepared one by one by a chef working on the other side of a counter from you. Sushi is the most popular omakase. Kaiseki and tempura are also common themes; you can even find some that specialize in beef or yakitori. In omakase, the chef determines the menu, which can showcase not just seasonal, premium ingredients, but also the skill of the chef.

Reasons for opening an omakase counter vary. Yohei Sushi Kāhala, a 10-seat counter and dining room cloaked in restrained opulence, is the dream child of Hiroshima Mazda Chairman Tetsuya Matsuda, who bought the original Yohei Sushi in Kalihi in 2018. Hybrid menus that intersperse nigiri sushi with kaiseki dishes start at $220 and go up to $350 (a $120 option is available at tables). Hokkaido uni risotto might appear, or beet-cured salmon dusted with fennel and black olive. The budget for ingredients, dishware and hand-cut crystal glassware, the sushi chef tells us, was unlimited.

At the other end of the price spectrum, inside the lobby of Central Pacific Bank’s Downtown headquarters, Aloha Bento is an extreme outlier. Among its sushi rolls and bowls is an eight-piece premium omakase lunch set—$45, takeout only, served in a faux-cypress box. It’s not the presentation you would expect for otoro of hamachi with jalapeño shoyu jelly, or kohada cured in salt to extract moisture before a light cook in a rice vinegar bath. But chef-owner Cosmo Hirai was a partner at Mō‘ili‘ili’s former Senyu Sushi omakase.

“I do want to offer a better sushi bento in Downtown,” Hirai says. “We’re not a restaurant, so it’s not at the full omakase level with everything I’ve learned. It’s a more simplified level that I can offer to everybody.”

Hn2407 Ay Aloha Bento 0918 — Cosmo Hirai opened Aloha Bento inside a bank lobby. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Hn2407 Ay Aloha Bento 0886 — The premium omakase lunch set at Aloha Bento. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

At the corner of Pi‘ikoi and Waimanu streets, Tsuji turned down an offer from Sushi Sho in New York to open Gyoshin in February. After years of training in traditional Japanese cuisine along the Sea of Japan, he was recruited by Rinka Restaurant six years ago. It was the intended start of Tsuji’s plan to travel the world studying different cuisines, only he fell in love with Hawai‘i.

“I think Hawai‘i just loves sushi, and it’s easy to open and have a fighting chance at maintaining a steady business, not just for the first month but thereafter,” says Sean Morris, a Honolulu-based marketing consultant for Japanese businesses. “We’re close to Japan, people are used to going there. And people don’t seem to flinch at a $100 omakase for sushi. But if you talk to them about a wine dinner for $150, they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll think about it.’”

Yohei Enhanced Sr Copy — Yohei Sushi Kāhala’s otsukuri hassun is a centerpiece of its $280 kaiseki and sushi omakase. Photo: Courtesy of Yohei Sushi Kāhala

At one point, from the spring to fall of 2022, announcements about new omakase counters tumbled forth at an alarming rate. Just opened or planning to open were Fukurou, Sushi Tokiwa, Jinya, Omakase by Aung and Yohei Kāhala. Having vacated its unlikely setup inside ‘Ohana Hale Marketplace, @Sushi reopened in Waterfront Plaza. 22 Kailua was expanding to Waipahu, and Kaimukī’s Japanese Restaurant Aki was debuting Sushi Aki next door. After a second tsunami of openings began last summer, I realized that I could think of only half as many new places serving sushi that wasn’t omakase, including a new Kozo Sushi Express.

Which means diners who can afford it are spoiled for choice. So how do you choose?

First, if you love sushi (because at these prices, you should probably love sushi) but need your uni fix and multiple orders of otoro nigiri, stay away from omakase. It’s the opposite of à la carte.

Same if you’re not comfortable with communal dining. A sushi bar is an intimate space where friendly conversation with the chef is part of the experience. If you want privacy, people will respect that. If you’re outgoing, conversation between groups of diners is common, especially if a place allows BYOB.

Second, if you’re the type to geek out about the craft of sushi, look for Edomae specialists. Edomae techniques elevate sushi-making to the realm of alchemy. Its chefs use methods that predate refrigeration—including marinating, pickling, lightly boiling in shoyu or vinegar, aging under ice, burying in koji and curing in salt or kombu kelp—to preserve seafood and intensify its flavors, especially umami and acidity. The pinnacle in Hawai‘i is Sushi Sho. Other omakase counters have blended menus of Edomae-style and fresh seafood.

Third, if back-and-forth with a sushi chef is important, ask around to see which eatery might be a good fit. The chef sets the tone—is he or she relaxed and open to conversation? If a chef doesn’t speak much English, can they still put guests at ease?

In the end, it’s all subjective. For Morris, an omakase meal can be brought down by poorly treated rice. Another local says it’s the attitude of the chef—a welcoming one who may not make the best sushi can still create a more memorable evening than an overly intense master chef. A Honolulu banker who takes Japanese clients out for omakase prizes the textures of different seafood—and notes that curing and aging methods can soften fish.

I’m in between. It’s hard not to be in awe of a game-changer like Sushi Sho’s Keiji Nakazawa, who experimented for more than a year before he was satisfied with new Edomae-style treatments of opah, Moloka‘i amaebi and moi. And I find myself rooting for promising chefs heady with passion for their craft, even if they undercook their rice.

At Gyoshin, Tsuji is preparing the evening’s first nigiri. “Hirame,” he tells us. “Flounder with plum and cherry blossom.” He molds a pat of three-red-vinegar rice in one hand, flicks a smidge of fresh wasabi under a slice of hirame and tops it with a translucent orb of ume gelée and a salted pink flower. The winter fish still swims off Japan in the spring; its flesh, firm and mildly sweet, harmonizes with the delicate tart and salt of plum and cherry—whose blossoms on bare branches symbolize the ending of winter and coming of spring. As much as this bite of nigiri, the symbolism melts me. As I said, it’s all subjective.