Masa at Columbus Circle was the first Japanese restaurant in the United States to receive three Michelin stars — a distinction held from 2009 through 2024. In November 2025, Michelin demoted Masa to two stars in a pre-ceremony announcement, citing the standards required for consistency at the highest level. The restaurant Chef Masayoshi Takayama built remains among the most technically precise and personally distinct omakase experiences in the world, now operating at the two-star level.

The History & Current Status


First Japanese restaurant in America to earn three Michelin stars. Now holding two — and still singular.


Masayoshi Takayama grew up working for his family's fish market in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The relationship between chef and fish was formed before formal training began. He moved to the United States and eventually opened Masa in 2004 at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle — the same building that houses Per Se one floor below. The format was a counter-only omakase: no menu, Chef Masa composing the evening's meal from the finest ingredients available, delivered by dedicated buyers at Tokyo's Toyosu Market each morning.


Two Michelin stars came quickly. The third arrived in 2009, making Masa the first Japanese restaurant in the United States to receive Michelin's highest distinction. For fifteen years — through 2024 — three stars were retained. In November 2025, ahead of the annual New York ceremony, Michelin announced that Masa would be demoted to two stars in the 2025 guide. Takayama's response was gracious: fifteen years of three-star recognition acknowledged, commitment to continued excellence affirmed. The demotion, while significant, does not diminish what Masa built or what it continues to offer.


The restaurant still operates as the most expensive omakase experience in New York — minimum $750 per person before beverages and supplements, with the Hinoki Counter Experience running higher. The cooking is still Takayama's: personal, uncompromising, built on the finest fish he can source daily, with luxury Western ingredients like white and black truffles and foie gras appearing as accents to a form that is Japanese in its architecture and universal in its standards. It is a two-star restaurant that many guests will continue to consider a defining fine dining experience in America.

The Experience



Calm. Collected. A ceremony anchored by a hinoki counter sanded daily.


The dining room at Masa is anchored by a counter — the hinoki counter, made from Japanese cypress wood, sanded by hand each day to maintain its porous texture and fresh fragrance. The counter cost $260,000 to build. It is not a decorating choice but a functional object: the surface on which each piece of sushi is placed directly, at the chef's preferred temperature, within seconds of being made. The distance between the hand that shaped the fish and the hand that receives it is a few centimetres. This is the point of the format.


The omakase — a Japanese term for entrusting the order to the chef — runs to approximately twenty-five courses. There is no menu. Takayama introduces each preparation, listing the ingredients in a brief description that is both informative and part of the ritual. White and black truffles, osetra caviar, and vibrant garnishes appear across the meal — accents of Western luxury that Takayama integrates without compromising the Japanese architectural logic of the meal. The foie gras nigiri is the most discussed single preparation: foie gras, at room temperature, placed on perfectly seasoned shari, is either a transgression or a revelation depending on your prior commitments. Most guests land on revelation.


Every decision, every move, is in the service of Chef Masa's distinctive style, which many have copied but none have mastered. It is a captivating experience that is singularly memorable.

MICHELIN GUIDE USA
What Defines Masa


No photos. No menu. Fish from Toyosu, daily. Truffles. Foie gras. Abalone.


The Hinoki Counter


The $260,000 Japanese cypress counter, sanded daily. Every piece of sushi is placed here directly from Takayama's hands, at the temperature he determined is correct for that specific fish. The counter is the dining room. Everything else — the spare décor, the carefully calibrated absence of decoration — exists to prevent competition with what happens on this surface.


Toyosu Market Sourcing


Masa maintains dedicated buyers at Toyosu Market — the world's most important fish market, opened in Tokyo in 2018 as the successor to Tsukiji. Daily. The buyers select seafood with the precision Masa describes as comparable to jewellers choosing gems. The toro, the uni, the abalone — selected at 4am in Tokyo for the evening's service in New York. This is the foundation on which every other element of the meal rests.


Foie Gras Nigiri


The most discussed and most copied single piece of sushi in New York: foie gras — the French luxury ingredient — placed at room temperature over perfectly seasoned shari, finished with a touch of fresh wasabi. The preparation straddles Japan and France with a confidence that only works because both elements are of absolute quality. Many have attempted it. Takayama's version remains the reference.


Abalone — Meltingly Tender


The Michelin Guide's specific citation: few chefs serve abalone so meltingly tender. Abalone is one of the most technically demanding shellfish in Japanese cuisine — its texture responds to preparation time, temperature, and technique in ways that are easily catastrophic and rarely perfect. At Masa, the texture consistently achieves the definition of the Michelin description. This is either luck or mastery. At this frequency, it is mastery.


White and Black Truffle


Fragrant white and black truffles appear across the meal as accents to the sushi's Japanese architecture — shaved, infused, incorporated without disrupting the sequence's logic. The combination of Toyosu's finest fish with Périgord or Alba truffles is the defining aesthetic of Masa's cooking: not Japanese-French fusion but Japanese cooking that selectively absorbs the finest ingredients from wherever they exist in the world.


No Photos Policy


Masa operates a no-photography policy throughout the meal. In an era when restaurant food is photographed as a default, this rule asks guests to experience the meal rather than document it. Most guests adapt quickly. The absence of phones changes the atmosphere — the concentration that builds across a twenty-five course omakase, undistracted, is one reason guests describe the experience as memorable in a different way from other fine dining meals they have had.

Before You Go


Everything practical, plainly told


  • Address: 10 Columbus Circle, 4th Floor (Time Warner Center / Deutsche Bank Center), Manhattan, New York, NY 10019 (adjacent to Per Se)


  • Phone: +1 212-823-9800


  • Website: masanyc.com


  • Michelin Status: Two Michelin Stars as of the 2025 Michelin Guide New York (announced November 2025). Three stars were held continuously from 2009 through 2024 — sixteen years as the first Japanese three-star restaurant in the United States. The current two-star designation represents exceptional cooking worth a detour.


  • Bookings: Via masanyc.com or by phone. The two dining options — the Omakase (main counter and table seating) and the Hinoki Counter Experience — have different price points and booking windows. The restaurant can be difficult to book; check the website for current reservation procedures. The 2025 demotion has affected demand dynamics in ways that may make booking marginally more accessible than at peak three-star status.


  • Price: Omakase minimum: approximately $750 per person before beverages, supplements, and tax. The Hinoki Counter Experience runs higher. These prices make Masa the most expensive restaurant in New York State and one of the priciest in the world. The question of whether the current two-star experience justifies the historic three-star price point is one each guest must answer for themselves.


  • Dress: No enforced dress code — somewhat unusually for a restaurant at this price point. The atmosphere is one of quiet concentration rather than formal ceremony. Smart casual is appropriate; many guests dress formally given the occasion and cost. No athletic or casual wear.

Masa isn’t a meal—it’s a reckoning. A place where sushi transcends food to become cultural heirloom, where each grain of rice is counted, and where perfectionism borders on the divine. For those who measure luxury not in dollars but in once-in-a-lifetime moments, this hushed counter is where New York bows to Tokyo.