CHIKARA
Seatings from 17:30 · Tue – Sat
哲学 Philosophy
Chikara means strength — not force, but the quiet kind. The discipline to stop once a thing is right. One cut instead of three. Rice at the temperature of a palm. Nothing on the plate that does not need to be there.
We serve one menu a night, decided the morning it arrives. What the sea gives, we return, unhurried, across fifteen courses.
お席 The rooms
Nine seats at a bespoke counter, built by a single artisan who chose its timber and its colour with unusual care. The full omakase, served one piece at a time, directly in front of you.
Explore
Eighteen seats on green velvet, under hand-trowelled plaster. Order as much or as little as you like — sashimi, nigiri by the piece, the kitchen menu — and take the evening at your own pace.
See the menu
Take the place for an evening. Counter, dining room and lounge together, with a menu written for your night alone.
Enquire
お任せ The evening
01
An oshibori, something to drink, and a seasonal amuse-bouche to open.
02
A seasonal opening, reimagined each week — a quiet pleasure before the sushi begins.
03
An assortment, cut to order and dressed with no more than it needs.
04
Ten seasonal pieces, set before you one at a time on ceramics the owner made by hand. Eat each piece in one bite.
05
A warm soup bowl that changes from day to day, with the season.
06
Something small to close. Then tea, and the street again.
品書き A taste
The list changes daily. This is roughly what a Thursday in season looks like.
室 The room
The walls carry a curated, rotating collection of works on paper, chosen for the room's quiet, and a soundtrack mixed for each season sits just beneath the conversation. Sound, visual art and the food come together for an experience like no other.
大将 The chef
A broom first, then the rice, and three years before a knife in front of a guest. He came to New York in 2005 and spent the next eight years at Sushi of Gari, the last four running the counter.
Then three years looking for a room small enough to do this properly. Fish arrives from Toyosu four times a week; ask what excites him most that evening and he will tell you plainly.
“The fish is already perfect. My job is not to ruin it.”
ご予約 Reservations
Counter reservations open on the first of each month, thirty days ahead. The dining room keeps a few tables back for walk-ins.
+1 929 755 0150
[email protected]
Nearest trains: 1, 2 and 3 to 72nd Street; 1 to 66th–Lincoln Center.