Bar Masa

We come here a lot since we moved to the neighborhood. Love the food, although very expensive. service is usually great.
today was a little strange — we came in and the hostess informed us the the wait for a table is 1 hour; I look around and see quiet a few tables empty. The answer was: we are expecting a large party. Ok, I understand, although I thought they don’t take reservations. We sat at the bar.
But throughout our entire meal there were at least 2 tables empty??? The hostess did ask if we want to switch to a table, but we declined (too late at this point) it was strange.
Bar service is impeccable.
Oh and I must say the curtains must go!

FOOD: The beef sukiyaki udon is amazing here! Slices of raw beef on chewy udon steeped in a sweet and salty broth. I would come back just for this dish.
We also tried the summer salad with mango (special) and the cucumber salad but both were very mediocre and overpriced.
The uni mini handrolls were pretty good. I would also recommend the soba ice cream — it’s very unique but still retains the creamy deliciousness of ice cream!
SERVICE: The waiters were very attentive and helpful.
AMBIANCE: Classy yet casual, I love it. Could come here for a date or business lunch.

Simply put: if you are going to charge these prices the slices of fish need to be thicker than a piece of paper. Tasty, but ridiculous. $ 500 of food — what?

if it were possible to give a negative star, Bar Masa would be the first restaurant to warrant one, in my opinion. The food is very ordinary in quality and in tiny portions, but tries to make it up in over the top grand presentations. Overall, the food and presentation would merit a 2.5 stars but the price was so insulting not because its the most expensive restaurant in the world, but in a very competitive ny culinary world, one can no longer get away with high prices as a way to stun diners into submission. In comparison, Tetsuya, probably, the finest sushi/​fushion restaurant in the world certainly merits a 5 stars with a 5 star expensive price. We left immediately after the sushi special for two because I could not bear to be insulted anymore. The service and ambiance was pleasant, not rude, but not exceptional for the price. I think the owner of Masa thinks that because he pays expensive rent in columbus circle and is next to Per Se, he can get away with it. Even now, 1 week since I ate here, the memory is so offensively pungent, that I need to open the window.

We came in the evening. The restaurant was almost empty but they made us wait for the table for about 10 minutes. When we ordered tea they pored some in small cups and took the pot away. When I asked for the pot they didn’t bring it. The service is poor, the stuff is extremely impolite. Food is average. We ordered rolls, 10 min later they said they ran out of them… I mean, guys, you could do better then that.

Came here for a date the other night. This is one of the best Japanese restaurants I’ve ever been to. The service is excellent. Everyone is very polite. The food is amazing. The cocktails are on point and you can request for something for your own taste. Everything is fresh. I think I had the beef sukiyaki with poached egg, which was very good and I normally don’t like rice. The toro and fluke were AMAZING. I’m a sushi lover and the toro was so delicious. The ribs were very good too. For dessert I had the green tea mille crêpe. It is to die for. It was beautifully made too. Very tasty and soothing. It made me want to fall asleep, but I was tired already. Their tea is also good too.

I had been to Masa and Masa bar. Both restaurants are finely executed. If you don’t want to spend three hours for dinner or craving good food for lunch, bar Masa defiantly a top-​notch choice you can have in this fancy dinning world of Manhattan.
Portions are small. I came with a friend we ordered 4 dishes to share. We had foie gras Peking duck, uni sushi, white truffle crab risotto and wagyu sukiyaki. The skin pieces of Peking duck were so crispy and the duck meat was so tender and juicy. Combined with fatty foie gras and green onion. It’s a must-​ordered dish. Uni sushi came with good portions of uni pieces, sushi rice and seaweed. It’s so simple but tasted heavenly. White truffle risotto with crab meat was terrific! However the portion was really small. I had two bites so did my friend. Wagyu sukiyaki was my last favorite dish because it’s overly sweeten. Also the wasabi they used was «wasabi mustard». If you want real «wasabi» there was extra $ 10 charge.
In all, this is not a place to get you full but enjoy couple bites of elegance. Me and my friend ended up had second lunch in another restaurant. I would come again for foie gras pecking duck tacos and uni sushi.

$ 8 for one piece of tuna sushi. It doesn’t taste any difference than local Asian supermarket brand. Don’t come unless you are born with bucket of cash to splurge.

Awesome! Food is good. Service is good. Happy to eat here any day! Well you pay what you get!

The restaurant is small and cramp (typical NY problems) and the food is decent. Maybe a little below decent. Prices are a bit too high for the quality of food I’m eating. I’ve had better quality food at cheaper restaurants.
Atmosphere isn’t all that great either. We had a Caucasian couple sitting next to us and they kept giving us weird/​dirty looks. Oh, you know, im just a typical Asian in a Asian restaurant, nothing wrong with that right? They probably thought we couldn’t afford the food there. Well, boy oh boy you should’ve seen their face when we took out our stash of cash to pay the bill! They were Franklins, Grants and Jacksons! They were in that order from the outside of the stack to the inside of the stack. What did they use to pay? CREDIT CARD! We just casually walked out with our heads up and a smile!
Enjoy your food you pretentious folks!

This place is super expensive. So if you can’t afford to go then don’t go and then give them a s*** review. Simples! Me and my fellow chef friends went and thought the food was amazing! Small dishes that taste amazing! But yes they are expensive and yes my dinner was worth it! The quality of the food is great. I would say it’s a special occasion place to go unless you have $ 200 burning a hole in your pocket then go and eat good food! :)

Duck tacos tasted like shoe leather. Sashimi had tendons in it. Obviously food is not filling in any way, but thats to be expected. Next time I am in the mood to eat sushi of this quality, I will order from Seamless. And next time I want to spend this money on a meal or have actually good sushi, I will go to Nakazawa or Yasuda.
I think Pete Wells put it best (regarding Kappo Masa but equally applicable here): «The cost of eating… is so brutally, illogically, relentlessly high, and so out of proportion to any pleasure you may get, that large numbers start to seem like uninvited and poorly behaved guests at the table.»

I’m so OUTRAGED right now for how fucking OVERPRICED it is. It’s one of those places that say– sell fries, but it’s $ 100 each fries because it’s named FRIER, instead of $ 7 fries you can get at any other places and the quality be the same.
It’s like a designer tag that once you put the tag on, it changes from $ 10 tee to $ 2000 tee. Except that u POOP it out and don’t get to keep it.
I WENT FOR LUNCH ON A FUCKING WEEKDAY, BILL WAS $ 200 PER PERSON MIND YOU. AND I WALKED OUT NOT FULL.
We got the duck taco, it tastes like any other fucking tacos at any other Mexican places in nyc. anyone saying duck taco is great r obviously not from new york n r just visiting.
Food is so so so damn average u can get it at any other Unilocal 4 stars japanese restaurants. Oh wait, this place doesn’t even have that. Anyone that says or thinks this place is great r obviously just trying to hard to look good or trying to get someone’s approval «oh i have been there, it’s great» and kidding themselves. If u don’t have a billion in ur bank account then don’t come here n say its ok. What pisses me off r all these ppl who want to seem like they «made it» n tell ppl that its great when the reality SNAP is, if YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A LIFE AND BEEN TO OTHER PLACES, then u’d know many other places that are not named MASA r just better w/​better food n lower price tags.
I honestly don’t know how this place exists n still get customers. Again, save ur money on smt more worthy. I would be happy to pay $ 200 if the food was actually any better than this. Go to Blue Ribbon Sushi.

Place is dingy small, and over the top pricey. For the amount of $$ spent, I’d expect a cozier place. Quality is good but I’ve had better for similar price points.
Avocado Tuna tare tare was nice and creamy, fish noodles were interesting and quite bouncy, the rolls were good but nothing special, sesame ice cream and crème brûlée was tasty. All in all, it was a decent meal but I wouldn’t return.
Sesame ice cream is better at Otooya.

It looks like the place has gone downhill since we last ate here, which was probably 10 years ago. The quality of the food just does not justify the price anymore. The food used to be amazing but now it is just average joe rolls and sushi at undeserved premium markup.
Not worth it. Go somewhere else.

Do not go here. The food is marginal and it’s priced at about 4X what is reasonable. Cocktails range from $ 20-​$ 36 sushi rolls are $ 18 – 68. On top of that the service is horrible. We had to ask two and three times for drinks when they had been ordered already. The table was not cleared it was piled up with dirty plates. They kept bringing out items and putting them in front of the wrong people who hadn’t ordered them.
Go to Bond street. Better quality better sushi a third the price (Bond Street isn’t cheap either) but it’s excellent.
Dinner for 6 people was $ 1000 before tip and we didn’t even eat that much. They also have the audacity to kick you out and tell you the kitchen and bar are closed at 10pm. One of our friends had ordered a cocktail that like the others never came and when she asked again was told no the bar is closed even though the bartender was just standing there doing nothing.
F^*% this place!

Holy Cow! This is an amazing restaurant! A totally different feel from Masa. A lot more casual and relaxed. Bar Masa has a regular menu in addition to omakase.
We came for lunch and had a terrific meal. We sat at the sushi bar and received great service from the gentleman behind the bar. This is not a typical «sitting at the sushi bar» experience. You don’t see the sushi prepared. You are served like you are sitting at a table.
We chose to have an a la carte meal with a few suggestions from our server. We made a point of choosing food items that we can’t get at our local sushi restaurant. We had:
Fatty Tuna nigiri and sashimi — delicious and smooth
Salmon nigiri and sashimi — melt in your mouth good
Sea Bream — delicious with a unique texture
Eel 2 ways — tasty and so delicate
Fluke nigiri and sashimi — wonderful
Sweet Prawn — delicious
Scallop — so sweet and delicate
Masa Toro Toro roll — so delicious
Lobster and foie gras shabu — fantastic! We thought the foie gras would overpower the lobster — it didn’t. Totally complimented it. The broth was amazing.
White truffle ice cream — totally unique and delicious. The truffle flavor worked well with the creaminess of the ice cream.
All in all this was an amazing dining experience. Those who chose to dine at Masa or Bar Masa should be prepared to spend a significant amount of money. This is not Haru. Ordering a spicy tuna roll or a California role is a total waste. This restaurant is strictly for sushi aficionados who have a taste for the exotic and don’t mind paying for it.

So many of the best sushi bars in the world are full of pretense and create angst in offending the chef. Bar Masa does no such thing. I had a fantastic sushi dinner with my 8 year old son and they treated him with love and respect which made the experience oh so much better.
The quality is why Masa has always been one of the best in the United States and no visit to NY is complete without a visit to Bar Masa.

The lunch sashimi is totally overpriced as mentioned by Peter, if i would have read the review from Peter, i wouldn’t have visited the restaurant. The description by Peter S. was completely agreed by me and experienced by me too. The chef served not the best part of the fish and the cutting was bad too. The sashimi is not as soft as a normal sashimi would have. It is not very fresh from my point of view. Please think twice if you wanted to eat at Bar Masa and pay for the hefty price of bad sashimi pieces from a Michelin restaurant.
I have never been so disappointed with the sashimi at a Michelin restaurant. This is why i did my first review during my USA trip.

Bad da boom. A cozy bar and a friendly bar tender.
Spectacular cocktails although at $ 25 each, very, very expensive.
A superb rendition of a vesper martini. Ice cold — floating ice chips cover the surface in a cool haze.
The raspberry champagne combines sweet and luscious raspberries with sparkling wine.
Really wish we hAd time to dine but the jazz show was waiting.
Next time.