Omen Azen

Awesome authentic Japanese restaurant! The entire staff are mostly japanese who speak japanese and many customers are japanese as well. This is real japanese food so don’t come here expecting crazy rolls or california rolls. The tasting menu came highly recommended that I ended up choosing the $ 85 dollar tasting menu. You get to choose an appetizer, either hot or cold udon noodles, as well any dessert of the dessert menu. The rest of the dishes are chosen for you paired with a fresh sashimi plate the included fresh uni, salmon, fluke and hamachi. I chose the agedashi appetizer which was amazing. I loved the eggplant and tofu that came lightly dusted with cornstarch and then deep fried until golden brown. Everything was totally fresh and delicious. Having just got back from Japan, the paired courses are 100% authentic. In fact, their kyoto miso soup even had MOCHI in it, which was totally appropriate given the new year! I loved their bamboo shoots with konnyaku. I was so full that I was surprised when the pipin hot udon came out which dipping sauce and fresh veggies. The atmosphere is nice and quiet, it so nice to be able to hear what the people at your table are saying! How novel for NYC! The staff is very attentive. Portions were definitely reasonable, I was so full from all this food that I almost could not eat dessert which is also generously portioned. I did not choose any of the chestnut or coffee jelly choices. Best dessert recommendation is the strawberry with cream pudding the red rice sauce, basically amazing asian panna cotta with delicious tart/​sweet red sauce. The green tea ice cream with red beans was also totally delicious especially since it came with multiple chewy delectable mochi balls ;) Who doesn’t love MOCHI? Summary: Great Authentic Japanese experience that is moderately priced. I would definitely recommend this to ANYONE– go for the tasting menu!

A day long yearly strategy meeting, and evening at Russian spa, can only be topped by the prefix menu. If this is an Omen for 2016 then the year will be bountiful, full of surprises, brimming with subtle complex flavors ending sweetly, just like the green tea tiramisu.

Authentic and exquisite. I highly recommend the tasting menu and the Sake cocktails are a nice way to begin your meal.

Except for the green tea tiramisu (with coffe jello!), there isn’t exactly any one specific dish that is craving inducing but Omen is a solid performer start to finish. I prefer to sit in the back, up a few stairs and hidden away behind the stone wall. The service is very Japanese but surprisingly accommodating (e.g. no problem to swap uni for more amberjack in mixed sashimi) and it’s a zen place to eat a quiet meal. No, it’s not cheap but this is New York. Deal with it.

More like 3.5. This place as good, it was authentic and the food felt like high end home cooking. The kobe beef shabu, uni shot, all very well done. I think they are famous for their udon which I thought was pretty tasty. Im a little torn about this place. I want to really like it since I do think it’s way more authentic than most Japanese places but I just feel like their price point is high for what you get. You would expect much better service and ambiance for that price point. But if you want something that has good food, in a chill environment come here.

My husband and I have been dining at Omen for 29 years – since shortly after I moved here from Osaka, Japan. Not very frequently in recent years, for reasons unknown to me, because I somehow do not have such strong cravings for Japanese cuisine. (Japanese food of course still is my favorite.) We still hold Omen in high esteem and like the type of Japanese food. Out-​of-​town friends (a couple) and we went there a couple of weeks ago. Although we were happy with their food, one thing really troubled us. One of our friends wanted to order tea, but could not find on the menu the kind that he could drink. No problem, since he carries his own tea bags with him (well, his wife does.). We asked for a cup of hot water, which our waiter brought to our table without asking any questions. Nice, but we would have expected nothing less from a restaurant of this quality. When our friend’s tea was ready, he needed to take the tea bag out of the cup. We asked another wait staff who happened to be nearby at that moment for a small dish to put this tea bag on. She showed us her displeasure by mumbling something to the effect that we should not have brought any outside food (and also tea) to the restaurant. «It was agains their rule.» We understand that they must have rules, but it should also be understood that it was after we tried to order from the menu the kind of tea that our friend could drink but failed. In addition, the other three at the table were drinking 1 and ½ bottles of sake at that point. Our waiter, who originally brought us a cup of hot water, did not say anything to us. Obviously we were ordering enough already, both food and drink, so he did not think it was necessary to enforce that «no outside food» rule. What we did not appreciate was the way the second wait staff reacted to our very simple request. We all could see that she was truly displeased. In the end, she did bring that little dish to our table (after all, that outside tea was already being made), but we all felt it was SO unnecessary to display her displeasure SO clearly in front of the customers.

I love this spot. My wife and I have been going there for our anniversary for 4+ years now. I always go for the Seasonal Tasting Dinner and throw down a few of their signature cocktails, while my wife gets the Black Codfish marinated in miso and grilled.
What we love about the food here are the unique flavors delicately infused into each menu item. And I must emphasize on ‘unique’. The layers of complex flavors of each dish is spectacular. I’m not even sure what some of the flavors are, but when I close my eyes while tasting it, I almost get thrown back into some ancient Japanese village.
If you can fork up the cash for the Seasonal Tasting Dinner, do it! It’s worth every penny. You get such an amazing array of flavors from dish to dish. And it’s more than plenty of food.
It’s certainly one of the best Japanese restaurants in NYC. A real relaxing atmosphere, nice host and waiters/​waitresses. And once again, the food is absolutely outstanding.

I have been visited so many Japanese restaurants and omen is very uniq one.
Yes the menu is confusing and its not that understandable. After the food serviced to the table I did understand very well the Deference between omen and other places.
The vibe the great and the service was very good. I highly recommend to visit and experience real Japanese restaurant.

I booked this for valentines day this year. Its a special treat because its expensive and we used to live on Thompson Street and it was a regular place in our past. I booked three weeks in advance by phone and asked if they would phone to confirm the day before, they did not. So I phoned again the day to confirm the reservation for 7.00 which they did. We arrived at 7.12 and were told that we had «lost the reservation» and we could perch at the bar instead. aftre expressing my anger at this they did find us a table… but it ruined the whole evening — my wife and I were uposet the whole time and ended with a bill of 250+ dollars… aftre going there for almost 25 years, never again!!!

Such a profound disappointment. I was in Kyoto a month ago and had the most incredible vegetarian meal at the Omen near the Silver Pavilion. Crazy spices, diversity of textures and taste and amazing service. So when I found out they had a sister restaurant in NYC, I was psyched to make it a part of my stable of eateries. Bland veggies, soggy edamame and $ 100 later for two of us (with no alcohol), I couldn’t wait for the meal to be over. I think there was a single veg option and absolutely no attempt to accommodate. So, I guess the next time I go to Omen, it’ll be in Kyoto.

Several visits later this food hands down still deserves 5 or more stars but wow, the service really has proven to take away from the experience. It’s a bit of a shame when the best front of house staff is the gentleman at the door.

Omen shoul be called Oh no, where is the menu with actual food?
Went here expecting a lot based on the reviews. Pretty disappointing. And given the cost, even MORE disappointing.
The menu was super confusing and the server didn’t offer to help us out and was pretty hard to get any sort of info. from.
The wine tasted like it had been sitting out for weeks. Sav Blanc was SO sweet and chard. was stale.
Tuna tartare was good but red onions overpowered the flavor of the fish.
Sashimi was fresh, but blah. Rice balls were NOT what we expected and came as a soup. You have to get your rice on the side which is 7 bucks.
The bill was over 200 for THREE people. Total rip off.
Green tea at the end is a nice touch but I would NOT GO BACK!
Ambiance was sub par and bathroom was dark and cold.

Atmosphere/​décor: nothing special, but peaceful and easy to talk
Service: very good
Food: Way overpriced and barely any flavor. There is really no reason to spend this kind of money and not have great food. average entrée was $ 37.
Tuna Tartare was flavorless and consistency was mushy.
The only memorable dish was the black cod. Overall uninspiring.
There were 2 or 3 bright spots but for the money there are so many other choices.
Would not return.

Hands down my favorite Japanese restaurant. A little pricey, but so delicious!
Get the set menu or if you aren’t a big eater, the steak. They’re noodles are the bomb. The noodles are a Omen specialty even in Japan. I’ve been to the Kyoto restaurant as well and it’s so good. I love all the toppings you can get with the noodles.
For drinks, I recommend umeshu, plum wine, but it might be a acquired taste. A little on the sweet side, but very strong. It’s probably best to get it with water or soda.
Dessert is pretty good too. I like their green tea tiramisu!
Service is great. You get hot towels to wipe your hands, very Japanese, and water and tea.
Definitely a place to check out if you like Japanese food.

I felt like I had traveled no longer to Japan. They have a relatively small menu. I was a bit surprised when we walked in and saw that only two tables were taken at 8:30pm on a Sunday night. The other fear was a B cleanliness rating on the door. Anything less than an A with sushi involved can make you nervous.
The food, service, and atmosphere will leave you wanting to come back for more. I highly suggest the black cod in miso.
Enjoy

Maybe because I had outstanding sushi the night before Omen, I found everything to fall short of my expectations.
The sashimi special was ok. Nothing mind blowing and there are better spots in the city for quality fish. Tried the seasonal appetizers, cod w/​urchin, tuna tartare, and hot and cold udon. None of the dishes stood out to me.
We shared the green tea tiramisu and ice cream for dessert. Again, nothing «new» but they were good. Strong matcha flavor.
I did like the overall ambiance of the place. Very serene.

So good
We got the fixe price menu
It was amazing
I will come back again this year.
I want to taste more
There’s more to explore
It’s a great spot, beautiful hip crowd, a lot of fashion people
But the food, 100% real deal, great Japanese food.
If I’m far from sakagura, aka below 14^th and I want Japanese food beyond going to a place just for sushi or just for ramen, this is my goto.
I have a fondness for small ramen spots like rai rai ken or cocoron
But this is a nice meal and a great dinner spot.
Beautiful inside. I felt transported.
I gave 5 stars, you won’t see that often.

If you’re the type that likes to drink and do appetizers all evening, please don’t go here. If you’re just a foodie looking to try different things-don’t go here. If you think you’re entitled to get a «good service”-please, do us all a favor, don’t go here.
The service is impeccable. The food, the best I’ve ever had. Just keep it classy.

The only other location that they have is in Japan, and we couldnt find it when we were trying to eat there. The Japanese location was mainly an Udon place from what I remember, but this place serves all sorts of Japanese from sushi/​sashimi, to shabu shabu. We ordered the shabu shabu and the Udon. Everything was good, the beef they used with shabu shabu was pretty amazing, and probably could have been eaten raw. Workers are friendly here and the food is high quality. Definitely worth trying.

Earlier this week, I was looking for a really good sushi place to have a meal at. I was even willing to drop $ 500 at Masa at Columbus Circle, but alas… I was too late to make a reservation anywhere respectable (it didn’t help that most of the reputable places were closed for the weekend). I then decided to check out places that offer kaiseki, and after finding a few places all booked up, I stumbled on Omen.
I was actually a little concerned that they weren’t all booked up, and that the place was only about a quarter filled when I got there. But after dining there, I think that’s probably more because people just don’t want to bring that much cash to dinner.
So, obviously, I went with the kaiseki dinner. It went like this:
First course: A crab-​stuffed mandarin orange with a little bit of sake. The orange was delightful. It was almost like an amuse-​bouche.
Second course: White miso soup. This was pretty good, although I’m not Japanese enough to have known how to attack the gooey lump of rice putty or whatever it was at the bottom, and I couldn’t figure out whether I was supposed to use the tiny little spoon or just drink it. I just drank it because I’ve heard the traditional way to eat miso soup is just to drink it, and it would’ve taken about a thousand scoops to eat it with that spoon.
Third course: Appetizers. There was some baked taro, some chicken with embedded pine nuts (delicious), some sake-​soaked chestnuts, some lotus root, stuffed shrimp, and a few other things I don’t recall.
Fourth course: Sashimi. The sashimi was pretty excellent; everything was nice and fresh. I don’t remember which cuts were served; I know there was yellowtail and tuna. I think there was also fluke and lobster or something.
Fifth course: Monkfish on miso paste. This was the highlight of the meal for me. The meat was nice and tender, and of course, you can’t serve monkfish without the liver. The easiest way to win me over is to serve me some monkfish liver.
Sixth (main) course: Lobster tail with brown rice, lobster broth, and pickled turnip. This was pretty good, but honestly, I liked the goodies inside the lobster’s head better than the rest of it.
Seventh course: Green tea. I don’t particularly care for green tea, but it’s good on a cold winter night.
Dessert: I went with the cream custard, which was absolutely phenomenal. I want that gooey, custardy stuff of the gods served to me on my death bed.
Overall, I would say this is a very solid restaurant. The ambiance is really nice, and the service is friendly. It is annoying to have to carry enough cash to pay for the meal, which can be expensive (I had only a few bucks extra), but if you plan ahead, that shouldn’t be a problem.