As you might’ve already figured out by now, we love having Japanese omakase meals for birthday celebrations. Tie’s was no different. Having heard great things about Kura, we headed to St Marks that night with two friends. There’s a single table for a party of 4-6 people by the window, but every other seat was by the counter watching Chef Ishizuka carefully prepare each course. I loved how intimate the setting was and it felt like an authentic Japanese restaurant, from the minimalist noren outside to the wooden sake boxes inside. Although we made reservations weeks in advance, if you’re lucky you may be able to secure some walk-in seating as we’d seen some people do.

There are several pricing tiers for omakase: $100 for 10 pieces, $125 for 16 pieces, $150 for 20 pieces and $200 for 20 (includes cooked food). We chose the $125 option and it was just enough to leave us feeling satiated and not overly stuffed as some omakase meals do. There were several pieces of tuna, but they were all different parts of the fish so it actually felt like there was some decent variety. Service was quite good and Chef Ishizuka was all smiles.

Earlier I had informed the chef that it was Tie’s birthday. At the end of the meal, they presented him a bowl of matcha ice cream topped with gold flakes. The hostess was even kind enough to commemorate the occasion for us with a Polaroid 🙂