Towa

Fish, dashi, wagyu, then the next course

The sequence matters before the plate does. Chef Masaya Shirai leads Towa in New York City, working in a grammar of fish, dashi and wagyu, letting one course prepare the palate for the next. His sourcing leans Japan-direct for sushi and sashimi, with local freshness where the market allows, and the noodles for kamo soba are made in house. At Towa, that discipline moves through a kaiseki-inspired Japanese menu in Nomad, where omakase, à la carte and small plates share the same central question: how much can a dish hold before it becomes display.

Michelin inspectors have singled out the seasonal tradition in dishes such as kani hourensou ohitashi, snow crab and spinach in dashi, which is useful because it refuses the single trophy ingredient. Wagyu can lead, but it does not stand alone. Fish, broth, fat, temperature and cut work in relation, with contrast doing as much as richness. Oxtail spring rolls follow that logic, putting depth inside a crisp wrapper so the hand feels the structure before the palate does. The method is not austere. It is controlled.

A counter built around sequence

Towa’s program gives kaiseki a New York shape without loosening the discipline underneath it. The restaurant opened in March 2022 in Nomad, a few blocks west of Madison Square Park, with Hand Hospitality moving into Japanese cooking through a modern, seasonal format. The name comes from “Towasu,” an ancient Japanese term in Yamato Kotoba meaning “to make one thing together that will last forever,” a fitting thought for a room built on courses that depend on one another.

The kitchen moves through yakimono, agemono, sashimi, sushi, noodles and broth rather than treating them as separate lanes. Kamo Soba brings hot buckwheat noodles, grilled duck breast, scallion and yuzu zest into one bowl, with the citrus arriving after the broth. Wagyu Tataki and Tuna Katsu Sando sit beside that more traditional register, showing how the place uses familiar luxury without letting it flatten the meal. Dashi appears as seasoning, structure and reset. Seasonal ingredients do the visible work; the discipline sits in the pass, in the transitions, and in the decision to let a course end before it has explained itself.

Low light, warm wood, the room close to the bench

The room keeps close to the work. Cream-colored walls, warm wood and low lighting give the counter a quiet frame, while the small scale keeps the distance between guest and station short. Conversation sits at the surface rather than over the food. Plates move from the pass with little ceremony, and the room’s restraint leaves space for texture: the snap of a fried wrapper, the shine of cut fish, the steam lifting from soba, the darker scent of duck broth.

That intimacy is part of Towa’s usefulness. It can hold omakase, à la carte dishes and a sake program without making the craft feel partitioned. The next course remains the real hinge here, not the room’s polish or the address. Kamo Soba keeps the meal pointed backward, to duck, yuzu, buckwheat and the dashi that carried the sequence into the bowl.