New York’s Sushi Akira Palms Precision and Seasonality Into Every Nigiri

“I have always been drawn to the precision, the level of detail,” Zheng says. Unlike that garden, the level of finesse in the nigiri that follows isn’t always visible to the naked eye. “Sushi looks very simple, but in fact, there’s no way to hide any technical failings. The quality of the fish, the temperature of the rice, the pressure of each grain — every element determines if a single piece of sushi will succeed or fail.”

For someone perpetually walking that tightrope, Zheng seems remarkably at ease behind the counter. While some sushi chefs famously seldom crack a smile during service, she’s more than happy to chat with diners and explain the nuances of a particular piece. She never seems to break a sweat through the choreography of the meal, slicing, blowtorching, and cradling fish onto its bed of body-temperature rice with finely calibrated movements.

Zheng’s obsessive attention to detail aligns with years spent in Michelin-starred kitchens, rising up the ranks from dishwasher at Quintessence in Tokyo, to working behind the counter at Masa, Sushi of Gari, and Sushi Nakazawa in New York. She’s one of the few women sushi chefs to pass through these places — and one of even fewer in New York to hold court over her own omakase experience.

At Sushi Akira, she steps squarely into the spotlight with something especially rare: an omakase-only sushi-ya destined to become a neighborhood restaurant. Coming in at under $200 per person for 18 courses, the menu here is one of the more accessible in Manhattan. It’s also ever-evolving and customized to make sure regulars always have something new.

“To do the same thing every single time would be so boring,” Zheng says with a laugh. If a regular comments that they love a particular type of fish, for instance, she’ll try to work more of it into their next visit. “We always try to do something different for our returning customers. For me, the omakase at Sushi Akira is all about creating a personal experience.”

Details Are Everything

Even the most minute details are approached with consideration here. After all, the most luxuriously marbled piece of toro would be nothing without perfect rice. For Zheng, nailing the exact formula took considerable trial and error before she was satisfied. “At the beginning, we failed so many times,” she says.

After experimenting with several varieties of rice, she ultimately settled on Hokkaido Nanatsuboshi, an heirloom variety grown in Hokkaido, Japan, which she specially imports and then freshly mills in New York. “It has a bouncy texture and natural sweetness. We also learned to use specific aged vinegars, which really bring out the umami.”

Thanks to her time at Sushi Nakazawa, Zheng already had the necessary connections to top-tier seafood suppliers. Acquiring the proper fish is only half the battle though. “Of course, you need to start with great ingredients,” she says. “But in Edomae-style sushi, it’s also very important how you cure, age, marinate, and season the fish,” Zheng explains.

Like many skilled sushi chefs, Zheng is a firm believer in dry-aging seafood. When aged under highly controlled conditions, the proteins in fish break down into amino acids including inosinic acid and glutamic acid. Both of these naturally occurring compounds lead to the flavors we associate with umami. The process also leads to extra-crispy fish skin and a meltingly tender texture.

“When we get fresh bluefin tuna, the muscle is a bit chewy,” Zheng says. “We usually age it for seven to 10 days, which dramatically improves the texture.”

One of Sushi Akira’s specialties requires even more care to shine. Hikarimono, or blue-backed fish, including sardines, horse mackerel, flying fish, gizzard shad, herring, and perch, are known for their oily flesh. For sushi chefs, they’re often the ultimate technical flex. It requires a finely attuned touch to coax flavor out of these richer fish without allowing them to become overpowering.

“Hikarimono is tricky, because if it’s not taken care of properly, it can taste super fishy,” Zheng explains. To combat that, she cures some filets with Japanese sea salt and sugar, and marinates others with aged vinegar. “Everything depends on the size of the piece and the fat content — we have to treat each one differently.”

Following the Seasons

Much like kaiseki, the best omakase menus mirror the progression of the seasons. In frigid winter waters, certain species build up fat, leading to an exceptionally silken texture. Mackerel, kanburi (winter yellowtail), and otoro, the prized fatty tuna, are all at their peak in the cooler months. Boston tuna, on the other hand, is superb in summer.

“Omakase is all about seasonality,” Zheng says. “For us, we don’t just buy ingredients. We select the right ingredients at the right moment. For example, right now, it’s wintertime and the Hokkaido sea urchin is exceptionally creamy.”

For other courses, Zheng incorporates other seasonal ingredients into the preparations. “Right now we have kasugo, or baby sea bream on the menu,” she says. Soon, it will be sakura season in Japan. Baby sea bream has a delicate sweetness and we really want to showcase that. So we use the cured sakura leaves to marinate the fish. It gives it a floral, spring feeling.”

As is often the case with omakase, an evening at Sushi Akira ends with a plate of fruit. On a dark wintery night, it might be a sliver of crown melon from Shizuoka prefecture. Transcendently sweet and juicy, these rare honeydew-hued specimens go for more than $100 each. Spring will bring Amaou strawberries from Fukuoka, followed by summertime loquats, muskmelons, and fragrant Japanese peaches.

Last autumn, when the restaurant opened, they served persimmons and Kyoho grapes, the immense, orb-like fox grapes cross-bred from Concord grapes. “Everything will keep changing with each year and each season,” Zheng says.

One thing is for certain: Dining at Sushi Akira will never be boring.

Sushi Akira is open Tuesday to Sunday from 5 to 11 p.m.

Diana Hubbell is a James Beard Award-winning food and travel journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, VICE, Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, WIRED, and Travel + Leisure, among other places. Previously based in Berlin and Bangkok, she currently lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.