Nikki Zheng makes precision feel like an invitation.
At Sushi Akira, about a dozen seats, eighteen courses and a bill under $200 turn New York’s most intimidating format into a welcome.
The MICHELIN Guide calls Sushi Akira New York’s first female-led, MICHELIN-recommended omakase. Zheng opened it in 2025 after years at Masa, Tsukimi and Sushi Nakazawa, and she kept the thing those counters are known for, the discipline, while dropping the thing they are feared for, the price.
On East 75th Street on the Upper East Side, Sushi Akira seats about a dozen guests at an intimate blonde wood counter, bathed in the soft warm glow of rice paper sconces.
Chef Nikki Zheng, leading Manhattan's first female-helmed Michelin-recommended omakase, balances centuries of Edomae discipline with personal warmth: custom akazu-seasoned warm shari, wild kohada cured with red vinegar, and binchotan-kissed kinmedai.
If I’m a guest, I want to feel comfortable — it’s very important.
Nikki Zheng, to the MICHELIN Guide, August 2026
The experience feels like a private salon rather than a hushed test of connoisseurship; Chef Zheng explains the aging curves and ocean currents of each piece with infectious generosity.
Priced under $200 in an omakase market that routinely pushes $400, Sushi Akira proves that elite sushi craft can feel inclusive and welcoming without lowering its standards.
- Nikki ZhengChef and owner, Sushi Akira; trained at Masa, Tsukimi and Sushi Nakazawa
From the MICHELIN listing
- Distinction
- MICHELIN Guide selection
- Price band
- $$$$
- Cuisine
- Japanese
- Address
- 317 E. 75th St., New York
Sources
- MICHELIN Guide · Sushi Akira · checked Sep 28, 2026
- MICHELIN Guide · Meet the Chef Behind New York’s First Female-Led MICHELIN-Recommended Omakase (Aug 11, 2026) · checked Sep 28, 2026
Distinction, address, cuisine and price band come from the listing above. Descriptions of rooms and dishes are from Dine Digest’s earlier reporting and were not re-checked for this issue.
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