This omakase-only restaurant sits in the heart of Sukhumvit.

The modest wooden facade of Sushi Misaki has all the hallmarks of a seriously good sushi restaurant: there’s no name in English outside, no menu, no sign that it in any way wants your business. But Bangkokians in search of the city’s best omakase (a chef’s selection set sushi dinner) have taken note of this little operation from Shizuoka-born chef Masahiro Misaki (formerly of Nippon Tei), and you’d do well to book ahead if you want to secure one of the 10 seats (two sittings per night), all positioned around a beautiful blond wood sushi counter.

 

The morning of your arrival, the restaurant will call to ask whether you’d like the B4,000 or B6,000 omakase—the menu’s only two options. Between the two sets, there’s really not a lot of difference in courses, with the cheaper coming out at 18 dishes and the more expensive at 20. The price difference lies more in size, with premium delicacies like otoro (fatty tuna), sea urchin and salmon roe being more amply portioned in the pricier set.

 

Whichever you choose, you’ll feel more than taken care of as Misaki (who for most of the dinner mans the counter single-handedly) guides you from the first course of sea urchin and snow crab locked in a rich beef consomme jelly, through tuna rolls and dainty cups of buttery monkfish liver, onto some eight or so different nigiri (fish atop rice) with the occasional abalone soup or rich oyster in between, before finishing with one of the best red miso soups we’ve ever had, a thick-set, blow-torched omelet and dainty water pudding.

 

The chef prepares much of his sushi Edo (traditional Tokyo) style, meaning the fish has been through a process of aging that brings new intensity to his bluefin tuna, which has been cured for one week before service. Don’t worry, though, freshness still abounds in a wonderfully fatty otoro nigiri.

 

In style, Misaki sits somewhere between the approachable and informative Masato, where the chef will happily break out a book mid-dinner and educate you on a single piece of fish, and the hushedly standoffish vibe of Ginza Sushi Ichi. Without doubt, the immaculate plating and uncompromising ingredients of Ichi are a notch above, but then so are the prices. And while Masato still commands a month-plus wait list, you can book a seat in here with a few days’ notice and be confident you’re not plumbing with an also-ran. This is special-occasion dining that delivers.