Soto

OK its pricey but the sushi is absolutely worth it. Especially the combination of flavors that the sushi chefs put together in their special pieces are a feast for any food lover. Its low key appearance and chic athmosphere make it the perfect spot for a night out for two or four

The meal was decent; good quality fish, well prepared by skilled chefs and timed well from dish to dish between service staff and the chefs. However, creativity is there perhaps not enough to receive two Michelin stars. Texture play is definitely missing. About half the dishes I had I felt some ingredients overpower the beautiful main ingredient. Overall flavor combination didn’t quite elevate the ingredients. They are rather fighting among them or one ingredient overshadows the main ingredient. It was a decent meal but I was disappointed with expect ion from 2 Michelin stars.

My friends and I have gone several times and while the food never disappoints, we have come to expect at least 1 outburst per visit from the kitchen.
Soto’s different takes and offerings of uni, toro, and botan ebi are certainly crowd favorites and the space is warm and welcoming.
Make sure to make a reservation!

Scary chef Soto. We were celebrating my birthday with my sister and my husband at sushi soto. We all got omakaze dinner and the food was great. It wasnt anything remarkably special or eye opening but they were really generous with their uni and we were stuffed from endless plates of food. The reason why this restaurant gets a 2star is because of the chef. We were seated at a table across from the bar and for some reason the chef was mad. In the middle of dining, he stormed out and slammed the door (scaring the wait staff and the entire dining people) and then we continues to hear screaming and banging behind the door. Everyone literally stopped what they were doing and just continued to look around surprised. I felt that his behavior inside the restaurant was really inappropriate especially at a michelin restaurant. I know we were paying a lot to eat there but I wish the scary part wasnt included with our meal. Probably will not return

Decent Japanese restaurant, it’s on my must-​try list of traditional Japanese restaurant now. ps. You should be patient with your next dish. These are only three chefs serving all the guest.

So unworthy of 2 Michelin stars… I had the omakase and it was $ 165 – 185. The omakase is worth maybe $ 85 max. The omakase was definitely filling, more than enough food. But with the 2 Michelin stars rating, I was expecting a more creative and unique experience. This is good if you are looking for traditional Japanese sushi. But the omakase price point still doesn’t justify it!

Yummy uni and sushi/​sashimi.
Food:
Uni with yuba — very good
Uni bafun cocktail (Russian uni) — delicious
Botan ebi with uni — good
Toro tartare — good
Uni wrapped with squid and quail egg — delicious
Fluke — good
Scallop with shiso roll — delicious
Seared sea bream — delicious
Grunt — good
Mochi ice cream — decent

Most unbelievable sushi dinner ever. Our server suggested ordering three things from every page to share… That was on point!
They specialize in uni and it showed. Every dish was excellent regardless if it had uni in it or not though! Prepared with precision and detail.
The uni cocktail was outrageous, eel with ponzu incredible, tuna tartare, geoduck, scallop roll, uni ika roll, and salmon avacado roll were the freshest most delicious ingredients all expertly paired together.
If you want to go on a culinary journey go to Soto. Unmarked on the outside but throwing down at the highest level inside. Everyone treated with the upmost care and respect.
Worth every cent. I was sad when it was all over (as it was crazy good just wanted to keep trying) and can’t wait to go back! The menu changes daily so a new experience is always ready and waiting for you.

Generally I don’t like posting negative reviews, but this right here is different,
As a Michelin 2 star restaurant, I expect a decent service. Dont get me wrong, the food is good, but our sever is so bad that it ruin our experience.
Me and my girlfriend went there last night. for our weekly Friday night date, I was starving and she wasn’t that hungry. I went ahead a ordered the Omakase (the 10 course menu) and she ordered a la carte, upon hearing our order, our server gave her an attitude right away, as the night goes on, our sever never refill our empty wine and water glasses.
There was another couple sitting next to us, and the sever actually went to them and ask them to leave just because they already paid and just sat for 2 minutes. YES 2 freaking minutes … needless to say they wasn’t very happy.
In general. as a 2 star Michelin star restaurant and that price tag. I expect good service and decent food. we got the decent food, but we also got terrible service.
It was probably the worst dining experience we’ve had in NYC so far.

Chef Soto takes himself very seriously. Sushi is serious business. A passion, an art form, perfection is only obtained through practice and the small plates definitely showed his creativeness and use of quality ingredients.
TL:DR — skip the sushi and stick to the small plates he’s known for.
If you have a 6:15PM reservation just be warned nothing is served until 6:30PM and Soto himself doesn’t come out until 7:00PM. During that time the sous chefs are doing prep work, you get your sake, tea, drinks etc, and just take your time with deciding what you want to order — omakase, the chefs tasting menu, or just off their menu of small plates and sushi.
When you first arrive the maitre’d comes to check you in and take your coat. You’re led to your seat and given a hot towel to wipe your hands, use it immediately or it will be removed right before you order anything.
We ordered off the menu instead of doing omakase and I didn’t realize it ended up being a pretty long list.
(prices per dish/​piece)
–Koshi no iso junmai ginjo muroka genshu Sake $ 30: light, fermented, okay
Small Plates
–Salmon Citrus $ 18: citrus was not overpowering, buttery salmon taste came through, Japanese pickled cucumbers on the side were refreshing, crispy ginger was cleansing
–Cyutoro tartare $ 26: toro on the bottom, avo cream on top with chives and seaweed on top, tasty, unique flavors each bite
–Uni Cocktail Cali $ 17: fresh, savory, delightful, soy reduction was a great touch
–Botanebi cocktail $ 18 — shrimp on the bottom, uni on top, mushroom flavored reduction, interesting, but wouldn’t order again, pretty mushroomy
Sushi
–Toro nigiri $ 11 — big hit of wasabi, but masterfully cut
–Chu toro nigiri $ 4
–Sea trout nigiri $ 6
–Hotate/​maine, scallop $ 5
–Hokki ga, surf clam $ 4: mediocre, didn’t taste any different than other surf clam I’ve had
–Uni Hokkaido $ 9 — uni was shockingly cold compared to the uni in the uni cocktail and botanebi cocktail
–Eel avocado roll $ 15: still found a bone or two in the eel, decent
–Mochi $ 8: good
Sitting at the bar area felt like serious business. You could tell who was a regular and who wasn’t. The service was great though. Water was always refilled, waitress was very attentive.
The bathroom was another story. I felt like I had been transported back to the undergrounds of pee smelling NYC subway. For such an establishment, it was a surprising the bathroom wasn’t well kept.

Didn’t realize I was dining at a Michelin-​starred restaurant until after the meal. The service isn’t great and thankfully, for them, I didn’t know they had a Michelin star or else that would’ve been a bigger set up for disappointment.
Yes, yes, yes. Uni on everything would be my dream but unfortunately it falls short here. The portions are minuscule and for someone as small as I am, it still wasn’t enough. This meal just wasn’t worth the price that I paid. The atmosphere, the service, the portions, and the flavors are just not great.

Recently came back to Soto with some friends visiting from out of town, must say this place has gone down hill. I’m not sure why they still have a Michelin star to be quite honest. Our food was so slow we spoke to our waitress probably 4x to ask what is going on. She advised the Chefs were backed up. Well if that is the case they should hire more people to help out! The food quality definitely was not as good as I had once remembered.

Soto is a decent restaurant but for the price and type of establishment, it’s very much lacking in service.
The food is solid and the uni is fabulous but what was missing was good service. The minute we walked in, we awkwardly wandered in the front area for a few minutes without anyone greeting us. After being seated, we realized all the waitresses were curt and their English wasn’t very good. They were Chinese and spoke Mandarin. When I go to a Japanese restaurant like this, I really want wait staff that’s Japanese, speak Japanese and give you great Japanese-​style service and attention, and this is definitely not the place for that. It must be a really trendy place for Chinese patrons b/​c about half of the customers were Chinese and the other half was a mix of Caucasian (mostly older couples) and Asian.
For me, a part of the delight in dining at a fancy Japanese restaurant is the exceptional service that the Japanese know how to do so well. This is definitely not the place for that. :(

I found this place after searching on the Internet for some Michelin-​starred Japanese restaurants. I walked in and instantly felt underwhelmed for what I — and almost every other person here — was expecting: when you find the place without any sign outside, you walk in to find a hallway-​like space stretching to the back with minimalistic décor and few patrons.
Their uni is good and worth the try but like many other reviewers noted here, their portions are SMALL. I ordered 5 plates and had two glasses of sake and left feeling hungry enough to have a second dinner. Lessons learned: find the exact pin location on your Google Map of this place to not wander around the block, try the uni, and go with a semi-​full stomach.

I agreed with the last two reviewers: there was no sign of the restaurant outside (thx Unilocal!), restaurant was not busy at all for two stars michelin and the server speak ridiculously soft (i thought i was deaf). Our server tried hard to make us order alot of stuff. The nigiris are expensive and you must order 3 pieces minimum per kind (3 fluke sashimi at 5 a pop, $ 15 for 3 slices, yikes!)
What we ordered:
1. Chawanmushi (egg custard) — it was not tasty at all
2. White fish shioyaki — skip
3. Uni with seaweed and quail egg — best (uni is their specialty)
4. Chopped Fatty tuna — good
Maybe I didnt get the overall experience like the other great reviews. But nothing was memorable to me.

Hole in the wall with no sign outside, and pretty empty on the inside. They take stripped down and minimalist to the next level.
2 Michelin stars? I wonder what these standards are.
Good:
— We got the shima aji carpaccio dish with ginger in it. Quantity wise? No. But flavor wise, it was good.
— Tempura, because I was trying to fill myself up. $ 20 is pushing it though.
— We got 3 bottles of 300 mL sake, and they were all good. Try those.
Okay:
— So the sashimi was all good, but for approximately $ 5 per fish, that’s crazy, especially when they make you order a minimum of 3 pieces each (i.e. if you pick a $ 5 sashimi, they make you get 3 of them minimum, so your Amberjack order is now $ 15). We ordered 5 sashimi, and if I bust out my calculator to do some 2^nd grade math, 5 fish x 3 pieces min. x $ 5 = $ 75. To their credit though, they did come out with 4 pieces each and only charged us for 3. And the sashimi was pretty fresh and fatty.
— I’m not a huge uni fan but I did try it, since this is supposedly incredible here.
— Seared salmon was just ok. I probably wouldn’t get that again.
Not the best:
— I wasn’t a fan of the rolls. You might be though.
— Ambiance — we were placed in the back next to the stained walls.
— They did not have the steamed lobster and uni mousse that I’ve seen in pictures and on the menu. No explanation. Just no, we don’t have that.
After tax and tip, our dinner for 4 came out to about $ 550 ($ 137 per person). And like other people have said, they do keep repeating that the portions are small and that you should order more. My 3 star rating is obviously weighed against expectation and cost. Obviously if this meal was $ 29.99, it would be incredible. Afterwards, we got a slice of pizza on our way home.

I was surprised by how plain and empty the restaurant is. Even around 6PM, you can be the first party to arrive. Do 2 Michelin stars not translate into steady business? There is not even a sign outside the restaurant.
That being said, the food is very well made and delicious. The style is to serve dishes to share one at a time so the meal can end up taking a while. The servers keep a watchful eye on you so the next dish always comes immediately after you’re done with the dish at your table. I can’t remember everything I tried but what everyone who goes to Soto will remember is that there is an extensive list of uni in different ways. the uni cocktail is a must-​try! I had to begrudgingly share it with 2 others the first time but got it all to myself the second time. Each bite is smooth and melts in your mouth. the uni cocktail at Soto was actually how my love for uni first sprouted. Other Japanese restaurants in NYC helped grow that fondness. The Scottish Salmon and Fluke Ponzu are also very fresh and tasty. They have options for sashimi/​nigiri/​sushi but since you order PER piece and there is a minimum per item, it can add up to be very expensive. One of the more exotic sashimi pieces I tried was giant clam, which was not what I expected at all (more like little clam). If you’re in NYC, there are unlimited options for fish that are just as good and not as pricey.
Still not sure why Soto has not 1, but 2, Michelin stars. most upscale Japanese restaurants have exceptional service, spectacular presentation and amazing, clean food. I think I got the same server both times because she was so soft-​spoken that it was very difficult to hear her. Soto is a must-​try for uni lovers though!

Overall disappointed with soto — and no clue how it got 2 star Michelin.
Food us very good. Nigiris were well made, all the fish were fresh and as expected melted in your mouth.
What didn’t work for us was the following:
1. Waited 20 minutes beyond reservation time
2. We ordered about 7 items, the time difference between each item was about 30 minutes initially. So we would get a bite size course and was 30 minutes. We started our dinner at 945 and finished at 1145.
3. The waiting line was very disorganized, there were other folks who waited 1 hour past their reservation.
Long story short — our overall disappointment with the service and wait wasn’t compensated by the food.

Sushi paradise !
especially for uni lovers !!!
Amazing place and attentive service
Excellent!
..

This place blew me away. Not only was their food amazing, but the presentation was flawless. This place was a great find and great for business dinners or a date. The most memorable dish was the lobster sashimi which comes out looking even more beautiful than photos can portray. Their uni cocktail changed my life as well. I never really liked uni until trying Soto’s. It is fresh and SWEET just as uni should be!
To my knowledge, we had great service and the staff were all very attentive. Good food + service make for a very nice dining experience! :)

Food is excellent. All seafood is very fresh. Definitely worth trying at least one uni plate, especially uni cocktail. The freshness and unique flavor of uni are highlighted by the sauce. I wish I had more sushi. All sushi are very good!
That being said, the service wasn’t as excellent as their food. Not as friendly as I expect a michelin two-​star staff to be.