Chef Yugin Zubco Opens Personalized Omakase 37 Floors Above Manhattan

Chef Eugeniu “Yugin” Zubco, a protégé of Masayoshi “Masa” Takayama, now runs his own 12-seat omakase restaurant, Yugin, 37 stories above Central Park in the General Motors Building. The 1960s Edward Durell Stone-designed space features a custom Hinoki wood sushi counter, a Japanese screen from the Meiji period, and a canoe-shaped paper lantern. Zubco personally serves 21 to 22 dishes nightly, sourcing seafood from Tokyo’s Toyosu market and flying it to Newark. The menu changes daily, with dishes presented on Pennsylvanian Ash blocks charred in shou sugi ban technique and ceramic pieces, some antique Japanese, others made by the chef at a Brooklyn pottery studio. The 461-square-foot dining room seats two seatings at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., with 25 sake options ranging from $110 to $12,000. Since opening late last fall, reservations are in high demand; many diners return, with one patron having visited 22 times. The meal costs $475 per head.