Loved every minute of this 21-course tasting menu! From the get-go, this was an experience. The staff was warm, welcoming, knowledgeable, and funny. I walked away learning a lot about the food and culture and with a deeper appreciation of what it takes to put together this menu. The food was delicious and seeing it made right in front of your eyes just added to the experience. While pricey, it was worth it for the quality and experience.

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Reservations are hard to get -- my friend and I booked one within a minute they were released (14 days prior at 8:45 AM). We were one of 11 guests this past Friday's 5:30 PM reservation where we enjoyed a phenomenal journey of eating and story-telling. It was a 19-course omakase if you don't get any additional courses for a base price of $180 per person. There was an option to add on a wagyu nigiri (+25) and/or uni flight (+50). 1 - FLAMED JELLY FISH SHOT Jelly fish was crunchy, but the other ingredients (red algae, bonito, vinaigrette, etc.) added depth and complexity. Brightened by the citrusy yuzu -- a refreshing and energetic start to the meal. 2 - HAMO Hamo was lightly fried, soft and still had a crisp even though it was sitting on a deeply savory dashi broth. Chrysanthemum stems and leaves added a slight bitterness that complemented well. 3 - SEAFOOD DONBURI Uni was mixed into the rice, which gave it a rich creaminess. Snow crab was sweet, sea grapes were reminiscent of caviar, and shiso blossoms had nice floral notes. Very briny and packed with umami. 4 - MADAI (JAPANESE SEA BREAM) Light and buttery, mixed with subtly seasoned rice -- clean and delicate bite. 5 - KIJIHATA (HK GROUPER) Slightly chewy and not very flavorful on its own, mostly tasted the rice. 6 - KOREAN FLOUNDER Lime zest was bright and the bite was citrus-forward. Slightly chewy texture, but refreshingly sweet. 7 - ENGAWA (FLOUNDER FIN) Each fin only makes about 7-8 bites. Lightly torched with a buttery texture and smoky finish. 8 - MISO SOUP The intermission before the start of the fattier cuts. An aged red miso soup blended in the dashi made from all the heads and bones of the fish we ate thus far -- incredibly comforting broth that was very sea-sweet. Piece of black sea bass filet was silky and tender. Best miso soup I've ever had. 9 - YELLOWTAIL AMBERJACK Creamy texture, brightened by yuzu and a touch of heat from the wasabi. 10 - SPANISH MACKEREL Cold-smoked the night before, it was soft and rich with a well-balanced smokiness that enhanced the flavor of the fish. 11 - BLUE MACKEREL (OSHIZUSHI) Salt-cured, vingar pickled, and aged over 12 days. Flavors were sweet and pickle-y. One of the top bites of the night. HOKKAIDO UNI FLIGHT 3 uni bites, two greens and purple in the middle. Starting from left to right, the first was the sweetest, creamy with a bit of white miso vinaigrette. The middle was very earthy, citrusy and bright from the kumquat zest -- my favorite of the 3. The last uni was simply seasoned with soy sauce and wasabi, sweet, a bit smoky, and complex. 12 - SALMON WITH BURGUNDY TRUFFLE Lightly torched, the salmon melted instantly on the tongue. It was paired perfectly with the earthy truffle flakes, a phenomenal combo. Another top bite. 13 - AKAMI (LEAN TUNA) Very buttery despite being a lean cut, extremely fresh and clean-tasting. 14 - CHUTORO Luxuriously soft and melted in my mouth instantly, balanced well with the seasoned rice. 15 - OTORO Surprisingly light for the belly cut -- rich but not overwhelming. Hints of mustard added contrast and cut through the fat. 16 - SPICY TORO HAND ROLL Super crisp nori, folded with soy fermented miso and chili, pickled radish, shiso mint, and creamy spicy tuna. Flavorful with a clean finish. ICED MUGICHA (BARLEY TEA) A refreshing palette cleanser before the start of dessert. Tasted subtly like iced coffee, very nutty. 17 - SALTWATER EEL Very delicate, the eel was poached in broth from skins and spines with a lightly sweet sauce that was reduced for 72 hours into eel gelatin. 18 - TAMAGO CASTELLA Sponge-like texture, very light and subtly sweet. Made with egg, sugar, mountain yam and even a bit of minced fish. 19 - STRAWBERRY SORBET Topped with peeled strawberries (which made it 20x sweeter) and egg roll crisps, the peels were used to give the sorbet its vivid red color. A clean treat to end a beautiful meal. We appreciated the background info on all the courses, ranging from where the ingredients were sourced and how they were prepared. The pacing was perfect, and we were done within two hours. We both agreed that this omakase experience is worth a return in the future.

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Personally, I don't recommend going here if you want authentic and great tasting high end sushi. If I hadn't been to Sushi Nakazawa and other higher end sushi restaurants around the world, I would have thought that this place is similar to all other high-end restaurants out there. The rice is hard compared to other sushi restaurants, and it feels like I was served mediocre food at a high-end restaurant. The shrimp is bitter and raw, and I can taste the staleness that I've never tasted in other high end sushi restaurant. The uni doesn't taste fresh, as two out of three uni courses I had doesn't have that sweetness sea taste and had the similar stinky taste of seafood that almost reaches its expiration. Sushi Nakazawa isn't the best in my rankings at the moment, but at least they have more varieties of tastes in terms of fish and their rice isn't hard as wax and sticks together nicely, whereas this restaurant, perhaps the only selling point might be the mackerels, which is only three or four items out of 20+ total items on the menu that is up to par to the standards held by high end sushi restaurants. In addition to that, wagyu with caviar was extremely salty and underwhelming in flavor. Miso soup was serviceable and the strawberry sorbet dessert was slightly refreshing, but other dishes failed to leave an impression. The other side dishes are just dry (anyone had dry ginger? At least other high end sushi restaurants had some moisture to the ginger, but this is just plain desert dry). For a starred restaurant, I expected more consistency and finesse across the board. In addition to that, I'm not sure if it was just me, but I threw up my dinner on the way home. No allergies, but I guess my stomach just doesn't sit well with the hard wax rice from this restaurant. As for service, there is none, and the staff pushed me to my seat while I'm not even readily seated in my chair. Luckily, I'm skinny enough so that I don't get hurt when my body reaches the table, but wow, looks like I need insurance in case something like this happens! 3.9/10 for the food altogether, and most of that score was due to the mackerels and the okay desserts. Service is non-existent, but I'll round that up to two stars. If you had the time, I'd recommend just taking a trip to New York for a better sushi experience for a similar price to this one.

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Well deserving of their Michelin star. Having eaten many omakases and sushi, including in Japan itself, Omakase at Barracks Row is among the top. The food, as you would expect, is of the highest class. 20-ish dishes of the highest quality ingredients make for some of the best sushi and bites you will ever eat. Highlights for my partner and I were the tempura eel in dashi, the sea bream, and the skilfish. We also got the A5 wagyu with caviar addition and it was my partner's favorite bite as well! Chef Ricky and team definitely curated an amazing experience for us. The space itself is wonderful. Clean, sleek, but also open and spacious. We did never feel crowded and had an amazing view of the chefs and the kitchen. Every thing from the chairs to the dishes were carefully thought out to enhance the experience. The service here is what elevated this place for me as well. Gabriel, our server, and his team provided one of the best services I've had at a restaurant. Gabriel himself is professional and extremely knowledgeable, having helped create the experience. He was able to go into the history and details of every dish we ate, something that enhanced the experience. He helped curate the drink menu as well and his sake recommendations were amazing. They were attentive to the degree where if we noticed we were low on water or pickled vegetables, it would be replenished without even asking. I will absolutely recommend this place to anyone and everyone and I look forward to coming back again!

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25/10 Visits: May 2025 New York City seemingly has an endless number of super-premium sushi restaurants nowadays where $400 per head for an omakase dinner (before drinks, tips and taxes) is not that shocking. While my wife Jun and I love sushi, we have been reluctant to shell out that much money when we were in the city. On the other hand, DC certainly has no shortage of sushi restaurants but the number of places offering premium-grade fish is much smaller, but that doesn't necessarily mean you cannot find a quality omakase experience. One restaurant that I have been looking to check out is the fairly new Omakase @ Barracks Row by chef Ricky Wang, who used to work at Sushi Nakazawa before opening his own place on Barracks Row. The entire omakase menu is still at a fairly reasonable price of $180 per person, and Jun and I had plenty to like from the offerings of chef Ricky. The meal at Omakase starts with a few small-sized otsumami dishes before transitioning to nigiri pieces. First came octopus tako salad with seaweed, followed by hamo (pike conger eel) tempura with chery tomato and okra, and then a mini donburi with sea urchin, sea grape and ikura. All three dishes had balanced flavor and texture raising expectations on what chef Ricky will bring to the table. Most of the fish from the nigiri series are sourced from Japan. I would probably say the size of each piece (both the fish and the rice) was slightly smaller than what I remembered eating at other sushi restaurants, but the quality of the fish was generally high while I really liked the texture of the koshihikari rice from a giant pot at the center of the counter. Some of my favorite pieces included red drum (from the Atlantic Ocean, not Japan), cured in sakura leaf that gave a fascinating cinnamon flavor, horse mackerel (aji) with ginger and seared king salmon from New Zealand with summer truffle from Italy on top. Other more conventional pieces were also delicious and well-executed with moderate seasoning and freshness of the fish consistent throughout our meal, most notably honmasu (Japanese trout) with citrus and bamboo salt on top, madai (red sea bream) with sake sauce and kelp, blow torched gindara (sablefish) with citrus and flaked salt and straw smoked sawara (Spanish mackerel). This being the mackerel season, in addition to the horse mackerel and Spanish mackerel I mentioned, chef Ricky also brought out a unique box-style pressed sushi (oshizushi) with cured shime saba (blue mackerel). For the o toro, he used a double piece of tunas to show that even within the fatty tuna grade, there are different levels of fattiness you can appreciate. We also opted for a supplement of wagyu beef (from Okinawa) with caviar and it was a luxurious treat. Our meal concluded with a piece of tamago and a dessert of peeled strawberry, strawberry yuzu sorbet and crumbled coconut egg roll cookies. Omakase has quickly risen to become a hot sushi destination in DC, so I would definitely book in advance (the reservation opens two weeks in advance each morning at 8:45 a.m.). I liked the minimalistic setting of the counter located on the second floor where chef Ricky's craftmanship is the center (as it is supposed to be) of the entire experience. There is a decent list of sake options, both available by bottle and glass options. I do wish the restaurant would give more efforts to expand the wine list for those who enjoy complementing their omakase dinner with a crisp glass of champagne or white wine. Chef Ricky was very friendly and whenever we had questions about a particular dish he was glad to answer them. Jun actually recognized him serving us on our past visit to Nakazawa, so that was a nice surprise, too. Overall, we were very impressed with our experience at Omakase. Perhaps we would love to see a few more showstopper pieces but I am confident that Omakase will be one of our go-to options when we need a sushi fix.

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Such a great experience! We loved the expertise of the team here, from the explanations to the live preparations, every detail seemed well thought out and curated. We didn't have a bite we didn't like. I also discovered a new fish I love and will now have to keep searching for! The ambiance inside is also very clean and modern and we loved the sake recommendations! We will surely be back!

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I've been a long time patron of Sushi Nakazawa and I know Chef Ricky from there. I was stoked to find out he opened up his own restaurant on Barracks Row and I finally made it there last night. I can appreciate they charge you up front for this meal as it is truly something special and need to plan ahead. I paid $180 plus $18 in taxes up front ($198 total). The setting and service are absolutely amazing, topping Nakazawa in my opinion. I paid an extra $25 for the Wagyu with Truffle and $50 for the Uni Flight. I also paid $100 for the sake tasting which consisted of 5 different sake's that you should drink with about every 5 pieces or so. The service director was very attentive and explained each meal and sake in great detail. There wasn't one thing I didn't love. The pickle dish with 4 different options to cleanse your palate is very unique and amazing. The ambiance, service, and food deserve to be a 2 or 3 star Michelin experience in my opinion. I typically eat at Nakazawa for lunch only so this is my new dinner Omakase place as they don't serve lunch here as there aren't enough people in this area to support lunch service.

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service was great , gabriel was very nice and informative the chef was nice and know what he doing the selection of seafood was fantastic and very fresh

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Best omakase I've had so far. I've never had fish that tasted quite this fresh, or an experience that felt so intentional and special. According to the staff, the menu that they served us was different from the menu they were planning to serve at the next dinner service. And in a given week, they go through 11-12 different menus, because the fish is *that* fresh and limited in supply.

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Amazing 1 Michelin star omakase experience! The service director was very articulate and informational in describing each dish. Total dishes was about 21 including dessert. Very unique tastings in each piece. Definitely recommend everyone to come! Ambiance is good.

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