SenYa

Great food! The service was a little slow but still pretty good. It’s recommended to book a table because the restaurant is very small. It’s a great spot for a date. We had uni toast and a roll to start. Then we had the chirashi box. Everything was great but the chirashi box was very impressive in both presentation and taste! Yummmmmmm… We paired the food with a carafe of hakkaisan-​crisp and dry. Loved this restaurant and will definitely be coming back soon.

Pretty good food and sushi entrée. But the menu is limited and their menu showed extremely limited fish for sushi/​sashimi. But nice presentation, and I like the mini don (petite bowl) options. A small but good neighborhood spot where tables are on a close side (but the bench on the sushi bar side is uncomfortable).
Sake pour is small (too pricey for the size of the glass), but they have wine too.

Wow, what a place! Such a great find. A small, intimate and fresh sushi restaurant… I was really impressed with this place from start to finish. I booked a reservation and even though there was a line, they seated us immediately as we entered the door (I felt like a VIP).
For a small restaurant, they really know how to make me feel comfortable. They never rushed my order, they paced and served me only once we finished each dish. The waitress was helpful, funny and informative. My wife and I really appreciate people who knows how to have fun.
We had the sashimi omakase, the fish was super fresh and at the right temperature. We had two other rolls, which were visually impressive and delicious. For dessert, we finish with matcha green tea cheese cake.
Hoping to go back soon. Thank you Chef Ken for the great dishes and a memorable night!

I’m glad I made a reservation on opentable– it’s pretty small so it’ll get packed easily on a Saturday night.
The service was great, wait staff was friendly and attentive (also poured beer with the right amount of head!). Ambience would have been better if they toned down on the cheesy 90’s boy band love ballads. Although we didn’t feel like the omakase took too long, they brought over some edamame on the house.
The spicy garlicky daikon in the beginning would have been nicer if it was not swimming in soy sauce. The Kumamoto oyster topped with uni and ikura was lovely, I wished they would leave some of the oyster juices and perhaps a squeeze of lemon or something acidic would have made it perfect.
My friend and I ordered the omakase. Great value at $ 50, and I loved the California uni piece so much I got another one. The toro was a bit sinewy/​tough to bite through, which was a bit disappointing. One thing I didn’t quite like was that some pieces of fish were kind of cold although the temperature of the rice was warmer. It was inconsistent in that sense. Rice was also a bit too sweet.
Overall, it’s not a bad attempt but I’m not sure I’ll be back for more anytime soon. The chirashi set looks pretty though.

Cute little quiet spot, made reservations for 7pm on a Wednesday night (¹¹⁄₁₃) once seated was given a glass of water and the menu. Had saw the pictures on Unilocal for the chirashi ($ 34) and was already prepared to order. The wait for the food was about 15minutes but we were given radish to taste. When the food arrived the server described each item and also informed us the chef had a special soy sauce to try. Everything was delicious and filling for one person. Would recommend this to other people and I, myself will be coming back with friends.

Quaint sushi spot. Not a Yasuda sushi level but it’s not bad. I came back realizing that I had eaten here before. But it didn’t disappoint.
We had the shishito peppers which were amazing. I’m a huge fan when it comes to shishito peppers so no surprises there.
The sushi senYa plate was not bad. For the price, probably best value sushi. The salmon was very soft and the right texture.
The cod was was great. I really liked the texture and the miso sauce glaze on the cod.
I would recommend this place for a quick bite that won’t break the bank. It’s in a nice area that is great for going out as well. Plenty of bars on 1^st avenue. If I was in the area, I would stop by but with all the spots in NYC I wouldn’t be stopping by any time soon. Twice is good enough for me.

Tiny sushi restaurant in the East Village. My friend and I got the sushi omakase, which consisted 10 pieces of sushi. They started the meal with spicy pickled radish. Then they brought out the first course of the five pieces of sushi, which contained amberjack, salmon, sea bass, mackerel, and toro. I was a taken back when they brought out the sushi because they were the tiniest sushi pieces I’ve ever seen (literally half the size of a normal piece). Hard to tell from my pictures since there’s no real comparison, but if you look at it compared to the wasabi and ginger, you can kind of see. Very, very disappointing, but overall all the fish were fresh and delicious. The second course of the omakase had some normal sized sushi pieces (the uni and eel), but still very underwhelming. Again, all of the pieces were great and delicious, but felt hungry after the meal — which doesn’t ever really happen to me after a meal since I get full pretty easily. I think if they were to give maybe a maki roll with the 10 piece, it may have made it worth it. I will come back to eat sushi here, but probably will not be ordering the omakase. The value of the meal is a 3, but I will give it a 4 because I thought the fish were fresh and delicious and the service was great.

I really wanted to try this place because not only do I love sushi but their plating looked very elegant and neat. Their sushi was very fresh but unfortunately it didn’t leave me or my friend full for the price we had to pay. My friend got the chirashi box and I got the Senya chef assorted. Both were in the price range of mid $ 30’s for each dish. When both dishes came, our waitress happily explained each sushi on our plate. We also got the uni snow crab for appetizer and we both didn’t like it unfortunately. Perhaps we should’ve tried a different roll but maybe next time. But, service was good and it’s a cute little place worth trying.

Chirashi! Chirashi! Chirashi!
Location: east village is an amazing heaven for foodies. SenYa, I guess, is not famous among East village but in my heart, it is so far the best Japanese sushi place I have ever visited in NYC. This place is legit. It is small. The front door is minimized decorated and if you are not paying attention, you probably will miss this great place. Inside the restaurant, there are several seats crowding together and interestingly they also have a bar at the very end.
Me and my friend were greeted when we stepped into the restaurant. Since we were early, we could basically seat wherever we want. The menu seems not to contain lots of variations. They do not have tofu as their appetizer. I was kinda disappointed but then I saw their sushi entrée and Chirashi came to my sight. I knew, that’s all I need to eat
Food: Chirashi, «a Japanese dish consisting of sushi served with various ingredients including chopped vegetables, sashimi, cured fish, roe, nori and omelet slices”(
) is always my favorite. I am so happy that they serve chirashi here. I ordered it and it did not let me know. Everything is fresh. The salmon, yellow tail, uni, eels and so on. In addition, the sauce is balanced, meaning it both reflects the sauce’s flavor as well as fish ‘s flavor. Rice, at the bottom of fishes, is well deigned and also delicious. I almost ate all of them!
Price: 34 for a chirashi, a good one, a delicious one. oh, it is not expensive. With the freshness, I would pay 34 for it!
Overall: the total experience is a blast. I will come back, for sure, for sure!

I absolutely love sushi. I came here with a few friends. We all had not gone out for sushi in months, so it was long over due.
It’s a classy atmosphere with a stylish menu. They have a decent drink list of both wine and sake. As for their menu, I must say, I was a little disappointed. Their menu didn’t really have a lot of roll options, that I was use to. I order salmon and shrimp where ever I go, but they didn’t seem to have a lot of salmon and shrimp options – really only one or two. Everything else on the menu was either by individual pieces or a large set (which I wasn’t ready to splurge $ 35 bucks on, even though it looked amazing).
Overall, the sushi we ordered turned out being really good. We all ended up ordering the same thing, the Salmon Roe. (I think we were all in agreement that we wish they had more salmon/​shrimp options). I very much enjoyed it and satisfied by sushi craving.

I’ll admit that when I first saw this place, I thought it was your usual dime-​a-​dozen neighborhood sushi spots. That opinion quickly changed once I started eating. Sure, there are items on the menu that are pretty standard fare, but that’s not why we’re here, are we? Try their specialty rolls and their weekly specials, you won’t regret it.
One of the things that stand out about this place is their beef sushi /​rolls — very interesting and different. On one occasion they had a weekly special of a wagyu beef roll. It was very flavorful and substantial, and I was pleasantly surprised by the maitake mushrooms in the roll. Yum.
Another is their generous usage of uni, good uni! Order anything with uni on it and it’ll come with a nice heap. The most notable was this special U.S.K (uni, scallop, king crab) roll. Each section of the 8-​piece roll had a nigiri-​sized portion of uni on it (see picture)! I’m still thinking about it.
The space is small, which is not unusual for the East Village, but come at the right time and you’re sure to get a seat (Sunday night). The staff is friendly to boot.

Confession: I only recently started eating sushi after years of avoiding it for fear of getting sick from raw fish. But then I decided to throw caution to the wind! (So far, so good.) I read about SenYa somewhere (Eater? The New Yorker? not sure) and had it bookmarked for a while. I checked it out on a recent Friday night with a friend who is a Japanese food connoisseur. The space is fairly small and narrow. We got there at about 6:15, and it was already pretty full. They were able to seat us, but I would recommend a reservation any later than that.
I left the ordering to my friend, since she knows what she’s doing. We got the shishito peppers to start (spicy but not too spicy) and then split three rolls for our entrée: shrimp and eel (shrimp tempura and cucumber top with eel and deep fried gobo), yuzu hamachi (spicy tuna and avocado top with yellowtail and deep fried shallot), and tuna wasabi (jicama, cucumber and avocado top with tuna wasabi, oba and bonito flakes). All three were good, but I think my favorite was the shrimp and eel. Also, each roll has 8 pieces, so 3 rolls was quite a lot for two people. We managed to finish it, but it took a while. Fortunately the servers were all very nice and did not rush us at all.
I have a ways to go before becoming any sort of expert on sushi, but we both enjoyed the food at this place and would go back. Good service and nice ambiance as well.

KenScale: 8.0÷10
SenYa is a new sushi restaurant in East Village. It doesn’t have a sushi bar and consists only of tables, which concerned me a bit because I’ve always had a way better experience sitting at the bar where the chef can dole out individual piece on a real time basis instead of sending multiple pieces at the same time. Overall, however, I did like most of what the kitchen was sending out here.
The menu consists of various dishes, sushi and non-​sushi, with a lot of fresh fish. I was intrigued to try the foie gras sushi from the weekly special menu and really liked the texture that was silky smooth. On the other hand, wagyu beef strip-​loin sushi was somewhat underwhelming. With all the pricey sushi points in the city, SenYa offers a relatively reasonable omakase menu of 10 pieces of sushi at $ 50 per person. You don’t need to dip these pieces on soy sauce (they are already flavored), but a little bit can help. Overall, the fish that came in was pretty fresh and the texture of rice was more than adequate. There are some surprises with different ingredients on top of fish, such as caviar over ivory king salmon and uni on top of scallop. Toro was somewhat not as texturally satisfying as I had hoped, but other pieces like sea eel, red snapper and ebi (shrimp) with ikura (roe) on top were more or less on the point.
Getting a reservation wasn’t difficult, but the cozy and modern dining space is relatively tiny, so I highly suggest booking a reservation in advance. SenYa has a somewhat concise but solid sake menu that you can complement your meal with. For a decent sushi experience at relatively bargain price in East Village, SenYa is definitely a good option to consider.

This restaurant isn’t big so I suggest making a reservation. When I walked in, I thought I was in one of those generic sushi restaurants that sell $ 3 dollar special rolls. But everything here was SO fresh and SO delicious.
I started off with the Kumamoto oyster and uni and ikura appetizer. I am a BIG uni lover and I enjoyed this so much that I ordered another one at the end of my meal. The uni and oyster was super fresh — SO IMPORTANT.
I ended up with the chirashi box and my friend had the omakase. We both enjoyed our meal. The box was a very good deal for $ 34 and it comes with an assortment of fishes. I kind of wish I got the omakase though as my friend couldn’t stop raving about the pieces she was eating. Oh well, next time!
At the end, we ended up getting more sushi pieces. The fatty tuna was just slightly fatty so I was a little disappointed but still delicious.

Came for a date night and wound up leaving a bit unsatisfied with the experience. I had sort of bamboozled my boyfriend into coming to SenYa as I wanted to try their chirashi box meal in comparison to Hatsuhana’s. It was a particularly wet and windy day so we had taken a cab to the restaurant. Of course we got caught in traffic and wound up arriving about 20 minutes late for our reservation. Luckily they had upheld our reservation and were in fact waiting for us to arrive, score.
We already knew what we were planning on ordering so we weren’t sitting stagnant for long. One order of the sake don and one order of the SenYa chirashi. We were both pretty peckish so the 30+ wait for our food was excruciating, but at least they gave us a complimentary dish. I think it was some kind of spicy soy pickled radish? I liked it, nice and crunchy with layers of flavor. Kinda wish I’d had a giant bowl of it with rice.
Presentation-​wise our dishes were gorgeous. However, I was unable to really enjoy it considering the restaurant was so dimly lit. Most photos I’d taken that evening were practically unusable. I was actually struggling with determining what was what in the dishes. As far as the food was concerned, it was good, but not great. Salmon don’s are an order I get often as it’s my favorite fish, but what I got at SenYa would not even rank in the top 20 sake bowls I’ve had. The fish wasn’t the best quality and I didn’t like the way they had cut it. The sashimi was too large and messed up the harmony of the dish, made it WAY more rice and ikura than salmon.
As for the chirashi dish, meh. It looked lovely, but again, none of the fish were particularly delicious. They weren’t bad quality, they just weren’t the best. We also made the mistake of having uni in our order. I don’t like uni and I assumed my boyfriend wouldn’t either, but he wanted to try it. Of course, not alone, he forced me to share it with him. At least I managed to swallow my portion of it, he had to excuse himself. Tasted like REALLY gnarly cheese. No wonder I haven’t had any in over a decade. This isn’t at all SenYa’s fault, but ours, we shouldn’t have gotten that. The yummiest item in the chirashi dish was the unagi portion, everything else was rather dull.
For dessert we got the water cake and wow, that thing is cool. It doesn’t have much flavor, tastes like water essentially, but with maple syrup and red bean it’s absolutely delicious. A bit difficult to eat however, it kept sliding off of my fork. Maybe some spoons next time? It’s kind of hard to eat jelly with a pronged object.
All in all, my time at SenYa wasn’t anything above average. The only overwhelmingly positive things I can say about the establishment was the water cake and the service. Both were amazing. As for the sushi? Not the best. I left with a sore heart having had dragged my boyfriend downtown for an expensive meal we didn’t really love. We were actually still hungry after leaving and about an hour later we were in our apartment chowing down on donuts and empanadas. So I dunno. SenYa wasn’t a negative experience, but it wasn’t a positive one either. It was just… so-​so. Don’t really know if I’d recommend it to a friend.

The folks at SenYa are Uni fans for sure. There was an abundance of Uni on our table, and there are even dried urchin shells decorating the restaurant walls! We ordered a Chirashi Box ($ 34– an excellent deal) which had 6 different presentations of a variety of fish. Each type of fish came in pairs, making the box perfect for sharing. The Uni is sourced from Santa Barbara and was clean and fresh-​tasting.
Each piece of fish was treated with a deft hand. I always say you can tell a sushi shop by its salmon and I haven’t had such quality, sweet and buttery salmon in a long while– I suspected a slight truffle glaze, as the umami flavor was off the charts!
We also ordered the Uni Risotto, which was composed of delicious, perfectly cooked rice that was seasoned lightly to accent the generous pieces of Uni atop.
Was really glad we got here in time for happy hour, when beer was $ 4, wine was $ 5, and $ 6 for sake chilled on ice. I want to come back and try more nigiri!

SenYa is a 4 – 5 point toss up. I loved the service, the food presentation, the number of specials they have and overall taste. A couple of good and bad but I would definitely come back.
Thumbs up
— Orion beer we ordered was served chilled with two ice cold glasses.
— Komomoto oyster with uni and salmon roe was beautifully presented and looked very refreshing
— Foie gras sushi although I didn’t eat it (she did) seemed like it was the best thing she had all night since she mentioned it 4 times.
— Santa Barbara uni sushi was great. The piece was huge and looked like the size of a human tongue. Sweet, creamy and absolutely fresh.
— Uni risotto was bomb. We had it with no truffles but felt there was a hint of truffle oil in there but I could be wrong. Regardless, the taste was savory and on point.
— Charashi presentation. Seabream, and uni. That’s it.
Thumbs down
— The $ 9 bluefin toro looked amazing and fatty. However the texture and flavor was not there. It was the worst $ 9 toro spent. Ligaments in-​between the meat was chewy and it lacked the creamy melt in your mouth flavor fatty toro brings.
— Charashi taste and texture. While you get many pieces of fish, the texture was off on a few pieces notably the tuna and salmon.
— Water cake. This was basically jello. Red bean on the side. Comes with syrup you pour on top. It’s tasteless jello. Don’t get it.

Let’s be honest, sushi restaurants come a dime a dozen in NYC. With that in mind, SenYa is totally a welcome edition to the strip of knock-​out kings on 1^st ave such as Maharlika (sup Topher), Upstate and even Eater’s wet dream — OiJi.
Small but very home-​y, SenYa greets you with a warm smile as you enter their abode. Picture taking-​wise, you’ll want to grab the seats towards the window to even remotely do your photos justices.
Never felt rush, we started off with a bottle of Dassai 50 which was placed on ice as well as a few starter bites that include Kumamoto oysters w/​yuzu foam and separately w/​Sturgeon caviar and 2 pieces of foie gras. Even at 6 dollars a piece, get the foie gras, trust me. In terms of entrees, my beb ordered the salmon platter which was presented very simplistically yet appealing to the eye. I went for the chirashi that included chef’s choice of 12 pieces of sushi on top of rice.
Our waitress who I assumed was also the manager /​owner of the joint, informed us on how to properly enjoy the foie gras pieces which should be eaten as is. After the brief explanation, my beb being herself asked «so I can put a little wasabi on it»? Our waitress wasn’t amused lol.
My personal favorite oyster, the Kuamamoto was super fresh! Creamy and full bodied — these oysters was as perfect as they could possibility be. Yuzu foam gave it a well balanced citrus zap.
I recommend any sushi fans to definitely try out their chirashi entrée. Separated into a six slotted bento box, chef’s choice of the freshest sushi pieces paired with a well balance vinegar rice that was very fluffy and light. Lucky for me, Santa Barbara Uni was part of that and until today, I never really tasted the true essence of uni. Loved it. Our waitress also informed us that they had Hokkaido uni per piece as well. We tried, while it was good, the ball n’ chain and I decided we preferred California home grown better.
Overall, a perfect date night spot. It isn’t particularly cheap but you pay for quality and SenYa bring that to the table and a bag of chips. This isn’t your every day sushi joint, come for the uni, stay for everything else.

SenYa is a quiet little gem in the East Village. The menu features many Asian fusion hot dishes, omakase, and other special fresh fish sushi rolls. My companion and I were just around the area sorting out our dinner options after the movies. Photos of SenYa’s Chirashi bento box was a major push to try this spot out. I made reservations right away but it was fairly quiet when I arrived on that Saturday evening.
SenYa started us off with a complimentary spicy daikon dish. Daikon was soaked with what I believe to be soy sauce. I actually enjoyed the spicy kick to it. My companion and I shared the following dishes: Lamb Chops, Sake Don, and of course, SenYa’s Chirashi.
Lamb Chops was cooked tenderly with hints of seasoning spices and ginger. It was a bit too much ginger taste for me personally but I did love the sauce. The mushroom and the asparagus that came with it soaked up the sauce, therefore it was yummy!
Sake Don is a seasoned rice bowl with fresh salmon, salmon roe, and pieces of tamago. Loved the fresh ingredients and salmon lovers, this dish is highly recommended for you!
Last but certainly not the least, SenYa’s Chirashi bento box is here! The bento box features ten different fresh fish ingredients like salmon, salmon belly, tuna, hokkaido uni, eel, ebi shrimp with salmon roe, yellowtail, mackerel, and tamago. Every piece was really fresh and it sat on top of a mint leaf on rice. Ratio between fish and rice was very generous. The rice was a bit more on the vinegar side but that’s okay with me. My favorite is no doubt the Hokkaido Uni which was sweet and buttery! Excellent presentation!
We ended our dinner with the Water Cake which really was a clear jello with mashed red bean paste and strawberry jam on the side. Not a fan of the strawberry jam but it was pretty good with the red bean paste!
Excellent customer service with awesome food! We look forward to come back for the special rolls!

Senya is a new addition to the sushi scene in East Village, given its predictable location, people might overlook it but it’s definitely a gem in my book.
The place is small with no more than 30 seats I would say it makes it more intimate and cozy.
Our meal started with complimentary daikon, it was slightly spicy due to the jalapeño.
The foie gras sushi was AMAZING. Definitely a must try if you’ve never had it. It’s soft, insanely buttery and sinful as f*ck but I’d eat it again and again. It was so good, almost as good as uni!
The uni snow crab roll was so and so, there wasn’t much uni in it and the snow crab was overpowering, I would skip this, it didn’t wow me nor was it worth the $ 18 price tag.
The main star was the chirashi. I’m always a sucker for presentation so when I saw another spot served chirashi in a dissected box form I knew I had to try it. It came in a box filled with 6 bowls offering 10 types of sashimi that comes out to about 18 pieces. All this food for $ 34! This makes Hatsuhana a run for its money! (Their box of dreams ranges from $ 32 — $ 42)
The box included an assortment of Hokkaido uni, ikura, eel, tamago, kanpachi, salmon belly, mackeral, tuna, yellowtail, hirazou (I might be spelling it wrong) another type of yellowtail.
The salmon belly was amazing especially since it’s brushed with truffle!!!
The yellowtail had a really smooth texture, you’ll know what I mean when it hits your tongue.
Surprisingly I liked the eel, I usually find it too briny but the sauce overtook the brininess.
Mackeral was the most briny out of the bunch, my least favorite.
The tuna and hirazo was quite fresh. I believe it was toro tuna.
The Hokkaido uni was so and so, it lacked the sweet after taste.
I ended my meal with a water cake which I found to be delightful. I’ve heard about it in Japan and it was a real treat to see it in person! The texture of the water cake was really smooth and the red bean and honey wasn’t too overly sweet.
If you’re looking for a unique and modern take on sushi then look no further! Your taste buds will be pleased.