Kono

Atsushi Kono was the first chef in America to earn a Michelin star for yakitori, at Torishin. His own place sits in the Canal Arcade, the old passage between the Bowery and Elizabeth Street, down an alley that is easy to walk past: a small, almost entirely black room around a counter and a grill. North America's 50 Best Restaurants ranked it No. 23 in 2025.

There is one way to eat here — the omakase — and it moves through the whole bird, from a chicken-liver rice-cracker sandwich and a cup of broth through a long parade of skewers. The tsukune is the one people talk about afterward. If you are game, add the chochin from the à la carte list: liver, oviduct and an unlaid egg on one stick.