Rei

Rei is a small Japanese restaurant on Sullivan Street, between Houston and Prince, in a 500-square-foot room with a sushi bar and a cozy dining area. It opened in 2025 and has the personal scale of a neighborhood spot, though the cooking reaches for something more ambitious: the kitchen offers a full kaiseki experience alongside an à la carte menu built around sashimi, hot dishes and a short list of house favorites. The house speaks of blending tradition with modern technique and a focus on natural ingredients, and the room is quiet enough for real conversation. On a block lined with old South Village tenements, it feels like a discovery, the sort of place you keep for yourself before telling friends.

For a first visit, the kitchen suggests choosing from its "Eight Highlights": a couple of cold dishes, a couple of hot ones, something to fill out the table and dessert. Yellowtail jalapeño with citrus soy is the recommended opener, followed by a seared tuna sashimi salad, creamy spicy rock shrimp tempura and black cod marinated in miso, then baked and broiled. Crab croquettes and yukke also appear in the house notes. Rei was featured by the YouTuber New York Turk in 2026, shortly after its opening. Reservations are taken by phone or text through the restaurant's website, and the kaiseki menu is the choice for a special night.