MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
Restaurant Nippon
Hand-cut soba and beef negimayaki on East 52nd Street, in an Edo-style dining room open since 1963.
Nippon has been cooking Edo-style Japanese food on East 52nd Street since 1963, which makes it one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the city and a living record of how New York learned to eat this way.
Come for the hand-cut soba: eat it cold first, on its own with a dipping sauce, and then try the soba salad the restaurant says it pioneered. Nippon also claims beef negimayaki — scallions rolled in thin beef and glazed — as its invention, and it is worth ordering for the history alone. Full kaiseki courses are there for a longer evening.
Editor’s tip
Order cold soba and the negimayaki, and save room to finish with a hot soba if it's winter.
Make an evening of it — beautiful stops nearby
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Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.