Odo East Village offers Kaiseki-quality food in Izakaya fashion.
Sky Blue Hospitality
Opened in Manhattan in February 2026, Odo East Village already has 700 people on its waitlist. The reason? Its novel concept "Kaiseki Izakaya”.
The term is a bit of an oxymoron. Kaiseki is a traditional, multi-course Japanese dinner, which reflects seasonality with artistic presentation. Izakaya is a casual pub-style restaurant.
The restaurant’s chef-owner Hiroki Odo, also of the two-Michelin-starred Odo, says, “People are interested in Kaiseki cuisine, but its formality can be too intimidating to try. So I created the Kaiseki Izakaya as an approachable step to discover it.”
Odo East Village’s menu is divided into eight courses, following the Kaiseki tradition: Sakizuke (appetizer), Mukōzuke (sashimi), Wanmono (soup), Yakimono (grilled dish), Agemono (fried dish), Takiawase (simmered dish), Shokuji (rice/noodle course) and Kanmi (dessert). Unlike formal kaiseki, each course offers options. Guests can order from any category in any quantity in izakaya fashion, or from every category to make a full Kaiseki dinner. At the end of the meal, guests have unknowingly familiarized themselves with the menu structure of Kaiseki.
Despite this casual flexible style, the food is as delicate and authentic as what you get at Odo. For example, the Sakizuke dish "Kinpira" involves the painstaking technique of Katsuramuki of burdock root. This technique, to shave cylindrical vegetables into a single, continuous paper-thin sheet, requires high precision and is usually used to cut much larger vegetables like daikon radish. Toyoda's efforts are worth it: the burdock's delicate texture elevates an izakaya staple to a kaiseki-style delicacy, showcasing its pleasant earthy flavor.
The Katsuramuki Kinpira at Odo East Village.
Akiko Katayama
Also, the Takiawase dish "Nikomi" features meltingly tender beef tongue, seasoned with a blend of red and white miso along with reduced red wine. It is finished with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. This Japanese-Western fusion gives kaiseki a welcomingly familiar edge.
The head chef Koji Toyoda, who runs the 24-seat counter, has a strong background: after 11 years of training in Japan, he came to New York in 2023 and worked at the authentic Japanese restaurant Kawabun (now closed), then at Odo.
Alongside the "kaiseki izakaya" concept, the restaurant's other central theme is "rice." "Throughout history, rice has been at the core of Japanese food culture — from an offering to the gods, a currency, to a staple food," says Odo. "I placed it at the heart of the menu as a way to discover what new possibilities rice might hold in this city."
So far, rice's gluten-free nature has been proven to be valuable to many people. Most guests do not come specifically for this reason, but a fair number of them prefer gluten-free food for its potential health benefits.
Making a rice-focused gluten-free menu is not an easy job. From soy sauce to Nuta (vinegar-miso dressing) to Nyumen noodles, every element containing gluten like wheat is eliminated, leaving only the pure flavor of rice. “This challenging process has become an opportunity for us to rediscover the exquisite taste of rice,” says Odo.
Odo East Village’s interior is inspired by a Japanese farmhouse.
Sky Blue Hospitality
Reflecting the popularity of Japanese cuisine, New York has seen a rise in high-end restaurants where a meal can cost several hundred dollars per person. While these spots offer an outstanding dining experience, they are out of reach for most people. Odo East Village’s Kaiseki Izakaya concept is positioned to be a driving force to sustain the popularity of Japanese cuisine going forward.
Many talented chefs exist, but rare are the ones who keep a clear vision of the future and steadily walk toward it amid a busy daily life. Odo is one of them.
Originally from Kagoshima Prefecture, Odo graduated from a culinary school in Fukuoka and trained at notable Kyoto restaurants. He also joined in the launch of Yakumo Saryo, a Tokyo kaiseki restaurant designed by the renowned designer Shinichiro Ogata, where he cultivated an aesthetic sensibility. In 2015, Odo came to New York to work at a Shojin (plant-based Buddhist cuisine) restaurant Kajitsu and maintained a Michelin star for five and a half years.
Chef Hiroki Odo.
Sky Blue Hospitality
Though he highly appreciated Shojin cuisine, Odo felt something was missing amid the many constraints of meat-loving America. He opened Odo in 2019 and 10 months after opening, it earned one Michelin star, followed by two stars in 2023.
But he is not focusing on keeping the stars. He is always busy exploring the next project. For example, on the same property as Odo, he has developed a café-bar called Hall, designed to make Japanese food more approachable; The Gallery, which fuses food and art; and the hidden bar Odo Lounge, all of which have attracted a loyal following.
"I enjoy envisioning the future and crafting a story toward it. Just like in fashion, I imagine what will be in demand next year or three years from now and work backward from there to make it happen.”
Equally, he loves thinking about his staff and in what environment they flourish most. Chef Toyoda is a good example of Odo’s career development philosophy.
How does he manage mental stress to run so many restaurants successfully?
"It doesn't feel like a hardship, because I always find joy in what I am doing. I enjoy my role to observe and lead the people I work with, like an orchestra conductor," he replies with a gentle smile.
He is already at work on upcoming projects, including a seafood restaurant complex and a Japanese vegetable farm.
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