There’s a 12-Seat Omakase Hiding in Scotch Plains — and It’s Already Booked Through October

Scotch Plains is not where you'd expect to find one of the most in-demand tables in New Jersey right now. But that's exactly what's happening at Sushi BBY Omakase, a 12-seat omakase-only restaurant at 1832 E. Second Street that opened around August — and is reportedly already booked through October.

Twelve seats. That's it. No written menu. No takeout. No walk-ins. You book a seat, you sit down, and the chef feeds you. That's omakase in its purest form — the word literally means "I'll leave it up to you" — and Sushi BBY is doing it with zero compromises.

Here's how it works. There are two options: a 12-course tasting for $80, or a 17-course tasting for $120. Seatings run at 5:30, 7:00, and 8:30 every night, with an extra 10 p.m. seating on Fridays and Saturdays. You pick your tier, you pick your time, and then you surrender. Whatever comes out of that kitchen is what you're eating, course by course, and that's the whole point.

If you've never done omakase before, let me break it down for you. This isn't ordering sushi. There's no California roll safety net, no "I'll just get the spicy tuna." The chef decides the progression — usually starting light and delicate, building toward richer cuts, maybe a hand roll or something cooked in the middle, finishing clean. You're tasting things in the order they're meant to be tasted, at the exact moment they're meant to be eaten. It's the difference between listening to a playlist on shuffle and hearing an album front to back.

And $80 for 12 courses is genuinely aggressive pricing. In the city, a 12-course omakase can run you double that without blinking. A $120 17-course option in the suburbs of Union County is the kind of value that makes food people lose their minds — which is probably exactly why the books are full through October.

The spot is co-owned by Carmen Gumina, Po Chen, and Sean Zhao, and it took over the former First Option Juice Hub and Salad Bar space on East Second Street. The vibe, by all accounts, is "Japanese cyberpunk" — moody, intimate, cool date-night energy. Twelve seats in a dark room with neon accents, watching a chef work inches from your plate. That's not dinner, that's theater.

Here's what I love about this story: it's a bet. Opening a 12-seat, no-menu, reservations-only omakase counter in Scotch Plains is not the safe play. The safe play is a sushi spot with a 40-page menu and a hibachi grill. Sushi BBY looked at a suburban strip on East Second Street and said, nah, we're doing the real thing. And New Jersey responded by booking it out two months deep.

That tells you something about where NJ dining is right now. People aren't just willing to drive for this — they're planning around it. The omakase wave that started in the city has fully reached the suburbs, and the suburbs are showing up.

A few practical things if you're trying to get in. Book ahead — obviously, with reservations running through October, this is a plan-two-weeks-out situation, not a Friday-night impulse. The 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday seatings are a sleeper pick: late-night omakase hits different, and those might be the last seats to fill. And go in open-minded. The whole deal is trust. Don't ask for substitutions, don't ask what's coming next. Just eat.

Scotch Plains, you've got a good one. Twelve seats, no menu, booked solid. Sometimes the boldest move is the smallest room.