Taylor's Sushi Suite Brings Omakase to Westhampton Beach for Another Year

There are people who take their sushi seriously. And serious sushi people love omakase, the quintessential multi-course Japanese culinary experience.

Reopening for its second year after a fall and winter hiatus, Taylor’s Sushi Suite is once again offering a world-class omakase experience in Westhampton Beach.

Chef Cheon Ho Hahn (aka “Chef Hancho”) is also back for another season, serving up an omakase feast in an intimate 8-seat space on the top floor of an 1860s-era farmhouse.

The ground floor of the farmhouse is the home of Sydney’s Taylor Made, a gourmet market and caterer that has been a Westhampton Beach mainstay in one location or another for three decades.

Founded by Erin Finley and her husband and partner, Chef David Blydenburgh, in 1993, Sydney’s Taylor Made, which was named after the couple’s two daughters, has been operating in its current home on Mill Road since 2014 after over a decade on Main Street.

Working in partnership with Sushi by Bou, which creates upscale omakase experiences across the country, Taylor’s Sushi Suite offers a 90-minute, multi-course meal that changes nightly. The cost is $150 per person for 17 inventive courses and includes a glass of sake, beer or wine. Reservations are essential. Seating is available for four servings per night from Friday to Sunday in the early part of the season, and from Thursday to Sunday in peak summer, with each seating strictly limited to eight guests.

In English, the Japanese phrase “omakase” translates to, “I’ll leave the details up to you.” And diners will need to get comfortable with doing just that.

Before you sit down for your omakase experience, you’ll obviously need to cite any food allergies you may have. If you must, you can also weigh in before the fact if you really dislike a particular course. But, unless you passionately loathe, say, the audacious fishiness of uni (sea urchin) or the funky texture of unagi (eel), you’d best let Chef Hancho do his thing unencumbered by your personal culinary preferences.

Chef Hancho was born and raised in Korea, trained as a sushi chef in New York City and now lives in Hampton Bays. He not only controls every aspect of the meal, he also controls the utensils. Diners are specifically instructed when and when not to use chopsticks. The vast majority of the courses are expressly designed to be eaten by hand, ostensibly to avoid cross-contamination of the flavors between courses. An elegantly folded cleaning wipe is perched on the plate for between-course purifications.

Hancho also helpfully points out that the pickled ginger on the plate is to be used only as a palate cleanser between courses. It is most assuredly not meant to be piled on top of one of the chef’s creations before popping it into your mouth (excessive ginger usage is a mistake inexperienced sushi eaters often make.)

Part of the lure of this type of omakase service is the joy of watching a master chef prepare and serve each course directly in front of you, then say a few words about what it is and how it was created before presenting it.

Watching and listening to Chef Hancho slice and dice and fold and garnish and wield his mini blow torch, then lovingly introduce each of his culinary creations to the eager clientele, is a blast unto itself. But equally enjoyable, at least for more gregarious types, is the camaraderie that invariably emerges among the diners. Fine food served at a leisurely pace with adult beverages in a tastefully intimate setting just naturally tends to spark spirited conversation.

But, of course, the food is the unquestioned star of the show. The ever-changing menu, which the chef sources mostly from traditional Japanese fish markets, explodes with complex and surprising flavors. And the butteriness and subtle mouthfeel of the fish (and beef) is hard to properly describe.

Highlights of a visit include hotate (scallops) with lemon and smoked sea salt; itoyori (sea bream) with daikon radish ponzu; hirame (fluke) with shio kombu (salted kelp); akami (lean tuna) with ginger and scallion; and wagyu beef with caviar and black truffles.

It’s hard to come up with good reasons not to dive into the omakase at Taylor’s Sushi Suite. The location, the food and the overall vibe make for a thoroughly enjoyable evening overflowing with culinary delights and bonhomie. But if we need to quibble, the $150 per-head price tag, though entirely reasonable given the quality of the food, may be off-putting to some – particularly if diners choose to throw another round or two of drinks into the mix beyond the first complimentary glass. And of course, for those who find certain intense tastes difficult to deal with, some of the fish courses are by their nature pretty damn fishy (we’re looking at you, sea urchin; we’re also looking at you, monkfish liver.)

Those caveats aside, Chef Hancho and the Taylor’s management team are offering serious omakase done right. We expect locals and summer folks alike to scoop up the limited seats at the sushi bar very quickly.

Taylor’s Sushi Suite is located at 32 Mill Road in Westhampton Beach. It can be reached at 631-430-6035, sushibybou.com.