Lobster Club

Verdict

A Google rating of 4.4 across 365 reviews, a 2024 Michelin Plate, and a spot on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in North America list — Lobster Club has earned its credibility in a room that carries serious historical weight. This is the third reinvention of the old Four Seasons dining space inside the landmark Seagram Building on East 53rd Street, and it works better than the previous attempts. At $$$ pricing (expect $66+ per person for two courses before drinks), it sits below the full-blown $$$$ omakase tier occupied by Masa or Atomix, which makes it one of the more accessible serious Japanese dining options in Midtown. Book it for dinner when you want the drama of the room without a four-figure bill.

The Room and the Food

If you've been once and enjoyed the teppanyaki, the direction for your next visit is clear: go deeper into the seafood mains and spend time at the bar. The interior — white onyx bar counter, pink and chartreuse upholstery, bold wall art , is a deliberate departure from the stiff formality that defined this address for decades. Chef Frank Calamia leads the kitchen under a menu that Chef Tasuku Murakami shaped, and the format is a Japanese brasserie rather than an omakase or kaiseki progression. That means you're ordering à la carte, building a meal across teppanyaki preparations, raw items, and main courses rather than surrendering control to a set sequence.

The teppanyaki section is where the kitchen shows its focus: scallops grilled and finished with savory sauce and toasted sesame seeds are a benchmark preparation, and charred king oyster mushrooms and shishito peppers hold their own as a table anchor. For mains, black bass in a yuzu-herb sauce is a dish that rewards returning diners , the cooking technique is restrained enough to let the citrus brightness come through without overwhelming the fish. These are the dishes to anchor a second or third visit around.

On the editorial angle of whether this food travels: Lobster Club is not built for delivery. The teppanyaki preparations depend on heat and timing; the yuzu-dressed bass loses its balance in a to-go container. This is a sit-down kitchen. The value is in eating here, in this room, at this bar. If you're looking for Japanese food that holds up off-premise in New York City, venues like Chikarashi or Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya are better suited to that use case. Lobster Club's proposition is the full experience of the space.

The Wine Program

The wine list is one of the more serious in this price tier: 3,500 selections, 28,800 bottles in inventory, with strengths across California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Rhône, and Italy. Wine Director John Slover and Amy Thurmond oversee the list alongside sommeliers Samara Seligshon and Axel Rosas. At $$$ pricing and a $95 corkage fee, bringing your own bottle only makes sense if you have something that genuinely outpaces what they're already pouring. For Japanese whisky, the bar pours more than 30 labels , a specific reason to arrive early or sit at the bar rather than go straight to a table.

Booking and Logistics

Booking difficulty here is moderate. This is not the three-month scramble of Eleven Madison Park or the appointment-only stress of Masa, but walk-in availability at prime Midtown dinner hours is not reliable. Plan one to two weeks ahead for weeknight dinner; weekends may require more lead time. The address , 98 East 53rd Street in the Seagram Building , is well-served by transit and familiar to anyone who has worked or dined in Midtown, which removes any logistical friction. Lunch is also an option and tends to be a lower-pressure booking for the same kitchen.

Owners Jeff Zalaznick, Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone, and Aby Rosen run a portfolio that includes some of the most watched dining rooms in New York, so the operational standards here are higher than a typical standalone venue at this price point. That pedigree matters when you're evaluating whether the $$$ tab represents value.

How It Compares

For context within the Japanese dining tier in New York, odo and Noda offer more focused kaiseki or omakase formats if a structured tasting is what you're after. Tsukimi sits closer to the intimate end of the spectrum. Lobster Club occupies a different position: it's a brasserie-scale room in a landmark building, with a list deep enough to support a long evening, priced one tier below the full omakase ceiling. That's a specific value proposition, and it's one of the few Japanese venues in Midtown that can handle a group dinner as easily as a two-leading.

For diners traveling or planning across cities, the ownership group's focus on New York means Lobster Club has no direct equivalent elsewhere in their portfolio , but for Japanese dining comparisons internationally, Myojaku and Azabu Kadowaki in Tokyo represent the formal end of the same culinary tradition at a different price tier and formality level.

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Cuisine: Japanese  |  98 E 53rd St, New York, NY 10022  |  Price: $$$  |  Meals: Lunch and Dinner  |  Awards: Michelin Plate (2024), Opinionated About Dining Recommended (2023)  |  Google: 4.4 (365 reviews)