Jewel Bako - Manhattan's secret jewel box

Jewel Bako – Manhattan’s Secret Jewel Box

Jewel Bako, whose name translates to Jewel Box is a Japanese cuisine restaurant located in Manhattan, New York City. The interior is fair and amusing, the lighting is not spectacular (though satisfactory), and the small yet intimate and glittering ambiance compliments the term Jewel. It is owned by married couple Jack and Grace Lamb and founded back in 2001. Since sushis and sashimis are at the peak of their popularity nowadays, there are lots of competitors in the business but Jewel Bako remains one sushi bar that still stands strong and is always packed with customers.

At Jewel Bako, since it is one of the most popular sushi bars around, service is sluggish but since it maintains a moderately priced menu, it is pretty much a fair deal for diners anyway. Reservations are highly recommended due to overwhelming demand. The restaurant, unfortunately, can only offer street parking. Jewel Bako is open from Mondays to Saturdays at 6:30 PM until 10:30 PM. Jewel Bako serves fresh, and high quality sushi that you can recommend to your New York City crowd.

Food price varies from $35 to $95 (which is considered moderate by sushi bar standards). Some recommend the house specialty called Tuna toro tartare priced at a mere $18, and chef’s omakase at $95. They offer fabulous appetizers, soups and salads as well. Jewel Bako accepts major credit cards such as Diners Club, MasterCard, American Express, Visa, and Discover. With a talented and energetic staff on duty everyday, the Japanese cuisine is competently prepared with the able assistance of their executive chef, Yoshihihiko Kousaka. The chef and cooks are very humble and very much willing to converse with the customers about the variety of fish and the quality of the food that are prepared in-house. Wine lovers may want to taste their Jack Lamb’s sake, though Jewel Bako also offers a lot of wine variations (which may seem a bit pricey, however, so come prepared).

Designed by Hiromi Tsuruta, Jewel Bako has around 30 seats available at the regular dining tables, and about 6 seats at the sushi bar. There is no question why the place is always packed up because compared to other towering sushi empires in the city, Jewel Bako offers one of the best Japanese restaurant experiences you can get.

The ambiance of Jewel Bako has quite a hip, romantic and relaxing ambiance. If you are looking for a place where you can stuff yourself sick with sushi, then Jewel Bako is not the place for you. They offer varieties of sushi at normal (or some may say small) portions. However, one taste will convince you that this is the real Japanese sushi experience.

Jewel Bako is not the most suitable place for conducting business meetings or meeting large groups of people, or even serves a place to take your kids. But if you use it for a romantic night out with your date, then it is perfect.

A consumer’s point of view may vary in many ways. What Jewel Bako does is to keep the consistent quality of their food in its best. The usual appearance of the owners of the place makes it even more intimate for the customers. They may even check up on you from time to time to see if you are fine with your meal. Some customers may really put their eyes on Jewel Bako’s service and comments with the words “as bad as ever”.

But most people who have experienced the dining at Jewel Bako gave a positive approach on how their experience at Jewel Bako goes. Food was always excellent; having fish as fresh as ever, even though the service was called “sluggish” – most of them claim, the dining experience is worth for every penny you pay.