Chef Ambrely Ouimette will open Anbā, a ten-seat omakase chef’s counter, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Thursday, February 12. Located behind a cocktail lounge at 92 Ludlow Street, the counter will offer a seasonal 16-course tasting menu priced at $220 per person. Ouimette will oversee both the kitchen and beverage program, with the operation featuring an all-female culinary team.
The restaurant's own site lists the address and bills the experience as “A Journey of Sixteen Courses,” with bookings handled through its reservation page, which shows the $220 prepaid tasting and available seatings. The Anbā site outlines the counter and lounge setup, and reservations are live on Tock.
What to expect at the counter
The 16-course tasting moves between crudo, nigiri and composed warm dishes, with a strong focus on aging, fermentation and seasonal produce. Early menus may feature chutoro and isaki crudo with Italian salsa verde, Maine scallop with garlic ferment and pecan miso, and chawanmushi enriched with wild mycelium and jidori, with the meal wrapping up in a seasonal dessert such as kakigori. Ouimette described the project as "about honoring where I’ve come from while allowing myself the freedom to evolve," in a statement to What Now.
About the chef
Ouimette studied culinary arts at SUNY Delhi and apprenticed under Chef Norio Ishii at Latitude 43 before moving through seafood-focused kitchens including Matsuhisa Denver and Toro. She later led Sushi|Bar ATX and built a reputation for a contemporary omakase that layers ferments, salts and aging techniques into nigiri and composed plates. Background on her training and career appears in a conference biography and restaurant coverage. MAPP and Eater Austin provide additional context on her trajectory.
Reservations and the lounge
Anbā will initially operate Thursday through Saturday with one nightly seating, then expand to Wednesday through Saturday with two seatings per night, while the front cocktail lounge runs earlier in the evening and shifts into a late-night program after 11 p.m. Reservations are prepaid and handled on Tock, which lists seat availability and times. See the booking page on Tock and the venue overview on Anbā for full details.
Ouimette’s arrival on Ludlow adds another intimate, technique-forward omakase to the city and marks a return to New York after residencies and pop-ups around Austin, Miami and San Diego. Her contemporary approach, marrying traditional edomae technique with ferments, dry-aging and seasonal American sourcing, has drawn notice in prior coverage of her pop-ups and counters. San Diego Magazine and other outlets have previously profiled her work.
