Taylor's Sushi Suite comes to Westhampton Beach 

Hamptons. Omakase. Take one of the country’s toniest vacation enclaves and add a sushi chef’s tasting menu and $150  is a small price to pay, right? To find out, I reserved a spot at Taylor’s Sushi Suite in Westhampton Beach.

Westhampton Beach is one of 15 locations of the team behind Sushi by Bou, a pop-up concept that first surfaced in 2019 on the 10th floor of Hotel 3232 in Manhattan. Whether in Hoboken, Chicago or West Palm Beach, the setup is the same: An accomplished sushi chef is installed in a nontraditional location — in Westhampton Beach it’s on the second floor of Sydney’s “Taylor” Made Cuisine, a gourmet caterer-market — and fewer than a dozen guests pay in advance to sit around a counter and enjoy an evening of omakase ("Omakase," loosely translated as "trust me," empowers the chef to serve whatever he pleases.)

Well, “evening” may be stretching it. Taylor’s Sushi Suite manages three seatings a night. I arrived at the appointed hour, 7 p.m., and, along with the other guests, cooled my heels while the 5:30 group settled up, gathered their things and left. By 8:40 we were hustled out the door to make room for our successors.

Our group of 10 fit snugly at the L-shaped counter behind which chef Cheon Ho Han plied his trade. All of the fish had been cut previously, but he made every piece of sushi as we progressed through the meal. The fish itself was exceedingly fresh, and Ho Han managed to highlight each species' singular qualities.

We started out with fresh king crab (i.e. not kani) served with pickled cucumber and, for textural contrast, tiny spherical rice crackers, hardly bigger than tobiko (flying fish roe). Then it was off to the sushi races.

Fluke was crowned with shreds of dried kelp; sea scallop was seasoned with smoked salt; king salmon was topped with a yuzu-pepper sauce; salmon roe was garnished with yuzu skin; sea bass, with yuzu juice.

Some of the rarer fish included spot prawns with bottarga (Italian cured grey mullet roe); striped jack with ginger and scallions; a slice of knifejaw (a new fish on me) so translucent you could see the wasabi beneath it. Golden eye snapper was lightly torched to bring out the subtle diamond pattern of its flesh. The meal reached its crescendo with A5 (highest grade) wagyu beef that had been minced, placed on a nubbin of sushi rice and charred.

In all there were 17 courses. Portions were small and, if you are wondering, yes, I was still hungry when I left. I don’t expect omakase to be a belly-busting meal and, in the rarefied world of high-end sushi, $150 is a reasonable price. What I missed at Taylor’s Sushi Suite was the sense of intimacy, that the chef and I were on a journey together, that I would be able to chat with him about the fish and how he was serving it, that my seat at the bar would be mine until I decided it was time to go.

The $150 price covers all the food at Taylor’s Sushi Suite. To drink there is beer ($12), wine (glasses $14-15, bottles $56-64), sake (glasses $14-$24; bottles $90-$180). Tax and tip are additional, so figure on spending at least $200 and probably quite a bit more.

Taylor's Sushi Suite, 32 Mill Rd. A, Westhampton Beach, sushibybou.com. Open Thursday and Sunday 5:30 -10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 5-11 p.m.

A previous version of this story listed an incorrect name of Taylor’s Sushi Suite, which will remain open year-round.