Masahiro Urushido's Japanese-American Bar on Hudson Street
The West Village bar where sake meets martini, mortadella meets katsu, and a weeknight walk-in still works if you time it right.
A frosted mug arrives lined with a single shiso leaf, and the gin and tonic inside tastes like someone finally paid attention to the drink. That mug — cold enough to fog on contact, that leaf doing quiet work against the juniper — is the whole Katana Kitten thesis in one pour: Japanese ingredients used with intent, not decoration, on drinks that would still be excellent without them.
Masahiro Urushido opened the bar on Hudson Street in 2018 as its director of deliciousness, and it has stayed on the World's 50 Best list every year since 2019, at No. 10 in 2021 and on the extended list since. The room reads punk-rock izakaya: a neon 天 sign, dollar bills signed and stapled to the rafters, a soundtrack that ricochets from Blues Traveller to early-2000s radio hits with no apology. Two floors, both small, both loud by 8pm.
Urushido has built the rare cocktail bar where the martini and the mortadella sando are equally the reason to come back.
Editorial Deep
The Hinoki Martini at $23 is the drink Urushido is known for: junmai daiginjo sake built into a martini frame, with the hinoki tree essence sitting on top like cold air off a cedar bath. It reads as a Martini, drinks as something else, and rewards paying attention. Order it first.
Ground floor is a narrow bar room with the neon 天 sign glowing over the back bar and signed dollar bills fluttering off the rafters like moth wings. Wood counter, low pendant light, tile behind the bottles. Upstairs is a second, smaller room with tables and the same volume of sound bleeding up through the floor.
West Village locals in their 30s who know the bar, cocktail nerds who flew in for it, and a steady drip of industry showing up after their own shifts. By 9pm on a Friday the ground floor is three-deep and the energy tips from conversation bar to standing party. That crowd is the product on a Saturday night and the cost on a Wednesday when you wanted a quiet drink and got a bachelorette instead. Go early or accept the room.
Skip the reflex of ordering a third round at full price after 6pm; the Hinoki Martini is a drink to savor once, not chase.
This is the best version of what it is trying to be — a Japanese-American cocktail bar with real food, real music, and a Martini worth crossing town for — and it holds that shape whether you come on a Tuesday at 5pm or a Saturday at midnight. Come back on a weeknight before 7pm when you want to taste the Hinoki Martini slowly and talk to the bartender. Skip it on a Saturday after 9pm unless standing three-deep at a bar is the night you wanted.
Order this
Drink this.
Hinoki Martini ($23), Mortadella Katsu Sando, house Gin and Tonic
“Go for the Hinoki Martini before 7pm. Skip late-weekend when the room turns into a standing party.”
Katana Kitten, ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars every year since 2019, holds its place on a Martini that treats sake as a partner, not a garnish, and on food that would carry a bar on its own. The West Village address is intimate to a fault — small on both floors, loud by 8pm, and walk-in only, which means the room you get depends entirely on when you arrive. Come on a weeknight before 7pm or during the 4–6pm happy hour for the version of this bar that made Urushido's name. Save Saturday night for a bar built to be three-deep.
The Verdict
