Masa Takayama Is Coming Home To Beverly Hills For Five Nights Only — And There Are Only 100 Seats Available

Photo Credit: Chantal Arnts

Masa Takayama is coming back to the city where he became Masa Takayama. From September 16 through 20, The Peninsula Beverly Hills is hosting a five-night omakase residency with the New York-based chef — 100 seats total, split across two seatings a night at a 10-seat counter, for $795 a head. It’s timed to the hotel’s 35th anniversary, and it’s the rare anniversary booking that actually earns the press release, instead of just being another spa package with a candle in it.

Beverly Hills Is Where Masa Became Masa

Takayama’s American story starts here, not in New York. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980 after an eight-year apprenticeship at Tokyo’s Ginza Sushiko, opened Saba-ya, and then opened his own Ginza Sushiko in Beverly Hills — a tiny counter that turned into one of the most obsessed-over reservations in the city, built entirely on omakase, exceptional ingredients and zero interest in compromise. That reputation is what he eventually carried east.

In 2004, Takayama opened his eponymous restaurant, Masa, inside Manhattan’s Time Warner Center. Five years later, it became the first Japanese restaurant in the United States to earn three Michelin stars, a rating it has held since the 2009 guide. From there, the empire expanded: Bar Masa next door, Kappo Masa on the Upper East Side with Larry Gagosian, and, most recently, Tobi Masa at The Chancery Rosewood in London. He’s also translated his design sensibility into Masa Designs, a line of handcrafted tableware built on the same principle of shibui — quiet elegance, restraint, and just enough complexity to keep you paying attention.

Which is what makes this residency more than a celebrity-chef pop-up. Masa isn’t parachuting into a market to sell a brand extension. He’s going back to the exact zip code where he first proved his own philosophy worked.

Photo Credit: Dacia Pierson

Five Nights, 100 Seats, One Counter

The residency runs a 10-seat omakase counter with two seatings each evening, at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., for five nights only — September 16 through 20. Takayama is personally guiding every seating himself, working through a menu built on the same precision and ingredient-first instinct that defined Ginza Sushiko and Masa, including his signature Toro Caviar. At $795 per person, with a curated sake list and optional pairings, it isn’t a casual booking — and with the experience exclusive to hotel guests and reservations routed through [email protected], it isn’t meant to be an easy one either.

The timing lines up with The Peninsula Beverly Hills marking 35 years since it opened in 1991, under the anniversary theme “A Legacy Built, A Future Inspired.” “Our 35th anniversary is about celebrating our legacy, but also asking what comes next,” said Rebecca Goldberg, the hotel’s Hotel Manager, in the announcement. “Welcoming Masa from New York to Beverly Hills feels incredibly special and exactly what ‘A Legacy Built, A Future Inspired’ is about.” Nick Shultz, the hotel’s Director of Food & Beverage, put the collaboration in more personal terms: “The best things in hospitality are built on relationships, and this collaboration is a reflection of that.”

It’s a smart piece of anniversary programming, honestly. Anyone can commission a cake. Getting a three-Michelin-starred chef to fly across the country and personally staff a 10-seat counter for five nights is a considerably harder favor to call in — which is exactly why it works as a headline.

Photo Credit: Peninsula Beverly Hills

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