Omakase is a Japanese dining format in which the diner surrenders all choice to the chef, who serves a sequence of courses selected that day from the best ingredients available.
The word is borrowed from Japanese お任せ, literally "leaving it up to you," from the honorific prefix o- plus makase, "to entrust to another." It appears in English from the late 1970s and was added to Merriam-Webster in 2023, defined there as a series of small courses at a fixed price chosen by the chef. In Japan the phrase is ordinary politeness applied to a meal — a diner says omakase shimasu to hand the decision over — and it carries none of the luxury connotation the loanword acquired abroad.
The format is rooted in edomae sushi, the Tokyo Bay style built on cured, marinated, and aged fish, and is typically served at a counter where the chef passes each piece across by hand. A course progresses from lighter to richer, pacing texture and temperature rather than following a printed list, which is what lets the chef buy against the market instead of against a menu. Kitchens outside Japan have extended the format to kaiseki, yakitori, and cuisines with no Japanese lineage at all; what carries over is not the food but the structure — no menu, no substitutions, and a price agreed before the first course arrives.
Its direct counterpart is okonomi, ordering piece by piece according to one's own preference. The two terms define each other: omakase is not simply a tasting menu but the specific act of declining to order, and the trust that transfers with it is the point of the form rather than a side effect.