Category: Japanese

Reviews of Japanese Restaurants in New York City

Gyu-Kaku

34 Cooper Square off 6th Street and Lafayette
212/475.2989
about $60 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥

I’ll group Gyu-Kaku under my Korean and Japanese restaurants list because they had both Korean-style barbecues and Japanese yakitoris. They had several kinds of soups served in clay pots that tasted like Korean chigaes, but udon or ramen noodles were added. They also offered a nice-sized bowl of bibimbap but they had ahi tuna and shrimps we grilled on the tabletop stove ourselves.

It’s a spacious restaurant off the hubbub of St. Mark’s Place. The attentive service is perfect for bigger groups, plus the happy hour price of drinks ($2.50 for Kirin beer on tap) and meat specials (50% off on filet mignon meat to grill) are hard to say no to.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

163 1st Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets
212/475-7899
about $80 for two, with two drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

Updated, 2007: Momofuku has moved two stores down to make room for the third restaurant in their family, Momofuku Ko

Momofuku, which means “lucky peach,” is a nicely-designed noodlebar with mostly Japanese and Korean-influenced dishes plus a touch of Chinese. It reminded me of London’s Wagamama, which means “naughty child” in Nihongo, famous for their inexpensive and quick fast food as for their interior’s design.

We shared a plate of baby bok choy, flash-fried in hot oil, garlic and chilis–a good start to whet the appetite. Since it was almost a hundred degrees out, I picked the Momofuku somen with chilled noodles and dipping broth. My bowl came with mushrooms and very yummy shredded Berkshire pork which reminded me of leftover Filipino lechon, or roast pork. It’s a huge serving and more than enough for my hungry self. My companion opted for the pork neck ramen with neck meat and poached egg. It was also delicious. Both were served with scallions and menma, or bamboo shoots.

Even if it looks like a ramenya, a place that sells ramen in Japan, any new visitor would be glad to know that it just isn’t that. Dishes change seasonally, just like David Chang, owner and chef, learned at Craft. The noodles are not soggy and they have the right firmness and tenderness. There are buns, kimchi chigae, or fermented vegetables in soybean paste soup, and Sichuan-spiced crawfish in the menu.

I normally cook the baby bok choy at home when they are in season, so I thought the $8 price was pretty steep. Our tall Hefeweizens were also $10 apiece. In fact, everything is priced twice as much as its counterparts along St. Marks. Alas, this is New York City and this is the lower east side.

Makimono

101 Second Avenue off 6th Street
212/253.7848
about $125 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

Updated, 2006: Makimono is now closed

I love my sushi and I’ve had my fair share from New York City’s finest, but at the end of the day, otoro is still otoro and whether $12 a piece is worth it, a restaurant has to be able to support that price with other items as enticing. At Makimono, the tuna belly melted like butter and awakened the back of my throat. The uni was divine and so were the mackerel, the fluke and even the fishier sardine. The trio tartare of salmon, yellowfin and big eye tuna were all delicious and delicate even with the fried lotus root. The restaurant’s makimonos, rolls named after the traditional Japanese hand scrolls given as gifts, were ironically the least interesting of all, even with avocados and snow crabs.

EN Japanese Brasserie

435 Hudson Street between Leroy and Morton
212/647.9196
about $125 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

Our Ethan Hawke lookalike waiter at EN Japanese Brasserie seemed nervous, stuttering whenever he had to answer a question; maybe we asked too many questions. The cocktails we ordered as soon as we were seated took fifteen minutes to come and when the boy’s bourbon was served without my lychee martini, he tried to explain in so many words why. But the restaurant is known for its yuba, or homemade tofu, not for its waiters, and if you come at the right time, you can catch the next fresh batch that’s scheduled to be made. What impressed me was their otoro, or the belly, the most expensive part of a tuna fish. We had them two ways, sashimi and seared, and they were both exquisite. The sashimi was magnificent, like butter melting in your mouth, while the seared otoro was served in garlic-soy and tasted like perfect slabs of steak. After an uni sashimi, we asked for a recommended light palate cleanser. A burdock root salad was served which I thought was too heavy to be eaten in between dishes. For dessert, we ordered the yuba sorbet but a soufflé came instead. Our waiter apologized but it was never comped from our bill.

Space is hard to find in New York City, but EN has plenty of it. An inexperienced waiter can ruin a visit but EN holds its own with more pluses than minuses. High ceilings, dark wooden carvings and twigs of cherry blossoms take you away from the big city as you walk past the heavy curtains. The entire staff harmoniously greets every customer out loud in Japanese as soon as they come in and that alone can transport anyone to Shinjuku.

Rai Rai Ken

214 East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues
212/477.7030
about $30 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

While Rai Rai Ken reminds me of the Japanese movie Tampopo, it is my quick trip to Tokyo a few years ago that always comes flooding back whenever I enter the shop for a simple bowl of ramen. Separating the curtain at the door, I immediately get transported back to winter Japan. Rai Rai Ken’s narrow space and wooden bar remind me of cold cheeks and frozen hands after my usual bike commute through the suburbs of Tokyo. There is a simple menu of three kinds of ramen bowls: shoyu, a soy sauce-based broth, shio, seafood-based and miso, made of soy beans, all served with bamboo shoots, spinach, roast pork, nori or roasted seaweed and scallions, and then topped with the ever-so Japanese pink fish cake. Long strands of ramen noodles complete the package that require pulling, twirling and slurping. You can order fried vegetables and pork gyoza, or dumplings on the side, as well as edamame, or boiled soy beans, and white rice. Sapporo and Kirin beer overflow for those who want to extend their stay.

In New York City, the temperature does not drop as low as it does in Japan during the winter months, but it is nonetheless cold. It is so cold only an imaginary trip back to Japan at Rai Rai Ken can warm me up.