Category: East Village

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

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

216 East 10th Street between First and Second
212/477.2972
about $75 for two prix fixes, with two drinks, without tip
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Shabu in Japanese means “to swish,” and when you’re at shabu-shabu, swishing your chopsticks to mix in fresh minced ginger and scallions together with the cabbage, watercress, mushrooms and thinly-sliced ribeye beef in a steaming pot of broth is exactly what you do. Pick up a few slices of raw beef using your chopsticks, swish in the broth for a few seconds, pick them up and dip in a sesame-based sauce and eat them with sticky white rice. Before your meal ends, small cups are provided so you can ladle the broth, which now tastes like beef extract, and slurp it like soup with thin or flat noodles and seasoned with salt and pepper.

A prix fixe of shabu-shabu for two with salad and ginger dressing, rice and ice cream is about $20 per person. It’s even better if you’re with a big group because the whole concept of swishing and sharing becomes more fun. I crave eating at Shabu Tatsu in the summer even if it’s too hot to slurp hot broth, but I especially pine for it during the cold winter months when the only comfort I can turn to is a comforting bowl of soup.