By chance, we ended up going to a bunch of Japanese places for food in NYC, although it was not the conventional sushi & ramen fare so was a bit more interesting!
The first place we found using Foursquare Explore function and was a place tucked upstairs in a little stretch of Japanese restaurants north of Times Square called Yakitori Totto. We arrived around 9PM on a weekday and had to wait for an hour before being seated, so it was quite popular! While waiting, we saw a bunch of people show up, and then leave because it was too packed. We also saw that they didn’t just pick the other Japanese restaurants nearby instead so that was a good sign for us!
We had some food beforehand (at Halal Guys) so weren’t that hungry, which bode well because the yakitori were like Tapas – you could go crazy and order a lot, but they were $3 a skewer so would quickly add up. We shared a bunch of them:
- Chicken liver ($3) – meh
- Chicken gizzard ($3) – meh
- Asparagus wraped in bacon ($4) – good
- Pork mustard with sauce ($3.5) – meh
- Ginko beans ($2) – not that good
- Skirt steak ($5) – good
- Shiitake mushrooms ($3) – meh
- Sukiyaki ($8) – meh
We wanted to get the Chickn Oyster (rare part of thigh) but they were out. I didn’t think the food was that great, but it was a fun experience and you can watch them grill the yakitori.
Later in our trip, we went to a fast-food Japanese burger place called Kobeyaki and tried their “kobe beef” burger ($9). It didn’t taste like kobe beef, but that was their only beef burger so maybe it was just a name. The burger had a chinese bun and was good overall, although not in the American burger way. they also had teriyaki ketchup and wasabi mayo which was pretty cool.
The same night, after some FroYo, we tried the pork katsu at Go Go Curry. Looks like this is a Japanese chain that opened locations in NYC. The katsu was really crisp and we finished it even though we were already full! The curry was not bad and the portion size for a “small” ($7) was pretty good too.
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.