Category Archives: Japanese

East Village, Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Domakase

Leave a comment

First check out this quick Ride & Review video HERE:

This joint offers 13 pieces with unlimited sake for $120. We had about 4 or 5 carafes of the stuff, so we definitely got our money’s worth. Our favotire pieces were the lean and fatty tuna, the foie gras on crispy mochi, and the bowl of uni, ikura and caviar. Awesome! Would go back for sure! Only criticism was the sterile, medical office type lighting being a bit “fluorescent blue,” if that makes sense, and the loudness of the music.

DOMAKASE
23 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009

East Village, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews

Sushi Kai

Leave a comment

First, check out my comprehensive Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife and I have been on a mission to try all the under-$100 omakase joints in our area, and there are a lot!

Sushi Kai offers a delicious 13-piece meal for $85. We both really enjoyed it, and from what I understand, they are still offering BYOB.

My favorite pieces were the wagyu + uni, the hand rolls, the shrimp + foie gras, the fatty tuna with caviar, and the scallop + caviar.

We will definitely be back! Here are some more pics (I especially loved the anniversary bowl they gave us on the house):

SUSHI KAI
332 E 9th St
New York, NY 10003

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Matsunori

Leave a comment

First and foremost, check out my Ride & Review video HERE on YouTube:

This small sushi counter offers an $88 omakase, which consists of two appetizers, ten pieces of nigiri sushi, two hand rolls and a bite of dessert. Here are the two apps:

The nigiri:

This tuna with truffle oil was so good:

Scallop with uni – delicious:

Since my wife can’t have scallop, they gave her this uni piece instead:

This salmon with shaved manchego cheese was wildly unique:

Below is the chef, and the final piece (which was our favorite): Fatty tuna belly with caviar and truffle oil.

The hand rolls (eel + foie gras, and tuna) and dessert (melon):

This is probably one of the best deals I’ve come across when you line it up with quality and portion sizes. I left full/satisfied, and every bite was better than the last. The staff was super nice and offered us a free shot of yuzu sake in return for us offering the chef a glass of our wine.

I highly recommend this place, and I will definitely be going again, as their BYOB policy is a very attractive lure!

MATSUNORI
151 Allen St.
New York, NY 10002

Japanese, Korean, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

DDO Bar

Leave a comment

First, check out the Ride & Review video of this joint!

Okay, now on to the written.

I heard about this place through a food friend, and it sounded enticing. I love tofu skin, for some weird reason, and this Korean style omakase features a majority of the pieces served upon fried tofu pockets called yubu tarts.

$75 gets you 13 high-quality pieces. See them all below, with my highlights for favorites.

Cacio e pepe.

Citrus cured bass.

Scallop.

Squid was swapped out for my wife, since she can’t do scallops.

Hiramasa.

Smoked duck breast pastrami – a top piece.

Shrimp – a top piece.

Ponzu salmon, everything spice with horseradish – my favorite.

Poached lobster – a top piece.

Beef tartare – a top piece.

Pork belly “ssamjang” – a top piece.

Tuna tataki hand roll – a top piece.

Crispy chicken on a stick.

Sea salt + earl grey tea ice cream.

I would definitely do this omakase again. It was good!

DDO BAR
Olly Olly Market
601 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

Downtown, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews

Shikku

Leave a comment

Shikku is a small, elegant sushi counter inside the Tin Building down by the seaport. I took my wife here for an early Valentine’s Day dinner, since she likes omakase meals. Check out the Ride & Review video HERE:

The meal started with this sashimi salad. Very light, crisp and refreshing due to the avocado sauce on there.

Next, another sashimi salad of sorts, this one made even better by the presence of ikura, uni and shrimp.

Next up was six pieces of nigiri. All were delicious, but the otoro (fatty tuna belly) was my favorite.

This hand roll was awesome! Probably my favorite part of the meal.

Or perhaps this sliced A5 wagyu rib eye from Miyazaki was my favorite?

Either way, it was a great meal, finished off with a surprisingly rich miso soup, and a blackberry and chocolate mousse heart.

I would definitely go back here again. This was one of the better omakase meals we’ve had.

SHIKKU
96 South St
New York, NY 10038

Brooklyn, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews

Ume

Leave a comment

I took my wife to Ume for her birthday. This place serves an Omakase set of 12 pieces for $73.

Everything is really delicious, but my favorite three bites were the red snapper (center, with broccoli florette), the fatty tuna belly, (bottom center, with truffle) and the quail egg with crispy fish skin (center right).

We also grabbed this “literally everything don” bowl, which was better than the actual omakase (and more killing) for just $60.

Really enjoyed that.

A few negative things to note here: the enclosed outdoor garden area is too cold for winter dining. They leave the door open between the inside area and the garden, so even if you’re sitting inside, you’re going to be cold. To make matters worse, they double down on that chill factor with their “no shoes” concept (my toes were icy). Sitting on the floor isn’t too comfortable either but I’m not really gonna complain about that. I didn’t mind it so much.

UME
237 Kent Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Takumi Omakase

Leave a comment

This little joint serves up a very affordable and tasty 15-piece omakase for just $89, and on Sunday at the 5pm seating you also get free sake!

Here’s a look at everything we had. They were kind enough to swap out the scallop piece for my wife who is allergic.

TAKUMI OMAKASE
181 Essex St
New York, NY 10002

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Zest Sushi

Leave a comment

Weird name, great happy hour.

Zest Sushi has a very extensive menu of items for just $5.50 during happy hour, which also includes their beer and sake offerings as well. My wife and I tried a bunch of stuff, and pretty much everything was great. Here’s the run down:

Mini salmon don.

“Salmon Dream” torched sashimi.

Skewers of crispy squid tentacles.

Crispy oysters (this was the only item I wouldn’t get again).

Takoyaki (fried balls of octopus with bonito).

Crispy salmon skin roll.

For drinks, the better bet is to get the sake. They give you about 10oz for $5.50, and it’s pretty good.

ZEST SUSHI
249 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

Food Halls, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews

Gouie

Leave a comment

This new sushi counter at Essex Market / The Market Line offers a fairly reasonable sushi dinner that consists of 8 pieces, a hand roll, ikura with rice and uni with rice – all for $85.

I usually love hand rolls, but I didn’t really enjoy this one. I think it was a mix of the Japanese pickle and a too thick/chewy seaweed wrapper.

The sushi pieces were great though, as was the ride. But the real star of the show was this salad that we ordered as a special. It was basically sashimi with some nice veggies.

Pass on the cauliflower, crab, uni and okra cold “soup” that they have on special as well. It was slimy and not soup-like at all. It also needed seasoning.

The light cocktails are a hit. There’s no hard liquor, but they’re made with apertifs, liqueurs and digestifs.

GOUIE
115 Delancey St.
New York, NY 10002

Brooklyn, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews

Chef Katsu Brooklyn

Leave a comment

This place is great. Some of the guys from the NYC Zooz Club and I hit this spot after riding around for a bit. Their curry sauce covered fried chicken thigh sandwiches are amazing.

I got mine with cheese. It was perfect, and the fries were bangin’ too.

Get over here and try this place. I’ll definitely be back for sure. Also, if you want to see some video of our bike gang ride from the day, check out the below:

CHEF KATSU BROOKLYN
143 Greene Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238