Okiboru is a small ramen joint that specializes in tsukemen (concentrated broth for dipping noodles in). Since the tsukemen was a combination of fish and chicken broths, I skipped on that and went with the ramen, which was a pork and chicken broth.
This was excellent, and I was glad that I chose this over the tsukemen, since the tsukemen broth was a bit too pungent in terms of fish flavor (my wife had that).
Overall, I would definitely go back for more ramen.
This place is a sister restaurant to the Michelin-starred Jungsik restaurant. We went big here, so I’m going to make it quick. Check this out:
First off, the oysters here are probably the best I’ve ever had. I think that has to do with the jalapeno and cilantro granita (ice), and their version of a mignonette.
I also really enjoyed their steak tartare.
The prawn rolls, sticky rice sausage, and fried eggs were great too, but my focus on a re-visit might be on the other stuff above.
The stars of the show were the short rib special and the crispy pork belly.
I would get these every time I visit. The pork belly was the best version of this dish I’ve ever had. The fat was completely rendered and soft, the meat extremely tender (no stringy bits), and the skin was nice and crisp without being too hard and hurting your teeth/mouth.
The crab fried rice was a bit fishy, but beautiful nonetheless. It went nicely with the curry, actually.
The soft serve dessert sundae was a great way to end the meal.
I will definitely be back here again. I highly recommend it.
SEA BY JUNGSIK
151 W 30th Street
New York, NY 10001
Gyu Kaku is a Japenese BBQ chain that serves up some great grub at a good price. We ate like fat kings and drank like poor sailors, all in, for just $120. Can’t beat that with a bat!
GYU KAKU
44-45 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
Sushi Hayashi is one of the “all you can eat” sushi/omakase spots that are trending now in the city. This spot is a pretty good deal. The pieces are all decent, and you get a solid amount of sushi for $98 in the omakase (14 courses). The salmon, shima aji and shrimp were our favorite pieces from the omakase. The wagyu fell short, and there was no uni, but over all this was a worth-while omakase.
Once you’re finished with the 14-course omakase, you get two rounds of “all you can eat” sushi ordering, which is limited to a selection of eel, scallop, lean tuna or fatty tuna. The toppings and garnishes are done away with during this time (just a brush of sauce, and some torching for the fatty tuna), and you’ll be charged $6 per piece for any nigiri that you order but don’t finish. The record is 72 pieces eaten. Insane.
I went with nine extra pieces total during this “all you can eat” portion of the meal; three each of the lean tuna, fatty tuna and scallop.
They really have the system down pat, and they operate like a well-oiled machine.
They’ve created the first fast food style omakase! Highly American! What follows below is a photo dump of all the courses.
Two appetizers:
Ten nigiri pieces:
The roll portion of the omakase:
Round 1 AYCE:
Round 2 AYCE:
Dessert: matcha ice cream.
SUSHI HAYASHI
355 E 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
This spot offers a great 18-course omakase for just $100. I’m just going to dump the photos I snapped for each piece, but our favorites were the following: oyster appetizer, shrimp, red snapper, shima aji, both medium and fatty tuna, uni, salmon, wagyu spoon, and the shrimp and uni hand roll we added at the end. We would definitely come back here again.
This new spot is located on 1st Street near 2nd Avenue. They offer a 14-course omakase for $88. We enjoyed the fatty tuna pieces, the shrimp, the king salmon appetizer, and especially the “New York” salmon piece (with tomato) and the tuna hand roll at the end.
I would definitely go back for seasonal menu changes and specials.
We did the 17-course omakase, which was $125. This was definitely worth the price of admission. Favorites included the oyster and salmon appetizers, as well as the otoro, uni and king crab pieces.
My wife and I came here with another foodie and social media influencer couple to try out some of this new restaurant’s menu. Aqua has both Italian and Japanese menus, so you can have a full-on omakase here, or you can dine a la carte and dig into some pasta or veal Milanese.
We selected eight items from this menu, and then had two versions of their tiramisu (one classic Italian, and one Japanese):
First off, they make some really nice cocktails, which is clutch since they have a gigantic bar (the whole space is pretty massive, actually).
We started with the mushroom and truffle arancini. These were delicious bites.
The lobster bisque pizzette was really unique. I’ve never had something like that. It makes for great table bread to share as a snack.
This red prawn carpaccio was absolutely incredible. This is a must order when you go here.
These little nuggets of fried rock shrimp were really tasty. They don’t look like much, but I was hooked. I could not stop popping them.
The oxtail and truffle mafalde was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the oxtail was super tender and savory.
Here’s a shot of their 12-piece sashimi omakase, which has all of your favorites, salmon belly being my favorite.
This eight-piece roll had salmon and scallop, which was nice.
And finally, the yuzu shiso marinated lamb chops. These were awesome. After the red prawn carpaccio, this was probably my favorite item.
For dessert, we tried the classic tiramisu and the matcha/green team tiramisu. I think we all agreed that the classic version was better. I didn’t snap any photos of that, so you’ll just have to watch the video to see them!
My wife picked up a Pulsd deal for this joint, which was $99 for two 18-course omakase dinners, including two shots of sake each. That’s not a bad deal!
My favorite pieces were the various jack fish (amberjack, strip jack), the ebi shrimp with tobiko, and the uni. The squid was nice too.
The most unique piece (and really delicious too) was the eel with banana! So different. I really liked that.
Service was a bit wonky, because we got started at a different time than others who were late for their reservations, and one couple was doing a different coursing than the rest of us. As a result there was a little mix up where we received our dessert before the final piece of sushi (uni), and our sushi plate and chopsticks were already cleared. But everyone was really nice, and I think the Pulsd deal was worth it. I might not go otherwise, since the regular price is a bit steep for what you get. Also… there was no shiso served at this restaurant named Shiso.
Kintsugi was offering a nice discounted, pre-paid omakase for restaurant week, so my wife jumped on the deal.
We really enjoyed this spot, but I think the best item of the meal was the add-on uni hand roll that we did at the end of the tasting. It was loaded with really nice uni, but expensive at $30 each. The regular uni piece was pretty good too.
Other than that, I think my favorite pieces were the chopped fatty tuna, the soy marinated tuna, the Alaskan sablefish, and the Faroe Island salmon.
