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Categories: Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
Neighborhood: East VillageAstor Place (6)
8th St-Broadway (R, W)
3rd Ave-14th St (L)
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My boyfriend and I love this place for its seafood pancake (okonomiyaki) and hot sake. I think it's a pretty good deal, although the bottles of sake are tiny (we always have to order 3-4 bottles just for the two of us!). Personally, I think the pancake here is better than the okonomiyaki you can get across the street at Taisho. It's just healthier at Go because it's chock full of cabbage and sprouts. I think the pancakes @ Taisho are just too soggy, dense, greasy and heavy.
The sake selection here is also pretty decent. I just enjoy drinking it here more than when I'm drinking at Taisho. It's less crowded at Go and you actually have elbow room, and I think that really improves the overall atmosphere and dining experience. Two thumbs up for Go.
The majestic and magical unicorn. The Loch Ness monster. Reliable Italian sports cars. A filthy, dirty Japanese restaurant. All just urban folklore until now. The latter being Go Japanese Restaurant.
Is it good when half the restaurant smells like piss? When there is a layer of dirt and food bits under the tables that clearly have been there for some time?
The food was just OK. The service, well, less than attentive...at least to the Gaijins.
When you can toss a Harajuku Girl in any direction and hit a decent Japanese place to eat in NYC, why go to Go?
Having an awful restaurant experience really brings me down;
At first it seemed like a good idea because the place seemed popular. After about a 15 min wait my sister and I were seated, we both started off with a sort of tuna roll with jalapeno. The roll altogether didn't taste bad, but over all unimpressive
Then my sister, who is a major fan of Japanese curry ordered the curry w/ fried shrimp, while I had shrimp and vegetable tempura.
When we finally got our dishes I eagerly picked up one of the shrimp tempura with my chop sticks, it was completely limp, I watched as the long piece of shrimp bowed under the weight of gravity like it wanted to dive head first back into the bed of rice. Now I'm not a Japanese cuisine expert, but usually when I have tempura, its crunchy and not soggy.
Now normally I gripe about a lot of stuff, and the waitstaff was clearly swamped on that saturday night, and I know how stressful food service jobs can get. So when my sister asked me if I wanted to ask the manager to have the dish remade, I just shrugged it off and said:
"No I had this lady who came into my work today and she kept complaining about little things, I don't want to perpetuate that"*
Shrugging, she poured some of the curry over her shrimp and rice; took a bite, froze mid chew and looked at me:
"Can you tell me if there is meat in this?"**
I bravely took up my chop sticks found a curious morsel, popped it into my mouth, and answered:
"Yea there's beef"
Again not a Japanese cuisine pro, but since when is meat infused in curry, and in shrimp curry?
And the last injury was when my sis took up her piece of fried shrimp, took a bite, and said "Where is the shrimp? This is all batter"
BAM BAM BAM, you guys failed on many accounts, I hate rating a place this low, but you earned it:
"I'm never gonna 'Go' here again"
___________________
*She was really nasty.
**We've both have been pescatarians for a few years now
Service was terribly slow. All of my friends' foods came about 25 minutes after ordering (ramen that is). Maybe the kitchen was very busy, which could certainly be understandable. But my meal did not arrive for a good hour. So I asked where my food was. And a split second later, it arrived. How lovely...
Had the kobe bento. I must be idiotic to think that it was legitimate kobe beef in that bento box for $10 that is, harhar. Once I arrived home I felt like I had an ulcer coming my way. Yay me.. Not sure if I would come again, though this place seems to draw good crowds of customers.
Even though it is not in the name of the restaurant like across the street's Udon West, this is the place to go for udon. The sushi rolls are so-so, the ramen skipable, but the place is great for atmosphere and reading every story ever written about Matsui Hideki. I big loud welcoming from the chefs awaits you, so step inside, and grab a chair on the tiny outdoor "patio" if the weather is nice.
Recent visit for one of my Asian social networking groups to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Moon Festival. Disappointedly I always seek the Bento Box for nearly every lunch and dinner meal, yet for the dinner meal there were no option. The sushi and sashami combination deluxe has Wasabi imbedded, which it did not appease me as I prefer having the option of Wasabi given.
The Plum Wine is very tasty as it left me a warm inviting feeling to briefly uplift my spirit after enduring a week's long of extreme stress, hardship and struggles both professionally and personally.
I believe this restaurant is family owned as the wait staff was doing everything from cooking, to… Read more »
Yes, sushi here is - whatever; it's edible. It's cheap sushi. No big deal. The fried stuff, though? Awesome. I agree with the comment about Go being the fast food of Japanese restaurants. So true. Although what really gets me going here are the cheap drink deals. $7 Saki/Sangria is delicious and the Saki-Bombs (I think it's like... $15 for a pitcher plus some house Saki) are cheap and fun to enjoy with a crowd.
The second time I went we had an endearing waiter who may have been hard of hearing, but was really nice and attentive. I felt bad that the manager felt the need to move him off the floor and take his place. We really liked him!
Perhaps it was because I went late at night, but thats not unusual for St.Marks... whatever the case the sushi here was far from fresh.
I swear that the salmon was off colour and pretty tasteless.
For the amount of people in there vs the amount of noise inside the restaurant it seemed unbelievable.
Loud, unfresh, probably unhealthy.
Avoid this place.
although this place is still my go-to place for St. Marks Japanese, we wait longer and longer to get our food with every visit. I don't know what's happening to the wait staff around there, but as for the food, for the price you pay it's definitely a good fix.
Ps, I gotta say their plum wine is still my favorite in the city.
Great low key sushi spot on St. Marks. Reasonable prices, chill attentive staff, fast service, fresh seafood, Kirin on draft. I'll keep coming back.
I like this place. Went here a couple of times. Everytime i go here it's always busy. So if you have more than two people it will be a long wait. The octopus balls are really good!!! The other food are good too but the octopus ball stands out the most to me.
Was not impressed with the raw foods, but the cooked dishes weren't bad - the best of the night was the miso cod, which would have been depressing if it turned poor.
The quality of raw fish however, being as disappointing as it was, means that I would not reccend a friend to go there.
The other thing that really bugged me was the server had no idea what most of the dishes were that we wanted to order, and actually had to translate the fish names to English and point to the menu to put our orders in.
Discovered this place while searching for a restaurant that fulfilled my dining needs and my friend's. She wanted sushi, I wanted yakitori. And this place had both. I had the negima yaki and shared the octopus balls with my friend. Negima yaki was so and so. It was just scallion wrapped with beef and three side dishes of potatoe wedges, broccoli and bean sprouts. The octopus balls were reallllly good. But nonetheless, I still liked Taisho more when it comes to yakitori. All in all it was a fair meal for a fair deal.
Not sure what happened to the staff nor the management at this place. I know they closed for renovations/due to health violations (???). I went there last night with a couple of friends. This is a place I've been going to for about 6 years now and always felt at home. Upon paying the bill we left a 10% tip. I'm usually a 20% type of guy.
The sushi was bland and not fresh, the wait staff had to be asked twice to bring our edamame and three times to bring me my sake. They were simply standing around and chatting amongst themselves. The staff here used to be a cool group of Japanese students, mostly, and now resembles that of any Asian restaurant where the service is rude.
To top it off one of the waiters ran after us telling us to tip him more. You do not do that to your patrons. I know that unlike in Europe waiters make their salary from tips but don't expect to get a hefty tip if you simply bring out my food.
To add to the unimpressive sushi made by what appeared to be a drunk sushi chef which I stated in my last review, a few hours after eating here, I had a terrible stomach ache that lasted all night. I'll never eat sushi here again!
I was unimpressed by the sushi here. It tasted bland and maybe not very fresh. It wasn't awful...… Read more »
When you think of japanese food you want to think sushi or udon... ... ... When you think about fast food, you should be thinking about GO.
Japanese style pub food in a restaurant setting, offers up a really fun dining experience. Service is what you would expect, which is fine, otherwise this place shines for its food, real simple, done well!
+1 star for the butt-kicking sushi. I was a little apprehensive to try the sushi at first, but I took the chance and was well rewarded. The fish was fresh, and even the tuna was good. In my experience, decent tuna sushi is hard to come by, unless you're willing to sacrifice your paycheck. Or fly to Japan.
I don't understand why some people are dissing the ramen here. The shoyu ramen I had made my day. The chashu was cut a bit too thick for my liking, but was good nonetheless, and the broth was excellent. I shared a bowl with my ramen-loving Japanese mom, and it won her stamp of approval as well. Don't hate on the ramen.
Oh yes, I can't forget-- good service, too.
I went here for the first time yesterday and tried the Tsukune Ramen Nabe. It had plenty of toppings… Read more »
This is one of my very favorite restaurants in NY. Great sushi and hot meals, very cool bar menu, and overall not too expensive. Drinks have gotten more expensive in recent years, but not too bad.
IMO they make some items better here than anywhere else:
Spicy Tuna roll
Chicken Katsu curry
Takoyaki
Garden salad with ginger dressing
Vinegared rice (like in the Tekka Don)
The sushi is also pretty decent (I personally prefer the rolls, despite normally being a sashimi guy) and the ramen is good but not great. If you are adventurous, try some things on the bar (handwritten) menu. They arent as exotic tasting as they sound.
I have been here more than probably any other restaurant. Unless you count McDonalds, in which case it isnt even close.
came here once before and forgot the name... just remembered the sushi was nothing of spectacular here nor was the yakitori... its a mix of clientele... but mainly non japanese people...
first off the staff is hard to understand... not sure if they are japanese really... secondly, service horrible, so angry looking when taking our orders!
so we ordered tempura ice cream cuz we had a craving for that tonite... yes i know an odd craving...
but instead what we got was mostly dough... and a lil bit of ice cream... and more dough and oil...
so yeah 5 bucks... i'll pass next time... especially when at the end of the meal they gave us the wrong check too!
As I've been obsessed with nabeyaki lately, this place hit the spot on a cold NYC night. Funky atmosphere, and great food at less than Midtown prices.
Service was good, and I'll certainly return here on my next visit
I'm not a sushi person myself so I opted for the chicken teriyaki. Pretty good, not too salty. Japanese beer in warm glasses.
Outstanding attentive service and it's open late.
Perhaps we just ordered the wrong things but the ramyun was blah and the yakitori combo was bleh as well (we couldn't figure out what some of the meats were - was that liver??). I guess we should've figured from seeing that this was the least crowded (tho still crowded) place on st.marks.
yeah we're gonna wait and go some place else next time.
This place used to be so much better but after they renovated their place (did ownership change?), menu has changed and food doesn't taste as good.
And fried ice was terrible. Yikes!
So sad to see my favorite restaurant disappoint me like this.
Used to be better, quality and service has gone down in the past year or so. Definitely not my first or second choice anymore. The chirashi is so small compared to other places that charge the same price, and the fish is definitely not as fresh. The waitresses only pay attention when they impatiently wait for you to order or when you leave the tip. I work in food service, so I understand that a lot of college kids go through and probably tip shitty, but they purposely avoid looking at you.
Bottom line, the sushi is decent, they aren't as crowded anymore (usually), and the price is pretty on par with most places in the city.
St. Marks isn't really the place to be looking for sushi anyway - especially BEWARE the joint across the street. They used to have a huge fish above the restaurant, are closed for renovations right now...went in once with a group of friends, and roaches were literally crawling on the tables and chairs. 50% sushi cries hospital even louder, and the waitresses yelled at us when we left.
[ramen review]
Noodles: overcooked (--)
Broth: rich (+), too salty (--), off-tasting!? (----)
Pork: fatty, tender (+)
Fact is, you'd have to pay me to get me to eat ramen here again. I left feeling violated.
It's one of the first Japanese restaurants in the East Village. When it opened there was a Polish soldiers' house across the street, and most everything else was Ukrainian.
It's still going, 20 years later because... it's so good. The Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is the best on this side of the world. The standard Japanese fare is standard, but the specialties. Wow! If you've never heard of it... order it here. It's great.
The young servers are friendly and helpful, if not always Kenji-on-the-spot. Isami, the owner, is always hovering to make sure things go smoothly. He is a kind of superman... and a survivor. Tough with the fickle East Village crowd. This might be my favorite Japanese restaurant in NYC, but PLEASE, don't go for the sushi or tempura.
Oh yeah, they have Japanese beer, sake, shochu and exotic drinks made with Japanese ingredients. --Drink Club NYC is a roving group of NYC drinkers
there were so many things i wanted to try but right now there were two dishes that I remembered the most:
Omusoba and okonomiyaki.
personally, I like the omusoba more. its was pretty good, however, the okonomiyaki tasted like a blander and cabbage-y version of it. I was a bit disappointed since my friend loves the okonomiyaki.
maybe it was because I've never had okonomiyaki with soba inside. =/
update:
I tried the kimchi okonomiyaki. Its AWESOME. it has that nice hint of spicyness too it that does not overwhelm you. I plan to come back for it one day =)
Go isn't the best Japanese anything I've ever had, yet I have warm fuzzy feelings every time I walk by. If you go in late evening they always have a line out the door, but around 7pm on a Fri night, we were good to go. They used to serve a GIGANTIC (bigger than a softball!) delicious batter-y tempura ice cream for $3.50 that I created legends and myths around, but was sad to discover on a recent visit that it has since shrunk to meh-tasting tennis ball for $5. My dreams are shot. OK udon, OK takoyaki and OK katsu curry made for an OK meal, but now that my beloved tempura ice cream is gone, Go just doesn't hold the same appeal....
heres the deal. st marks place = a bone fide smorgasborg of japanese restaurants. apparently i picked the wrong one to satisfy my craving for udon and warm me up.
i was expecting flavorful broth, edible (i this too much to ask?) beef, perhaps some vegetables, and delicious noodles.
was a got was oily broth, inedible beef, average noodles and no vegetables.
I crave Go's Street Food, which they sell at remarkably unlike-NY prices.
Some of my fan favorites:
Okonomiyaki -shredded cabbage, soba, pork, green onion pancake with japanese mayo and fish flakes-watch them sway in the breeze as you scarf this tasty treat down with a nice cold tall Kirin.
Chawan-mushi egg custard with seafood
Salmon avocado salad
Uni
Go has an outdoor dining area for St. Marks' people watching. This place is a neighborhood joint with a laid back vibe. I find it odd (unauthentic?) that they don't have a Japanese Sushi chef, but the food is damn good regardless...
Oh, a dirty little secret-although they have lots of Godzilla-Matsui Yankees newspaper clippings up, the sushi guys are really Mets fans...
If I had to choose a way to go, it would be to eat Go's deep-fried green tea ice cream, one after another after another, until I burst and die. I've searched far and wide for a fried ice cream like theirs, but to no avail. I look and I look, but it's all crap. Go (or Go! as they call it) reigns supreme. Their green tea ice cream is thick and rich with green tea flavor; their fried batter has a cake-like consistency with a crispy crust. Get it with red bean on top. *slobber*
Go! used to have these super secret specials that were hand-written in Japanese and posted on the wall. We would go there and just point at things and see what we got. Now the specials are translated and laminated on a specials menu. It's not as exciting as before, but at least now I know what the hell I'm eating.
Their salmon skin salad is bAd-Ass. That ponzu sauce, coupled with all those onions and that warm salmon skin-- it's heaven. Sushi's not the hottest thing on their menu, but their cooked items are pretty damn good. Mmm mmm.
Food's satisfactory. Nothing special, but Go is great for blasting away those late-night munchies..... since pretty much every other store in the area closes by midnight. It's got a simple design - battered, dirty door with a cozy interior and nice wooden floors/walls. The one thing I really like about Go is the huge portions I always get when I order an entre, like katsu curry or yakisoba. This isn't something you should always hope for, though, since a MALE friend of mine once got a bowl Yokohama udon, and they were terribly stingy with the udon, and the shrimp tasted like the frozen kind you just heat up in pan.
Best okonomiyaki in the area, though (this title doesn't mean much since there aren't a lot of places that serve okonomiyaki anyway). Although I could probably do better...
i would only come here for the octopus ball... maybe we order the wrong thing, but nothing that wow'ed me minus the octupus ball.
You can get a large glass of sake filled to the brim for $3.75.
Someone next to us asked for "unfiltered" sake. This is not a sake bar. Your choices are hot or cold.
Friends got soba, and tonkatsu, while I just ordered a sushi roll. Decent food and prices. Spent only about $10.
A bit clumsy but good service.
I would give this place 5 star since it has my TORO!!!!! (But you can't rate a place on one dish!)
Finally I found a place that carries Toro!
J called me to see if I wanted to get dinner - I was like sure since I seriously have no groceries at all.
Along with the Toro - I got Ikura! Ikura, you can't really mess that up but I felt the nori was a bit on the soggy side.
J got the broiled chicken wings and kani maki.
This place is okay - This is my third time to come here. I got their Shiyo Ramen before and it wasn't good at all. But their other stuff is pretty decent!
I would come back for my Toro!
This is my first review on yelp. ^_^
Go! is the second place my friends and I ever ate at in St. Mark's, but the first place we actually enjoyed. The takoyaki has good days and okay days, and the sushi is nothing to write home about but edible (the spicy tuna rolls taste more like the sauce than the tuna, and the yellowtail comes wrapped in nori which totally masks the flavor of the fish, bleh).
However, this place shines the most in its hot dishes. The ramen here is actually cheaper than the new ramen place just a couple doors over, and the curry is pretty tasty (although the katsu could be cooked a little bit less). My friends adore the gyoza.
I would give this place 4 stars, but it loses one because one time when we went, we were told that it was mandatory that we pay 15% tip. Now, I don't know whether it was the total amount of the bill or if that's just their 'new rule' or whatever, but I'm pretty sure that the previous times we were there we ordered almost as much or more and no one told us that 15% gratuity was mandatory. So I ended up picking up most of the remaining tip (which had to be 11-18 dollars, or something?). They weren't nasty about it or anything though, the staff is actually quite kind, and were really subtle about it. It's just that the fact that it happened... was kind of depressing/maddening.
Mandatory tip + mediocre food + me losing almost 20 more dollars than planned = Turn off
Went here thinking I would be impressed with the sushi based on previous reviews, but I wasn't. Overall, my experience was satisfactory. The sushi was good, but nothing special or out of the ordinary. Prices are reasonable. Service was fine, but granted there weren't a lot of customers when I went.
Don't think I would go back just because I wasn't impressed, and would probably try other nearby restaurants first. But again, not bad, so it might be worth a try if you've never been here.
This was my standard sushi place for years. It was always this routine: buy some comic books, go to Go, eat sushi, drink beer, read comics.
Best Philadelphia roll around.
I've never been to Japan, but I'm sure that if I had, this is what a sushi bar in Japan would look like (actually, i'm basing this observation on what I see on TV). it's small, kind of intimate and I love sitting at the sushi bar. Watching the sushi chefs is quite entertaining, at least to me any way. The rolls are very good and the chirashi is very pleasing to the eye. And if you go, you must get the octopus balls. If you don't like them, that's cool-- they're cheap any way. But I can't imagine anyone not liking the octopus ball.
I used to live near this place and would come here often. I liked it alot back then because I didn't like sushi much at the time and this place had many alternative things to order. They had a ton of appetizers and small dishes.
I've come here a few times since I moved back to the city and it's still good. I like the beef wrapped around vegetable. The katsu is good, the tuna roll tastes good. Two nights ago my friend and I came here again and had shoyu-ramen which was really good, I totally finished it and drank the soup completely. We did try the oden cooked outside, I was not a fan, it just didn't taste good. I recommend to pass over that. I also did not like my cold sake. (Maybe it's the brand they use?)
It's not a dressy place, just casual. But it does have outdoor seating so you can stare and the street or watch the oden cooking outside. Also this place gets super crowded so come early or prepare for a wait.
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New York, NY
Neighborhood: East Village
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
Category: Japanese
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