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Umi No Aji
Rating Details »
Category: Japanese
Neighborhoods: Gramercy, Kips Bay219 E 23rd St
(between 2nd Ave & 3rd Ave)
New York, NY 10010
(212) 725-3399
Best Lunch Specials in Town!
Hibachi specials range $5-7 with hibachi fried rice
Three rolls $9.75/Two rolls $6.75 served with soup & salad
Lunch Box $7.25 11-4PM/7day
- Nearest Transit:
-
23rd St-Park Ave S (6)
23rd St-Broadway (R, W)
- Hours:
Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
- Parking:
- Street
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
7 reviews for Umi No Aji
It's very easy to miss this place. With so many restaurants in Manhattan, it's easy to miss the little ones. In fact, I've walked by it several times not knowing about it until one of my colleagues suggested we eat here. Well, I'm hooked so far. I ate here 2 days in a row and will return today as well.
I totally recommend this place for their cheap lunch deals. Portions are generous and the service is quick. Food is good for the price you pay. Menu is very diverse, serving both chinese and japanese. Sure it's not the most authentic food of either cuisines, but it's a minor point for me. And hey, I'm chinese.
Sushi is on the cheaper side of things and also good, though expectedly not the best. Very typical no frill sushi. Their chirashi was $8 which included soup/salad and 3 slices of salmon, tuna and tiliapia served with a good portion of rice. Again, no frills but it did the job.
This place is worth checking out if you're in the area. And if you happen to be stopping in for lunch, maybe you'll see me there.
So when I trekked to Gramercy to have Ramen for lunch, imagine my surprise when I was served a bowl of those infamous 10-cent noodles! Seriously. More bizarrely, the restaurant is really two restaurants: one offering up Japanese fare and the other offering Chinese.
Near as I can tell, the appeal here is very inexpensive lunches with many options in the $6-8 range. At that price point, many corners are cut. So I can see where handmade ramen noodles might not be used. For package ramen noodles, at least they were sensible enough to dispense with the sodium seasoning packet and create their own broth. The beef strips were okay and plentiful. The broth was passable. I did not enjoy the meal very much and failed to finish the bowl, which never happens when I have real Ramen noodles. It just was not what I was expecting. The salad did not add anything to the meal either. However, my server was very friendly.
I'll be generous and offer up two stars. This was still superior to having lunch at a fast food restaurant, if marginally. I was hoping to discover a not so well known Japanese restaurant with good food; my search continues, I suppose.
With so much other stuff in the area, it's no surprise if many people having heard of this place. It is a bit of a hole in the wall place. being next to an SVA dorm I suppose a majority of their business is from college kids. With that said, they have good lunch specials and combinations. They have a 3 sushi roll for $9.99 deal which come with soup and salad. Their combination platters are quite filling and come with a lot of food., Enough for two meals or great to split. I really like their Crispy Honey Chicken!
despite it being a hole in the wall kinda place, i noticed it right away because i usually go for those locations, and it's pretty close to the location i voulunteer at. the waiter looked very frantic so that was a turn off at first, but the food was served very quickly. the miso soup was the first i've had that was in no need of soy sauce, perfect flavor, and perfectly sized tofu. the dumplings were also good, there wasn't too much filling which i liked. the person i was eating with has general tso's chicken, which he said wasn't too spicy, but they served some hot oil right away which put away that complaint. overall everything was inexpensive and well executed/
I love Japanese food. In fact telling me something is Japanese will pretty much get me to try it at least once. There is however one big problem; That problem being that in New York, Japanese serving sizes seem to be more targeted at the demure geisha rather than the hungry sumo. So my options at many Japanese restaurants tends to be, be broke or be hungry.
I am happy to say that thanks to a good friend who was living in the Hunter dorms on 25th and 1st I have been able to find a solution to my age old dilemna. That solution "Umi No Aji". Transliterated it means something like Taste of the Sea, but I am just happy that they deliver that taste with minimum impact to the wallet.
7 bucks here and your poor little stomach will be filled with the Bento Box Special which includes your entree, several tempura options, rice , soup , salad and california roll. They also serve you own sushi roll with up to three ingredients of your own choice for a mere 6 bucks.
I now leave you with my crappy haiku
For the taste of sea
try at a very small fee
Umi no Aji
P.S. Broccoli Tempura is the Shiznit!
Took Keejoo's lead (the prior reviewer and on my friend's list) and ordered in from Umi No Aji.. the complete benbox dinner for only 11.95 (one dollar more than the menu online reflects). Still with tax and tip added on top... it was a deal. I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Bento box dinner... and got: 1 salad with delicious small but tiny salad dressing - the orange Ginger sauce.
And it was nice tangy and sweet. One big box of rice. And the large Bento box contained: vegetable tempera - lots of it, a large avacado crab roll, the center of the box had a perfect spot for soy sauce to be added and within it was wasabe and fresh cut ginger. The box also contained crab dumplings, and the main course area of the box had huge thin but moist cooked slices of chicken nicely garnished with the terriyaki sauce,
and beneath it was a bed of chopped cooked carrot-onion and a sweet dark thick broth... along side of some brocoli semi steamed. Outside the box were two dipping sauces, one for the tempura and one for the
steamed crab dumplings. I could not finish it all... but most of it... :)
All portions are extremely generous!
All in all .. a huge value deal for the cost. Even the separate rice in the
box had a delicious semi sweet taste and slightly sticky... just
the way I like it. This was not your typical fast food delivery package...
everything was nicely packaged, and nothing was spilled into other parts
of the bento box. All the food was good to very good. I was very
satisfied. Delivery time was fairly quick too.
This place is a life saver! Living so close to it I always find myself placing orders here. Their lunch deal is hard to beat! You can get two rolls of this list of about 12 or so for only $6.99~! And that also comes with a miso soup and a small side salad~~ Cant be beat :] Their dinner bento boxes are also the most filling thing that I have found in NYC. For about $11 you get this whole BAG of food that I cannot even eat half of when I order it. Everything that I have tried on the menu has been terrific so far! I highly reccomend that you try it out ~
