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162 Useful, 70 Funny, and 101 Cool
New York, NY
Yelping SinceJanuary 2007
Find Me InEast Village
My HometownMoraga, Marin, CA
My Blog Or Website When I'm Not Yelping...I'm throwing paper airplanes out of 28th floor windows
Why You Should Read My ReviewsI make a lot of typos. If you find a typo, compliment me and you win a prize!
My Favorite MovieCurrently revisiting Wong Kar Wai
My Last Meal On EarthAnything my mom taught me to make
Date
Went here last year for Valentines Day. Despite having a reservation, we had to wait 10 minutes, as did lots of other couples. We were seated in the back room of Kyotofu. The tables were packed together so tightly that the host had to pull the table out completely for my date to get in. Tables were only inches apart and it was like the couples next to you were sitting at your table and you were sitting at theirs.
I wasn't really interested spending Valentines Day with the random guy seated next to me, so I said to the host, "Seating is like a cattle car, if I had known it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have booked." His response: "This is our normal seating arrangement." Judging from photos, this doesn't appear to be true. I asked to be reseated in the front area, where there were a few bar seats. He said he'd let us know if anything opened up. They ended up putting us in at two seats they'd made (probably to get $70 more business that night) in this walkway at the bar: http://www.rwmanager.c.... It was more private but servers kept bumping into us.
What was billed as a "dessert and sake pairing" (was thinking real sake paired with each course) turned out to be a 3 course dessert offering with one small, sad glass of bad sparkling sake.
Our only consolation was the dessert. The back sesame sweet tofu was good. The rest were forgettable. We both agreed that we could find better in Chinatown.
All in all, it really felt like they were trying to capitalize on Valentines Day by overbooking, cramming people in, and making so-so desserts. A business is a business, but don't compromise the experience for the sake of making a Valentines day buck.
The museum and art exhibits are actually worth looking at, the last one I saw was an exhibit of cooking instruments throughout history.
Redwood City, CA 94061
(888) 586-5747
Junk General
Categories: Landscaping, Home Cleaning
The truck showed up early, the guys were pros at hauling stuff (no scrawny college kids). They were extremely professional and were able to take everything except paints and gas. They even sorted out items that they thought still had value and loaded them near the doors of the truck so that they could drop it off for donation. They found a bag of batteries and kept them separated from the rest of the trash so that they could be disposed of properly (and legally).
Prices were on par with other hauling services I've used. It's a shame we have to pay to get rid of stuff that we paid to acquire in the first place. Oh well. Consumer whoreism.
Bottom line, these guys are green-minded, priced fairly and very reliable.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 505-7253
Sakaya
Category: Beer, Wine & Spirits
Neighborhood: East Village
Jeff C.-- They in fact do refrigerate their sake as they're supposed to. You'll notice that the nama zake's (unpasteurized sakes) are all kept in the fridge in the back. If you want your sake cold (or warm) for serving, you can do it yourself once you've taken the sake home.
1 Previous Review: Hide »
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12/9/2007 First to Review
Sakaya is a brand new premium sake shop that opened yesterday on East 9th.
The owner couple, Rick and Hiroko, exclaim in their blog that their store, 2 years in the making, is finally open!:
http://www.sakaya...
I live next door, and it's been cool watching the empty retail space transform into what is now a excellent sake shop. The space was designed by Tsuruta who is also known for designing Jewel Bako, Chikalicious, both Momofukus, Soto, and Kyotofu. The displays are underwhelmingly simple and direct. No overcrowded shelves full of confusing names and random reviews. It's just nice cedar shelves with the price and information about the geographic origin and flavor of each sake. It's extremely easy to find what you're looking for.
If you're overwhelmed and need a recommendation, Rick and Hiroko, who were both working, are more than happy to help. The varieties are surprisingly affordable, starting at $20 and up for 750ml bottles.
I think I drink more sake than any other alcohol, so it's great to have a premium, sake-only store right in the 'hood.
So....how about some tastings to educate the uneducated?
(Edit: They have lots of FREE tastings! http://www.sakaya...)
http://www.sfgate.com/...
Also, for a mere $6, you can get a finger sized piece of fresh wasabi root and a shark skin grater and make the best wasabi ever. The dish is garnished with the top (leafy) part of the wasabi plant, which I'd never seen before.
1 Previous Review: Hide »
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1/19/2008
Best high end sushi in the Bay Area, but at a price.
We dropped by on a Friday evening around 8 and were able to get a table with no reservations within 15 minutes.
I compare most sushi experiences with eating fresh sushi at Daiwa Zushi in Tsukiji at 9 in the morning and I can fairly say that Sushi Ran has high quality product across the board (for sushi). The also have some exotics that are a bit harder to find in normal sushi restaurants such as the "live" tako (octopus). This is actually small pieces of tako served nigiri, but it's completely fresh and very different from the typical white and purple, opaque, inediblely chewy stuff. I was expecting squirming live octopus like san nak ji (oldboy style), but I believe they just serve raw, very fresh octopus.
The Tasmanian trout was also very good, but beware of the over usage of adjectives on the menu like "wild young bluefin tuna" -- read "small tuna sashimi, not chutoro." As I understand it, most blue fin is still caught in the wild as it's one of the most difficult fish to raise in a farmed environment. And it's the shoulder of the fish, not the part you really want---the belly.
Also, minus one star for attempting the pan Asian cuisine, but failing. I think I saw "Chilean sea bass"...uh oh. We also tried the Snake River Kobe Beef. It was so, so, nothing tender, nothing amazing about it and it, like most other Kobe beefs in the U.S., did not deserve to wear the name "Kobe."
Dinner with drinks, tip and tax came out to about $180, so it's not exactly somewhere you'd go every time you feel like California rolls and kikkoman.
New York, NY 10004
(212) 809-2626
Urban Lobster Shack
Category: Seafood
Neighborhood: Financial District
I got the lobster roll combo for $15--a medium-sized lobster roll, a cup of clam chowder, a bag of Cape Cod chips, a condiment-sized container or coleslaw, oyster crackers and a bottle of water. The lobster roll was unimpressive but the roll tasted like butter. I have a soft spot for buttery things. The chowder was creamy with a decent sized chunks of clam, but nothing special. For 15 bucks, it's a good deal, but don't expect too much.
The shack is a doorfront (like storefront?) of a shop. It's a walk up counter along the street, there's definitely no seating or standing room. It doesn't look like there's enough space in the closet-sized area behind the counter to do any more than put people's orders in bags, so my theory is that all of the food is cooked and prepared at their LES location and brought down to the shack. It's probably safe to assume that the food is on par with their (not so highly rated) LES location.
Oh well, one more barely tolerable place to add to the lunch rotation. I should brown bag it more often. It'd give 2 stars, they get a bonus for adding a new genre to lunch in the Wall Street area.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 387-7959
Ramen Setagaya
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
They were closing up shop, but I'll be trying it this coming week. The menu looks to be about the same as the original Setagaya.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-6363
Kenka
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: East Village
If you go on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, expect to wait an hour or more.
The cheap beer is no longer a draw for me.
1 Previous Review: Hide »
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5/12/2007
NY (and the US) doesn't have a huge selection of izakaya joints...so I'm just thankful for its mere existence.
$1.50 Sapporo/Kirin and $8 real pitchers. Half decent food. Cheap. Weird tables that make you sit too far apart. Fine by me. The food is definitely better at the ____ Taishos but where in Manhattan can you get $1.50 Sapporos at a sit down place during normal hours (not just happy hour)?
I've heard that this place has ties to the Yakuza, but it's probably just a rumor to make it sound cooler. I'd definitely go to a Yakuza restaurant.
I like things that are real. I don't like all of the wannabe sushi/Asian fusion joints. I'd take this place over the poshest, swankiest sushi place any day (like Geisha...what a joke).
New York, NY 10003
(212) 505-8065
B & H Dairy
Categories: Vegetarian, Delis
Neighborhood: East Village
Minus 1 star.
1 Previous Review: Hide »
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1/19/2008
You rock.
You're cheap and easy.
The food is *pretty* good here, as in, the prices are killer which is incentive to sometimes put up with questionable food.
B & H actually stands for "Better Health." Ironically my friend calls it "Butter and (c)Hallah" because if you're not careful, they'll load your challah up with butter and then load you up with challah.
But there's something great about sitting at an old diner counter by yourself and enjoying a cup of soup and some bread. Diners like B&H apparently used to be quite common around Manhattan (50 years ago), but have since gone by the wayside. Too bad, because sometimes you just wanna eat and don't want to make it an event.
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