Ichibantei — Restaurant in New York

A hole in the wall spot. Good food, amazing service, but the atmosphere was really dark in there.

The food was good quality and cooked wonderfully. For the appetizer. We ordered fries and chicken karage. The fries were delicious. Crispy on the outside, mushy on the inside. It also came with ketchup and wasabi (house radish) doing sauce, which was delicious. The chicken karage was perfectly cooked inside; juicy and delicious. But the outside wasn't crispy, which was a bit of a letdown. Next was the main course. I ordered the hamburger steak with the sauce name that I don't know how to spell, but it was an onion based sauce. The burger was so good. It was juicy, and there was a mix of pork and beef flavors inside, which were all complemented with the sauce. My friend ordered a tuna steak, which was seared tuna with a dipping sauce on the side. The tuna was good quality and quite delectable. The dipping sauce on the side was strange. It tasted like garlic, onion, and fish were mashed together. It was an ok dip with the tuna. The two dishes also came with soup, salad, and rice. The salad was dressed nicely with a sesame sauce, and the rice was nice and plump. There were 2 soup options, miso and potato soup. The miso tasted nice and salty with real miso. While the potato soup was surprisingly cool and light. Lastly, my other friend ordered udon. The noodle has a good bit of chew to it, and the soup broth was made with good dashi.

The service there was amazing. The server for our table was chill and funny. He helped us with some awkward requests. He was also a bit forgetful but that was funny and he served us really well. I would describe him as a really cool knowledge friend who keeps misplacing his phone everywhere.

The decor of the place was more to be desired and was a work in progress. And what I mean was that I noticed power tools in some corners of the place, and all the walls were painted black. So it was very difficult to traverse at times, and you felt really isolated from the outside because you were in a dark void. I could tell that this restaurant used to be a rave/ party bar with how the speakers and bar were set up. But even the bar looked very empty and spacious with very little decorations or bottles. They do serve alcohol beverages, but we didn't venture for that.

So over all I liked the food and had one of the best services in a non fine dining radiant. The atmosphere was really isolated in a dark void, which was a...

While I do feel sympathy for the proprietor, I can only describe my experience of this place as deeply unsettling and, frankly, frightening. In truth, I had not intended to visit this establishment at all—I had been searching for a different Japanese restaurant, but after walking past it and growing tired, I happened upon this location and decided to enter. From the moment I approached the entrance, painted entirely in black, I felt a chill run down my spine. Upon being shown to our table by the staff, that eerie sensation intensified. The walls were dark, adorned with black frames that seemed to conceal something sinister within. I was so disturbed I urged my companion to leave, but they persuaded me to stay and eat quickly. Even as I sat down, I felt something lurking within those ominous frames. I struggled to remain calm, deliberately averting my eyes, trying to relax—when suddenly, I noticed a large mirror reflecting the darkness, its depth impossible to perceive. It startled me anew, and I wanted nothing more than to flee, yet I felt frozen in fear.

I felt the need to use the lavatory, but given the dim and unsettling lighting of the dining area, I had an ominous sense that the restroom would be all the more foreboding. Thus, I suggested to my companion that they go ahead first.

Upon their return, the very first words they uttered were, “Don’t go to the bathroom—let’s leave at once.” When I asked why, they explained that the restroom was even darker than the dining hall, illuminated by but a single, faint light positioned above a mirror — a mirror, curiously, that reflected yet another mirror.

It baffled me—why would a Japanese restaurant adopt such an...

Came here recently on my solo adventures and initially was a bit confused if the place was open. It was definitely open and I was the only customer.

I ordered the Sake Ball (ginger ale + sake) and the Hamburger steak. The Sake Ball was delicious and for $7, you can definitely taste the sake (my rule is if a cocktail is under $10, and you can taste the alcohol... its worth it). The hamburger steak came with a side of soup, which was really good (savory and not watered down), like a combination between egg drop soup and miso soup. The salad was a combination of mixed greens and their miso dressing (which is one of the best miso dressings I had: sweet, salty, slight sourness and no grittiness) The highlight of my meal was definitely the hamburger steak. At first I was kind of disappointed I didn't get the melted cheese as shown on grub hub, but when I cut in and took a bite of the hamburger steak and the demi-glace sauce, I was taken to another dimension. This was hands down the best demi-glace sauce i had in NYC (and I have tried a handful): the consistency was thick but not too thick that it was overwhelming, and the key component of the tomato ketchup like flavor was there. The meat, was literally the most tender, and smoothest piece of ground meat I have ever had. I didn't taste any chunks nor did it taste heavy or like tires.

This place is definitely a hidden gem, and I highly recommend this place for Japanese cuisine, especially the hamburger steak. Also, heard the dialect between staff being Japanese, now if that's not...