The Izakaya NYC — Restaurant in New York

The service staff was attentive and timely without being overbearing or too friendly. Very well balanced!

On the other hand, the menu is a bit unbalanced, offering mostly fried and rich foods. That being said, we enjoyed most of what we ordered, except for the deep fried miso eggplant.

They do a great job at frying lightly, as demonstrated by the delicately thin batter that coated the agedashi tofu and the chicken nanban. Both dishes were perfect: lightly fried exteriors, silky/juicy interiors, excellent broth/sauce. I especially loved the bonito flakes that topped the tofu.

The salmon sashimi was also very nice. It was one of the few non-fried dishes on the menu, so I’m glad it worked out.

Unfortunately, the deep fried miso eggplant was a miss. Firstly, a large amount of red miso was simply slathered over the surface, and it was overwhelmingly salty. In my opinion the miso should be a thin, liquified finishing glaze, usually some combination of miso, cooking sake and sugar to balance the salty and sweet. Secondly, I believe they used an Italian eggplant instead of a Japanese or Chinese eggplant, which resulted in a hard skin and tougher interior. When the smaller Asian eggplants are used for this dish, the skin sort of melts away in your mouth, as does the inside.

Other than the eggplant, this Izakaya was a very nice experience. The service is understated in the best way and the portions are small, allowing us to try a few different flavor palettes without becoming too full. The interior decor is not my taste, but decor falls low on the totem pole for my evaluation of a restaurant, so I’d still come back here when I’m in the mood for fried Japanese...

Summary: Got kicked out because we didn't feel safe to eat chicken with blood in it and got charged for the food we couldn't finish because they told us to leave.

This was the most horrible experience I've ever had at a restaurant. I don't even usually write a review just to complain. My friends and I got seated at a table and ordered a chicken nanban and other 2 dishes. We took a bite of the chicken and found blood in the chicken. We asked them to check it and they said it was blood and it's safe to eat. But We've never seen blood in cooked chicken and didn't want to risk getting infections from uncooked chicken. They asked us if we wanted them to cook it again so we said yes. Then not even 5 min later, they came to us and said "Can you leave in 15 min because we have a reservation". That's when we're still waiting for our other foods that we ordered in the beginning to come out and didn't even finish half of our drinks and food (I attached a pic of the foods and drinks we left before we walked out of the place) Also, there were a lot of empty tables! We said we didn't feel comfortable eating feeling rushed and it's not even possible to finish eating in 15 min when our order hadn't even come out yet. They didn't even properly apologized and charged us for the food and drinks of which we hadn't even finished the half. Only after we told them, they took it off our bill....

Food is good, but very overpriced. Post-Covid, the ambience is completely wrecked compared to how it was before. It used to have a cute, homey feel but now it feels like a busted pub with haphazardly made tables.

If you plan on eating, and I mean actually eating dinner - Expect to spend at least $100 before tax and tip. Food for two of us cost $180 with tax and tip. You have to ask yourself if this is the type of place that’s worth $180. To me, it’s not. It’s 4 pieces of chicken nanban. It’s cabbage. It’s 6 pieces of salmon sashimi. It was good, but not $180 good. This was my 8th visit (first since covid) and my last time here.

Edit: Kind of wild that the owner is responding this way. The menu is extremely limited and the cost definitely went up. The tables and chairs are haphazardly made from plank wood. Is that more comfortable?? The front is now a makeshift bar. It used to be a cute cozy dining area. Definitely won’t come back. If you go down the other reviews, other people have agreed that this once classy establishments vibes have changed.

Also, I didn’t mention this previously but this place used to pay their workers fairly and didn’t used to require tipping. The waitresses they’ve hired were not as warm and welcoming, and expected large tips? I had brought so many friends over the years and introduced them to this place....