Yakitori Totto — Restaurant in New York

The service was spot on. The food was ok. The location left a lot to be desired.

I dined at the counter and only waited for 15 minutes for a seat. A few beers and plenty of sticks later, I was left dissapointed. I tried every beef option on the menu except the short ribs (they didn't have any) chicken skins, and lamb chop. As a vegetable side dish, had 2 sticks of shitake mushrooms.

Arrived on a Sunday night around 7pm. Was seated by 715pm. I was originally quoted a 30 to 45 min wait. I had some time so why not. That was a plus. Service was quick and attentive. I had my first 2 beers within 2 minutes of ordering them and then each subsequent beer in about the same amount of time from when I ordered them.

First round was a plate of shitake mushrooms, skirt steak and beef tongue, and then the japanese premium beef. Then 3 sticks of chicken skins came. Last plate from first round was the lamb chop.

My favorite so far was the beef tongue. The japanese premium beef was good but doesn't compare to the beef in japan (well to be honest most of the beef I ate in Japan was black tail A5 grade.) The skirt steak was good but not memorable.

The chicken skins were a bit too charred (burnt in some areas) and a bit on the saltier side.

The mushrooms were slightly over salted but not as much as the chicken skins.

The lamb was good. Juicy and tender, not too gamey in taste but I have had better at some steakhouses in the city.

I was still hungry so I ordered another round of tongue, the japanese premium beef, and mushrooms along with a few more Asahi beers.

It was during the time I was waiting for the second round to come out, something happened. A baby cockaroach walked its way across the counter. I looked at the guy next to me, he looked at me with a what the heck face, so I grabbed my napkin and took care of it. I showed the napkin to a waitress and she looked mortified but grabbed it and took it away.

I understand its a big city and pests are going to happen but right in the middle of dinner service and on the counter not 2 feet from the yakitori grill area. I attribute it to bad timing.

The cockaroach didn't really kill my appetite because heck, I ate already and always wanted to try a state side yakitori place (especially run by totto.) Guy next to me picked up his chopsticks and kept eating also.

Thats where this review lost 2 stars. 1 for the cockaroach and 1 for the slightly over salted food.

Not counting tip, tab was right under $110. Did I eat and drink a lot, sure did so I was expecting a 100 dollar tab. Place is not cheap but I would not call it expensive either.

Exit time was around 815pm. Right around 1 hour. Actually only spent 10 to 15 minutes eating. The rest was drinking and waiting for the food.

Would I go back? Alone no but if invited by friends I would.

Pictures of food to...

The most horrible, disgusting, disappointing service in the world!!!! Rude Waitress Julie, you owe us an apology!!! My experience at Yakitori Totto last night was a ridiculous drama.The waiters and waitresses at Yakitori Totto, you should go to Broadway or Hollywood, sincerely, that tiny little noisy restaurant doesn't fit you. I've never ever met such bad customer services, actually terrible service is not enough to describe the whole thing.

Scene 1: My train to NYC was late, so my husband went to Yakitori Totto first. Since RULE 1 at this restaurant is no takeaway, my husband decided to wait for a seat and pack something for me. When he told Waitress Julie there was only 1 guest, she started to roll her eyes..

Scene 2: My husband ordered two Negi Tori Don and two skewers, but he was served with three skewers. He just asked "I only ordered two why you give me three"? Yes, just this simple sentence brought the whole drama. To my husband's surprise, the baby-fat waitress started acting, she imitated what my husband was ordering! She rest her chin on her hand and mimic "hmm actually the chicken was good"... Guys, she can explain using her words, not imitating! I know you feel so boring at serving in this little room, but you cannot humiliate your customer!

Scene 3 (the climax): Since the food was not ready when I arrived at NYC, I decided to go to Yakitori Totto and joined my husband. There were three empty seats when I arrived, so I asked the lady at front desk (I didn't know she was RUDE Julie) politely: "My husband is sitting there and there's an empty seat next to him, can I join him?" She rolled her eyes and ignored me, so I asked again. She said rudely " you can go ahead". However, after we ordered more skewers, a waiter suddenly came and talked to me "you cannot seat here, other customers are waiting." I looked around, 0 waiting and 2 available seats. So I asked him where are the other customers. Then this waiter went to RUDE Julie, and came back saying "Sorry you cannot seat here, you BREAK THE RULE." Are you serious??? "What rules did I break and where are the other customers?" He waited for two more minutes and found two ladies who just arrived and said "they are waiting". OMG!!!!!!!!!!

Scene 4: I ran to the front desk and argued with RUDE Julie for minutes. She was cold, rude and not educated at all. She used "what the hell" but I didn't use any F word, though I thought she deserved it.

Hi Yakitori Totto, I know you are spoiled by your customers, but you have to apologize to me, and send your dramatic employees to Broadway and hire some educated polite ones. Honestly, the current ones are the shame of Japanese culture and...

From good reviews online, I decided to come here for an anniversary dinner a few days ago. My partner and I decided to start off with takoyaki, which wasn't too badly priced, at $10 for 6 pieces, along with a bowl of miso soup. The takoyaki was a pleasant surprise - crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside, with good flavor. However, the miso soup was extremely salty, definitely overpowering. I got used to the saltiness after a few sips. We also ordered a calpico drink mixed with soda, which tasted great. The ratios of both made for a perfect blend. I was a little surprised by the taste of the miso soup, but nothing too standout yet. Soon, we got our yakitori skewers: wagyu beef, enoki bacon, kawa, and negi pon. The texture of the wagyu was disappointing, but acceptable. The enoki bacon texture was amazing; nothing remarkable about the kawa and negi pon textures. Texture is important, but so is flavor, which is what all of these yakitori skewers were lacking. The flavor for all the skewers were extremely underwhelming, and my partner and I had to drown all them in salt, pepper, and soy sauce to give it an okay flavor. Next, we ordered one totto udon bowl to share. The servers provided each of us an individual bowl & soup spoon. I don't have much to say on this dish - it was just average udon. No complaints but no particular compliments either. To finish off the night, we ordered a green tea affogato, and needless to say, this was the highlight of the dinner. The green tea blended perfectly with the vanilla ice cream to produce a sweet matcha-like flavor. My partner ate all the red bean so I can't comment on that, but the mochi balls that came with it were relatively flavorless, but it had a nice chewiness so I won't complain about it. The total cost of all this came out to about $80, and we tipped about 20% since our waiter was extremely kind and accommodating,...