Yopparai — Restaurant in New York

My experience eating at Yopparai was quite pleasant. We were immediately seated at 7:15pm with a reservation for 7:30pm and were instructed to take off our shoes so that we could sit at the dining area.

We ordered the Tsukune (Homemade Chicken Meatball Topped with Raw Egg Yolk), Hotate Butter (Grilled Scallop in Soy based butter sauce), and the Ika Ichiyazuke (Grilled Whole Marined Squid) for the appetizers. They were all around $16-$18 each, which is honestly not too bad for the quality of the food that was received. We also ordered the 10 piece chef's choice sushi for $85.

The Chicken Meatball was really delicious. On the perimeter of the dish was this chopped radish-textured formation that was coated beautifully in this soy-based sauce. It was the perfect amounts of sour and savory. We had to mix in the raw egg yolk with the meatball and it tasted absolutely amazing.

I could not stop eating the Hotata Butter scallops, the butter mixture was so rich and flavorful, and the added lemon juice complemented the scallops and the sauce perfectly. The scallops were also extremely tender and flavorful, and they even put salt on the side to add an extra zing. The grilled squid was also extremely appetizing and delicious, and they gave an extremely generous amount of squid that was addicting to eat.

Lastly was the omakase-styled sushi part of the dinner. They gave us generous amounts of fish ranging from salmon roe, botan ebi, yellowtail, tuna, chutoro, salmon, fluke, and uni. Each piece was curated beautifully and was an absolute pleasure to eat.

Overall my experience was great and my stomach was pleasantly satisfied at the end. We also got the Yopparai Partfait at the very end, which was $12 for vanilla ice cream, a ton of whipped cream, sliced bananas, strawberries, and cereal. It was a perfect way to end the dinner...

Positive: atmosphere. Negative: portion. Ok so this place is cute, good for an intimate date night or a place to grab a drink and bites after a full dinner, but not a good place if you want a fulfilling dinner. Izakaya with a steep price tag for dishes with portions that are small for ants. The place has a bar and Japanese style traditional tatami booth (shoes off), so pretty unique and a good place to have a conversation. This place is for someone with a tiny appetite or come hang out already full. We ordered a bunch of items from the menu, and each average costs about $25, but the portion for each was astonishingly small. We ordered the fish hotpot and we got literally five pieces of trout and a little bit mushrooms and watercress ($35). Oden tasted very good, but that small bowl (5 kinds) costs $21. Other food items all tasted alright, nothing special. We ended up spending over $100 per person, and had to go to another place to get more food because all of us were still hungry. So again, don’t come here if you want to get full, unless you want to spend over $250 per person. Good for a first date or business talk where you don’t expect...

This used to be a wonderful restaurant with delicious food and great service and atmosphere. It has since expanded, and visiting post pandemic I was so disappointed. First off I made a reservation and indoor reservations werent available so we assumed that they were booked. When we arrived we were led outside (in winter weather!) even though the restaurant remained mostly empty while we were there, they couldve offered us indoor seats since they were available, and obviously were not reserved - which we didnt know. The food is just not good. They have the small portions and high prices of fine dining but the flavors are totally off, items on the menu labeled “wagyu” are obviously not wagyu, and over all the dishes are unimpressive or unbalanced in flavor and unpleasant. So that leaves them a restaurant that charges way too much for tiny portions that don’t deliver on taste, which is the only excuse for small portions. So disappointed, I have not tried ronin but I will give their a la carte menu a chance before I try their tasting menu because if this is any indication, it’s really...