Restaurant Review: Sushi Deli 2

Details: Located at 135 Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101. The official site is http://www.sushidelitwo.com/

I’ve written about it before, but there are tiers of sushi. In terms of price, high-end is generally around a hundred dollars or more for omakase (e.g. Masa, Nakizawa), the new middle is now places that offer omakases at around fifty dollars (e.g. Sugarfish), and then there’s the low-end that price around twenty dollars or less. If you want some low end, but still satisfying sushi, Sushi Deli 2 is a great place to go.

I came here at night during a weekend. It was packed. They don’t take reservations here. You have to physically come here and write your name onto a list. Then you wait outside until your name is called. I don’t think they call or text or anything, so you just have to physically wait their until your name is called. Kind of annoying, but there were still a ton of groups waiting with me outside the restaurant… for about an hour.

Like many lower end sushi places, they had “specialty” rolls. It’s stuff with ingredients like fruit, cream cheese, smoke salmon, etc. It’s stuff that traditional, higher end sushi would never put in sushi, but there is a need and desire for this kind of food and Sushi Deli 2 fulfills that desire.

I ordered the Verano Roll (spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, avocado, cilantro, crab surimi, lemon slices, spicy sauce) for around nine dollars. It was okay. It was a little odd that they actually put thin slices of lemon, rind and all, on top of the thing.

I saw a lot of people order the nachos. Maybe that’s good. I wouldn’t know since I didn’t get it.

The environment was fun. It’s a Japanese restaurant, not a bar, but one where you’d feel comfortable drinking as if you were in a bar. The service people were nice.

Overall, an okay place that serves a very specific need. It’s cheap Japanese food with heavy Western influence, to the point where you could argue that the restaurant is more American than Japanese.

Score: 5.8/10

Restaurant Review: Ramen Shack

Details: 13-13 40th Ave., Long Island City, NY 11101. Official site is http://www.ramenshack.com/

I normally don’t like ramen, but this may be the best ramen I’ve ever had, by a small margin.

Ramen Shack is a relatively new ramen restaurant opened by Keizo Shimamoto. Shimamoto is known for creating the ramen burger, a trendy food item that was very popular a few years ago. From what I can tell after a few minutes of internet research, Shimamoto invested himself into ramen shortly after, culminating in the the opening of Ramen Shack in 2016.

When I judge a business or restaurant, the very first thing I look at is the price. The higher the price, the higher the standards. The lower the price, the less critical I am. This place is damn cheap, for ramen at least. The price of ramen ranges from $8 to $13, with a soft boiled egg or extra chashu costing an extra dollar or two. You can also get a ramen burger here which, depending on the type, will cost from $7 to $9.

They have your classic ramen and then they have specialty ramen likely created by Shimamoto. I ordered the BGO or Brooklyn Blend specialty ramen (black garlic oil, tonkotsu broth, soy sauce tare, pork belly, kikurage, scallions, fried onion, b. shoga). I’ve had a lot of ramen in New York City from places like Ippudo or Totto Ramen and I can say that this ramen was perhaps the best bowl I’ve yet to have. Not substantially better, but I can’t recall a better tasting bowl of ramen. The pork belly was blow torched in my view and was spectacular. The broth was good and not too salty. The noodles were okay. There was the right amount of broth versus noodles. Often times you get too much soup when what I really want is noodles. It was a good bowl, perhaps the best I’ve yet to have. It cost $11. I got a soft boiled egg in it for another dollar.

I also ordered the Original “OG” ramen burger (Schwied and Sons CAB patty, homemade ramen buns, arugula, scallions, shoyu sauce) for $8. I’ve had the ramen burger once before from another restaurant. It was terrible and I never wanted to order it again. Since this place was the self proclaimed originator of the ramen burger, I figured I’d give it a try. It was all right, better than the other place. I’m certainly never going to order it again, but it was okay. This is a novelty, for the fair or at food festivals. It’s not good enough to eat more than once.

The people working here were nice. The space is small and only ten seats. Also, this place is only open from 11 PM to 7 PM and they don’t take reservations. I went at around 1:30 PM one a weekday and there weren’t that many people there. Three of the five other patrons were native Japanese speakers, which is interesting. I guess they liked the ramen.

Additionally, this place is in Long Island City and across the street from a project. Take that into consideration however you want.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend this place.

Score: 7/10

Restaurant Review: Sunrise Mart

Details: Located at 12 East 41st St., New York, NY 10017. The official site is http://sunrisemart-ny.com/default_eng/

Sunrise Mart is specialty market for Japanese supermarket products. That means, drinks, snack, ingredients etc. This review is not for reviewing each individual product. This review is about the lunch boxes they make and prepare for the lunch rush every day.

While this place does make things to order like udon or a few rice dishes, the main reason I frequent this place is the pre-made lunch boxes. They make a variety of pre-made lunch boxes here like eel over rice, pork cutlet over, oyakodon, etc. It’s all Japanese type lunch boxes. They also have some sushi and other lunch boxes in a refrigerated display, but I prefer the hot lunch boxes that are not in the refrigerator that seem to be made daily. There are also smaller appetizers made daily like takoyaki and gyoza.

The main reason I like this place? It’s because I get some Japanese flavors for lunch in midtown Manhattan and I get them fast. Everything is already on display and ready to go. I just pick up a box and head to the register. The quality is also pretty good. Prices for lunch boxes are generally around $10.

Overall, a good place to grab lunch during the work day. I greatly prefer this place over Pret A Manger.

Score: 6.8/10

Restaurant Review: Narita Japanese Cuisine (Forest Hills, NYC)

Official site: http://www.naritacuisine.com/

Came here for dinner.

The space is fine. They have a hibachi area, so it’s a bit loud when the show gets going. They also have your standard Japanese American food: bento boxes, teriyaki, your standard assortment of rolls.

I had the tsuki bento (soup, salad, ice cream, tempura, salmon, chicken teriyaki) and my friend had two rolls. She said the sushi was pretty lousy. I thought my food was fine, if not priced a little high. The neighborhood is a little pricey though, even though it’s in Queens. It was fine though in my opinion.

The staff is… enthusiastic. The hibachi guy is loud, but that’s his job. It was someone’s birthday and that was pretty loud. They bring out this gong along with some cake and they just smash it over and over again. I thought it was hilarious. My friend thought it was too loud.

Score: 5/10

Restaurant Review: Izakaya Mew (near Koreatown, NYC)

Came here with a friend for dinner. First thing to know is that during peak hours, this place is packed. There is a perpetual line that is about an hour long from around five-ish to midnight. There are no reservations so get ready to wait.

The space is downstairs in a basement, but — as you can see from the photo — it is a nice space. Despite the large number of people waiting for tables, it was comfortable. Also, I love exposed brick.

For food, we ordered the black sesame chicken (fried), the omu soba (its a noodle stir fry wrapped in an omelette, tastes like okonomiyaki), and the black dragon roll (eel, avocado, shrimp tempura). Everything was great. I was worried about the Omu Soba, but it was fine. Almost everyone there had ordered it. Loved the black sesame chicken. You can faintly taste the black sesame, but it’s sweet.

Service was great. Plenty of waiters and all very helpful. Front guy taking tables was unbelievably busy, but still very nice.

Score: 7.4/10 Loved this place. Probably not coming back because of the crowd though.

Official site: http://mewnyc.com/

Restaurant Review: Lucky Cat (upper east side, NYC)

Wandered around last night with a group of ten and looking for ramen on the upper east side. Totto was full. Hide ramen upstairs was also full. Luckily we found Lucky Cat.

It was late so they had the room for us. It’s a satisfactory, if simple space.

Service was okay.

Prices were all right. Around ten bucks for plates. Skewers were around two to three bucks a piece.

We ordered a lot. We had one of their shabu shabu dishes (mountain of meat cooked in soup right at the table), some pork belly skewers, yakisoba (stir fry noodles), most of their varieties of soup ramen, and the pork belly tacos.

It was all right. Not everything was that good. I don’t recommend the Yakisoba. Ramen… is self explanatory. I place it in the same category of food as Mexican food, Italian food, curry, etc. It’s good when you want it, but it’s not complex and there isn’t a higher degree of satisfaction you can derive from such a simple dish. Pork belly tacos were pretty good, too.

Score: 6.5 Pretty good. Not everything on the menu is great. I’d stick with ramen and skewers.

Offical site: http://www.luckycatnyc.com/

Restaurant Review: Oh Taisho! (St. Mark’s, NYC)

I’ve passed by this place countless times, usually turned off because of the huge line that’s usually in front of it. Well, I’m happy to say I finally tried this place and it was great.

I think Oh Taisho! is mainly known for their skewers, but they so many other great things, too. We ordered two order of meal A; that’s meat balls, chicken, gizzard, chicken skin, and pork belly skewers. I especially liked the pork belly, but they were all very tender and delicious. We also ordered beef skewers, the duck with garlic chips, and the salmon cream yakisoba. It was all great.

The service was nice.

The prices weren’t that bad. About $1.50 per skewer, which varies depending on the skewer.

Score: 8/10 They also have ramen, rice bowls, and okonomiyaki. I’m definitely coming back. I just hope it’s a little less crowded next time.

Official site: http://ohtaisho.com/

Restaurant Review: Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

Details: Located at 187 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002. Official site is http://www.blueribbonrestaurants.com/restaurants/blue-ribbon-sushi-izakaya/

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant on Orchard St., near Houston. We came here for dinner.

The space is immense. I think it’s the entire second floor of a hotel, but I could be wrong. It’s a great space and there are many tables in two main rooms. There are also those stools set along those long tables (as shown in the picture above), but I don’t think they’re as comfortable as the booths.

The staff was friendly and very helpful.

Music wasn’t too loud.

The food was really good. We ordered the Sea Scallops with Miso butter (two scallops on a skewer, the Uni sushi (comes with two pieces), the Sushi Deluxe, the Sauteed Bok Choi (Chinese broccoli), the Oxtail and Bone Marrow fried rice, the skirt steak (Tsukiji style), and the Squid, Squid Ink and Uni fried rice.

The sea scallops were amazing. I could have eaten twenty of those. The uni sushi was great quality. The sushi deluxe was the same predictable sushi deluxe you’d get anywhere else. The Chinese broccoli was too salty. The steak was good and came with some delicious mushrooms.

The Oxtail fried rice… man the oxtail fried rice was good. That was by far the best thing we had that night. It was buttery and fatty and so good that it was probably terrible for your health. The squid ink fried rice was okay. It had a surprisingly large amount of squid in it and came topped with uni. Can’t complain about more uni.

Overall, dinner came out to around $150, including tax and tip. The sea scallops on a skewer came out to around $6 per scallop. Keep in mind you can order half orders of many things, so you can try out more things on the menu without ordering gorilla sized portions for each.

Score: 7.5/10 There are a few really tasty, unique things on this menu and the quality of sushi was pretty good. Space was comfortable. Worth a visit, especially for a half-sized order of the oxtail and bone marrow fried rice.

Restaurant Review: Ootoya

Details: Located at 8 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011, among other locations. Official site is http://ootoya.us/

Ootoya is part of a chain of Japanese restaurants which do Japanese food, but more authentic. No reservations unfortunately. I had to put my name down and wait around fifty minutes.

The space is large and calming. It’s clean and all the tables are given plenty of space from each other. The entry way is also worth a mention since it is a wooden cage that separates the entrance form the rest of the restaurant. It helped to increase my anticipation of dinner there when we were finally let inside.

Service was fine. The wait staff were very nice, although it seemed like the waiter/waitress who waited on us may have been a new hire. We had to show them where everything we ordered was on the menu in order to confirm it. No biggie.

Most of the items on the menu offered the item a la carte or as a set. Sets come with the item ordered, rice, miso soup, pickled stuff, and steamed egg custard. We ordered three things: the Katsu Toji (pork loin served in a bubbling pot with egg, onion, and some broth), the Kaisen Don set (assorted sashimi over rice, including fresh uni), and the Gyu Shio Koji Don (grilled slices of washu beef).

It was all delicious. The egg custard was amazing; hot, steamy, and soft, with a thin layer of some kind of tangy sauce over the top layer of the custard. The sashimi served was extremely fresh and the sea urchin was wonderful. The pork loin was fine. The washu beef was good as well, but not extraordinary compared to a good steak house.

We ended the meal with the crepe dessert, which was a crepe filled with some kind of cream and red beans alongsie a scoop of green tea ice cream. Also good.

Score: 7/10 Tasty, but the lack of reservations is annoying. They seem to be opening a new location in Greenwich Village. The one I went to was in Chelsea and someone opined it may be the most comfortable of the three current locations.

Restaurant Review: Watawa Sushi

Details: Located at 33-10 Ditmars Blvd, Astoria, NY 11105. Link to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/watawa.astoria

The bathrooms are behind the curtain.

The food is your standard Japanese fare; sushi, sashimi, teryiaki, etc. There were some uniquely named rolls, but nothing extraordinary. It was fresh though. Everyone in our party had some sushi and sashimi with the deep fried green tea ice cream for dessert.

What was noteworthy was the vibe of this place. You can’t tell from the picture, but as of the time of my visit, the place was very trendy/”hip.” There was a nice looking bar with a variety of tasty mixed drinks and cocktails, exposed brick, candles, curtains, a kind of upbeat techno-y music playing, a small pond with a Buddha statue in the back, and a very young crowd. The place was packed. The space itself was huge. I think they might have bought the property next door and combined the two. Even still, there were tons of people and a line waiting for seats. Additionally, they don’t take reservations.

Score: 6/10 You come here for some slightly fresher than average sushi and for the young/fun Friday night atmosphere/crowd.