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/