Pricing: Not Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Japanese (and some Korean)
Favorite Dish(es): Kalbi ($12 each), Chicken Bibimbop ($9), S’mores ($4 each, dessert)
This is a large, upscale, wannabe-trendy West Coast chain Japanese restaurant across from Cooper Union in Astor Place. Each table is equipped with its own BBQ pit, much like Korean BBQs, but with high tech ventilation systems. You order by single serving portions of various marinated meats and vegetables, all of which are fairly bland, that you grill on your own. Sort of like Village Yokocho meets Benihana, but where you are the chef. So why pay extra to cook your own dinner? It’s all about the sauce. One of the dipping sauces at each table is awesome – sweet, tangy, and spicy like a BBQ marinade with Sriracha. It goes great on everything they serve. Plus, on certain days after a certain time, some of the dishes are half price. And, this is one of the only places that serves Kirin beer by the pitcher – ice cold. Their other dishes are pretty good too, like their take on Korean “Bibimbop” (rice mixed with veggies and a spicy pepper sauce) which is a welcome change of taste from 32nd Street. And for dessert, the BBQ pits turn into S’mores pits. All in all, a pretty fun (but kind of expensive) place that’s good for long group dinners and dates.
Filed under: BBQ, Date Places, Dessert, Drinks, East Village, Japanese, Not Cheap, Sit Down | Tagged: astor place, cooper union, east village japanese, Gyu Kaku, gyukaku, japanese bbq, japanese restaurants, new york japanese, smores nyc, union square restaurants
