Out for lunch with the boys

Hane is atypical of pseudo Japanese joints that dot the midtown landscape.I believe previously I had reviewed their tough grilled meat.

This time, I went and had lunch with Suanstein and Dave at the restaurant. Suanstein actually was willing to eat outside his cubicle!!! Amazing.

Service was fast and friendly. As usual, the tables were pretty much squashed together so be forewarned. However, they were big enough to have room to eat...which most places do not bother with.

The bento lunch specials come with miso soup and shumai If you got the regular bento special - it comes with soup and salad.

The miso was very very bland - like water...and not clean water at that. I didn't bother with a picture because it was just watery, with bits of seaweed and tofu floating in its murkiness.

The salad was typical green lettuce...with ginger dressing over it. Nothing special.

Now...the shumai. Suanstein was right. It tasted just like some pre-frozen stuff from the supermarket aisle, reheated to a tepid warmness and prettily arranged for your visual pleasure. It came with six, generous serving size, but rather tasteless.

Shumai

Suanstein ordered a teriyaki box so I didn't take photos but Dave ordered this beautiful row of lobster tartar, cooked lobster with wasabi aioli sauce. It tasted decent to me but I do prefer a good lobster - whole or chopped as opposed to this.

Lobster Tartar

I went with fried chicken. Basic, and yet, it was very tasty. And I lied - there is the teriyaki bento special in the back with rice. Salmon teriyaki - a basic dish in these restaurants but I hear that this place makes a decent salmon - not crazy fishy tasting.

Teriyaki in the background! My bad! I did get a shot!

Here is the fried chicken, with shredded seaweed. Pretty presentation, I must say but the chicken was very tasty. There was no rice but you do not need it with all the shumai!

Fried Chicken, Yum!

Hane is decently priced for the area but nothing special. As always, I prefer sushi/sashimi in an authentic Japanese joint and that means going further away from work, which is why we always end up at these type of places!



Hane Sushi
581 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016
tel: 212.682.8388
Hours: Still I haven't remembered to find it.

Refuge from the rain at Sushi Time

Picture this. A gray sky. No hint of rain. You go next door and wait for Victoria to come downstairs. She does. You're outside. A few drops of water hit you. It's still bright gray, not dark. You both decide to trek onwards - undeterred so you could go to the Fresh Market on 46th.

Quite suddenly, the sky's a dark, threatening gray and you feel the rain start dripping down. You flip your umbrella out and up - still determined to carry forth.

That's when the wind starts whipping about and the drops become plops and you're now completely soaked.

And that's how Victoria and I ended up at Sushi Time - a Japanese restaurant on 2nd Ave - our port in the storm.

Like most "sushi" places in the city, this was also a Chinese owned place. I could tell because the wait staff were speaking Chinese, not Japanese.

The place is typical Asian restaurant decor of wooden tables and chairs. The coolest thing is the tiling at the entry way. They also had bags for your wet brollies there.

It was decently packed - not totally packed but it was still early.

We both asked for hot tea and later ordered the beef negimaki and chicken curry bento boxes.

They came with soup and salad - Victoria had to eat my salad because I hate the dressing - she loves it. Miso soup was typical of fake Japanese restaurants.

Our bentos came just after they remembered that we had ordered tea. Very slow and forgetful service.

Beef Negimaki

So the box is: Top Left to right: California roll, shumai, rice
                      Bottom left to right: beef negimaki, wasabi paste and ginger slices, and mystery mochi packet



Victoria got the beef negimaki bento box which was just delicious she claimed. They were hefty rolls and the serving of six was more than enough.

I got the chicken curry bento box which, you can see is the same as the other bento box - only with chicken curry.

Curry Chicken

I can attest to the tastiness of the chicken curry which was a rich curry flavor, with fresh veggies and chicken, perfectly seasoned and cooked.

The shumai was ok but it was not as good as I've had before. The california roll was typical fare.

The mystery mochi which is rice cake for anyone who doesn't know the term was actually green tea ice cream encased in a mochi casing. However, it was brought out at the same time as the bento box and suffered meltiness by the time we were able to eat it. The casing was a bit tough to eat but the ice cream was delicious.

Overall, the service was inefficient and slow - not really standard for busy Midtown. The curry was delicious but they should hold off and giving you the dessert until you are ready.

Tasty fare but would I make a special trek to this restaurant? Not really.

Sushi Time
821 2nd Ave (between 43rd & 44th streets)
New York, NY 100
Tel. 212.883.8983
Hours:
Same as Delivery hours.
Delivery Hours:

Sun

12:00 PM - 10:45 PM

Mon

11:00 AM - 10:45 PM

Tue

11:00 AM - 10:45 PM

Wed

11:00 AM - 10:45 PM

Thu

11:00 AM - 10:45 PM

Fri

11:00 AM - 10:45 PM

Sat
12:00 PM - 10:45 PM

Ramen ramen ramen!!!

So back in 2011, I purchased a groupon for Ramen Kuboya. Ramen Kuboya is in Alphabet City, right next to...Minca! It was going to expire this month, so I roped Barb into going - she actually *wanted* to go. Yeah, that's what I said.

The inside of the restaurant was not bad - the main portion was bright and clean. The part we sat in was darker, and smaller. The chairs did not look comfy but were actually comfortable and perfect for my short self. On the other hand, if you were not vertically challenged, may not be so good for your legs.

So, Barb limped her way over and being that she did not eat pork, had a hard time with the menu. For one, the waitress barely spoke English. We didn't speak Japanese - ha! Even if I did take lessons.

Chicken Shiso Age - Chicken wrapped in Japanese Basil

First, we chose an appetizer - chicken shiso age - which was served up prettily on a banana leaf and a nifty rectangular plate. It was battered and fried - it was pretty decent. Barb did not enjoy it. 

 However, after wrestling with her choices (limited options, she opted for the seafood broth without seaweed, without charsui.

Our friendly but forgetful waitress forgot to tell the chef  not to put pork or seaweed. They took it out - but Barb had them remake it because she is allergic to pork. (An actual allergy - I looked it up). Barb didn't enjoy it too much and was still hungry. :)

Seafood Broth Ramen without pork

I opted for the Shio, small. Small is more than enough. The regular size ramen bowls are usually really too much for me to finish off. The broth was decent - but it was not so good that I would drink the broth. The triple blended broth - good if you eat pork - bad if you can't - was a good combo of flavors. The charsu (pork) was just too fatty. I am not a fan of fatty meat. The egg was delicious with the broth.

The noodles were nice - soft but chewy, not tough and definitely improvement on CupofNoodle ramen. :)

Shio Ramen

Ramen Shio - you can see the seaweed

After this, we tried to find Otafuku but gave up and went to Agozar's which you can read in the next entry!

Ramen Kuboya
536 East 5th St Ste 2
( between Avenue A & Avenue B )
New York, NY 10009
Neighborhoods: East Village, Alphabet City
(212) 777-7010
Hours:
Mon – Thu,  Sun  :   Lunch 12 pm – 3 pm   Dinner  3 pm – 12 am
Fri – Sat  :   Lunch 12 pm – 3 pm   Dinner  3 pm – 1:30 am
The last order will be applied before 30 minutes of closing the restaurant.

Hane Sushi

Just tried this place for the first time even though I have been to its neighbor several times already. Staff is attentive and nice.

Tamago Sushi

I had a craving for yakitori, japanese style skewers and being in a neighborhood not conducive to great eats, I opted to try theirs.

Chicken Yakitori

Served as a special over a bed of rice, with carrots and other veggies, the skewers come in a duo with bell pepper and onions in between white chicken meat.

Now, I have been to Yakitori Taisho in the East Village and loved it. This yakitori was tough like leather and I just had doubts about eating it. I really went town on the rice and soy sauce instead.

It came with miso soup and salad but I was better off trying something else; if not for my yakitori craving...

Hane Sushi
581 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016
Tel. 212.632.8388
Hours:
Unknown til I get their menu for the website only gives the hours for their 1st Ave location.

Delicious Rolls from Hiroshi

I had no idea what I wanted so I just ordered three rolls from Hiroshi.

I ordered the sweet potato tempura roll, pumpkin tempura roll, and avocado cucumber roll. Two rolls would have been sufficient. But I did my best to finish.

Three rolls from Hiroshi

The pumpkin was very good and it was not too sweet.

The sweet potato roll was wonderfully sweet and delicious.

The avocado cucumber roll was refreshing between the two tempura rolls.

Hiroshi
585 3rd Ave #38
New York, NY 10016
tel (212) 661-9288
Hours:
Lunch: Mon - Fri, 11 am - 3 pm
Dinner: Mon - Fri, 5 pm - 11 pm
Lunch & Dinner: Sat - Sun, 2 pm - 11 pm

Quickie Japanese Lunch @ Aki's

Friday, we went to lunch with Ravi. At first we were going to Hiroshi but ended up at Aki aka Tony's for their bento box.

Aki is typical pseudo Japanese fare made by Chinese chefs. The place is clean, according to their rating.

Salmon Teriyaki Bento Box for $8.95

Service is so-so. Our waitress did not pay attention to David as he asked for tea for the table. But she got both our drinks and orders right.

Ravi and I got curry shrimp bento boxes and David stuck to the salmon teriyaki box. 

I can't comment on his bento but it looked good. I don't generally eat teriyaki as good as it may be.Nor do I eat salmon.

Curry Shrimp Bento Box for $9.95

I can say that the California roll was fresh and the shrimp shumai has always been my favorite from here. Just the right amount of seasoning and soy on it. I did not need any more seasoning or soy.

I got shrimp curry which was over white rice. The shrimp was clean - about six were included. There were sliced onions, green peas, and diced carrots. I ate all but the onions, as usual. There was also some green veggie too.

They were in a medium spicy curry - I am not sure it was true Japanese curry but it was good. The rice soaked in the curry so it was quite tasty.

The bento came with a bland miso soup and a few pieces of lettuce drenched in their ginger salad dressing which I never eat. At $9.95, it was a quick and filling lunch.

Aki Sushi
720 2nd Ave
(between 38th St & 39th St)
New York, NY 10016
tel. (212) 922-1168
Hours: Your guess is as good as mine. They do not list this on their site. But you can order through Delivery.com, Seamless.com and their own site.