YOKO-CHO

Wow that kani lava was sooo good. A bit on the oily side but with rice it’s perfection. The crab being grilled made it 10x more aromatic and delish. Would come back for it. The San ko was also my fav. Love how you can DIY it and the uni was very fresh. Great experience and would come back.

I’ve been here a couple times already. Good food for food prices - Kani lava ($18): 8/10, rich and creamy - Wagyu hot stone ($22): 8/10, great quality and thin - Unagi don ($28): 11/10, MUST GET. Huge unagi and so flavorful. The fish eggs are huge and tasty - Sashimi set ($22): 8/10, enjoyed but not extraordinary - Okonomiyaki ($14): 10/10, LOVE - Yakitori: 7/10, standard skewers - Spicy tuna don ($26): 9/10, exceeded my expectations. Yummy! - Kara age ($10): 5/10, just okay. Wouldn’t get again - Kare udon ($19): 8/10, yummy but nothing special. Wouldn’t get again - Mentai udon ($16): 9/10, very creamy - Sake: 6/10, tried different flavors. Bottles are kinda small for the price, but their citrusy one is really good, tastes like a lemon drop shot

Had the karrage, takoyaki. Really good. But the ramen and curry don was very salty, i drank a lot of water because of that. But good price tho, didn’t expect that. Nice atmosphere and good service. Should have order the crab shell on the grill like everyone else. 😭😂

Certified baünger, excellent drinks, good food, good fish. The yakitori is also pretty good. Texture is fine, adequate spices and shichimi togarashi on the side if you need more. I find their ramen to be decent, but that's better than Kyuramen.

Yoko-Cho is a wonderful Japanese restaurant with a cozy and authentic atmosphere. The decor makes you feel like you’re tucked away in a little side street of Japan, which adds so much charm. The food is consistently fresh, flavorful, and beautifully prepared from Sake Oyako Don to warm comfort dishes. Service is always kind and attentive, making every visit enjoyable. It’s a place that balances quality and comfort perfectly. I always leave happy and look forward to coming back again.

Everything was so delicious and our server was so sweet and nice! My partner and I both had the lunch special which includes an appetizer. He had the takoyaki which tasted fresh and the curry don Kara-age chicken. I had chicken gyoza which had that super crispy bottom that you want and came pre-seasoned with the perfect amount ponzu soy sauce. I had the kaisen don as my main course, I loved that it came with ikura which was a great pairing with each of the types of fish it came with. They also have a fantastic sake menu. Overall, a high quality meal. I’d def go back again!!

Service was average. Little over attentive, asking to clear the dishes multiple times before we were finished (we were the only table on a Saturday lunch time). Atmosphere average. Food is not inedible, but definitely lacking flavor and and wasn’t properly reheated. I’m not sure what is made to order but even yakitori came out within a min of ordering… which is disappointing. Biggest issue is flavor, it would be fine it was home cooking. Like, your overworked mother just putting it together without care, just to put nutrition on the table. Like… you won’t complain even if it’s bad kinda situation. I wouldn’t be coming back.

Yoko-Cho offers a truly wonderful and authentic Japanese dining experience in a setting that feels both lively and cozy. It's the kind of spot that transports you out of the bustle of NYC the moment you step inside. The food is absolutely superb, starting with a dish that is an absolute must-try: the Kani Lava. Not only was the flavor profile incredibly good, but the presentation was unique, a creative and fun take on a classic appetizer. Beyond the specialties, the quality of the fundamentals shines through; the fish was notably fresh and delicious, a true testament to their sourcing. What elevates Yoko-Cho is the excellent service. The staff is genuinely friendly and attentive. We were particularly impressed by the efficiency: the service was quick, yet never felt rushed, ensuring a seamless and thoroughly enjoyable meal. It's a rare and appreciated balance when speed doesn't compromise quality. For anyone looking for impeccable food, a warm atmosphere, and stellar, quick service, Yoko-Cho is highly recommended.

We went on a Thursday and the restaurant was not pack. It's a relax restaurant vibe and good for drinking The food was delicious. We got the it was delicious but small portion for $16/18. The menti udon was too creamy as in too much mayo. I wish they reduce the mayo and added more tobiko egg. The fried chicken nothing special. The uni /tobiko / salmon roe rice done delicious but I wish there was more seaweed . The yuzu cocktail was good and there was peach cocktail that has shark gummies in it. Would I come back? Yes.

Came here after seeing tons of food vloggers visit. Made a reservation for 2 at 6:30pm on a Wednesday evening but could've just walked-in. Very friendly staff. I wasn't expecting for my orders to be so creamy, I feel like Japanese cuisine is usually pretty light. Like some other posts say, it may be too creamy. Mentai is heavy on Mayo, and Kani Lava is heavy on cheese (?), but I didn't mind the richness. Nonetheless everything still tasted pretty clean and light. I wouldn't rush to come back here but the Kani Lava def Instagrammable, so I get it.

Came here for dinner after work with a friend to try out this recently new Izakaya spot. Scrolling through their IG page, I had an idea what I wanted to order and they did not disappoint. Starting off with some of the flashy food items, the most dangerous one I would say is the Wagyu Hot Stone ($22). They give you a plate of raw wagyu slices where you cook it on the hot plate yourself. Because of the cooking process, the grease leaks down the hot stone and you essentially have an uncontrollable mini flamethrower. I advise you not to sit at the hightop by the window where there's very flammable wheat. Fun experience and great for wagyu lovers. My favorite dish is the Kani Lava ($18) which is a Japanese dish of a grilled crab shell with crab egg, scallion, and tobiko. I probably could have three of these if I could. The Chirachi Don ($28) is pretty typical dish if you like raw fish and rice. This has an assortment including salmon, tuna, yellowtail, shrimp, shredded egg, cucumber, and shiso leaf. They have a pretty extensive Yakitori selection, ranging $4 to $5 each. We ordered the Chicken Thigh, Enoki Bacon, Beef, and Kibinago, which we enjoyed each one. The Clam Miso Butter ($18) was a pretty refreshing dish. The best part is not the clam, but drinking the broth. So don't waste that broth. One of the dishes we did not like was the Omu Soba ($16), which is a pan fried noodle dish wrapped in an omelette. He found the noodles within the omelette to be super salty and we needed to chug water from the dehydration. We informed the staff about it and hope they will improve on the dish. We ended the meal with a Yuzu Cheesecake ($6), which was absolutely delicious. Overall, I would come back again. Hopefully not everybody is ordering the Wagyu Hot Stone as the restaurant will get pretty smoky.

A mutual friend recommended this spot, and while it's not widely known, I was intrigued by their izakaya-style menu featuring dishes I hadn't seen before. The atmosphere: A small, dimly lit space with a cozy, authentic izakaya vibe. It's perfect for a laid-back night out with friends or a casual date. The food: - Hamachi Kama (yellowtail jaw): Good, but not the best we've had. More on the drier side. - Kani Lava: Completely wowed my partner and I with its great presentation, rich and creamy flavors, and overall standout quality. - Chicken Yakitori skewers: Tender, juicy, and served with a side of a dipping seasoning. - Sashimi Set: Fresh and fairly priced given the variety. - Mentai: Was the only disappointing dish during our visit. Turned out to be overly salty and too heavy on the cream and/or mayonnaise, making it unbearable and difficult to finish. The service: Service could use improvement. We had to flag down our server several times to check on our orders, and the food took quite a while to arrive.

This place is a must try, it's a bit small on the inside but the food is totally worth the wait. Kani Lava is a must, so is the wagyu on hot stone. My ultimate favorite was the unagi don! Service was quick and friendly. 10/10 would recommended

Food at Yoko-Cho was amazing! I came for their Kani Lava but ended up really loving their Sashimi Salad and Oden as well. The Sashimi Salad was so refreshing and the broth for the Oden was very tasty. I ate here with one other person and I think we definitely should've ordered two entrees instead of one entree and 4 appetizers. The service was good and we were able to get seated immediately without reservation. I'd be excited to go back and try more entrees in the future.

Really loved my meal here! Everything was delicious and the service was great. Would recommend getting a bunch of different things to try for the table. My favorite was the sashimi salad. It was a good portion size and the fish tasted fresh. The gyu don was also very good. We ordered five things for the table and I left feeling very full. Would definitely come back to try more menu items. There's decent seating and I like the intimate vibe of the restaurant.

Service was 5.0. waitresses kept coming to refill our waters and saké Kani Lava was very good. Very unique. Flavor was excellent. Uni and Ikura were fresh. We ordered the clam miso twice. The chairs were uncomfortable. Wish there was padding and backing.

Popped in here for dinner with 2 girlfriends on a Tuesday night with no reservations and even though it's a small spot and they were packed, they seated us pretty quickly. We ordered the wagyu hot stone which was so fresh and delicious, the clam miso butter which was filled with flavor, the chirachi don which was fresh and flavorful, the kare udon which was good but a little sweeter than I personally would prefer, and of course the kani lava which was absolutely amazing! We also ordered some yakitori which honestly is the only thing I would skip next time. Overall, a great spot for some delicious food!

Really friendly service! But not that frequent when needed, had to go ask for everything on foot to the register. Insanely loud vibrating music. Needs baffling. Unreasonably chaotic for this reason. Very stuffy, they keep their AC very high. Kara age over fried and tough. K sausage cold and not cooked through. Hamachi kama delicious and perfectly grilled, but needs salt, under seasoned. Huge sake menu!

Solid izakaya spot with a large variety of interesting dishes. Small metal stools with no backing was uncomfortable. Staff was alright - sometimes nice, sometimes disgruntled seeming. The star of the show for my group was the kani lava. I'd come back for that and the san ko alone. Everything else was tasty enough - you can't really go too wrong with the food here.

Some hits, a lot of misses, but overall definitely overpriced. The interior is really nice with dark wood and Izakaya style seating with small chairs. The service is also very good despite being given the wrong bill and then needing to pay the correct one. We bought small desserts for a birthday - $10 for bringing outside food in (even though they don't have desserts nor did the small desserts require cutting - but they chose to put them on these little wooden boxes - it felt over complicated). The only thing I would really get again is the Kani Lava ($18) bc of the uniqueness - this comes with scallion, crab egg, uni, and tobiko. The uni upcharge on dishes is crazy but given it's the most popular fish, we got it. It's very good and very rice but they don't really tell you what to do - it comes on the crab shell and starts boiling over onto the portable stone heater. They should definitely serve it with rice because it's super rich - we used the rice from our Chirashi Don. The mentai ($16) was pretty good, a bit too salty but very nice to look at, and flavorful. The chahan ($28) with scallop and uni and crab fried rice was also good. The Chirashi don ($28) is nothing special, and neither are the squid legs ($10 for literally 5 pieces), agedashi tofu ($10), salmon tartare ($12) or the shishito peppers ($8).Again the portions are really small. Just because you call it an Izakaya doesn't justify the small portions for the price. The ramen was also just ok, and we ended up ordering the chahan just because we were still hungry. Overall I'd come again if someone else wanted to.

The crab is yummy and fun! Overall food here is good but maybe pricey for the amount of food? For the apps at least. The hot stone wagyu not worth

Another solid izakaya to add to the list - overall enjoyed the meal: - Kani lava crab: favorite thing we ordered - tastes as good as it sounds! I wish I ordered another one and some rice to go with it - Oden and Chirashi don: just ok - Scallop uni fried rice: I liked this one! Nice seafood centric dish

We came in on a really rainy Sunday so that could've been why the restaurant was completely empty but that meant that everything came out really fast. The crab kani lava doesn't come with rice but you should definitely order some to eat with it. It was delicious and my favorite thing that we ordered. I also got the mentai udon which has kind of a similar flavor to the kani lava but a little bit more mayo. My friend got the shrimp tempura curry and the shrimp tempura was super crispy. The tempura smelled like a traditional Japanese curry. The Hamachi crudo was fine, but I don't know if I would order again because the portions are very filling and there were things I liked better. Everything was only around $16-$18 each so definitely good price for New York.

The kani lava appetizer was very good. Wish i had crusty bread to enjoy it with though. Make sure to take it off the fire or it over boils. The chirashi had good amount of fish and was very pretty, however, the rice wasn't great and there was this weird sweet sauce that was poured over everything. Made the whole dish too sweet. Karaage's batter was too thin and not crispy, though the chicken was juicy.

New izakaya with tasty dishes BUT portions are very small making it pretty pricey. I would recommend the Kani Lava (really tasty and interesting but much better with some rice) and the Temaki, build your own handroll. All the raw fish we got was very fresh and delicious. I also thought the yakitori was good, but again... quite pricey. Because they are new, they are still figuring out some kinks so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

The infamous crab with Uni dish and the beef dish were the only good items here. Everything else was pretty bad, including basic dishes like the agedashi tofu (which used a really firm tofu and lacked flavor). Even the chirashi was not good - the fish tasted quite fishy and not quite right. Sadly will not be returning.

Came here to say tonight after a movie without any reservations but was able to get seated for party of 3. Heard the Kani Lava (grilled crab shell with crab egg, uni, and tobiko) was amazing here! It did not disappoint and was super delish if u are a crab lover. Their wagyu hot stone was amazing as well. The wagyu just melts in your mouth. The gyudon my friend got wasn't great as she said it lacked taste. We also got the unagi don and sake ikura don which was amazing. Ordered some skewers and they were delish. We also loved how lively the restaurant was and how attentive the staff were. Would def go back again!

Came here for dinner on a Saturday without reservations. Luckily we got a table for 5 pretty quickly. Modern interior. Nothing like the old Yokocho village so I'm not sure they're related. Menu had some interesting items like the kani-lave as everyone mentions. We ordered 2 of those as recommended by the waitress. This was my favorite dish paired with the kani fried rice which was more like a donburi. Because of its richness it needs rice. We also got bacon wrapped quail eggs (3 per stick). Skewers came out room temp so bacon was chewy. Wouldn't order again. We wanted smelts but told they didn't have eggs so we skipped. Didn't see ankimo, beef tongue, chicken heart or gizzards on the menu. We ordered takowasa which was a hit and sashimi. They have a good selection of sakes. Overall a good meal but they didn't have some key dishes I normally would gravitate to at a izakaya.

This place was delicious and I can't wait to come back. The crab was so so good and rich and went with rice so well. The sizzling beef was really fun, but the fire kept coming out from the side and it was a little scary. The charashi was ok--I think the rice was too hard for my liking. The taiyaki was surprisingly good!

New izakaya restaurant near USQ, with a plenty of starter options, ramen, rice bowls, and sushi. We came for a casual weekday dinner and there was plenty of seating available for us. Even though there was only one server, I felt service was pretty good and we were able to order and get our food quickly. We shared the salmon tartare, kani chahan, and a few pieces of nigiri. I was really happy with all of our food, even though I usually don't like raw fish. Pricing is pretty reasonable for an NYC Japanese restaurant. Looking forward to going back and trying other things on their menu.

The server was super friendly and nice! We went around 12pm on a weekday and it was pretty empty still so we were seated quite quickly. We tried a bunch of skewers and of the ones we tried I think the eel and chicken meatball one was our favorite. The Mentai udon was not bad but had a slight sour taste in it that I wasn't the biggest fan of.

New Japanese spot with super unique dishes. I'd be surprised if they didn't blow up soon. Such cool appetizers like the Kani Lava, a grilled crab dish that's not only delicious but presented in a cool fashion. Highly recommend this spot for tasty food in a cozy izakaya. Friendly, fast service as well.

The food and service were good. The presentation and flavor of the crab dish were phenomenal. Unfortunately, the broth from the clam dish was too salty for me. But the clams were tasty and I did not bite into any sand. I will definitely come back.

Went to try this new izakaya with my friend. The kani lava was so good, we got two. If you love crab, you'll love this. Very rich in flavor and would go great with rice. However, the entrees we got were pretty underwhelming. The omu soba was too salty with the sauce and the egg seemed overcooked. The mentai was somewhat sour. Overall, the dishes were pretty small so it wasn't filling.

Great food and drinks. Cozy spot. Service was attentive and welcoming. Stop by if you're around the area.

Delicious food and drinks. Great selection of sake and the Don bowls are incredible. Quick and fast service. No wait to get in.

Delicious kani lava and wagyu hot stone. Very friendly staff. Went around 5 pm on a Sunday and it wasn't crowded at all, so I got a comfortable seat.

I popped in here for a quick dinner and here's what I noticed: 1. The menu says their matcha is from Japan. We ordered the tea and when it came, we saw the tea bag and it was from Trader Joe's. 2. While unique, the Kani lava seems kind of not safe with how it's served. Once the waiter gave us the dish which was on a fire, he just left. The fire eventually burned the dish and started getting really big, it was super hard to blow out. 3. The silverware was not clean.

The curry and salmon don are really good only criticism is the rice is kind of mushy. Waiters are very polite.

Staff was friendly and attentive. Offering knowledgeable recommendations without being over-pushy. Interior was bustling. Playlist was spot on. It was loud but not overbearing and able to hold conversations . Wish we could've ordered more, but our bellies were happily full,