Eating Broke in Little Tokyo

celiclu
Jun 6, 2018
3 min read

New York City has more than a variety of cuisines you can imagine. If you walked around East Village, you'll notice a strip of Japanese restaurants starting on the cross street of Stuyvesant Avenue and East 9th Street. Although there is no Little Tokyo similar to what New Yorkers know as Chinatown or Little Italy, Little Tokyo is a secret spot or strip you can easily miss.

The best part is that you can enjoy a quality meal for the price of $23.00 including an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. The first stop, Yonekichi, a little eatery with only one bench outside reserved for us eaters only. If you try to avoid bread like me, you will love this spot! Their burger buns are made out of rice. Yonekichi offers Japanese comfort food at a reasonable cheap price. It's also perfect if you're like most New Yorkers that eat and go. I ordered the Ginger MujiFuji that has thinly sliced pork with ginger soy sauce and lettuce. I will admit that I am picky with how food establishments pack their to go items and for a place that is meant to go, Yonekichi excels. Their white wrapping keeps the burger warm and prevents messes and spills. The ginger soy sauce was not overpowering and it was the first time eating a burger that didn't give me a feeling of fat shame.

Next stop is Otafuku. There are a few seats inside and you order up at the front where you can watch the staff prepare food. For $11.00 I tried the Yakisoba, noodles with cabbage, scallions, ginger and garlic, with egg and shrimp. The noodles were so flavorful I literally ate it under 10 minutes. If you're having the sweet tooth nudge, try their medetai, flaky sweet snacks in the shape of a fish with different choices to pick. I decided to save it for next time.

Third stop is the popular Japanese bakery, Panya, that I've heard a friend mention before and decided to give it a try. All the items are more than affordable compared to most bakeries in New York City. I have a major sweet tooth problem so I restricted myself to the $2.75 Azuki Bun, a Danish style pastry filled with red bean paste topped with powered sugar!

I will warn it is messy, but with perfect outdoor seating for people watching it doesn't matter when that creamy red bean taste is melting in your mouth. If you've never tried red bean paste pastries, this is a good starter. The powdered sugar gives it an extra sweetness. Give it a try!

The last stop, and only if you have more dollars to splurge, I highly recommend walking down a few blocks to Spot Dessert Bar. They take dessert to another level of creativity. Small and cozy ambiance with friendly staff and each dessert description will make it difficult to choose just one! For this time I started with the Daily Harvest.

I will not spoil it for you, but if you are on St. Mark's Place, walk down the steps to this little treasure. The Daily Harvest is a fun twist on a dessert that will leave you smiling.

Before you hop on the train, there is a great Japanese market that you can buy your favorite foods from Japan. Stop by Sunrise Mart and hit the second floor once you get on the elevator. I finally found my favorite roasted green tea and green tea sandwich cookies.