As a Christmas celebration before we embark on a trip, I wanted to knock this final yakitori tasting off the list. We’ve been to a slew of yakitori tasting places, and this is the last one that is on the higher end. Torien still has 1 Michelin Star in 2023, and it also has a sister 1 Michelin Star restaurant, Torishiki, in Tokyo Japan. We were able to make a reservation for this for a Saturday a few weeks back without issues.

My partner had won some tickets to watch Appropriate on Broadway starring Sarah Paulson. The show starts at 8, but we had to pick up the will-call tickets by 7:30. I saw this Japanese small eatery was nearby the theater on 46th St, and I thought this would be a decent restaurant to try out since there’s a lot of little things we can order. We were able to walk in on a Saturday evening at around 5:30 PM before it got busy.

Mari.ne (MariNe) Hand-Roll Bar is similar to KazuNori where it’s simply a “hand roll” bar. The hand rolls are fairly small, but quite delightful and fresh. You can order them in different flavors, and it’s sure to satisfy anyone that enjoys sushi in hand roll format. We were able to walk in at around 5:45 PM on a Monday evening, but we were told that we had to be done by 6:30 PM due to an upcoming reservation.

Tempura Matsui is a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Manhattan that specializes in tempura omakase. I had previously gone to another tempura omakase at Secchu Yokota. As I said previously, I really enjoy tempura as a whole, so I am very curious how a Michelin Star tempura tasting compares to a hidden gem tasting. Fortunately, my partner went to see a Broadway show, so it gave me the ability to solo dine at this restaurant.

Tempura is one of those things in Japanese cuisine that is pretty expensive for what it is, but when you find the right batter with the right ingredients, it’s so good. In Torrance in California, it’s been over a decade since I tried specialized tempura, so I was craving it recently. Unfortunately my partner loathes tempura for some odd reason, so I opted to dine alone when they decided to watch a Broadway show.

On a lazy Sunday, we decided to stay around our living area to eat. There have been several new restaurants that have opened in the past few months, and this one is the most recent one. The restaurant features ramen and European-Japanese dishes from Nobuyuki Shikanai, the owner of Kanoyama in the East Village. We were able to walk in without reservations on a Sunday at around 6 PM.

Kono has been something on my radar for quite some time. It’s been a bit since we’ve splurged quality yakitori, so I was able to snipe a reservation for a Saturday night out at 5:30 PM fairly quickly on Resy. Chef Atsushi “ATS” Kono was originally at Torishin, and after looking at the menu, I was excited to see what this experience brought. This restaurant focused on kappo-style yakitori omakase featuring organic Amish chicken and seasonable vegetables.

Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare is a renown three Michelin Star restaurant by Chef Cesar Ramirez. It’s inspired by Japanese cuisine with French technique, and the 13 course tasting menu tonight is focused on fish & shellfish with 1 meat course and 4 dessert courses. I was quite excited to come here since moving to NYC. This restaurant was always very difficult to get reservations, so it was great that we were able to when we wanted.

We were around the Hell’s Kitchen area catching up on a Broadway musical called “MJ: The Musical” based on Michael Jackson. This area we have rarely explored much, considering early post-pandemic, this area was quite dangerous with the drug users and harassers. Nevertheless, this katsu restaurant has been on my list for years, and I’ve been meaning to check this out. We were able to walk in on a Sunday at around 5:30 PM without any issue.

We had to run errands around Macy’s, so this was a good chance to check out some restaurant that was fairly light and also didn’t have strong smells. We were able to walk in on a Saturday at 5:30 PM with no reservations. We noticed the menus had both skewers and hot pot as options. I saw that many people ordered hot pot with cotton candy on top, and we contemplated briefly but decided not to.