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.

Hanon is located in the North Williamsburg area and is literally across the street on Union St. from the Metropolitan G stop and diner. It has been awarded the Michelin 2021 Bib Gourmand award. It originated in Kamakura, Japan in the summer of 2018. I hadn’t heard about this restaurant much at all and stumbled onto this through Yelp’s Hot & New filters. I wanted to try this restaurant out because the pictures of the udon sets look quite interesting, and the price point was pretty reasonable.

I’ve been deprived of noodles in the city for a number of months now. Sure, there are sometimes where I get some Taiwanese noodles, but I also love soba noodles too. I was around the Columbus Circle area, and I was scouring for some alternative ramen places. This one peaked my interest because their specialty was not ramen but soba also known as buckwheat noodles. Buckwheat noodles are supposed to be pretty healthy for you, and on a summer NYC day like today, it seems like a win when opting for cold buckwheat noodles with a cold dip.

One of the really cool things about the Astoria neighborhood that is different than Manhattan and maybe Brooklyn, is that Japanese food is reasonably priced compared to the other boroughs. I am thinking part of the cause is because of the density of the Asian demographics in the area and having to be competitive with other neighborhood restaurants. This particular restaurant was just a few blocks north of Suzuki Shokudo.

We had walked over the Queensboro bridge to do some casual shopping at the Bloomingdales on Lexington on the Monday of a Memorial Day weekend. Surprisingly, there weren’t many people out and about probably due to people escaping town. Because this was around lunch time, we decided not to trek too far from the department store. This Japanese restaurant was connected indoors to the first floor of the department store. On the outside, they had private transparent glass huts with their own heaters, but we decided to eat indoors.