Now that we’re back from Hawaii, we went to go see Sweeney Todd, a musical that was one of my favorites. Nearby, we decided to eat something quick and light, so we opted for izakaya. Sake Bar Hagi, according to their website, says it’s New York’s first authentic izakaya since 1985. I’m not sure what that really means, but we’ll find out. We arrived around 5:30 PM on a Saturday evening, and we were seated immediately.
Ambiance & Service
The interior is a bit dark, but there’s very bumpy music playing. It reminds me a bit of Turntable Chicken Jazz, but with more hip hop and rap playing.
The service was very fast and attentive.
Food
The Seaweed Salad ($7) tasted like normal seaweed salad.
The Assorted Sashimi ($22) came with tuna, salmon, and yellow tail. The selection was all pretty fresh as expected though a bit pricey for what it is.
The Suna Kara ($9) was fried chicken gizzards. I was expecting the batter to be a bit more crispy. The coating over the gizzards was light, so there wasn’t much crunch other than the gizzards themselves.
The Ikura & Salmon Bowl ($22) came with salmon sashimi and salmon roe over sushi rice. This all tasted pretty fresh, but visually I thought initially the salmon roe color was not what I was expecting.
The Mix Tempura ($17) came with 3 pieces of shrimp and 3 kinds of veggies. I recall lotus root, zucchini, and sweet potato. There was nothing special about the tempura, so the price was a bit high in my opinion.
The Kushiyaki B Set ($16) came with chicken breast, beef, chicken thigh, shrimp, and pork belly. The meat doesn’t have much flavor, but the lemon did help a bit.
Final Verdict
For a izakaya place, Sake Bar Hagi doesn’t have a lot of options compared to other izakayas. The food though is not too expensive, and it tastes pretty fresh. If you’re near the Theater District and want to eat some Japanese small things, this would be a decent option.
Yelp Jabs
Any time I walk into a restaurant and see the majority of the customers are same ethnicity as the restaurant, I know I have a good find. Explore the menu before you visit. Lot of good dishes.
That usually is a good rule to follow with the exception that even Asians will go to bad izakayas. Izakayas are essentially Japanese bar foods.
Then there was this yakitori. The breasts were very dry. The thighs were slightly dry and drenched in tare. The meatball has a big piece of bone in it and it taste pretty bad. At the time we went, we had a reservation at torishin a week later, and I felt like canceling the reservation because this yakitori ruined it. (I ended up going to Torishin and it was great.)
You can’t really compare this place to Torishin since it’s a very casual joint comparatively. The food is decent for its price, and it’s simply you get what you pay for.
Revisions
- May 6, 2023 - Initial revision.