Oh! Taisho Yakitori: New York, NY, USA
Veramas events are never really what we plan them to be. What was supposed to be an epic NYC weekend ended up being filled with tons of work, disappointment, but filled with God-blessed friends and an amazing Easter service on Sunday. As always, with any trip, there is always good food.
First night in town, and I was starving. Luckily, reservations for one seat much faster than any other group size. It was though, a Thursday, and it was about 9pm at night so I didn’t have to fight with the dinner crowd, thankfully.
Oh Taisho
Oh! Taisho, as I was told by a regular patron who was also a party of one, is the second store by Yakitori Taisho. Originally I had wanted to go to Yakitori Taisho but the wait was a bit longer than this location so I settled on filling my belly rather than fulfilling a check on my Yelp list.
Just a tip: unless you’re a big eater, go in a group. It’s worth the wait because it not only saves on the wallet, but you get to try way more dishes as well. Things we tried were:
- chicken skin (kawa かわ）skewers
- bacon wrapped scallop skewers
- fresh shitake mushroom skewers
- takoyaki (たこやき）
- agedashi tofu (あげだしとふ）
- fried baby octopus (たこからあげ）
skewering
Honestly, for a single eater, this was a lot. All in all, there wasn’t really any one dish that sucked, and all the dishes were really tasty. More importantly for some people, the dishes were relatively cheap for New York city. The bacon isn’t super crispy which is probably something that I would have preferred, but I believe the scallops would have been overcooked and I’d rather have more chewy bacon than dry scallops.
chicken skin skewers
bacon scallop skewers
Quantity-wise, this place is great. There was a lot of tofu in the agedashi tofu appetizer and the fried baby octopus (tako karaage) can definitely be shared. Amazingly I finished it all except for the agedashi tofu. The fried baby octopus is not overly seasoned nor overly fried. I believe it may have been rolled in panko and then fried, but either way, it is so tasty. As for the chicken skin, well…I love chicken skin, especially if it’s fried. This is grilled chicken-skin, but it comes in a very tasty teriyaki dipping sauce. The sauce is not too sweet and not thick and gloopy like the kind you would find drizzled over donkatsu. Admittedly, I have had better takoyaki. The size and portion were fine, but there wasn’t enough octopus pieces and it almost seemed somewhat closer to burnt than a nice golden brown.
agedashi tofu
deep fried baby octopus
All in all, a summary:
- chicken skin (kawa かわ）skewers: **** (4 stars)
- bacon wrapped scallop skewers: **** (4 stars)
- fresh shitake mushroom skewers: ****(4 stars)
- takoyaki (たこやき): ***.5 (3.5 stars)
- agedashi tofu (あげだしとふ): ***.75 (3.75 stars)
- fried baby octopus (たこからあげ): ***.75 (3.75 stars)
If you want to find them on your next trip to New York city, they are located close to the East Village neighborhood in St. Marks, just a two block walk from Astor Pl. on the green 6 line.
9 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
(212) 673-1300
Happy eating!
R/g
Rammiegirl 2.0 