Takahachi Visited 8/20/2011 4 Forks

Takahachi 85 Ave A, New York, NY 10009

 For me, "good" sushi falls into two different categories.  There's the extreme high quality, expensive sushi joints like Masa, Morimoto, Nobu, etc.  These type of restaurants are for more special occasions and are definitely on a level on their own.  Then there are the more mom and pop, neighborhood joints that are good not mind blowing, but are solid places that get it done.  Takahachi falls into this latter group.  There is by no means anything fancy or high end to this place, but it jut hit the spot and didn't break the bank. 


Dan and I had been lounging around the city and wanted some quality but affordable sushi. We happened to be in the East Village which is teeming with sushi restaurants on every street corner.  It's hard to really figure out which of these are good or blah.  I had been to Takahachi before and remembered it being pretty good and a more low key place.  We got there at 7pm and it was totally crowded, which I thought was weird in NYC when most people tend to eat later.  But when I opened the menu I saw that they had an early bird special: for $18.50 you would get soup, salad, dessert, appetizer and your choice of sushi or sashimi.  It's a pretty great deal but by the time we sat down and got our menus it was already 10 past.  But a mental note for next time. The menu has your basic Japanese dishes but then they have a specials menu that has more choices of more unique bites.  I actually like that they don't have a long list of crazy rolls that seem unnaturally paired (I'm looking at you cream cheese and salmon roll).  They had a good variety of sushi and sashimi combinations and if we were starving I would totally push for one of those dishes.  We ultimately decided on the rock shrimp tempura with spicy mayo ($8), regular sashimi ($17.50), a toro jalapeno roll ($7.50) and a bottle of sake ($12).  

It's hard to imagine getting fried shrimp covered in spicy mayo wrong and they didn't.  It was perfectly lightly battered sweet shrimp and I could have popped about 50 of them in my mouth.  Delicious.  The sashimi and roll came out next and again they were just good solid dishes.  The sashimi came with 3 pieces salmon, 3 pieces tuna, 3 pieces yellowtail, 3 pieces white fish, and 3 pieces of another fish that I can't remember.  They were all fresh and cut at an appropriate size (some places have huge pieces that just seem wrong and then some places have pieces that are so small that I need to order 20 more pieces).  The toro roll was nice and fatty tasting and the jalapeno added a nice crunch and heat to it.  I would have personally preferred scallion over jalapeno but Dan is a big fan of the jalapeno so we opted for this choice.   

The service was attentive and quick, which is what I expected in a local joint like this.  There was a constant crowd coming into this place all night long and it seems like one of those neighborhood joints that locals seem to like coming to.  It made me really wish that I had a Takahachi-type place by where I live.  Definitely check this place out if you are in need of a no fuss, low key, solid sushi experience.     Total bill was $49 for two without tip. 


Photo credit: Yelp