I've been on a kick of really loving Japanese Izayaka type restaurants lately so when my friend Jeana was in town for work and told me that she was staying in the Times Square area, the only respectable type of restaurant I could think of going to up there was a Japanese izakaya. Luckily there are several of them within walking distance of her hotel. I had originally wanted to go to Sake Hagi Bar which people seem to love but when they told us it would be a 30 minute wait, we walked upstairs to Iroha which is owned by the same owners and claimed to serve the same menu. It's less cozy and more impersonal but that was totally fine by us since they could seat us right away. The place was full of Japanese businessmen and other local Asians which always seems to be a good sign.
The menu is the typical overwhelming izakaya format - it goes on for pages and pages and luckily for anyone who doesn't know what something is, they have pictures for every dish on the menu. Like I said, they've got everything: grilled food, fried food, sushi, sashimi, bento boxes, udon, soba, and curry. We started with the tempura appetizer ($8.50) and I opted for the sashimi mori ($28) and a spicy tuna roll ($6.50) while Jeana got the fried chicken bento box ($20). The tempura came our first and for $8.50, there was tons of food. 3 pieces of shrimp and about 4-5 vegetable pieces. They were lightly battered and perfectly crunchy and not overly greasy. Next came my sashimi and it was one of the larger sashimi dishes I've gotten in a while and for a very reasonable price. 18 pieces in total - it consisted of salmon, tuna, white fish, yellowtail, octopus and mackerel. At first I was a bit doubtful given the price/quantity ratio but the quality of the fish was very good. I usually judge the freshness and quality of sashimi by whether or not I like the mackerel and octopus and I thought they were both fresh and clean and not too fishy or chewy. It was actually a lot of food and I clearly didn't need the spicy tuna roll at all. The roll itself was a good solid spicy tuna roll with more filing than rice which I really liked as I hate it when places pad rolls with a lot of rice on the outside. I had a small bite of Jeana's fried chicken and it was salty and crispy exactly what a fried chicken should taste like. The bento box was also a great deal as it came with the fried chicken, salad, shumai, California roll, and shrimp tempura.
While the place didn't have the classy feel to Sakagura or the coziness of the Sake Hagi bar downstairs, if you are just looking for a really solid, very affordable and still very authentic Japanese place in the heart of what is probably the most touristy area of NYC, Iroha totally fits the bill. What I also liked was that they let us stay and chat for almost another 1-2 hours without pushing us out the door. I felt a bit guilty about it but I kept eyeing the door to make sure that there wasn't a line of people waiting for a table. But it was nice to be able to sit and catch up with an old friend and not feel pressured to leave. I still want to check out the Sake bar downstairs, but if you are in a hurry and don't care about ambience, then heading upstairs to Iroha isn't such a bad deal either. Total bill: $43/pp with tip and tax
Photo Credit: Yelp
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